Stop! I'm a Secretary, Not a Side Piece

I had barely taken two steps when Cody's wounded, tearful voice floated after me again. "Ms. York, huh? And he said it so respectfully. Vi, I know he was trying to remind me that you're an arrogant CEO, while I'm just some poor boy who crawled out of the slums. Are you going to get sick of me one day and abandon me?"Then, I heard Violet call me back. "Scott!"I turned back around, resigned to my fate. "Yes?"She rubbed her temples. "From now on, when Cody is around, just call me by my name."I gaped at her. Was she still sane?Seeing how confused I looked, Violet added with a straight face, "Every time you call me 'Ms. York', you'll be fined 200 dollars."My body reacted before my brain could catch up. I snapped to attention and practically shouted, "Got it, Ms—I mean, Violet! Understood!"…The second I stepped out of the office, a bunch of nosy coworkers swarmed over, wiggling their eyebrows at me. "Mr. Colson, what's going on in there?"Even the head of the tech department

My vision went dark around the edges, and I felt like the sky was caving in.My reputation! My image as a hardworking, model employee! Cody had ruined everything!It took every ounce of effort on my part to finally convince Mr. and Mrs. York that it was Cody who was out of his mind, and not me secretly harboring feelings for Violet. When they left the company, there was obvious disappointment on their faces.…For the next few days, I holed up in the tech department, working overtime like crazy to rush the project. At least it kept me from running into Violet. Even Cody surprisingly quieted down for a while.The day before the big project tender, there was an industry dinner that had been scheduled ages ago. I had to attend it with Violet.As expected, Cody showed up, too. He was in his usual signature sweatshirt, timidly trailing after Violet.The banquet was full of heavyweights from the industry. Several of them saw me and immediately gathered around."Mr. Colson, I heard th

Cody froze at my ultimatum. Then, it was like someone had flipped a switch. He burst into loud, earth-shaking sobs. He cried, "Vi, so what you two have is real! I'm the extra one here!"In that moment, half of my blazing rage was doused by his bizarre train of thought. The other half morphed into sheer absurdity. I actually felt like giving him a round of applause for his god-tier ability to self-sabotage.Everyone in the hall remained silent, leaving only Cody's dramatic crying echoing through the room.The judges and our competitors had a full range of expressions on their faces. Some were frozen in shock, some were shaking with barely suppressed laughter, and a few had already pulled out their phones to stream the whole thing.Violet's expression had gone way past hideous. It was twisted beyond recognition.I didn't wait for her to respond. I just said calmly, "Ms. York, you can clean up this mess. As for suing Cody for stealing trade secrets and my resignation paperwork, we'll

After Cody found out I'd actually resigned, and that Violet had agreed that I could sue him, he first had a full-blown meltdown. Then, he immediately kicked off this big heroic "redemption arc".He rushed over to the tech department, saying that he wanted to boost morale. In the process, he nearly shut down code that was actively running.Then, he decided that the office atmosphere was too gloomy, so he spent his own money on a bunch of bright, colorful plants. He placed them everywhere, instantly doubling the cleaning staff's workload.He also tried to give the marketing department suggestions, saying that the slogan for the company's newest product should be changed to, "Powered by love, lighting up you and me." The marketing director was on the verge of tears as he begged Violet to take Cody away.These days, aside from scrambling to clean up the mess left by the project leak and paying me outrageous consulting fees, Violet's main job was to chase Cody around the company and cle

Cody lifted his head and looked at Violet tearfully. "Vi, are you giving up on me, too? But I still believe that true love conquers all…"Violet rubbed her temples and didn't respond. She finally understood that some people just couldn't be woken up.Once Cody, the biggest loose cannon, was dealt with, York Group finally got back on track. The damage was serious, but the foundations were still there.Violet threw herself completely into her work. Rumor had it that she'd turned into a cold, emotionless work machine, and she'd developed a serious "sweatshirt PTSD". Any time she saw a man in it, she would instinctively keep a safe distance from them.One day, we happened to run into each other at an industry summit. She looked in much better spirits than before. There was still some of that exhaustion from being slapped by reality between her brows, but her energy was clearly back.When she saw me, she walked over and raised her glass slightly. "How have you been lately?"I smiled.