Update tiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!

Sorry for the huge delay, I got a bout of food poisoning and then hit with a massive writer's block (still working through that, please bear with me x_x) so that pushed back a lot of things.

Anyway! I know you've been waiting for a full reveal of Sam's past and now we've FINALLY made it to the chapter that starts to unravel that! I hope you enjoy! :)

Disclaimer: Totally Spies is not mine. Yadda yadda. Blah. Blah. Blah.

"Is she okay? Is she really okay? It's not infected right? There is no danger of tetanus or anything?"

A very worried Samantha asked with panic all over her face as she stood in the doctor's office next to Josie who sat on the examination table.

She frowned sadly as she looked at the small, but still easy to see in the yellow lighting patch of slightly reddish skin that had formed around the cut on her daughter's knee. The same she'd given Tiffany Vargas a verbal lashing for that she would not soon forget. Allowing her precious baby girl to get injured while in her care was an unforgivable crime.

She remembered almost falling faint when she came through the door of her small flat to find Josie seated on the couch with an ice pack pressed to her leg. After hastily asking what had happened, she'd pushed the teen to shed tears and run out crying once she'd found out about her carelessness.

She'd then inspected the wound herself despite Josie's many protests that she was just fine. She'd shushed her and looked anyway, her heart breaking all the while as she asked Josie over and over if she was in pain.

"No momma," she'd promised that she really wasn't, but she couldn't accept that because to her any mark on her baby no matter how tiny felt like someone had carved out her heart from her chest cavity, tossed it to the ground, and stomped all over it.

She'd hugged her tight as she'd carried her to the bathroom. There she'd carefully washed her nick with mild soap and water before patting it dry with the softest cotton towel she owned. Next she'd dabbed a cotton ball with some rubbing alcohol and got to disinfecting, blowing on her knee as she did so to make it sting less. Finally she'd applied some ointment and a fresh bandage before picking up the phone and begging Josie's paediatrician for an appointment.

The logical part of her knew that wasn't necessary for a minor injury resulting from a fall; kids fell all the time and it was just a normal part of growing up. But the mom in her had not been consoled by such rational thoughts because she was too busy hyperventilating. She'd felt like her Josie had been hit by a truck and needed urgent care ASAP.

Thankfully the doctor had had a cancellation and could see her right away. So off she'd went, still in the clothes she'd worn to run her errand, without sitting down, without even grabbing a snack to sate her rumbling tummy, straight to the clinic to put her worries to rest.

Dr. Lydia Schwartz smiled to herself at the sight of the young mother before her whose fear and concern over her kid could be felt in spades. Over the last nearly five years, she'd dropped by enough times that she'd easily lost count of her visits. Yet she'd never forgotten the very first one where she'd run inside crying and shaking as she held an infant Josie who was fussing and squalling.

"Please doctor! Save my baby!" Sam had begged while a flood of salty tears had poured down her cheeks ceaselessly. "I can't get her to stop hiccupping! I don't think she's breathing properly! I-I don't know what happened to her! I dunno what's wrong!" Had come a medley of garbled statements, her voice broken with her sobs all the while.

Luckily it had turned out that little Josie had just swallowed some air and needed to be burped. With a few gentle taps on her back the burp came and the baby had returned to normal within minutes unlike her mom who had taken a half hour to calm down after her near nervous breakdown.

As she'd watched her gulp down the water she'd poured for her in a paper cup she hadn't been able to keep from noticing how young she was; barely an adult herself but already such a devoted mother.

And from that first meeting she'd come to the conclusion that she was the kind of super devoted parent who fretted over everything their child faced.

A cough, a fever even one degree over the normal 98.6°F reading, so much as a single sneeze and she wouldn't be able to ignore it. She'd become restless and she'd come ask for help right away.

It wasn't that she didn't know other parents that cared deeply for their children; most all of her patients had wonderful moms and dads but something about Samantha Simpson made her admire her just a little bit more than the rest of them.

Maybe that she was on her own doing the most difficult job in the world, being a mom with very little help from anyone else.

And while she was no optometrist, she could still see with 20/20 vision that to this particular mother, her baby was her absolute heart and soul.

