"You’ve gone through a pretty good fight, Mr. Gu." William beamed with pride at Jonas. "Now people
scurry to their seats when they see even your shadow approaching."
Jonas gave him a brief but grateful smile. He had been so busy with the affairs of the company
especially the acquisition case, and he had never taken a proper rest. He was exhausted, and it
showed on his face.
"Thank you for your hard work this time around as well," he said to William. "It’s my treat tonight; go
ahead and choose whatever restaurant you like." His voice had grown hoarse, and he rubbed his throat
uncomfortably before taking large gulps of water.
"Understood, Mr. Gu. We’ll make sure to find an excellent place to express your gratitude. By the way,
Mr. Gu, may we bring any family member with us?" It was not an unprecedented request; William had
always been thoughtful of the employees that were assigned to the CEO office.
Besides, after working for Jonas for so many years, he knew that despite the strict and rigid demeanor
of his boss, Jonas was always generous to the employees.
"That’s all right. Just add it to the overall tab, I’ll take care of the total expense."
That made the secretary pause. "Won’t you be joining us, Mr. Gu?"
As it was supposed to be celebratory dinner, he had, of course, assumed, that the boss was coming.
Jonas shook his head. He had been living in the company for a long time. He missed Melinda very
much.
It was only one of the myriad emotions he had been finding himself caught up in recently. Only one of
the new feelings that he had never encountered before in his life.
"Very well, Mr. Gu." William took care of the rest of the minor paperwork as Jonas rushed back home to
his wife.
Meanwhile, Yulia’s sanctions still weren’t lifted, and she remained grounded at home. Although,
thankfully, she was no longer confined to her own room, and could now freely walk around the
mansion.
This was one such occasion when the young woman decided to take a stroll around the grounds, her
cat in her arms. It was autumn now, and there was a biting chill in the air.
Yulia wore an expensive looking vest over a light dress, looking every bit as upper-level socialite. She
headed towards Melinda’s villa.
Due to her miscarriage in the past, Melinda had grown overly sensitive to the cold, and would usually
fall ill in colder weather. These days she kept inside and wore thick layers of clothing, her regular walks
in the yard abandoned.
It was just as well, because she had also been busy recently. Her new book had been completed, and
she had been absorbed in the last phase of editing. She also had to make negotiations with the
publishers and the periodical office.
She had already received a tiny bout of fame with her first book, but the recent controversy with Emily
made people pay more attention to her. Needless to say, she had gained more fans, especially from
within the city. Hence, her editor was quick to draw up plans to hold a book launch event for her. And
they wanted to brand her as a well-known author.
"Melinda, are you busy?" Yulia barged into her sister-in-law’s villa with her cat.
Melinda was on a video call with her editor, discussing the book launch event. She quickly said her
goodbye and ended the call.
"What’s up?" She gave the younger woman a tight smile. Lately, Yulia would drop in by her villa at the
most random times for the most random reasons.
Melinda couldn’t tell if she actually cared for her in particular, maybe her husband’s sister was only
bored of her confinement. But the fact that Yulia kept on showing up brought her much discomfort and
always sent Melinda on edge.
"I don’t understand why you stay cooped up in your villa," Yulia drawled as she glanced around the
room, her right hand stroking the cat in her arms. "The weather is rather nice today. Why don’t we go
take a little walk outside?"
The truth was that Yulia was dying to get out of the mansion. Already she had lost track of the days,
unsure about how long she had been grounded.
She knew that if there was anyone whose influence could grant her even just a brief escape, it was
Melinda. If she were to run out of there with her sister-in-law, her grandfather would no doubt allow it
without much thought.
"No, thanks. I have a lot of things to do. Why don’t you just go ahead and have some fun on your own."
"Melinda," Yulia said a little sharply. She struggled to soften her tone. "Melinda, you must know I’m still
grounded." Melinda paused at that. Perhaps the younger woman only meant outside at the yard? It had
completely slipped Yulia mind that she was still being punished.
She felt a little guilty at her apparently insensitive words. She smiled again, this time a little more
warmly. "Well, we have everything we could possibly want in this mansion. If there’s anything else you
wanted, I’m sure you can order someone and it would be brought to you immediately. Uh, you can have
fun with your little kitten as well."
