Intern Chloe

I moved in.

Not the Project Manager office. The CEO office. My grandfather's office. The one my father had occupied for three years after Grandpa died.

My father was forced to move to the Vice President office downstairs. He didn't argue. After seeing the new will last night, he knew if he argued, he would lose everything.

I sat in Grandpa's leather chair, wearing a simple black suit today, hair tied up, jade ring still on my finger. The red qipao was carefully hung in the closet behind me.

Alexander was gone. He had a board meeting at Knight Empire, but he left me with 10 bodyguards and a black card with no limit. "Buy the building if you want," he said.

My assistant knocked.

"Mrs. Knight, the intern is here to bring coffee."

"Send her in."

The door opened.

Chloe Lane walked in wearing the cheapest intern uniform — white shirt, black skirt that was too big, her hair in a low ponytail, no makeup to cover her swollen cheek from my slap. She held a tray with two coffees, hands shaking.

She was no longer the princess. She was Intern #043.

She had to intern for 3 months before she could even apply to be a designer, according to my new rule last night. Approved by all 12 directors unanimously.

She placed the coffee on my desk. She didn't look at me.

"Your coffee, CEO Lane."

"CEO Lane?" I took a sip. "Chloe, yesterday you called me Sister. Today you call me CEO Lane? I'm hurt."

She clenched her fists. "What do you want, Sophia? You already got everything. You got the office, the money, the man—"

"I want you to drink that coffee."

She looked up, confused.

I pushed the other cup toward her.

"You spilled my design, remember? When I was in college, you poured coffee on my graduation design the night before the show and said it was an accident. So now, you drink it."

"I'm not drinking—"

I pressed the intercom. "Security, come to CEO office. Intern Chloe refuses to follow direct order from CEO and is suspected of—"

"I'll drink! I'll drink!" She grabbed the cup, tears falling, and drank the hot coffee in one go, burning her tongue.

I watched her calmly.

"Good. Now, second task. The board meeting notes from yesterday are on the floor in the design department. You will hand-copy them 50 times. By hand. Before 6 PM."

"Fifty times?! Sophia, that's—"

"Forty-nine now, because you talked back."

She ran out crying, holding the empty cup.

I didn't feel pity. In my last life, when I was dying in the hospital after she pushed me, she stood over me and said, "Sister, don't worry, I will take good care of Ethan and your mother... after she dies too."

She deserved worse.

At noon, Ethan Miller came.

He didn't have an appointment, but the receptionist was too scared to stop him because he used to be my fiancé.

He barged into my office, eyes red, holding a bouquet of my favorite white lilies — the flowers he never remembered in my last life, even though I told him 100 times.

"Sophia, we need to talk."

"I have nothing to talk about with Miller Group's ex-investor."

"Don't be like this," he stepped closer, putting the lilies on my desk. "I know you are angry. I know Chloe lied about the design. But we were together for ten years, Sophia. Ten years! You really want to throw that away for a man you just met? Alexander Knight is dangerous! Everyone says he—"

"He is my husband," I cut him off, looking at the lilies with disgust. "And these are not my favorite flowers. My favorite is red roses. You never remembered. Alexander planted a whole garden of them for my mother without me asking."

Ethan froze. "Red... roses..."

"Get out."

"Sophia, please! Give me one more chance! I broke up with Chloe! I really did! This morning! I told her I don't love her! I love you!"

The door opened before I could answer.

Alexander stood there, holding lunch boxes from the best French restaurant in New York. He saw Ethan, saw the lilies, and his eyes turned to ice.

He walked past Ethan like he didn't exist, placed the lunch boxes on my desk, opened them, and said softly, "Rose pasta. Your mother said you loved it when you were little."

Then he finally looked at Ethan.

"Mr. Miller, you are standing too close to my wife. My bodyguards are nervous. They have guns."

Ethan stepped back instantly, face pale. Everyone in New York knew Alexander's bodyguards were ex-special forces.

Alexander took my hand, with the jade ring, and kissed it in front of Ethan.

"And Mr. Miller, next time you bring flowers to someone else's wife, remember — she hates lilies. She told me that on our wedding night, while you were busy comforting her sister."

Ethan's face shattered.

He looked at me one last time, like a abandoned dog.

"Sophia... you will regret this..."

"No," I said, leaning into Alexander's arms, eating the rose pasta he fed me. "The only thing I regret is not marrying him earlier."

Ethan left. The lilies went into the trash can.

Alexander closed the door and hugged me from behind.

"Mrs. Knight, you are very cruel. I like it."

I turned around, pasta on my lips. "Really?"

He kissed the pasta off my lips. "Really. So cruel that I want to hide you in Knight Mansion forever so no one else can see you."

Outside the office, Chloe was on her hands and knees, hand-copying meeting notes on the floor of the design department while everyone watched and whispered.

Intern life had only just begun.

And tonight, I had to attend the Lane Family Banquet — where Chloe's real mother, Lisa, would finally appear after three years of hiding.

The woman who killed my mother and my grandfather was coming back.