Not wanting to see her despair any longer, Lydia shook her head to report to her that Josie was negative for any serious consequences from this tumble she'd taken. The smile on her face widened as Samantha let out a huge sigh of relief while scooping up Josie in her arms and thanking her profusely.

"It's no problem at all. Take care now," she said ready to move onto her next patient but stopping to hand Josie a cherry flavoured lollipop first that she recalled was the one she always reached her chubby little hand towards whenever she got to pick one from the candy box.

Josie gasped in delight as she took it from her, unwrapping it immediately to pop into her mouth.

"Chewwy! My fawoite!" She screamed in excitement with a childish grin spread all over her face meanwhile her mother's seemed to pale a little as she seemed to think of something else that she wanted to ask about Josie's health.

"Um I've been meaning to ask ... " Sam said as she readjusted Josie on her hip so that she was more comfortable as she sucked away contentedly at her hard candy treat. "Is it normal for her to not be able to pronounce certain letters still? Like R?"

She asked specifically, having picked up a while ago that she tended to substitute that sound with a w in its place. Calling a rabbit a wabbit. Saying tommowo instead of tomorrow and so on. She was about to turn five really soon and by now she'd expected her to have dropped that habit.

Wondering if Josie needed speech therapy or something, Sam's brow pinched itself in concern only to relax when the doctor once again shook her head no.

"It's perfectly fine. The R sound is actually one of the sounds that children learn to say last. Sometimes not until six years of age. Don't worry, she'll get the hang of it soon enough. If you want to help speed things along though—"

She trailed off as she walked over to a cabinet in the corner of the room and opened a drawer. Pulling out a laminated sheet of paper filled with rows of raindrop doodles for a total of thirty, she held it out towards her.

"Practice saying the word raindrop with her. Don't move onto the next one until she says it properly. Try it out for a few weeks and I'm positive she'll improve."

Sam nodded her head placing Josie down on the floor on her own two feet as she took the exercise sheet and placed it inside her shoulder bag for later.

Now having dealt with everything she needed to here she thanked the doctor for her guidance, waited for Josie to wave her goodbye in the adorable way she always did before taking her hand in her own and leaving the office to get on with the rest of her day.

She had quite the chore list to tackle still on her day off and it would be all the more challenging while having to simultaneously watch Josie. Sure she could try calling her babysitter again to see if she was free now but with the events of today, she could not find it in herself to leave Josie in anyone else's care right now but her own or Clover's.

Carefully crossing after looking both ways she made her way to the bus station and checked the schedule to see when it would be showing up. A fifteen minute wait was what it told her, it appeared she'd just missed the last one. Sure enough when she took a glance down the street she was greeted with the tail end of a public bus in the distance.

Sighing she went and sat down on the small bench inside the booth, glad to find it empty as she began the countdown of a half of a half hour till their transport arrived.

While Josie sat next to her waving her feet in the air and giggling in childish joy at how hers didn't touch the floor like her own did because she was far too tiny for it, Sam smiled enjoying her innocent cuteness for a moment before finding herself thinking about Clover.

She wasn't sure where she'd run off to and she hadn't even received a text from her since which was kind of odd. Clover always made sure to keep in touch so she couldn't help but worry over her not keeping with that habit this time. She just wished that everything was okay with her and that she'd come back to them soon.

And with that wish, one more came. The very same that often tormented her whenever she was given a rare moment to reflect on her hectic life:

The desire for her to have a partner to share her burdens with.

As much as she wanted to scoff at the idea that she needed a man and pretend she was rocking the independent woman thing, lie that she had everything under control and was excelling at being a mother all by herself ... deep in her heart she knew she had many failings.

And many of those could easily be solved if she just had someone else to do this with besides her sole best friend whom she relied on way too much and honestly did have a life of her own to live even if she sometimes was too busy being a total sweetheart and being there for her every chance she could to notice that.

But that wasn't supposed to be Clover's job and it wasn't fair to her for it to be. No that was a job for Josie's father.

Sam automatically frowned as his memory stuck a sharp dagger inside her again. Of a man who'd never once wanted to make any kind of serious commitment to her, ever be her husband or Josie's father.

The one who'd never really cared for her as she'd been warned by Alex only for her voice to fall on deaf ears because she was too busy drowning it out under his words promising to her so many times that he truly did. That he loved her. Loved her so much and wanted to build a life with her.

