Chapter 4

The call was from Mr. Carter.

Mr. Carter was Gibson Corporation’s most important client in Harbor City. His company accounted for eighty percent of Gibson Corporation’s business there.

He was also the easiest client Nina had ever worked with.

When she had first arrived in Harbor City, she had no experience and no reputation. People had looked down on her at every turn.

Back when she could barely get anything off the ground, Mr. Carter had been the one to extend a helping hand.

Only after he invested in her work did other companies gradually begin partnering with them.

Throughout their entire partnership, Mr. Carter had never tried to drive down the price or drag out negotiations. He had always been straightforward and sincere.

To Nina, he was more than a client.

He was someone who had helped change the course of her career.

And he had been that person for years.

Nina quickly pulled herself together and answered the call.

“Hello, Mr. Carter.”

“Hello, Ms. Walker.”

Mr. Carter had always addressed her that way. Polite, respectful, and humble, without the slightest hint of arrogance from a major client.

Nina had told him many times that he didn’t have to be so formal, but he had always insisted.

“I heard you returned to Burgola City,” he said.

“Yes. I came back last night.”

Nina was worried that he might be concerned about work, so she quickly explained, “You don’t need to worry about the project. I’ve already handed everything over to Alan. If you have any questions, you can contact him directly. Of course, you can also contact me.”

“This isn’t about work,” Mr. Carter said after she finished. “You came back in such a hurry. Did something happen?”

“Yes,” Nina said. She didn’t hide it from him. “My mother is sick.”

“Is it serious? Do you need help?”

Nina’s eyes instantly grew wet.

Since finding out about her mother’s condition, this was the first time anyone had asked if she needed help.

Before she could answer, Mr. Carter spoke again.

“Do you need money, or do you need connections?”

If those words had come from anyone else, they might have sounded intrusive.

But coming from Mr. Carter, they didn’t.

His tone was gentle and sincere.

Nina knew he truly meant it.

Maybe she really had reached the end of her rope.

Or maybe she trusted him more than she realized.

The words slipped out before she could stop them.

“I need three hundred forty thousand dollars.”

Mr. Carter answered without hesitation.

“Then please send me your bank account information, Ms. Walker.”

“No, that’s okay.”

Only then did Nina realize how impulsive she had been, and she hurriedly refused.

“I’m not in any position to borrow money from you.”

If not for Gibson Corporation, she never would have had the chance to know Mr. Carter.

Gibson Corporation was the connection between them.

But Nina knew she would not stay at Gibson Corporation for much longer.

Even if she had no choice but to remain for now because of her mother’s illness, she would leave sooner or later once her mother recovered.

That meant leaving Gibson Corporation and losing her connection to Mr. Carter was only a matter of time.

“You don’t need to lend me money just because of your partnership with Gibson Corporation,” she explained. “I probably won’t be with the company for much longer, so if that’s the reason, you really don’t have to.”

“This has nothing to do with Gibson Corporation,” Mr. Carter said, surprising her. “But are you considering new opportunities, Ms. Walker? Do you have a direction in mind?”

“Not yet,” Nina said honestly.

“In that case, why don’t you consider working with our company?”

Nina froze.

Mr. Carter’s company was Mendel Biotech.

It was the number one biotech company in the country, and one of the top biotech companies in the world.

Gibson Corporation wasn’t even in the same league.

Did she really have a shot at an opportunity like this?

Without Gibson Corporation’s resources behind her, would she still be able to work with Mendel Biotech?

Nina thought he might not have understood what she had just said, so she repeated herself.

“Mr. Carter, maybe I wasn’t clear enough. I probably won’t be staying at Gibson Corporation. That means I won’t have access to any of Gibson Corporation’s resources either.”

“I know,” Mr. Carter said. “We were never interested in Gibson Corporation. We were interested in you.”

Then he added, “You don’t have to answer right away. Take your time and think it over.”

After she heard that, it would have been stubborn of Nina to keep doubting him.

“If you mean that, then I have no objection,” she said. “I’d be very willing to consider working with your company. But I need to complete my resignation process at Gibson Corporation first, so it may take some time.”

“There’s no rush. We’ll follow your schedule.”

“Thank you,” Nina said.

At that moment, those were the only words that could express how she felt.

“You don’t need to thank me. I’m only following orders,” Mr. Carter replied.

But he said that last sentence in Harborish, so Nina didn’t understand it.

“I look forward to working with you soon,” he said.

“I look forward to it too.”

After hanging up, Mr. Carter dialed another number.

The person on the other end must have been someone important, because the moment the call connected, Mr. Carter unconsciously straightened his posture.

“Mr. Taylor.”

“Is everything handled?” a steady, cold voice asked over the phone.

“Yes. Everything has been handled,” Mr. Carter replied respectfully.

The truth was, he was a little afraid of his boss.

Leo Taylor wasn’t particularly old, but his presence was overwhelming.

He was a man with enormous influence over the global biotech industry, someone who stood at the very peak of power. It was hard not to feel intimidated by him.

On top of that, he was decisive and ruthless in business. He acted fast, showed no mercy, and never got involved with women. Because of that, people in the industry privately called him the Ice-Cold Devil.

If not for Ms. Walker, Mr. Carter probably would have gone his entire life without ever knowing his boss had this side to him.

“Tell me everything,” Leo said.

*

Meanwhile, after hanging up, Nina returned to the HR office.

When HR saw her come back, she assumed Nina had finally come to her senses and decided to sign off on the disciplinary action.

She immediately began mocking her.

“See? If you knew this would happen, why did you do it in the first place? You should really know your place. Look at you, old and fat, yet you actually thought you were someone important like Ms. Gibson? Did you think just because Mr. Gibson favored you, the whole company would revolve around you? Did you really think…”

Before she could finish, Nina cut her off coldly.

“Save it. I’m here to formally notify you that I’ve already submitted my resignation.”

The arrogant look on the HR manager’s face froze.

“What did you say?”

“Do you have a hearing problem?” Nina said without the slightest courtesy. “I said I’m resigning. Is that hard to understand?”

Then she pulled up the approval record in the company system and showed it to her.

The HR manager glanced at it.

Sure enough, the resignation process had already been fully approved.

Mr. Gibson’s approval was on it too.

Although she hadn’t received advance notice that Nina was resigning, there couldn’t be a problem if Mr. Gibson had already signed off on it.

Besides, this woman had clearly offended Mr. Gibson. That was why she was being deliberately targeted, with both her salary and bonus deducted.

The HR manager gave a cold laugh.

“So what if you’re resigning? Do you think that makes you special?”

She pulled out a form and threw it at Nina.

“Sign it. There’s a thirty-day handover period. Count the days yourself.”

Nina didn’t waste any time.

She signed her name quickly, took a photo of the form for her own records, and left without looking back.

Watching her walk away, the HR manager still wouldn’t let it go. She turned to the person beside her and complained, “Look at how fat she’s gotten. She must have pocketed plenty in Harbor City. At least she was smart enough to resign on her own. Otherwise, once she got exposed, resignation would’ve been the least of her problems.”

In fact, when the HR manager first heard that Nina was resigning, she had considered calling Mr. Gibson again.

But Mr. Gibson had already approved Nina’s resignation.

And he had made it clear before that he didn’t want to hear about anything related to Nina Walker. They were to handle everything according to standard company procedure.

So the HR manager dropped the idea.

She slipped Nina’s resignation form into a random stack of paperwork and forgot about it almost immediately.

Since Nina had already submitted her resignation, she decided to cut ties for good.

She wanted nothing more to do with James, either at work or in her personal life.