Chapter 3 Thrown Into Fire

“......I’m sorry....” I apologized to the CEO quickly. I really regretted how I had just treated my boss.

“Alright, you can leave now....” Julian didn’t seem bothered by it at all.

I tried to speak again, but he silently went back to his work. I didn't want to bother him any more.I left the CEO's office, my body slumping in defeat. Was this the end? I thought I was going to be fired on my first day. I felt completely defeated. My face was very pale.

"What's wrong?" Victoria came over to me.

"I think I'm gonna get fired.... On my first day," I guessed.

"No way.... Mr. Thorne just assigned your first task," Victoria told me.

I couldn't believe what I heard. I was mumbling to myself about my mistakes and how terrible I was.

"So what happened?" Victoria asked.I looked at her with my sad eyes and started to tell her the whole, embarrassing story.

I could see her gasping as she listened, and she put her hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry... Mr. Thorne is not someone who mixes personal feelings with business. As long as you do your job and he pays you, he doesn't care if you were badmouthing him." Victoria explained, trying to make me feel better.

Victoria explained that Mr. Thorne had three to five assistants before, and she was the head assistant. But all of them had quit. It wasn't because the company didn't pay them enough; in fact, the company paid a very high salary.

But... working with Julian was really hard. He wanted everything to be perfect and done fast. Sometimes the employees didn't even have time for lunch because there was so much work.

Julian never cared about his employees' well-being; he saw everything as business. If you were paid, then you had to work. That was all he cared about. So, a lot of people couldn't stand working for him and decided to quit. Victoria was no different, but at least she could handle him better than others.

"I hope you are not gonna quit too," she mumbled to herself.

If I decided to quit, it would only mean more work for Victoria; she couldn't even remember when her last day off was.

"Don't worry... I'm a stubborn person. Once I decide on something, I can't give up easily," I said to cheer her up, but it was more like I was cheering myself up. I knew that working at Aethelgard was really tough, but I was not an easy person to break.

I officially started my job at Aethelgard, and when Victoria said there was a lot of work to do, she wasn’t joking. On my very first day, I was buried under three different reports that needed to be finished by the end of the afternoon. It was almost lunchtime by the time I finished the first one.

My stomach growled loudly, reminding me I’d been too nervous to eat breakfast. I decided to get some food before starting the next big pile of work. I saw Victoria still bent over her desk, typing quickly.

“Victoria, let’s get lunch,” I said, leaning over her desk divider.

She didn’t even look up.“You go ahead. I need fifteen more minutes to finish this. The Aethelstan situation has everyone worried. Mr. Thorne wants these supplier comparisons done immediately.” She mentioned a name I didn’t know—Aethelstan—with a tired sigh that suggested a bigger problem.

I knew it was useless to try to persuade her. She worked with the total focus of a machine. So I just nodded and headed for the elevator, making a mental note to bring her back a coffee.

I turned the corner towards the elevators and almost walked straight into a solid, black-suited chest.

“Oof! I’m so sorry—” I began, looking up to apologize.

And froze.

It was Julian Thorne.

My heart did that familiar, betraying jump into my throat. Every time I saw that face, my brain stopped working for a split second, screaming Liam! before my thinking caught up. My face turned bright red, and I caught my breath. I had to physically shake my head to clear it and put my professional face back on. I couldn’t keep doing this.

This little accident didn’t just happen once or twice. It happened every single time I ran into the handsome CEO for the whole first month I worked there. And it was clearly starting to annoy him. He began to get curious. So, one afternoon when I came into his office to drop off a report, he decided to ask me about it himself.

“Why do you keep being surprised every time you look at me?” he asked.

He was staring right at me, not even blinking.

My heart started pounding. I took a deep breath and told myself: He is not Liam. He is not the love of your life. He is your boss, and he has a name. Julian Thorne.

“You keep reminding me of him, that’s why…” I gave him an honest answer. What was the point of lying?

“....... Liam? You must care about him a lot…” he concluded.

I didn’t say anything to that. I just stood there, waiting to be dismissed.

He held my gaze for a moment longer, and I saw something change in his eyes—not curiosity about me, but a different, more calculating thought.

“Your file says you have a background in competitive market analysis.”

The change of subject was so sudden it surprised me.

“I… yes. From my postgraduate work.”

“Good.” He leaned back in his chair, putting his fingers together.

“I’m assigning you to help Victoria on the Zenith project. Our main product launch this year. Learn everything about it. And pay special attention to anything related to Aethelstan Industries. I want a new person looking at their recent moves. They have a habit of… guessing our strategies.”

His voice was cold, but there was a force there that hadn’t been there when we talked about me flinching. This was the CEO, not the man who looked like my first love. He was giving me a real, important task. The weight of it was both exciting and scary.

“I… understand, sir. I won’t let you down.”

“See that you don’t. This isn’t a university project. The stakes are…” he paused, his eyes looking past me to the window, “…high.”

I gave a quick bow and almost ran from his office, my mind spinning. He’d not only noticed my constant flinching but had somehow connected it to giving me a key task. Was this a test? A way to prove my value beyond my unfortunate reaction to his face?

I spent the rest of the day buried in files about the Zenith smartwatch and Aethelstan Industries. The more I read, the more I understood Victoria’s tired sigh. Aethelstan wasn’t just a competitor; they were a shadow, copying Aethelgard’s new ideas with scary speed and accuracy. It felt less like competition and more like a silent war.

Later, as I was getting ready to leave, Victoria stopped by my desk.

“Mr. Thorne told me you’re on the Zenith project. Welcome to the hard part.” She offered a weak smile. “Be careful. Double-check every source. He’s paranoid about leaks for a reason.”

“Leaks?” I asked.

She just shook her head, a serious look on her face.

“Let’s just say Aethelstan’s CEO seems to know everything in advance. Nobody knows how they get their information, but they always do.” She lowered her voice. “There are rumors… that it’s not just luck. That someone inside Aethelgard is giving it to them.”

A cold fear went down my spine. A mole? Was that the high stake Julian had mentioned?

That night, I couldn’t sleep. I saw Julian’s face—both the cold CEO judging my usefulness and the ghost of Liam that followed my every look. The two were getting mixed up with something new: the coming threat of Aethelstan.

The next day, I was comparing a supplier list when a small inconsistency caught my eye. A parts maker that only worked with Aethelgard had recently filed a small change to a patent. It was minor, a change in where they got materials. But the law firm that filed the change was the same one that worked for Aethelstan’s main hidden company.

My blood went cold. It was a clue, so thin it was almost invisible. Was this the kind of thing Julian wanted me to find? Or was I just imagining things, caught between the memory of one brother and the strong presence of the other?

I didn’t know who to trust or what this meant. But as I highlighted the line of text, one scary thought echoed in my mind: Julian Thorne hadn’t just given me a task to keep me busy.

He had thrown me directly into danger.