In retrospect she knew all his words to her were empty, all beautiful threads used to spin the master web he'd trapped her in and kept her captive until he'd finished getting his fill of what he'd desired out of her.

All he'd wanted was to have some fun. Have it with her. And once he was done, he'd left her behind in the dust to pay the price for his brief entertainment.

A heavy price that she was still paying ... to this day.

Emerging from the glass elevators Clover moved with purpose. Turning into the long corridor adorned with glistening chandeliers and polished black floor tiles that she recalled led to Scam's office, she stomped along in the same faded jeans, pink t-shirt, and unflattering sneakers she'd worn to Sam's place.

She hadn't even bothered dressing up this time because she could care less right now about sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the sharply dressed men in smart pressed suits and women in heels and flawless makeup occupying every floor of this paramount building.

She was ticked off enough to no longer care about her appearance and that alone conveyed just how totally ticked off she was.

Reaching the end of the hall just minutes later she pushed the double doors open and let herself in. Not seeing any security personnel around, she was just about to make a beeline to the final door that led to him when she was stopped by a voice she'd heard just once before.

"Oh hello there Miss Bisset!"

Her head spun around to find Scam's secretary, Lila Lopez looking right at her from her spot in her cubicle.

But the look on her face was not nearly as welcoming at the present as it had been her past visit. And Clover wondered if that was because she had discovered by now that she was just a Freelance model and in no way whatsoever the supermodel that had been carefully selected to be the face of an important ad campaign by Scam himself.

The second she rose from her chair and walked over to her with a stiff posture and a cross expression on her face, any lingering doubts she had over if that was the case or not quickly flew out the window.

"Do you know that I could have lost my job because of you?!" She lectured angrily, steam practically coming from her ears in wisps as her face turned scarlet with unforgotten humiliation at how this woman had blatantly lied to her face.

How Mr. Scam had been kind enough not to sack her on the spot for letting a random lady waltz right into his private office she'd never know, but her colleagues weren't letting her hear the end of it. Everywhere she went she saw side glances directed at her and heard whispers joking about her failing to even check a visitor's credentials properly; a common sense part of her job.

And while her boss hadn't made a big deal out of this and had treated it as an isolated incident, she knew full well the extent of her mistake. She'd worked so hard to get here and now she felt like she was walking around on eggshells just to keep her position.

All because of this woman who really had some nerve coming back a second time without an appointment after already causing so much trouble. Just who did she think she was?

Her rage nowhere near shed yet, Lila delayed calling security and having her thrown out flat on her butt until she was done saying everything she'd been waiting to say to her if she ever saw her again.

But she was left shocked when the blonde rolled her eyes and simply huffed out a "I don't have time for this right now" before pushing right past her to the same destination that she'd been making her way to before she'd stopped her.

"Hey! Get back here!"She called out after her to no avail as Clover kept moving despite her warnings that she wasn't allowed to venture any further. And when she wouldn't stop even at that she heard the secretary scream shrilly for the guards over the intercom system.

Knowing that she didn't have much time left to get to Scam, Clover broke into a mad sprint. Even when she heard multiple footsteps race after her along with curses being uttered behind her when they failed to catch up with ease, she kept pushing herself to go faster and faster treating this as a race she had to win at any cost.

Just a moment after, she grabbed hold of the silver doorknob. With her last burst of adrenaline she tugged it open and finally burst inside the threshold of Scam's office.

And at seeing the man just sitting there dressed in his tailored suit, smiling blissfully and looking like it was just another day when her entire world was on fire, pushed her over the edge.

"IS THAT ALL MY BEST FRIEND IS WORTH TO YOU SCAM? JUST ONE TRY? ONE LAME ATTEMPT?!"Clover screeched without even stopping to catch her breath first, not caring about how hoarsely her voice cracked when she spoke nor for the scene she was making as she already knew she'd been kicked out of here soon enough.

Immediately two sets of eyes snapped in her direction; sea foam ones belonging to Tim Scam and a dark blue pair belonging to another man who'd been leaned over looking at something on Scam's laptop screen.

