"What are you doing today?" Nicholas asked this morning at breakfast. "What time are you going to the hospital?"Nathalie looked at her watch. "I think I'll visit him this afternoon," she said. "My father said some of his friends will come to visit and he seems very happy. He probably misses the times when he was still working and the arrival of his friends will definitely cheer him up.""That's good. When they talk about the past and reminisce together, it will make them happy and the body responds well," Nicholas said. "That's why some elderly people prefer to live in a nursing home rather than being lonely at their child's house.""Because in a nursing home they will get friends of the same age who can understand each other?Nicholas nodded. "Yes. They get a different kind of happiness there, because they understand each other's stories even though they have just met there. At home, they couldn't tell their past to their busy working children who came home tired, and instead often
This morning after breakfast, Nathalie decided to talk about the interior design company that Nicholas would start with her.Nathalie cleared her throat, catching Nicholas' attention as he was scrolling through something on his phone.Nicholas looked up, his eyebrows raised and his steely eyes staring at Nathalie. "Yes, Nate?""Umm... Sorry to interrupt. How about the company you're going to start? Nsync?"Nicholas put his phone on the table and said, "I'm still in the process of it. We need to recruit a lot of people to complete the organizational structure of the company and for you, you need to determine the direction of your design signature, to boost promotion and sales.""Oh, I have sketchbooks that contain some of the latest designs that I made. Wait a minute, I'll get them," Nathalie said before going to her bedroom and taking out the sketchbooks.She showed Nicholas her sketches and remarked, "Lately I've also been thinking that there are so many good interior designers latel
"What? Rejected again?" Charles asked angrily. He almost threw the fake flower vase on his desk, to vent his frustration."They said, the new concept we offered did not match what they imagined. They wanted something that was intimate and warm. They asked for too many details, Mr. Frederick," complained Darwin, the assistant marketing manager of Charles Star Co."Mrs. Irene Welsh also asked us to send the design from Mrs. Frederick, or she would cancel her plan to use our company," said Cyntia, Charles' secretary.Charles' heart felt like it was being pinched when Cyntia mentioned Mrs. Frederick, referring to Nathalie.Of course, that only made the dilemma felt by Charles even bigger. It turned out, the hole Nathalie left in the company was that big."Tsk! Don't call Nathalie Mrs. Frederick anymore," said Charles annoyed. "She is not my wife anymore."Cyntia covered her mouth awkwardly. She forgot that her boss had just had problems with his now ex-wife because she was having an affa
"Are you ready?"Nathalie nodded. She looked at Nicholas with an admiring look.Nicholas looked handsome in a dark blue suit, over a light blue shirt without a tie. He looked formal, but also casual. Very handsome, Nathalie said to herself.Nicholas also looked at Nathalie with an uncertain feeling. Why is she so beautiful? Look at her white shoulders and neck, so smooth like marble and the color of her cheeks and lips are already pink without the need for lipstick and blush on.Nathalie wore a light blue dress, matching the nuances of Nicholas' clothes. The knee-length A-line model of her dress, showed her calves and legs that were as long as grains of rice. She wore a white gold necklace with a tear-shaped stone pendant, dark blue, a ring, and little amulet in her ear."Beautiful," Nicholas said, nodding. "You always look so beautiful."Nathalie was surprised to hear Nicholas' sudden compliment, she felt her heart start beating faster and had to hold her handbag tightly so as not t
A month later, Nicholas and Natalie's company opened. The opening ceremony went smoothly, and even Charles' former customers came.In the newly rented store in Harlington Metropolitan Mall, elegant flowers and wide white ribbons dotted the entire area. Cocktail tables were neatly placed outside the store, and waiters brought expensive champagne and snacks."Dear guests, today we gather to witness the opening of NSync Company, an interior design company, which is a collaboration between Ms. Nathalie and Mr. Nicholas Grand. Today's event will be led by our beautiful and talented CEO, Ms. Nathalie Darren. We invite Ms. Darren to give a speech, before cutting the ribbon," the host called out enthusiastically.Everyone applauded, welcoming Nathalie who came up to the podium, enthusiastically."Thank you all for being here," Nathalie said with a big smile on her lips. "It is an honor to welcome you all and hope that in the future we and all the supporting crew of NSync Company, can help an
"Who's that?" Charles asked, looking at a car that had just pulled out of the gate of his house, just as his car arrived."Ah, it's just a man who got lost. He's old, so his eyes can't see street names and house numbers clearly. He's going to our neighbor's down the block," Gina replied cheerfully.She held Charles' arm affectionately. "How's your work, is it going?"Charles slumped down on the sofa and exhaled loudly. Everything was a mess now. Who would have thought that Nathalie would start her own company and her clients would switch to her?"My clients ran to Nathalie's new company," Charles muttered wearily. "This could be bad if I don't get them back soon."Gina was surprised to hear Charles' words and she took Charles' hand and kissed it softly."I'm sorry," Gina said weakly. "I'm really useless and can't help you. I can only conceive and give birth to your child."Charles looked at Gina, feeling a little touched by her words. He hugged Gina and kissed her forehead."I'm so d
