LOGINJay, who used to trail Violet everywhere as her assistant, was still stuck in a Munich hospital because of his serious injuries. It looked like he’d be spending the New Year there. So Violet told the driver to take her to the hospital, asked him to wait outside, and went in on her own.She made her way easily to Lilia’s room. Before she even stepped inside, she could feel how heavy the atmosphere was. The door was slightly ajar, and Violet could clearly hear Lilia’s voice, tight with frustration.“I’m done. I don’t want treatment anymore. Honestly, I’m already at the end of the line. I only agreed to try because I didn’t want you to worry.”“What are you saying?” Polly’s voice broke. “You clearly still have a chance—why would you give up now?”“Chance or not, didn’t you hear what the doctor said? I’m not on the clinical trial list. We don’t have a choice anymore.”“No, something must be wrong. I’ll go beg the doctor again,” Polly said urgently.“What’s the point of begging the doctor?
When Violet got home, she found that Julian had arrived even earlier than she had. As she went upstairs, she noticed several maids going in and out of her room. Before she could ask what was going on, Julian stepped out of her room in a relaxed posture, hands in his pockets.“Sorry,” he said casually. “The heating in my room broke, so I’ll have to move into yours for now.”Broken? Hadn’t the heating system just been upgraded recently? Violet swallowed her doubts. “Alright, then. You can stay there—it was your room to begin with.”She glanced around. “Then… where did my things get moved to?”Julian cleared his throat lightly. “The other rooms are being checked as well, so you’ll have to stay in the same room with me for the time being.”“How… how long will that be?” Violet asked softly.Julian shot a look toward the housekeeper, Mrs. Jones, who was standing nearby. “It’s close to the Christmas holidays, and we’re short on staff. It may take a while.”Mrs. Jones smiled and nodded. “Yes,
The lipstick on Violet’s lips was completely wiped away after that brief trip into Julian’s office. Before leaving the room, she took out a small mirror to tidy herself up, careful not to leave anything that might draw attention.Once she left the Ashford building, she went straight to the hospital. Since she was still officially on leave today, she wanted to check on her cousin Lilia and see how she was doing.Just as Julian had told her before, many of the spots for the clinical trial had already been taken through internal channels or political and business connections. Being able to secure one for Lilia had not been easy at all.Julian offered to drive her. She’d assumed he would drop her off and leave, but when they got out of the car, he asked how long she’d be inside. When she said about an hour, he simply replied that he’d wait for her there.She had no real reason to refuse. Pressing her lips together slightly, feeling his gaze lingering on her almost the entire time, she tur
In Ashford’s cafeteria, gossip was flying around like it always did—but today’s hottest topic was Julian’s total 180-degree image makeover. Word going around was that him joining the marketing department back then had never been random. Supposedly, it was all part of the plan: get familiar with the company from the ground up, read the internal culture, observe employee morale. Now that the “mission” was complete, he was heading back up into management.That carefree, good-for-nothing image? Just a smokescreen to make people lower their guard.To be fair, ever since Julian joined marketing, he really had been down-to-earth. He blended in fast, joked around, ate with everyone—zero rich-kid attitude. Even though he was about to move into upper management, he still showed up in the staff cafeteria like usual that day.Four employees were sitting near the center of the hall, perfectly positioned to see Julian in one of the booths. Sitting across from him was a woman—clearly stunning. Youn
After the meeting, Richard asked Julian to stay behind for a private talk.Once the room was down to just the two of them, the sharp edge in Richard’s gaze faded, replaced by a hint of approval. “I didn’t realize you were carrying so much on your own all these years. You could’ve come to me for help. Your father’s death was a blow to me too. I did look into it back then—I knew it was a rival company—but I didn’t tell you. I was afraid it would reopen wounds for you.”“I understand,” Julian said, sitting across from him, the wide desk between them feeling like the same distance that had always existed. Richard was his father’s older brother, but they’d never been close.Richard had always been married to the company. He barely involved himself even in his own son’s life, let alone his nephew’s. What he cared about was Ashford’s future—and now that he knew Julian actually had real ability, his attitude shifted instantly. Julian could feel it: Richard was reassessing him, thinking about
Leaking trade secrets?A wave of sharp inhales rippled through the room.Had Serena really been doing all this right under the company’s nose?If Julian’s accusations were true, then she’d already been feeding Ashford’s proprietary information to competitors while her husband Philip was still alive. After Philip’s death, she continued acting as proxy shareholder, quietly funneling years of dividends and bonuses into shell companies under her own name, trying to launder them into so-called “legitimate income.”But dividends and profit distributions never belonged to her personally. She was only a proxy—not the actual shareholder. She was allowed to receive them on behalf of the estate, not redirect them for her own use.And if one followed that thread far enough… who was to say she hadn’t abused her position as a board member elsewhere? Investment decisions, acquisitions, R&D approvals—if she’d skimmed from any of those, the implications were far worse than anyone wanted to imagine.O