Both their jaws were parted and their eyes were wide in shock at her unexpected arrival and furious expression but Clover gave them no chance to recover as she reached into her purse and snatched up the tabloid she'd stuffed in there.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" She spit out, snarling like a tigress with gritted teeth while throwing the magazine with the scandalous photo of him plastered across the cover so that it landed smack dab on the desk where both Scam and his company could see it clearly.

The tube of lip balm and bottle of hand lotion she always kept on her person that fell out in the process and the paper seemed to have the effect of a grenade on the unnamed man as he gasped and took a big step back almost colliding into a wall.

But she wasn't able to stay put long enough to get a reaction out of Scam as she felt two pairs of strong and burly hands grab her shoulders and elbows and proceed to try to haul her out of the room.

"We're so sorry!" The guards apologized to whom she assumed was Scam over and over for letting her get this close to him as they dragged her backwards while she dug her soles into the floor while hissing and fighting against them like a feral cat with the entire weight of her body.

When they wouldn't release her despite her struggles, she lost her temper at them treating her like some deranged psycho who needed retraining and swung up the arm she held her bag in with force until it made contact with one of the men's faces. He grunted in a mixture of surprise and discomfort as it hit his nose and she felt his grip on her falter which was all the fuel she needed to keep hitting him.

Sure she may no longer be the super spy she'd once been but when it came to choosing between fight or flight, to this day her automatic reflex was to stand her ground and fight.

"Let go of me!" She yelled as she attacked, not willing to go until she was done giving Scam the earful she had made this long journey for that these two muttonheads were interrupting.

What resulted was a wrestling match so vicious that it caused a small crowd of office workers to gather just outside Scam's door. Whispering to each other, they craned their necks around to see past one other to find out what on earth was going on.

"ENOUGH!"

It was Scam's angered voice that restored order amidst the chaos, the boom of his commanding tone sending shivers around the room as it went as quiet as someone hitting mute on a TV remote while all actions stopped at once as if everyone had been flash frozen solid.

For every single employee present knew that Mr. Scam didn't shout for just anything. No matter what came his way he was calm, collected, dignified and dealt with it in a civilized manner. Him raising his voice was to put it shortly ... terrifying.

And so they turned around and left almost tripping over each other in a flurry of hushed sorrys as they shuffled themselves away from his office in record time.

When they were gone he turned his attention next to his security guards who were literally shaking in their polished black shoes like leaves in a cold autumn breeze as they feared incurring his wrath.

"Leave," Scam stated the single word with so much impact that it felt exactly like the order to their ears that it was. Neither man dared protest as they bowed their heads and did his bidding, turning on their heels and walking out without so much as a peep coming from either of their lips.

As she watched them go, Clover had to suppress the urge to gulp dryly. If it wasn't for her deep concern over her best friend's life going down the drain again that was keeping her put, she wasn't sure that she wouldn't have followed suit and run out herself.

After mustering up her bravery she gradually put her gaze back on Scam as she waited for him to address her next but he instead turned to the man standing behind him.

"Darren, you too please," he requested and she noticed how he said it in a much gentler tone than he had to the others. This guy whoever he was close to Scam, a fact further proven with how he didn't leave right away like the other had and instead shot Scam a look only best friends gave each other in a troublesome situation. A hybrid of a "let me stay, I've got your back" and "are you sure you want me to go?"

Only when Scam touched the guy's shoulder in friendly little pat and nodded again did he move. With a long sigh he made his way out but not before walking around her in a circle and giving her a warning look before finally leaving after closing the door behind him to give Tim the privacy he wanted with her right now.

Their audience now all gone, Scam slowly sat down at his desk and picked up the half-crumpled tabloid in his hands. Clover could see his eyes move from left to right reading the headline text and then assessing the snapshot carefully but his lips remained sealed as if glued shut with an epoxy.

And she grew irked when just a moment later, still without any visible reaction he coolly put the paper down, got up, made himself a drink from the mini bar near a cabinet before he sat back down in his leather chair and proceeded to look at another file sitting on his table.

Realizing what he was doing, Clover's jaw dropped at being ignored as she watched all her fears come true. Based on his way too placid demeanour about this, it really did seem like he was done pursuing Sam after all. It looked exactly like he'd moved on with the woman in the picture as he wasn't arguing for his innocence at all.

