Shikera stared at him in expectation. Why was he not talking?

"Ethan, I asked what is your username?" She repeated her question.

"I don’t have one," he answered.

Shikera’s eyes widened, and she turned to Esther.

"Esther, what century are we in?"

"21st," Esther answered immediately.

Shikera then looked back up at Ethan, "And you have no Instagram account? I’m sure you don’t have any other social media accounts either, right?"

"I don’t need them," Ethan deadpanned.

"Right...I will just follow the others then. How was school today, Esther?"

"Great! We watched you on TV!" Esther screamed in elation.

"How is that? Is it..." Shikera stared suspiciously up at Ethan, raising her brows at him.

"I didn’t."

Esther chipped in, "I don’t think it’s daddy too. Our principal said we have to watch an alumna of our school on TV!"

"Oh..." Shikera nodded in realization.

"Also," Esther continued, "I didn’t tell anyone that you are my mother. But I told them that I can get autographs for them if they want..."

She trailed off when she saw the frown on her father’s face.

"Go upstairs, Esther. Shikera is not a star..."

"I am one! Don’t worry, Esther, I will sign them all tonight and then you will take them to school tomorrow. For now, you can go get a coat for yourself up stairs."

The both of them watched as Esther ran upstairs, before turning to face each other. Shikera stood up from the couch and gave Ethan a light kiss on his lips, "How did your day go?"

Indirectly, she was asking him if he watched her or not, and Ethan was wise enough to realize that.

"It went great. Everything went as usual," Ethan replied, and he kept the blank expression even when he saw Shikera’s downcast face.

"Oh, that’s great then. My day went well too, and we recorded a massive number of viewers which is actually very unusual for a show held in the middle of the day when everyone is at work."

"Congratulations," Ethan wished simply. "You should go up and wear something more appropriate, I’m almost done with dinner."

And he turned, walking away from her and back to the kitchen.

"Sheesh! Nothing is happening as I expected today," Shikera stomped her feet childishly, keeping her movement silent enough for Ethan not to hear.

Dejectedly, she trudged towards the stairway to walk up to her room.

★★★

Preston Media House.

Cyprian moved behind her Team leader as they stepped out of the elevator in the floor where Shikera was supposed to be, as the woman had told her. She had begged the older woman to grant her a 30 minutes break to see her friend and surprisingly, she had agreed!

"She should be in that room," Team leader Zuresh pointed at Maxwell’s team conference room, before adding, "I will be at the studio, and just hear the reviews from today’s show and then join you and Shikera."

"Alright, ma’am!"

The two separated and Cyprian continued on her way to the conference room. She opened the door and the first person her eyes caught was Skyler.

"Skyler?"

Skyler who was standing behind Max at the head of the table, looked up when she heard her name.

"Cyprian Leigh? Woah!"

"Should we rename this room as a reunion room instead of a conference room?" Maxwell asked, dousing the fire of excitement that had been rising in the room.

"Hey Cyprian, mind waiting for me for a while? I still have to complete some—"

"I didn’t come to meet you. Where is Shikera?"

Maxwell looked surprised, but he soon recovered.

"She went home. Did she not come check on you at Preston TV?" he asked.

"My teammates said she did. But I was not around then so I thought she came back here. Anyways, since she is not here and Skyler is busy, I’ll just be on my way back!" Cyprian waved goodbye to Skyler, and was about to rush out of the room when Maxwell stopped her.

"Will you be seeing her tonight or tomorrow?"

"I’m not sure about tonight but I will surely check up on her tomorrow, why?"

"I need you to hand this over to her. It’s her revised job contract and it looks like she forgot it here," Maxwell informed, picking up a folder from the table and extending it to Cyprian.

"A job contract? Did she just sign another today?" Cyprian asked, confusion evident on her face. Right from when they first applied to Preston TV, Shikera never signed any contract that would exceed the years the doctor had told her she had left to live. Therefore, hearing that Shikera signed another job contract piqued her interest somehow.

"The shareholders were specially interested in Elovien’s Spotlight, so they wanted to change some things in Shikera’s first contract. I guess the way she was able to invite Miss Stone as a guest surprised them a lot so they wanted to keep Shikera around for longer. I’m not sure what they agreed on though," Maxwell explained.

"I will visit her tonight then," Cyprian replied. "If Team leader Zuresh comes over, tell her I didn’t find Shikera so I left earlier."

She then walked out of the conference room into the hall.

On getting to the ground floor, Cyprian didn’t waste much time before hailing a cab which would take her home. Unlike what she told Maxwell, she was not visiting Ethan’s villa that day as she could not go there without a car of her own.

A cab stopped and Cyprian boarded it, settling herself in the back seat. Before the car even moved, she already removed the paper from the folder and began reading over it without pausing, until she saw the duration Shikera’s contract would last for.

A year...

"She still has five years left so why is she signing a year contract? And without telling me?! Why would I stay here when she is not here?" She muttered under her breath.

Her eyes went further down to the signatures of the shareholders and Cyprian almost dropped the paper.

Because right behind Andrew’s signature was another, which was owned by a... Natalia Anderson.