Melinda winced at her own words. Well, there was nothing to be done about it, anyway; she didn’t know
what else to say.
She turned back to her desk, feeling embarrassed for herself, and so did not notice the resentment that
flashed in her guest’s eyes.
Yulia was pissed. She didn’t expect that she would be rebuffed so easily, even after lowering her pride
and coming here to find some help.
"Well. It seems like you are very busy indeed, so I won’t bother you any longer." In her frustration,
Yulia’s fingers dug a little deeper as she stroked her cat, and the poor animal screamed in protest and
flew out of her arms.
It leapt in the air towards Melinda, and its claws were visibly out. The cat landed on her with a hiss,
leaving long scratch marks on her sweater before scrambling onto her desk.
Melinda quickly jumped out of her seat and out of the way as the cat whipped a hurricane among her
files, throwing her things into the floor.
As Momo heard the commotion, its ears perked up and it opened its eyes. It stalked the other cat,
hissing and growling at it with unmistakable aggression.
"Momo," Melinda called warily. Her fat cat turned to her, and Yulia's black kitten took that opportunity to
flee the room.
Across the paper-strewn floor, Yulia was also eyeing Momo with caution. It was then that Jonas came
into the scene.
As he noted the messy desk and floor, his gaze quickly flew to his wife. Upon seeing her torn sweater,
he rushed over to her, thinking she might be injured.
He grabbed her arm and made a whole show of inspecting her body where the claw marks were,
asking repeatedly if she was in pain. It took him a while, under much of his wife’s protest for him, to
calm down.
"It seems like Momo does a poor job of keeping watch over you," Jonas grumbled, and the cat in
question gave him a look as if daring him into a showdown.
"Jonas," Yulia spoke up, her face growing pale at the prospect of incurring her brother’s temper.
"It was my cat, it’s still young and quite playful. I apologize." Her words, however, fell on deaf ears.
"Don’t bully Momo," Melinda scolded her husband. "Never mind all that. Did you finally finish the
business matters that kept you busy recently?"
She could tell from his haggard face that he had been pushing his limits. For a moment she thought of
reprimanding him for handling his health carelessly, but he obviously needed a gentler approach.
He smiled at her warmly, and Melinda found herself thinking she was feeling a little hot under her extra
layer of clothing.
"Yes," Jonas said softly, taking a strand of her hair and curling it around his finger. "I have time to rest
for a while."
Yulia was mortified. She was embarrassed enough at having been ignored, but to be a witness to such
a scene left a sour taste in her mouth.
When these two people were together, everyone else seemed to fade into background. Their display
was making her nauseous, and she made a little sound of disgust.
Jonas turned to her then, his surprise evident on his face. "Why are you still here? Don’t go walking
around everywhere if you have no business being anywhere. You’ll only aggravate Grandpa."
Yulia stomped out of the room without another word. It was true that in recent days she had been
actively seeking out Melinda.
It was no secret that their grandfather held the woman in high regard, even more so than his own
granddaughter. It was only logical for her to cozy up with Melinda in order to gain even a tiny bit of
Nelson’s favor.
She trudged back into her villa furiously as the events from moments ago played in her mind. She had
really reached a new low point.
To think that she’d humbled herself enough to come to Melinda and even act nicely, only to be
dismissed so coldly.
And not just her, Yulia was also dismissed a second time, by her own brother no less! How could she
just accept this?
As soon as she was in her room again she began surfing the internet. She was never above playing
dirty to begin with, and now she was looking up Emily on the web.
The woman seemed to have lain low in recent weeks, and her media appearances seemed to have
dwindled as well.
But Yulia did find that Emily had recently been linked to a handful of young men, all of whom were now
popular names in show business. Sadly, their fame didn’t seem to extend to Emily.
Yulia knew Emily couldn’t bear such a situation; she was probably fuming ever since Jonas cut her off.
Melinda was at the bottom of the mess she had to face, and Yulia knew she just needed to remind
Emily of that fact.
She wasn’t going to just let Melinda get away with everything, and there was no other perfect candidate
for a partner in crime besides Emily. The enemy of an enemy was a friend, after all.
She rummaged for the actress’ contact information.