"SO THAT'S IT THEN?! YOU'RE DONE? DON'T WANT SAMMIE ANYMORE?!" Those inflamed words filled with blistering outrage flew from her lips as she felt slapped in the face.

How dare he choose that Donna Hansen who had been all over him like a loose slut after what? Just one day together? At most? She remembered the article saying how they'd struck a cord with one another after just under 24 hours spent together. The thought that he really was bailing on her Sammie for that bimbo disgusted her because she'd really thought Scam had more class than that.

Had he and Donna slept together? Was that why he was so blasé right now? Her eyes narrowed into icy slits as she watched him in a disillusioned way. Had she really been so damn wrong about him? Was he truly just like other men who wanted just one thing and wanted it handed to them with no effort, no patience, without even breaking a sweat? Would drift towards any woman like a moth to a flame so long as she eagerly warmed his bed?

If that was the case then she'd regrettably have to accept that he definitely wasn't the guy for Sam to make a life with let alone be any kind of father to Josie. But she didn't want to believe it. Forget wanting, she refused to believe it.

No it couldn't be! She knew him! This was the same man that didn't know how to give up. Didn't have the word "quit" in his dictionary. The same that always had been a thorn in their side back when they used to be enemies. The one that always came back for more.

How then could he let go of Sam so easily when she'd been sure when she'd left that day that he was going to do anything and everything in his power to have her?

"JUST HOW MANY ATTEMPTS DID YOU MAKE TO TAKE DOWN WOOHP SCAM? TEN? TWENTY? A HUNDRED? REMIND ME BECAUSE I LOST COUNT!" She screamed, dead set on having this conversation even if she was the only speaker in it.

"Wow, you've REALLY let yourself go haven't you? You've grown soft! The version of you I remember was relentless when he wanted something! What the hell happened to you Tim?!" She questioned looking at him with piercing eyes as she tried to x-ray down to his soul and reach the guy she thought she'd known once upon a time before shaking her head in a letdown way because she'd hoped for so much more from him.

"I expected a real chase … not a game of tag," she mumbled with a dissatisfied huff before sighing and saying more.

"YOU were the one who always came back!" She kept trying to jog his seemingly lost memory. "YOU were the one who always got back up again and again and again each time you were knocked down, YOU were—"

She paused searching for the right word before finding it and continuing on trying valiantly to provoke a response from him.

"Invincible."

But again all she got out of him was a slight twitch in his jaw as he just pretended to be deaf while he flipped the page in his folder and kept reading his document as though he were alone right now and she wasn't standing just a few feet away talking directly to him.

Now having had it up to her limit with him acting like she was invisible despite her screaming her lungs out before him, Clover growled before marching straight to him and slamming her palms down hard on the desktop causing the pretty, crystal paperweight occupying it to twirl and everything else including the file he held to rattle violently.

"ANSWER ME DAMMIT!" She demanded and at long last his head lifted up as he looked her dead in the eye.

But when he did she didn't find just the annoyance she expected at her being in his face like this but also, for some reason a touch of ... pain.

A little alarmed at what she thought she was seeing in him now that she was up close, Clover blinked falling quiet just for a minute as she waited for him to break his silence and fill her in as to what had happened.

The last time she'd met him he hadn't been this way. Yes he'd started out being in denial over why he'd kissed Sam and all but he hadn't looked this wounded. The only time he'd even gotten upset was when he'd learned that Sam had lied to her that their kiss had not been mutual. The rest of the time he'd been his usual confident and poised self no matter what she'd said. Never had he looked this dejected. This rejected.

So what was the matter with him now? Why did he look so much like a ground zero after an earthquake, an explosion, a divorce all rolled up into one?

Eager to know why he had this out of character look on his handsome face, she wondered what to say to get him to talk to her like he was failing to so far. This charging in and yelling tactic might work on most people but on him, it was clearly not having the effect that she'd been aiming for.

Realizing she needed to change her approach she thought for a long moment as to what to do when suddenly she figured it out. Taking a deep breath she prepared herself in case he swung at her for saying this before she cocked her head to the side with her and blue eyes boring into his, finally spoke.

"Did Sammie slap in the face again or something? Is that why you're so antsy?"