After returning to the Grand Mansion, Nathalie felt her heart grow closer to Nicholas.She wondered if Charles had deliberately separated her from Nicholas eight years ago so that he didn't say anything about the pineapple pie incident when Nathalie asked him.He already knew Nathalie had misunderstood, but didn't say anything about it.If Charles had been honest with her at that time and said that it was Nicholas' gift and that it was actually Nicholas who had saved Nathalie, maybe she wouldn't have ended up dating and marrying Charles.Maybe Nathalie would have waited until Nicholas returned from his college leave and asked him out first.Besides, since their fight in marketing class, Nathalie had actually started to like paying attention to Nicholas, it was just that her sense of prestige made her cover it up with an indifferent attitude.In the end, Nathalie realized that she had indeed chosen the wrong man. Charles had lied to her from the start and instead destroyed her dreams a
Nathalie PoVMy hands were clammy. I felt so nervous right now, that I had to wipe my hands with tissues several times. On the dining table there were already lots of wads of tissue that I had used.Nicholas saw my nervousness and he took my hand, rubbing my palm gently."It's okay," he said. "I'm by your side. I won't let anyone bother you."Technically, I had already met grandfather Jerome Grand, and the couple Andy and Lilian Grand, before NSync's opening a few days ago.When I was having dinner with Nicholas in the restaurant, after we met with Charles and Gina in the Shark Fin restaurant, the three of them also came to the same restaurant as us and Nicholas introduced me as his girlfriend.Grandfather Jerome was friendly to me, while Andy Grand, Nicholas' father, gave me a questioning look, and his wife didn't say anything, just stared at me coldly.Still, I could read their confusion and surprise. They definitely wouldn't have thought that Nicholas already had a girlfriend and
"Yes! Are you sure these numbers are valid?" Leon asked happily, waving the paper in his hand."Of course, boss," Randall replied firmly. "Those are the numbers printed by Gino, directly from the project head's computer where he is stationed.""Who is Gino?" Leon asked in surprise."He is one of the workers, the spy we placed on the project that Mr. Nicholas' team is working on," Randall said."Oh, that's great," Leon said happily. "Was he the one who knocked over the support beam yesterday?""Yes, that was his job too," Randall said. "Although there were no fatalities, the team needs to build a new support beam and see how much extra money they have to spend on the replacement support beam.""Remind me to give Gino a big bonus," Leon said. "And what about the other projects?""Don't worry, boss, everything is under our control. I have arranged everything so that in every project there are small sabotages. Although it does not result in casualties, the team must also spend additional
"Let her rest and don't stress her out or make her sad, because that will stop her milk supply and your baby will be malnourished at first," Nelson said. "She fought hard and she made a sacrifice, not just for your baby, but for her womb too."Charles sighed. After the C-section and the successful birth of a healthy baby boy, Gina had continued bleeding and it turned out that it was from her injured womb and had to be removed, because if left untreated it could get worse and endanger her life.Charles called Marla, who was very shocked and immediately came to the hospital. She was told about Gina's condition and with tears in her eyes she agreed to have her daughter's hysterectomy.As Charles was watching Gina being placed on the hospital bed, Kelly came into the room and pulled Charles' hand with a beaming face."Come see your son! He is so handsome and adorable," Kelly said happily. "So healthy and cute!""Mom, I have to wait for Gina until she wakes up," Charles said."Tsk! Just le
"What happened?" Charles asked, confused. "Why are you with Gina?""Are you trying to harm my daughter-in-law?" Kelly snapped, her eyes glaring."Don't talk nonsense, Mrs. Kelly," Nicholas said calmly. "You'll be embarrassed if you know the truth."Nathalie ignored Kelly completely. She pointed to the closed door of the ICU."You better go in and see Gina there. Nelson is treating her and I think Gina is having complications," Nathalie said in a concerned tone. "Nelson asked you to come in and be with Gina when you arrives."Charles' face was pale. He turned to Kelly. "Mom, wait here. I'll go in and be with Gina.""No," Kelly said loudly. "I don't want to be near them. I'm going in. My grandchild might be born soon!"Charles sighed and walked into the ICU.Nathalie took Nicholas' hand. "Let's go," she said. "Charles is here, so we don't have to wait for Gina anymore.""Yes. Let's go home," Nicholas said. "You need to rest too."However, when they were only two steps away, the door to