"Who is this?"
Yulia thought it was a rude way to greet anyone who was calling, but she had recently changed her
number, and Emily was sure to be constantly in a bad mood, so she let it slide.
There was a reason for Emily’s behavior, though. As soon as her career declined, she began getting
calls from subpar directors and filmmakers, offering her roles in B-rated movies and several erotic
projects.
"Miss Bai," Yulia said over the line. "Do you remember me?" Then a slow smile spread across her face
as a thought occurred to her.
If Emily could afford being this rude to an unknown caller who would be a prospective patron or a
renowned filmmaker for all she knew, then the actress must be in very dire straits. It would make it all
the easier to coerce her into plotting against Melinda.
"Yulia?" came Emily’s incredulous voice. "Weren’t you grounded by your grandfather? Why are you
calling me?" Emily bore a bitter grudge against Nelson. She had always thought that if the old man
wasn’t in the way, she could have married Jonas and successfully set herself up in a rich and powerful
family.
"I may need your help with something. I’m sure you haven’t forgotten that all your suffering right now is
because of Melinda. Or have you?
I thought maybe you would like to get yourself a healthy helping of revenge. You can’t possibly deny
just how low you’ve sunk, Emily. On the other hand, Melinda is enjoying her career and her newfound
fame."
Yulia couldn’t mask her hatred for Melinda as she spoke, and the venom in her voice made Emily
shiver with excitement. "I’m assuming you already have some ideas on how this is going down, right?"
"You need to find a way to get her and my brother divorced. If there has been a constant thorn in their
relationship, it’s you. If the issue has anything to do with you, it would probably work without a hitch."
Needless to say, they had learned from all their previous plots. This time, instead of keeping Melinda
under their surveillance, they would be wise and stealthy about the whole thing and wait for the perfect
opportunity. And it was clear to the two women that the opportune moment would be Melinda’s book
launch event.
"Understood," Emily finally said. "I’ll be counting on you to do your part. Don’t let me down this time."
"You, too."
Jonas had just finished his shower. He finally shaved the beard he’d grown in recent days, and
emerged from the bathroom fresh and... magnetically handsome.
Melinda’s heart caught on her throat as she stared at her husband. She wasn’t sure how, but she
managed to get a few words out. "How have you been?"
Jonas had changed into leisure wear, and he frowned when he saw his wife wearing a light coat even
in the bedroom. "Why don’t we turn on the heater?" "Oh, there’s no need for that," she answered
quickly. "It isn’t even winter yet."
She had never mentioned to Jonas that her health conditions were a little delicate in the colder months.
Especially since it had to do with her miscarriage.
Thankfully, he let the matter go, smiling as he walked over to her desk. "Is this your new book?" Jonas
spotted it immediately, as if it had been calling out to him, and he did not hesitate to answer its call. He
knew it from the cover of its online version, and he held it in his hands with excitement.
"Yes. There will be a book launch event in two days. I was supposed to check on the site this
afternoon." "How is the site layout? How many people are you accommodating? And how long will the
event be? Also..." Jonas shot her rapid-fire questions about the event, even as his eyes skimmed over
the pages of her new book. Melinda had a strange feeling in her stomach as she looked at her husband
holding and reading the book in his hands, a book that was written for the pleasure of young girls
hoping for some grand romance.
Then she realized he was still asking her questions, and she finally held her hands up to cut him off.
"Calm down, everything is already taken care of."
A thought suddenly occurred to her. "You do realize that a character in this book was based on you,
right?"
"Yes, of course, I’m well aware." Jonas couldn’t help gritting his teeth. The character she was pertaining
to was a real jerk in the story. He couldn’t complain, though, because he was exactly that same jerk in
real life.
"I was thinking," his wife began, his frustration obviously flying over her head. "Maybe it would help with
the promotions and publicity if you made an appearance at the launch event." Jonas's head jerked up
at that. He looked at her. Perhaps she did feel a little guilty at portraying him so cruelly in her story. Her
lips curled upward in a sheepish smile, but she was looking at him with an expectant gleam in her eyes.
Forget the damn jerk in the book. Here she stood, asking him to be part of one of her milestones in life,
and it made him ridiculously happy.
"Of course I’ll be there."
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