As expected the rest of his poker face cracked away at that. No longer was his agony just visible in his eyes, it rapidly spread all across his face as he glowered back at her. His brown eyebrows bunched up, dents forming between them while his lips stretched down into a deep frown and his eyes crackled red hot as if having spontaneously burst into flame.

"SOMETIMES WORDS HURT!" Scam barked before he could stop himself. Yet the second his own sentence fell on his eardrums and he realized it had left his mouth, Scam was filled with intense regret and shame. His eyes went wide and his face coloured rouge.

Biting his cheek hard he gave himself swift punishment for letting that slip out. He wasn't supposed to say that. He wasn't supposed to say anything. His plan had been to just sit here and wait out her temper tantrum until she inevitably tired herself out and left never to return again.

So that maybe he could finally get on with his existence with no one reminding him of her.

So that this "Samantha Simpson" chapter which had for whatever reason been flipped back to in the book of his life could at last be closed for good. But there was a fad chance that was going to happen now thanks to his big mouth. And he knew he'd blown it when Clover started to pry again with renewed interest.

"... What did Sammie say?" She asked candidly having sorted out that the words that had caused him said anguish had to come from the redhead. Because had they come from just anyone, she knew him enough to know he'd just laugh them off with no care given.

But Sam unfortunately was not just a nobody, she was the woman he'd begun to dream having for his wife and giving her daughter his last name. That was until she brought him out of the land of fantasies and harshly crashing back to reality:

"Maybe it doesn't matter to me if you have changed Scam! Your life is wonderful now so go live it; maybe I don't want any part of you regardless!"

Her biting words echoed inside the chambers of his mind and he burst like a dam. Perhaps it was juvenile, perhaps it wasn't even totally fair but right now he wanted to blame Clover for what he'd suffered.

He was doing just fine before she'd told him to go make Sam his own. And now she had to listen to what he'd gone through thanks to her.

"Well for starters..." he hissed, starting to reveal the information Clover wanted so badly but pausing to let out a bitter chuckle from deep in his lungs because he already knew she wouldn't like it.

"What? What?!" Clover's impatient voiced filled the gaps in between his laughter, almost afraid of the stormy look on his features. Just how far had Sam gone in telling him no? She knew Sam had told him she didn't want him (she'd said so herself), but she had a feeling she'd said way worse to him. A simple no was not likely to get him this aggravated.

And when she finally found out, Clover's jaw nearly detached and fell to the floor.

"She asked me if I wanted to make her my mistress! She accused me of wanting to solicit her for SEX! I put my pride and dignity on the line and poured my heart out to YOUR best friend and all she could say was that I didn't meet her standards and NEVER would! I BEGGED her to let me prove her wrong ... and she just threw me out cold and told me to NEVER come back!"

"..."

Clover stood there speechless from shock, her eyes triple wide in size at his admission. Had Sam really said all that to him of all men? A man who was filthy rich, gorgeous, and could have any woman he pleased? She couldn't think of a single girl who in her right mind who would turn him down. Maybe back when he used to be a baddie he could be seen as somewhat undesirable but today? No way.

Then what was the reason for Sam serving him such a mean dismissal?

"Oh no ..." she groaned as she put two and two together. God Sam was doing it again wasn't she? She was scaring away another guy just because of what he had done to her. Trying to make him pay for his sins by using an innocent man as an outlet.

She almost jumped when she heard Scam's seething voice start up again with so much animosity that she almost choked on it.

"And you then you have the audacity to wonder why I don't want—"

His hands flew up to make sarcastic air quotations.

"YOUR SAMMIE anymore."

With that he turned his back to her and stared out of one of the wall-to-wall bay windows of his office in an attempt to calm down, his body shaking from his rage all the while he muttered curses to himself under his breath.

Clover stared at him from behind with a sad pout on her lips now unable to help but feel bad for him. With all the facts on the table she couldn't really blame him for not wanting to make any more attempts at winning Sam's affection. She hadn't exactly been welcoming to him in any way but—

Regardless she couldn't let him walk away. She could not allow this to end no matter what it took. Not for Sam's sake and especially not for Josie's sake who hadn't even had the chance to meet Scam yet.

Walking around his large desk to go stand with him, she mirrored his pose as he stood with his arms crossed over his chest. She said nothing for a moment just giving him silent company before she worked up the nerve to speak to him again.