"What happened?" Nathalie asked with a worried face. "Did Leon really do it?""His men," Nicholas answered calmly. "But, it's nothing. The workers there had anticipated the incident so when the support beam fell, no one was under it and there were no casualties. We just have to rebuild a new support beam to replace the one that fell.""Leon is so evil," Nathalie said angrily. "If only you and the rest of the team hadn't known that he had infiltrated your team with spies to carry out sabotage, maybe the fallen beam would have cost lives."Nicholas cupped Nathalie's hand on the table. "Don't worry, baby, I'll handle all of this well. Everything will be fine, trust me."Nathalie nodded and squeezed Nicholas' hand. "You have to always be careful, honey."They ate dinner while talking about their respective busy days. Nicholas made sure Nathalie ate well. She even got extra ice cream for dessert.After dinner, Nicholas invited Nathalie to go to the mall. He wanted to buy new dresses for Na
"Brad Murphy."Jerome stared at the man in front of him with a questioning gaze, which he made no attempt to hide.The man who claimed to be Brad Murphy was probably not much older than him, but he looked much older, though he was bigger."And you said you were Lilian's father?" Jerome asked calmly.After Imelda called him, telling him about the mysterious man who insisted on talking to her, two days later Trevor said that he had met the mysterious man and that he should meet Jerome because he claimed to be Lilian's biological father."Yes. I am Lilian's biological father," Brad said firmly. "You may not believe me, because I know that Lilian has been claiming to be an orphan all this time.""Yes, I think that's what she's been saying all this time," Jerome said. "If you are her biological father, where have you been all this time? You didn't even show up when she married my son and that was dozens of years ago.""I... was in prison," Brad said, his voice heavy, but his chin held high
"How are they doing?" Jerome asked, sitting on the sofa and placing his cane under his feet."I think, so far everything is fine, sir," said Trevor, his personal assistant, who had worked for him for the past 16 years and had become more like his friend than his employee. "However, as you said before, the project that Nicholas worked on, did not produce results as big as Leon's.""That's if we only look at the results for a period of three months, right?" said Jerome. "But, what will be produced after that, will also be a consideration for the shareholders. I'm sure, they are smarter in making judgments, when it comes to money."Trevor laughed and agreed with Jerome's words. "So, you don't intend to go home yet?"Jerome shook his head. "No. Not yet. I don't want my presence there to make the situation awkward and full of suspicion. Most people, including my son's family, must suspect that I am siding with Nicholas and being unfair to Leon.""Yes, you are right," nodded Trevor. "And o
Leon was restless. He had gathered all the best staff in the company and made sure they would all be included in his team, but why did he still feel uneasy?He got a leak of information about the team formed by Nicholas. George was the team leader and under him were names that were not too familiar to his ears. Most of them were field workers and operational staff."Why did he pull so many field people into his team?" Leon asked, after seeing the list of names of the people who joined the team formed by Nicholas."I think he ran out of expert resources, sir," said Randall, Leon's personal assistant. "We've swept them all into our team.""And what about the project, has it started yet?" Leon asked again."About that," Randall was a little nervous. He had a feeling that Leon would not like the information. "It seems they have already gotten some projects underway in several government agencies that are their targets."Leon banged the table. "Fuck! How could we be behind them! You have t
"How many agencies have received and approved our proposal?" Nicholas asked George, who was checking his laptop.George smiled broadly. "Out of the 82 proposals we distributed, 56 have passed and 148 blueprints are ready to be launched."Nicholas clapped his hands in satisfaction. He was confident that his project would succeed. Even if he failed to achieve a minimum profit of 30% in three months for the company, he was not worried.After all, that was not the only parameter that would determine whether he would succeed in becoming Grand's heir or not. There was still the calculation of the size of the shares and also the opinions of other shareholders.Nicholas knew that during the three months he replaced Leon as CEO, many members of the board of shareholders were satisfied with his performance and they will definitely choose him as heir if their voice count.This time, Leon would not be able to cheat again like he did before, engineering the situation as if Nicholas was trying to l
"Damn it!" Gina yelled into the empty living room.She had just come home from dinner with Bryan. Charles was out of town surveying a project and as soon as he left, she called Bryan.The restaurant Bryan had chosen was a fancy one a little out of town. It served delicious food and a nice atmosphere.Gina was ecstatic. She hadn't had a fancy dinner out in a long time. Charles had been busy lately and would come home tired, so he usually went straight to bed after taking a shower.Bryan pounced on Gina in the car as soon as she got in. They spent over 30 minutes having s*x in the car before Bryan finally let her go.As usual, after satisfying Bryan's ever-increasing desires, Gina would be pampered to the hilt by Bryan and he would give her anything she asked for."I'm hungry," Gina said coyly. "Take me to dinner somewhere nice."However, who would have thought that in that restaurant, Gina would meet Nicholas Grand. And Gina was sure, the man must have come with Nathalie.Nicholas smil