“Miss Chen… I didn’t know anyone could actually make that shameless woman speechless!” Secretary Peng lowered his voice the moment Miss Jiang strode out of my office.

“I thought I had a point.” Still, my thoughts lingered at that woman’s last glance before she left. That gaze was too familiar to me. It was something that I always used in the past. I could smell her scheming brain working as she narrowed her eyes on me. It was a gaze full of hostility.

“Of course, you did.” he agreed.

I chuckled in response. If Miss Jiang wanted to find trouble, then confronting me was a bad choice. After all, I had a lot of talent in pissing people off.

“Anyways, I am wondering why Miss Jiang seemed angry. Did Miss Chen do something to – “

“Grace said it was because Mr. Lin gave me the marketing position, but she also said Miss. Jiang is Mr. Lin’s girlfriend so she was… jealous.” I looked at Secretary Peng, this man who completely ran Cedric’s life, wondering if he knew about our marriage.

“But you are Mr. Lin’s – “

“Shhh,” So Cedric had informed him. “Anyway, I’ll finish my lunch quickly, in case anyone else is disturbed.” And then I’ll throw the boxes in away in the garbage in her office.

“Ah, sorry to disturb your lunchtime. I’ll leave now.”

“Oh, don’t tell him about this.”

“Eh?”

“It doesn’t deserve his attention.” I knew that Cedric was busy. There is no need for him to get involved in some more drama.

“All right, I will keep that in mind.”

I nodded. Of course, I didn’t really believe that he would hide this from Cedric. I knew that Secretary Peng is loyal to his boss. Still, I wanted him to know I could handle myself. And I wasn’t sure how much truth there was about the whole girlfriend claim. Was it possible I had misjudged Cedric and he really wanted a contract marriage as much as I did? I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t want to act like I suddenly cared if he was seeing anyone else. Showing she didn’t bother me would be the best way to achieve that.

The rumor that Rhea and I had a little squabble must have reached the ears of other people, as no one, not even Grace bothered me in the next few days. However, that gaze that she gave me was enough to make me on guard. I knew she was planning, scheming something. What I didn’t know is if she was going to do something against me or… against the company.

I started spending my time eating in my office. Cedric's cooking skills were so fantastic that I was wondering if he was really the one making them for me. After all, I had never seen him cook in the kitchen. In fact, I had not seen him for three days now.

We were living together, but he rarely went back home. Mr. Peng told me he usually slept in his office, which was equipped with everything that a man needed to survive, including a small kitchen where he would cook his own meal.

But a part of me believed that this had something to do with the bathtub incident. Was he trying to avoid me because of that? Nah, Cedric isn’t like that. Maybe he was spending time with Miss Jiang? Ugh. I decided to stop overthinking thing.

“So, he isn’t coming home tonight?” I asked Secretary Peng when he gave me my lunch. After my first day of work, Mr. Peng started giving me my lunch box in the morning. He would secretly hand it to me just before I could even take a step inside the building.

“Mr. Lin has been busy these days.”

As always, another vague answer. I nodded in response. Well maybe he could join me for some dinner later.

“Miss Chen, Mr. Lin said that if anything is troubling you in the company. Please... “

“It’s fine. There is nothing.” I reiterated. This wasn’t the first time that Mr. Peng asked me about it. I am sure this won’t be the last time, either. “I can handle it, Mr. Peng. There’s no need for you to worry.”

But I had just seen a reason to worry getting out of the elevator.

“Thank you for giving me the lunch box, Secretary Peng. Please go ahead. I need to talk to someone.”

“All right.” Secretary Peng looked at the woman in a pantsuit who was smiling at me.

“Mrs. Flor.” I greeted VP Lin’s secretary. “Why are you here?”

“Miss Lin,” As usual, the smile on her face looked brilliant. “You look well.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Flor. What brings you here?”

“Well… Do you have time for some tea?”

“I have thirty minutes.”

“Good. Let’s find a place where we can talk.”

We chose a cafe that is just a two-minute walk away from the office.

“How have you been? I heard that you’re not working on the IT team.” Mrs. Flor started.

“I’m learning.” I took in the woman in front of me. It had only been a few days since I last saw her, but I swore it looked like she had gotten older. The bags under her eyes were pretty obvious, and even her hair didn’t look as polished as before. “But I feel really good.”

“That’s good to know.”

“You don’t look too well,” I noted.

“Well… It has been stressful since you left.”

“What do you mean?” I feigned ignorance. In fact, I was really surprised to know that VP Lin’s brother-in-law would act so fast. Just when I left the company, I sent files to VP Lin’s brother-in-law that were very incriminating.

“VP Lin resigned a couple of days after you left.”

“What?” I expected him to scold VP Lin but to actually make him resign? Indeed, that man is a very capable politician. It was even better than I had hoped. I hadn’t just tainted VP Lin, I’d gotten rid of him.

“I know… I didn’t know why he would suddenly leave the company. Even CEO Lin is infuriated.”

The waiter arrived with our order.

“But… why would the Vice President suddenly leave?”

“I really don’t know. His resignation was a surprise to everyone.”

Surprise? I was almost sure that the women that he harassed felt relieved when he left. I took a sip of my coffee. The documents that I sent to VP Lin’s brother-in-law were sexual harassment cases that some employees of the company filed against VP Lin. Those were files that I found in the head of the HR’s office. While some of the documents didn’t have proof, some women had attached screenshots of text messages from VP Lin that clearly contained some lascivious words.

Yet, because of VP Lin’s influence, HR ignored them or fired the women. The only reason I had a complete copy of these documents was because Evan planned to use them against VP Lin in the future, then saw an even bigger opportunity with the VP’s brother-in-law.

And because the future mayor was scared of the impact that this case would have once publicized, he relented to Evan’s requests and eventually became his puppet.

“Anyway, I am here because I wanted to invite you back to the company. Bella… we need you.”