Chapter 6

Edward stared at Giselle's belly. Though he was smiling, there was an unreadable glint in his eyes.

"So you're not working today? Did you take the day off?" Giselle asked.

She'd used her connections to arrange the job for Edward. It was a cushy desk job that simply involved dealing with documents, but it still paid a monthly salary of over ten thousand dollars.

With a flicker of remorse in Edward's eyes, he said, "I'm so sorry, Giselle. I…"

He faltered, looking rather hesitant.

Taken aback, Giselle quickly asked, "Whatever it is, just say it. Don't trail off like that. You're making me anxious!"

Edward took a deep breath and said with a rueful smile, "I've resigned."

"What? You resigned? Why?" Giselle hurriedly asked.

Edward looked down at his legs and shook his head lightly, his smile bitter. "It's nothing… It's just a personal problem. It's no one else's fault."

Giselle instantly got the picture. She became both shocked and furious. "Are you saying that they discriminated against you? The nerve of them! How dare they?"

Her gaze turned cold as she reached for her phone to call the boss of the company. She wanted to find out who had the audacity to discriminate against Edward.

"Giselle!" Edward suddenly grabbed her wrist. "Don't do it. I've gotten used to such things."

Giselle looked at his legs with a pang of sympathy in her eyes. But when she noticed that he was still holding her wrist, she silently withdrew her hand before sighing. "It's fine, Eddie. Just tell me what kind of job you want. I'll make the arrangements for you."

Edward chuckled forlornly. "Let's just forget about it. I don't want to keep bothering you like that. You'd end up owing someone else a favor, too. And even if I got a new job, things will probably end up going the same way. After all, my legs…"

That only made Giselle feel worse. Biting her lip, she made up her mind. "You can just work here then. Since this is my company, no one would dare say anything."

Edward whipped his head up and looked at her in disbelief. Slowly, his expression became rather conflicted, and in the end, he shook his head defeatedly. "That won't do, Giselle. Mr. Lambert and Lucian won't agree to let me work here."

"Don't try to talk me out of it. This matter is settled. You can bring over your identification to complete the employment paperwork later," Giselle declared decisively. "My dad has pretty much retired anyway. I run the company now. As for Lucian…"

She hesitated at the thought of him, but she gritted her teeth and continued, "He was at fault for what happened last night anyway. I'll explain the situation to him, and I'm sure he'll understand."

That put Edward at ease. "In that case, I'll head home to get my identification now. Which department should I report to later?"

Giselle thought for a moment before saying, "Go to the 12th floor and look for the general affairs manager. Make sure you don't head to the wrong office—especially the office of the head of the sales department."

Edward nodded and left.

Giselle started to feel a headache coming on. She and Lucian were still giving each other the cold shoulder right now. How was she supposed to explain to him that Edward was joining the company?

She started typing out a message to him, but she kept deleting all the things she could think of to say. In the end, she sighed and decided to explain things to him in person once she got home later tonight.

…

At noon, Lucian left the office. He would usually have lunch with Giselle, but he was in a foul mood today. He wanted to walk around alone to clear his mind.

After wandering on the streets for over half an hour, he found himself in front of Jewel Lake, the largest man-made lake in Southspire.

Lucian sat on a marble bench, lit a cigarette, and stared at the water.

Just then, he heard shouting in the distance.

"Someone fell in!"

"Help! Someone, help!"

"Is there a lifesaver anywhere nearby?"

The voices, belonging to both men and women, reached Lucian's ears and made him jump to his feet. Without hesitation, he ran toward the commotion and soon saw a girl who looked to be around ten years old flailing about in the water.

A crowd had gathered by the railing on the bank.

"Please! Someone save my daughter!" a middle-aged man tearfully pleaded.

However, everyone remained conflicted. They wouldn't mind helping if they could, but Jewel Lake was fairly deep. Even at the edges, the water was close to six feet deep. Those who knew how to swim still felt fearful about jumping in.

Meanwhile, after waiting for a few more seconds, the father could see that his daughter was starting to lose strength. He gritted his teeth and jumped right into the lake.

The onlookers exclaimed in shock.

Alas, the father didn't seem to know how to swim. He was thrashing around in the water, doing no better than his daughter.

"Don't be afraid, sweetheart… Daddy… Daddy's coming…" he shouted as he struggled to make his way through the water toward her.

There was a look of determination in his eyes that sent shivers down everyone's spines. He was either going to save his daughter or go down with her.

While everyone else panicked, Lucian arrived.

After seeing the danger the father and daughter were in, he knew he had no time to ask questions. He pulled out his phone and car keys, leaving them on the bank before jumping into the water without stripping first.

The crowd gasped in shock yet again.

With a grim look in his eyes, Lucian scanned the father first. After confirming that the father could still keep himself afloat, he swiftly headed toward the daughter, who was further away.

Having spotted Lucian, the father looked at him with gratitude-filled eyes.

Lucian was an excellent swimmer. He reached the young girl in no time. Upon seeing that she'd lost consciousness, he quickly lifted her out of the water.

"Well done!"

"How amazing of him!"

The crowd on the bank cheered loudly.

Lucian also had incredible stamina. Even though he'd been swimming for a while now, he didn't slow down at all. Once he reached the bank, he passed the young girl to the people there before turning back to save the girl's father.

Three minutes later, the middle-aged man had also been brought ashore.

Following the crowd's rescue attempts, the young girl slowly regained consciousness as well.

Lucian shook some water out of his hair and exhaled in relief.

"You're a hero!"

It wasn't clear who'd shouted, but everyone began to clap.

The father also brought his daughter over and thanked Lucian most profusely.

Smiling, Lucian brushed it off, saying, "I'm glad you two are alright."

With that said, he slipped through the crowd and disappeared in no time.

Not long after leaving Jewel Lake, Lucian felt the silver pendant around his neck heat up. A force emerged from the pendant and spread throughout his body.

He didn't look surprised by that.

At some point, he'd realized that whenever he did something that altered the course of someone's life, the silver pendant would reward him with some kind of strength. It wasn't much, but it accumulated over time.

Due to this, his body had become a lot stronger.

"Guess this means I changed the fate of that father and his daughter," Lucian remarked with a smile.

Not all good deeds resulted in the boost of power he received. He had to change the person's fate. Either way, this proved he'd saved two lives, which put him in a great mood.

However, his joyful mood vanished the moment he got back to his office.

As soon as he opened the door, he saw the wheelchair-bound Edward sitting inside. Instantly, he questioned in an icy tone, "Who let you into my office?"