Ethan stood in the elevator, all stiff and tense His fear lingered at the back of his head He had been
sweating so much that his shirt had already stuck to his back Ethat had never expected to meet Janet
here, of all places He hadn’t even figured out how to tell her the truth yet.
All this time, he had been going to great lengths, monitoring her every move in the office, just to avoid
accidentally running into her Every day, he would wait for her to leave the company before getting off
work himself.
And whenever Janei needed to clock in some overtime, Ethan made sure to leave after she did. That
afternoon, Janet had sent him a message saying that she was going to have coffee with Kent.
Ethan had been in the middle of a meeting with the senior executives, so he hadn’t even been able to
reply to her Once the meeting was done, he had proceeded to go over the financial statements and
make the necessary revisions.
It had taken him a while before he could finally call it a day.
He had felt safe taking the CEO’s elevator under the foolish presumption that Janet would either be at
the coffeehouse or on her way home by now.
Ethan had never expected her to suddenly return to the company.
Just before the elevator reached the top floor, Ethan received another message from Janet.
She was asking about Emani.
To begin with, he had no intentions to use Brandon’s name in helping Janet with this issue, since it
wouldn’t make any sense He could only reply her coldly, saying that it had nothing to do with Brandon
or the Larson Group As the elevator door slid to a close between them earlier, Ethan realized that Janet
was staring at him through the gap.
He knew then that she had seen his face.
Although surprised at first, he immediately averted his eyes and turned away.
A few seconds after that, his phone pinged.
Janet was inviting Brandon to dinner.
She offered to meet him in person and treat him to a meal, which could only mean that she had begun
to suspect him It wasn’t the right time to tell her the truth, however, so he had no choice but to make up
some excuse and decline her offer Sure enough, as soon as Janet was rejected by Brandon, she
called Ethan.
Ethan yanked his tie off his neck.
"Yes, is everything all right?" He spoke in the same old, relaxed voice he always used around her
"What time are you coming home?"
Janet asked in a casual tone that made it difficult to tell how she was actually feeling "Do you have to
work overtime every day now?"
Ethan clenched his fist and cleared his throat.
"I don’t think I’ll be home until a while later," he said calmly.
"I was just wrapping up my work for the day."
After saying their goodbyes, Ethan rushed into his office and made a beeline for the floor-to-ceiling
windows that overlooked the streets below.
When he finally spotted Janet walking out of the company building, he let out a long sigh. He waited for
another half hour before heading home.
Ethan stepped into their house and was greeted by the sight of Janet sitting in the middle of the sofa,
her legs crossed, her arms folded over her chest.
Her eyes had been fixed on his face since he opened the door, and it trailed him as he moved across
the foyer.
"It’s getting colder and colder, huh?" Ethan said lightly as he took off his coat.
His hair was disheveled, and dark locks hung low over his brow. He looked like some debonair
entrepreneur trying to try his luck out in the big world. He padded over to the rug and lazily shook the
snow off his coat.
Despite his outward composure, Ethan was practically shaking inside.
He wasn’t sure he was ready to face Janet’s questions just yet.It didn’t help that she kept staring at
him, either.
After a long, tense silence, Janet took a deep breath and opened her mouth.
Her voice rang loud and clear.
"Ethan Lester!"
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