Chapter 6

I sat in the cafe until it closed. I did not want to go home, but I had nowhere else to go. In the end, I checked into a hotel near my company and prepared to hand over the last of my work the next day.

When I arrived at the office, Martha called me to her office. She frowned while pushing some documents in my direction.

"What's going on? The clients have specifically requested different project leads for these projects. You're about to transfer to our overseas branch, and we were supposed to replace you anyway, but this request might make the headquarters doubt your work capability."

I glanced at the documents and saw that two of them were Rose's companies. The rest were business partners close to her. How could I not understand?

"I'll handle this, Martha."

When I left the office, I called Rose right away, but she did not pick up the first seven times. When I called her the eighth time, the call was finally picked up, but it was Alan who spoke to me. "Rose is still asleep, Walden. I picked it up because I was worried this could be an emergency."

I tried to suppress my anger. "Get her to the phone."

"But she barely slept last night because she was taking care of Jay…"

My patience ran out, and I hung up to take a taxi to the hospital. When I arrived, Rose was sleeping in a caretaker's bed next to Jay. Her shirt was slightly open at the collar, revealing fresh hickeys. It took one glance to know what had happened.

I tried to hold in the nausea from the disgust of it all and shook her awake. "Why did you want me replaced, Rose?"

Rose woke up groggily and grabbed my hand. "Alan, is Jay…" When she saw my face, her tender expression vanished. "What are you doing here?"

"You took things personally at work and requested to replace the team lead in charge of your company's projects, and you're asking me what I'm doing here?"

That was when Alan entered the room with a kettle. When he noticed the tension between us, he came over quickly to shield me behind him. "You shouldn't bully Walden, Rose."

The coldness in Rose's eyes vanished. "Can't you understand what I'm trying to do, Alan? I've already given you the projects at work. That way, you'll still be able to lead a comfortable life with all the money you make after you leave me.

"But if Walden was the person in charge of those projects, how are you supposed to work together to push things forward?"

Rose looked at me and said indignantly, "What's wrong with me wanting to give my husband a career boost? Besides, I'm the client. I have the right to request that someone else work with my company on this project."

I stared at her with reddened eyes. I had loved this woman for six years, but she was now like a total stranger to me. In fact, she looked hateful to me.

It took a long time before I suddenly laughed. "No problem. You're the client. You can pick whoever you want to work on your projects. I have no objections."

With that, I turned to leave. I could hear the chair screeching behind me as Rose wanted to come after me, but Jay started bawling suddenly, and it stopped her in her tracks.

When I returned to the office, Martha walked me to the elevator and kept reminding me, "Remember to explain the situation clearly when you get to the headquarters. I know how long you've worked on those projects and how many sleepless nights you've spent on them. You can't let one word from someone destroy all your hard work."

I nodded, trying my best not to cry.

Even Martha knew how hard I worked, and it was impossible that Rose would not know about it. However, just for Alan, Rose had chosen to ruin years of my hard work without blinking twice. They had destroyed my love and friendship, but I refused to allow them to destroy my career.

Rose had made a last-minute request to replace me as the person-in-charge, which meant that I was not required for further handover at work. So, I clicked on the flight app to modify my ticket to the day after tomorrow.