"... I'm sorry Tim. It wasn't right of her to say those things to you."

He didn't move, not even looking at her from the corner of his eye as he grumbled out a thank you to her for saying that much but with not much sincerity before asking her to please vacate his office now that this conversation was done with.

But again her quest to make things better for those she loved so dearly kept her steadily in place. She just had to find some way to get through to him. Sam's actions and words had incorrectly made him assume that it was him that she loathed to no end and could never love and that was why she was pushing him away, but that wasn't true. The issue was something else. Something else that she knew full well and he didn't.

"Clover please don't make me call security back in here," Scam heaved out, flicking his eyes to hers with a warning glance to start walking now.

But when another minute passed and she didn't hear him, he sighed tiredly no longer caring to be cordial with her anymore because his patience had reached its end.

"Fine, have it your way."

He walked to the front of his desk and reached for the phone to call his guards. He'd just picked it up and was about to press the button for the line that led directly to his head of security when Clover's words made him fall slack.

"IT'S NOT YOU THAT SAMMIE HATES! YOU'RE PAYING THE PRICE FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S MISTAKES, NOT YOUR OWN!"

As much as he tried not to let that cryptic statement of hers get to him, he was compelled to look back at her in a lost manner.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Feeling his intense gaze on hers Clover bit her lip nervously. How could she tell him what he needed to hear without giving away Sam's entire history? Under no circumstances did she want to drag her bleak past into her present and least of all when it came to the man she wanted Sam to spend her future with.

God knew it was already hard enough to find a guy who didn't make a run for it the second he discovered that Sam was the single mom of a toddler. Scam was a rarity but if he found out how Sam had wound up pregnant, who knew what he'd think! What judgments he'd make about her! About Josie!

She already knew of one man who'd started to hate the sight of Sam when he learned how she got pregnant and that was her own father. She couldn't risk Scam becoming the second.

"... Just take my word on this okay?" She softly insisted not really giving him an answer.

But Scam noted straight away how she averted his gaze and started awkwardly playing with her hair as if uncomfortable.

Unwilling to do this anymore if she wasn't going to do him the courtesy of being frank, Scam growled. "No, I won't take your word for it Clover. I can't. I did that the last time and got burned. I need more than just your word to convince me this time."

Shaking his head from side to side he frowned as he spoke firmly to make sure she got this through her head. "I won't go on a fool's errand. I have better things to do with my time than chase after something impossible."

This time Scam reached for the half empty glass of alcohol on his desk and downed what was left of the now warm liquid before crushing it in his fist and demanding for her to get out right this second, threatening to call the cops this time if she didn't leave him alone.

"Look, I get it!" Clover called out, racing over to him and tugging on his arm in desperation. There was no point in being discreet about this anymore. "You don't want to pursue Sam because it's too much work right! Well was all of this—"

She used her free hand to make a sweeping motion around his extravagant office space.

"Built in one day?!"

Tugging his arm free from her, Scam snorted loudly through his fuming nostrils. "That is not a comparison. All of this was attainable."

"But did it never seem like it wasn't? It had to have at some point!" She retorted knowing an empire of this magnitude took serious effort to build. This much money and name that most could only dream of couldn't have come by easily. Even for a guy like him.

"Not to me," Scam strictly disagreed with her still. "I always knew that I could make it happen. I know what I'm capable of. If I want something, really want it then I always get it. Always."

There is was, Clover thought as her eyes lit up with hope that had been dwindling into darkness until now. That spark of resolve she'd been looking for in him. A trace of his famously unbreakable will. She knew this was her chance and she took it.

"THEN. GO. GET. SAM. I know you want her! You know that you do!" Her voice lowered down to a gentle whisper as she pleaded with him one last time and prayed this would do the trick.

"If you really want her Tim, then the only one standing in your way is ... you."

But as moving as her mini speech was, he just paced away from her agitated more than ever.

"And what about Sam wants?!" Scam snapped wondering if she hadn't heard what he'd told her she'd said to him with excruciating clarity. Words that were burned into his mind forever. She'd wanted for him to leave her be. In fact he was the last thing she'd told him she wanted. Why couldn't Clover get that through her thick skull?

"I'm giving her what she wants," Scam insisted.

"No ... you're giving up," Clover retaliated boldly.

