"Noah, what the hell is this?" Aria turned the phone towards him and questioned him, her face turned expressionless. The man, who had a calm expression, turned serious seeing her sudden change in expression. He did not know what she had seen for her to turn this way. Pushing himself closer to her, his eyes fell on her phone only to realize what she was talking about.

It was a photograph of Aria which Ronnie had taken when they were on the plane. Noah sighed in relief seeing what she was talking about. For a second, he had been shit scared thinking that he had done something wrong. "That is you. Can't you recognize yourself now, love?" The man had a smirk on his face as he teased his woman who seemed to be fuming up as time ticked by.

"I know it's me. But, why do you have this photo? When did you take it?" She demanded and this time, Noah could sense the anger in her tone. 

"Aria, calm down. It's a photo of ours which Ronnie had taken when we in traveling to London."

"With whose permission?" Aria fired her next question and this time Noah did not answer her. He was still not getting why Aria was getting angry at such a small thing.

"I asked him to take it. Why Aria? Is anything the matter?" Noah pushed himself a little more close to her. But this time, Aria moved back stunning him.

"Do you even realize what you did?" She spat and her behavior stunned the man completely.

"Aria, calm down. This is just a picture." He tried to soothe her. Now, Noah was worried for two reasons. He had no idea how he had offended Aria and second, he was worried about her health. It was not good for her to lose control of her anger at this time.

"Oh, this is just a picture. You still don't get it, do you?"

"What should I get? I don't understand." Noah stared at her in confusion. He was really not getting what she wanted to convey and his mind was filled with question marks.

Aria huffed lightly and closed her eyes. She had never expected something like this from the man she had come to love. Although it was not something horrible, it was not good either. She opened her eyes and fixed them at the man who was already looking at her. "Noah, you were clearly stalking me."

"No Aria. I wasn't..." He tried to refute immediately. But the girl interrupted him in the middle. "Let me finish first."

"Noah, you took pictures of me when we were not even that close, and that too without my permission. Don't you think this is wrong?" This time, Aria was relatively calm and she explained why she was irked at his behavior.

"That was because I was intrigued by you and I wanted to know you more." The man replied trying to put forth his reason before her. Although he knew he was partly at fault, he did not want her to blame without knowing his reasons.

"Okay. If that was the case, you could have come to me directly. Why did you take pictures of me without my permission?"

"Would you have allowed me to if I had asked you?"

"Not at all."

"Then, you got your answer."

"Noah, I barely knew you. You were just a patient of mine at that time and the only thing I knew about you was that you were Ian's friend. What do you expect me to do? Allow you to take pictures of me even though we were not that close." Aria tried to put forth her thoughts before him, trying not to hurt him or scare him even.

"But, I really liked you at that time and I was just curious about you," Noah argued again, but by the end, his voice faded into the air.

Aria sighed seeing that Noah was not getting what she wanted to convey. She thought about it for some time and then an idea flashed in her mind. "Okay, Noah. Let's try this way. Imagine that you have a daughter."

As soon as Aria spoke the words, the man's eyes gleamed and he smiled like a little kid. "Aria, are you ready to give me a daughter?" 

"Noah," Aria was completely frustrated now and she was to scream at him or even curse at him. She just wanted to leave him. But she also knew that the man had to know where he was wrong. So, she took deep breaths to calm herself. "Do not interrupt me until I am done. Otherwise, I am not talking to you for a month. Okay?" Aria compromised a little with a warning.

"Okay."

"Imagine you have a daughter and she is as old as I am right now. What would you do if somebody she barely knows takes photographs of her without her permission?"

As soon as Aria uttered the words, something snapped in Noah. Baam. Just the thought of someone clicking pictures of his daughter in secret made him furious. There was a mad rush of bloodthirst in him and he wanted to break someone's bones right now. He could not tolerate anybody harassing his princess this way. No. Never.

Aria noticed the change in his eyes and she realized that the man had understood what she wanted to express. She held his hand and started to pacify him gently. "Noah relax. That was just a hypothetical situation. But I think you now realized what I wanted to relay to you. Now, you tell me if what you did was wrong or not."

Aria was being patient with him unlike her usual self when she would have lost her temper if it was anybody else. Noah looked at her guiltily. He had realized his mistake now and he did not know how to apologize to her. "I understand your point of view right now, Aria. I am sorry, I was at fault. I did not realize what I was doing at that time. I liked you and I wanted to pursue you. I guess the path I followed was wrong. I am sorry, please forgive me."

"It's fine. You have learned your lesson, that's enough for me." Aria embraced him and patted his back, trying to pacify him. She could see the guilt in his eyes when he had apologized to her. Although she did not want to see him this devastated, making him see the truth was necessary too. So, she had chosen to do it irrespective of how she felt.

"Also, don't encourage people to do it from now. It is a clear invasion of a girl's privacy." Aria whispered and Noah nodded as he hugged her back. They stayed this way for a long time and nobody spoke for a while. 

Although it was quite romantic to embrace the man she loved, Aria was finding it difficult to breathe now. She tried to push Noah away meekly. "You are suffocating me." She complained and the man immediately pulled back.

"I am sorry." Noah gave her a cheeky smile and rubbed his neck in embarrassment. Not knowing what to do, his eyes fell on the half-finished glass of juice and he finished it in one go.

Aria could only gape at him in shock. "What are you doing? That was my glass. I had drunk from it."

"Does not matter," Noah replied nonchalantly. "What's mine is yours and what's yours is mine." Aria could not help but blush at his words and she punched him lightly on his shoulders in embarrassment while Noah could only chuckle in amusement.

Unknown to them, Aria's father was observing all that had happened downstairs. The view from his room directly fell onto the lawn and he could see the two lovebirds enjoying their time with each other. Although he could not make out what they were talking about, he could clearly see how happy his daughter was with Noah. He could notice and love and the affection they had for each and his eyes teared up a little. 

"Susan, our girls have found happiness now. They had good men around them and they take care of our girls as queens. I hope wherever you are, you are smiling and showering blessing at our daughters." Oliver muttered and wiped the tears that had run down his cheeks. He then took one last glance at the lovely couple before he walked away from the window.

Oliver still had a lot of work to do. Now that he was going to be the Vice President of his son-in-law's news agency, he had a lot more responsibility on his shoulders than before. Unlike before, when he was answerable to none, he was now answerable to all his employees.

Although he knew that Noah would protect his people at all costs, he as a Vice President too had his duties and one of them was to ensure his employees' safety.

Oliver had already come up with ideas on how to execute his plans this time. They had ten days of time before they would officially take over the news agency they had in mind and as far as he knew, even his daughter, Ivy was going to be a part of the team. 

After discussing with her the previous night, the father-daughter duo had come up with a plan to expose Jared and the first thing they had in mind was to take his interview live. They would create a good image of his in front of the people. And once he rose to the top, they would reveal his true colors one by one. The higher the one rose, the harder would be the fall.