Chapter 2

Jade eventually stood up after a long time passed. She calmly went to the kitchen to wash the dishes and put the clean plates in the disinfection cabinet. Then, once she changed her clothes, she went to the garage and drove her car out. She reached her company after a thirty-minute drive.

The staff greeted Jade when they saw her. “Good morning, Miss Redfern.”

“Good morning.” Jade smiled faintly and nodded at her. She entered her office, took off her coat, and asked her assistant, “Is Mister Whittle here?”

“Yes, he’s in his office now.”

Jade went up to the CEO’s office, knocked, and entered.

“You’re here, Miss Redfern?” When Mister Whittle saw Jade, he immediately put down the documents in his hand and asked her to sit at the reception area. He even made some tea. “What can I do for you, Miss Redfern?”

“It’s about the issue of me borrowing money from you.” Jade did not hide her thoughts. She spoke in a slightly pleading tone, “Mister Whittle, I’ve been working in this company for three years, so you know me very well. I hope you can lend me two million dollars.”

Mister Whittle was stunned, and he looked troubled. “Miss Redfern, I'm don’t have the final say in the company, and that is a lot of money. Even if I agree to your request, the other directors won’t allow it.”

“I know. Can I borrow this sum of money from you personally?” Jade said, “Don’t worry, I will return the money to you within six months at most. I will even add a 5% interest to the principal amount!”

“Miss Redfern, I can’t. My wife keeps a tight leash on my money, and you know how she is. If she knows I lent my money to someone else, I’m afraid I won’t be able to go home anymore...”

Mister Whittle seemingly remembered something, and he asked Jade, “Speaking of which, if my memory hasn’t failed me, isn’t your husband in the investment business? Two million dollars is just a small sum to him. Why don’t you talk to him?”

“He just does small investments. He doesn’t earn much.” When Jade answered, she felt sad.

They had been married for three years, but all she knew was that Zephaniah was an investor. She had no idea where his company was and how much he earned every month. Besides, with the contracts around, his money could only ever belong to him.

“Miss Redfern, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, but I can’t.” Mister Whittle poured a cup of tea for Jade. “Let me see... I’ll have the Financial Department raise your salary. After all, you’ve worked really hard over this period of time.”

Jade knew it would be meaningless even if she continued the conversation, so she stood up and left. “Mister Whittle, I’m sorry for taking up so much of your time. Thank you very much.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t manage to help you much, anyway. Why don’t you try getting a loan from the bank?”

“Thank you.”

A flame of annoyance burned in her heart when she stepped out of the CEO’s office, and she went to the restroom. When she saw nobody around, she went into a cubicle and took out a cigarette case and lighter before she lit up a cigarette for herself.

She was not addicted to smoking. It was just a fun pastime for her, and ever since she got married to Zephaniah and learned that he hated the smell of cigarettes, she had stopped smoking. It was only recently that she started smoking again, even becoming addicted to it.

Jade sat on the toilet seat and smoked as a slightly somber expression settled on her face.

Since she was young, she had been proud to have a judge for a father. When she was in university, she had thought of majoring in law, but she was not very interested in it, so she chose to study finance in the end.

In truth, a long time ago, she felt that her family was too “rich”. When she got married, she received a huge dowry, and her family moved into a three-story villa. Hence, she always found that her father earned quite a lot, but she never really put much thought into why exactly her father earned so much money.

Then, a month ago, her father did not return home, and the news reported that he had embezzled a large amount of money. It was only right then that Jade knew her father had been caught.

Her mother almost cried herself blind, and the incident caused her such anxiety that her hair turned white.

Jade was calm. She comforted her mother, contacted various lawyers, and thought of ways to return all the embezzled money.

They sold the houses they had, and she even sold the house as well as the car she had received as part of her dowry. In addition, she shamelessly moved into Zephaniah’s apartment, but she still needed two million dollars. Her relatives were avoiding them like the plague, so she could forget about borrowing money from them.

Over the past half a month, she had been trying to contact all of her close friends, but she still had not managed to borrow a single cent from them.