"..."

Running a hand down his face, Tim Scam sighed in defeat. Yes, he concurred to himself. She was right, he was giving up but not out of fatigue but for it being the best option. To hell with his desires; he couldn't force himself upon a woman who had no feelings for him whatsoever.

His face hardened as he fought to not remember the steaming passion of that one kiss they'd shared to focus on her much more telling demeanour around him every other instance since which had shown him hatred, hatred, and more hatred.

And after turning his life around and earning the esteem and respect he had today, he couldn't handle being with someone who hated him as if he was still that convict. No, he didn't deserve that. He'd much rather die a single man than put up with that.

Sam hated him with every fibre of her being, as difficult of a pill that had been to swallow he'd made himself do it. And now and it was high time that Clover did the same.

Maybe her heart was in the right place wanting to aid her friend that she felt could be leading better life, but her wanting to make that happen by getting him to hook up with her was simply never going to come to pass. It just wasn't going to.

"I don't think I'm the man for her Clover," Scam preached solemnly while watching the blonde's face fall. But he continued anyway, not receiving any pleasure from watching her look like a kicked puppy as he once greatly would have but doing this because it had to be done.

"Maybe you should focus your energy and efforts on helping her find the right one," Scam suggested trying to be helpful to her and not letting the time she'd spend with him go to total waste.

"He's out there somewher—"

"But you ARE the right man for Sammie! The only man for her!" Clover interrupted without even allowing him to finish.

The sheer conviction she said it with bugged him down to his core. This wasn't the first time she'd said something like this. Right from the start of this whole affair she'd outright decreed that he needed to be with Sam. And try as he might he could not fathom why.

It hadn't made any sense to him before and it definitely made even less sense now after Clover was aware that Sam had turned him down flat.

Why? Scam quizzed himself while staring hard at the woman who had him perplexed as if trying to read her mind. Why was she so desperate to make this happen?

He couldn't get over the gut feeling that she was hiding something from him and he needed to know what that was before it drove him mental.

"Tell me why you have your heart set on this because the Clover Ewing I remember would never be so eager to set her bestie up with a villain," Scam put her on the spot.

"Umm ... you're reformed remember?" She tried to use that to wiggle out of the pressure he was trying to pile onto her. "You're not a villain anymore. Now you're just a regular guy who is more than an eligible bachelor."

"And just my word on that is good enough for you?" Scam said, not buying what she was selling him as he scoffed. "Because it wasn't good enough for Sam."

Silence, the likes of which a pin could be heard dropping from a mile away followed his sentence and he knew he was getting warmer. Wanting to hit Bull's-eye, he took a step closer to her and mercilessly continued to question her motives.

"Why are YOU the one who is barging into my office trying to force me to have a romance with Sam? With any man rather? Why isn't anyone else doing this for her? Why not Sam herself? Why not Alex?"

He brought up having noticed by now that she seemed to be totally missing from the picture which was bizarre to say the least. The three girls had been joined at the hip in the past, their secret spy lives only making the bond of their already tight friendship even stronger. Had that changed?

"Why not Britney?" He charged forward. "Why not someone else? Why are YOU the only one doing this Clover? Why?!" Scam challenged to know only to find Clover at a complete loss for words.

Having her in a corner now he went in for the kill. Crossing his arms over his chest he asked her his most burning question. "What's really going on here Clover? I want the truth ... and I want it now."

Clover dropped her head down low, her eyes staring blankly at the hardwood flooring but still starting to tear up despite how hard she tried to keep control of herself.

The answer to his question danced at the very tip of her tongue. Of course she knew just why she was the one who wanted and needed this for Sam more than anyone, maybe even Sam herself.

Still she struggled to find the strength and courage to overcome the shame she'd been harboring on her shoulders for five long years and let it out. Admit her deep dark secret that it had been her who had introduced Sam ...

To Josie's father.

...

I hope that was dramatic? I was going for dramatic lol. I wonder how you guys will take that little bombshell if it's even bombshelly enough idk xD

Anyway! Like I promised, lots of Scam and Clover were in this chapter! The whole story about Sam and Josie's dad will be in the next chapter! I'll try my best to get that one and other updates out sooner than this one! ^-^

Review? :)

Till then!

Love,

Cresenta