Chapter 1

-NORA-

White top. Black skirt. Black suit jacket. Short heels. Neat high ponytail. Boxy, thin-framed glasses. Black handbag.

I was ready for the day. As I swung my front door open and stepped out of my apartment, I felt my phone vibrate from inside my bag. I pulled it out and read the caller's ID to be Chris with a heart.

"Hello," I held the phone to my ear, locking my door and shoving the key inside my bag.

"Nora! How could you? I thought we told each other everything! How could you keep this kind of thing from me?" My younger brother yelled from the other end of the phone.

I internally facepalmed myself as I started to jog down the stairs of the building. "What are you talking about, Chris? Keep what from you?"

"You're dating your boss!"

"What!?" People on the busy sidewalk shot me curious and offended glances after my sudden outburst. I made an apologetic face before I hailed a cab.

Entering inside the yellow vehicle, I said, "What do you mean 'dating my boss'? What boss are you talking about? What are you even talking about in the first place?"

I glanced at the rearview mirror of the cab to match the driver's eyes. "Keller Co. building." I told him. He nodded his head, then began the drive.

"I'm talking about Vaughn. Isn't he your boss? Or do you have another boss that I don't know about? Haven't you read the tabloids, Nora? Everyone is talking about it! It's on every front page of every news!" As Chris ranted, I used my eyes to search around the sidewalk to see if I could find any newspaper or magazine to understand what he was talking about.

"I haven't seen anything..." I trailed off, noticing that the driver was sneaking glances at me through the rearview mirror. I raised a questioning brow at him.

"Aren't you the girl who the news says is dating Vaughn Keller?"

"It says that you're dating Vaughn Keller!"

Both the cab driver and my brother said at the same time. My eyes bulged out from their sockets as I registered the words of both men.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am not dating Vaughn Keller!" I emphasized to both men's hearing.

"Well, the tabloids say that you are," Chris said from the phone.

"Are you sure, miss?" The cab driver asked.

"Well, I'm not. I'll call you later, Chris," I terminated the call with my brother and leaned forward. "I'm sure. It's just fake news. Never believe anything the tabloids say about anyone." Towards the end of my sentence, I started to search through my call log for the first reporter's number that I could find.

Once I did, I dialed the number and gave the person an earful about the news. It was only after I made all the threats in the world that I found out that the person who tipped every publishing company off about the fake news was anonymous.

"I can't believe this is happening..." I said to myself as I went online to check the news myself.

"Uh... Miss, we're here." The cab driver said to me, and I glanced through the window to see that we were parked in front of my office building. I searched for change through my purse and handed it to the driver before I alighted the vehicle in a hurry.

"I'm so dead," I said to myself as I speed-walked into the building, ignoring the curious glances that my coworkers shot me along the way.

I took a lift to the top floor of the building, internally praying that Vaughn hadn't seen the news yet, though I very much doubted that. A ping sound resounded in the air after a few minutes and the elevator doors opened to reveal one large-sized Vaughn Keller with a deep glower on his face, obviously directed at me.

"Good morning, sir. I assure you that I'll have every single company who published a story about you without your consent sued for everything—"

As he stepped inside the elevator, my words got caught up in my throat, and I took a step back to make room for him.

"There's an impromptu meeting with the board." He said with a curt tone, then set the lift to go three floors down.

"Oh, right. Right." I struggled to keep a firm tone. I took a second to catch my breath before I began speaking again. "As I was saying," I continued. "I will make sure that—"

"Keep quiet," Vaughn emphasized both words, and I noticed how the veins on his lower and upper jaw were ticking so I kept my mouth shut.

He was angry. He was so angry.

I silently prayed that he would vent all his anger on someone who wasn't me today. Hopefully one of the board members but not me. Once we got to the floor, everyone around came to a standstill as Vaughn stepped out of the elevator and strolled to the boardroom which was at the center of the floor.

I quietly tailed after him, hoping that no one would notice me, even though I was sure that they did. Once the two of us entered the boardroom, I saw that everyone else was present, including Vaughn's family who only visited the office when something serious was going to be discussed.

"Good morning, everyone," I said on behalf of Vaughn and I as he sat down on the head of the long, oval table, and I stood by the right-hand side of his chair.

Only a few people responded to my greeting, excluding Vaughn's parents who were both wearing glowers that matched their son's.

"You all have seen this, haven't you?" One of the top investors of the company said as he threw a magazine down on the table. I noticed that the cover was a picture of Vaughn and I having dinner at a fancy restaurant.

I grimaced.

"And the tweets online. People have been coming up with different theories about the news. The most popular is the one that Mr. Keller is secretly having an affair with Ms. Brooks because his family is against her background and the company is a very toxic place.

"This is also bringing backtalk from anonymous accounts who are claiming that the company's working environment is hierarchical and unfair to people of lower and middle-class backgrounds." The head of the IT department, Xander White, said.

I grimaced again.

"Is it really that serious? This isn't the first time that Vaughn's name has come up in a scandal. It will blow over." Bennett Lancaster—Vaughn's brother-in-law and the COO of the company—said with a flippant tone.

"This is a love scandal, if I may add. And these kinds of things never blow over. Ten years from now people will still remember the time when the CEO of Keller Corporations dated his middle-class secretary which caused the company's name to run down the mud which is why no one patronizes them anymore." Xander countered, and a few people chuckled.

"You're trying to say that people from the future won't patronize Keller Corporations because of this one scandal?" Bennett asked with a hint of humor in his tone.

Xander nodded seriously. "That's exactly what I'm trying to say! Mr. Keller, excuse me for saying this," Xander turned to Vaughn, "but how could you!? How could you make such a mistake? I thought—"

"That's enough, Xander," Louise—Vaughn's mother—cut Xander off with a sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Obviously what the tabloids say isn't true. Vaughn isn't dating Nora. Or are you?" She shot the two of us pointed looks.

I straightened my back immediately. "No! Of course, not! No!" I denied vehemently while Vaughn kept quiet.

"You see," Louise said to everyone else. "And besides, the damage is already done. All we can do now is damage control." A mischievous look settled on the woman's face.

"Damage control?" Me and a few other members of the board said with a question-like tone.

"Exactly," Louise said. Everyone waited for her to continue speaking. "In my opinion, I suggest that we let it ride. This is the first love scandal my son has ever gotten into and it's one with a blessing in disguise." She continued.

Oh. Oh.

Louise stared at both Vaughn and I as she rested her chin on her interlaced fingers. "The best option right now is for the two of you to fake date for the public."