“You want to invite me back to the company?” I was almost laughing.

“Isabella, I know the rumors were pretty bad but we need you. The interim VP isn’t as effective as VP Lin and the company has been in chaos. CEO Lin has been holed up in his office since he came back.”

Why does that sound so entertaining to my ears? “I don’t think— “

“I knew about your previous relationship with CEO Lin.”

Oh? The smile on my face vanished. I squinted at her. I wondered what pitiful story he had told her. Evan loved using people to do all work in his stead, and right now, he was using Mrs. Flor, the only colleague who had gotten close to me, to persuade me to go back.

Honestly, it was such a predictable move. After all, this wasn’t the first time that he used the same tactic to make me run back to his arms. This strategy relied entirely on the fact that I cared for and loved him.

But that was all in the past.

“I think the thirty minutes is up,” I politely said. “I don’t want to be late,” I added.

“But— “

I smiled at her. “We don’t need to see each other again, Mrs. Flor.” Those were blunt words, and I was sure she understood them. We weren’t friends. There is no need for her to get involved in this matter.

Before she could say anything, I had already left the cafe.

So, taking care of VP Lin was easier than I thought it would be. His brother-in-law must have been furious. After all, he was a well-known prosecutor before he resigned and decided to pursue politics. A scandal that would involve his family members would ruin his career.

However, I was sure that they were doing their best to track the identity of the sender. Though I was confident that they wouldn’t be able to find me, I still had to be more careful in the future. I or Evan would immediately know that I’m trying to ruin his empire.

But isn’t this a good start? With light steps, I walked inside Silk and Laces.

“Miss Chen, the CEO, wants to see you.”

I nodded at Miss Hou and immediately went to Cedric’s office. “You wanted to see me?” I asked.

“Ah, yes.” He looked up and gestured towards the chair opposite him. “How are you?”

I thought he wanted to ask me about Mrs. Flor. “Good but I must say, being in marketing isn’t easy.” I made myself comfortable on the chair.

“Coffee?”

“Already had one. A bottle of water would be nice.” The seriousness in his eyes made me a little curious. “Did something happen?”

“Yes.” He leaned back, then he closed his eyes and massaged his temples. “Our headliner for the gala wants to pull out of her contract.” I hadn’t been involved in planning this gala, but I wanted to be the one to save it.

“They want to terminate the contract weeks before the event?”

“It seems so.”

I couldn’t help but ask myself if Evan could be behind this but dismissed the thought quickly. No, this wasn’t his plan. Evan was the cautious type. He wouldn’t risk doing something we could fix ahead of time. If it were him, he would want to ruin the event by causing some unfortunate incident during the show so there’d be no way we could avoid it, then he’d enjoy Cedric’s embarrassment.

Since he wouldn’t do something like this before the event started who else could it be? Miss Jiang’s gaze suddenly appeared in my head. Was it her?

“May I see the contract?”

Cedric gestured towards the folder in front of me. I smiled and opened it. “It’s Jinyi? That is a huge name!” She was popular because she was once a member of a well-known girl group. A few months back, she had decided to leave the group and establish her career alone.

And since this woman had a huge fan base, her songs were extremely popular.

He nodded.

“If you don’t mind me asking, how did you convince her to perform?” I was surprised a big singer like her would agree to tie themselves with Silk and Laces.

“It wasn’t me who convinced her.”

I immediately understood his meaning. Since it’s not Cedric then the only person who could do it is none other than Miss Jiang, so this sudden desire to breach the contract must have something to do with Miss Jiang too. But why do this? Wasn’t she trying to help Cedric?

“I’ll take care of it,” I said without any hesitation.

“I already asked Mr. Peng to schedule a meeting. Miss Jinyi wanted to do it tonight. Dinner.”

“Then… I’ll go instead.”

“We.”

“Hm?”

“You’re coming with me.”

“Are you sure you want to come with me?” I asked. I was so used to doing the job alone, behind the scenes. I threatened, blackmailed, and bribed people on my own. Evan wanted to keep himself clean, so he never went to these meetings.

I knew Cedric wasn’t like him, but half of me actually expected that he would let me go alone.

“I wanted to see your negotiation skills.”

Negotiation skills.

How sanitized.

“All right then… let’s go together.”

Before we could get our things, Mr. Peng walked in with a grave look on his face. “Sir, it seems that Miss Jinyi wanted to talk to the new marketing director.”

“Hm?”

“Her manager called. She said she wanted to talk to the new marketing director about the contract.”