Chapter 10

Soon, Zoey returned to the office. As soon as she arrived, Anne ran over to her and grabbed her hand.

“Miss Jenner!”

Zoey pursed her lips.

“What happened?”

Anne looked upset.

“Mr. Scott just fired us.”

Zoey was flabbergasted.

One of Laurence’s assistants, Sandra, continued, “Yvette Sullivan barged into the meeting room just now. It’s our fault for not stopping her, but…”

This was a great job with generous benefits. None of them wanted to lose their jobs. In the following pause, Zoey remembered fleetingly a scene from the last banquet she had attended, where she had seen Yvette kissing Laurence. He had been wearing a suit with the collar of the shirt unbuttoned. While Yvette was kissing him, he just stood there and smiled.

He didn’t push her away, but he also didn’t kiss her back. He just let her kiss him. It was true that many women would do anything to have him as their own.

“Miss Jenner,” Anne begged, “can you please talk to Mr. Scott?”

She looked so miserable that Zoey couldn’t bear to refuse her.

“I’ll try.”

Zoey braced herself before knocking on the door to Laurence’s office. She waited for three seconds, then opened the door and entered. Laurence was playing with a pen in his hand. He didn’t speak or even raise his head to look at her when she entered. The silence in the room was deafening.

Zoey broke the silence first.

“Mr. Scott, what happened with Miss Sullivan is your personal affair. Don’t you think it’s improper to push the blame on your employees?”

Laurence flicked the pen with his fingers as he glanced at her. Then, he laughed and said lightly, “If you think it’s improper, then you can quit too.”

Zoey felt a lump in her throat. She didn’t say anything in return.

Laurence stared at her intently for a few moments before saying, “Come here.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Zoey went up to him. Before she could react, he pulled her into his lap. Zoey kept her expression stoic as she lowered her head silently. Laurence’s arm was tight around her waist.

“Is this how you ask people for a favor?”

Zoey’s suit was now crumpled thanks to his actions. Blushing, she turned her face away. She knew what he wanted.

…

Half an hour later, Anne saw Zoey exit Laurence’s office. Her lips looked red. Zoey went straight to the toilet before she could ask her how it went. Zoey went home early that day. For the next few days, she did not see Laurence at all. She did see a pair of familiar hands in one of Sarah’s social media posts, though. His fingers were long and slim, like a work of art. There was no wedding ring on his finger.

Zoey just blocked Sarah’s posts calmly. Just then, a notification announced that her monthly payment had been banked in. Zoey glanced at the message and saw that it was more than what she usually received. She thought that there had been a mistake, so she messaged Laurence’s assistant to check with him.

After a while, Matthew replied, “That’s the amount Mr. Scott told me to pay you.”

Zoey suddenly remembered what Laurence had said to her while they were having sex in the office. When he saw her reluctance, he had said in her ear, “Don’t worry, Miss Jenner, I’ll pay you extra for this.”

He was still bitter about her refusal to have sex in the car last time, so he offered to pay her more this time.