Chapter 3

He stood up and took the dish from me. At the same time, he lowered his voice so only the two of us could hear.

“Bastard. Haven’t you always been trying to block my way into the Translation Institute? Fine then. I’ll steal Wynnie from right under your nose. That’s only fair!”

The next second, the plate slipped from his hands and shattered on the floor.

Most of the hot sauce splashed onto me, yet he screamed as though he was badly burned.

“Wynnie! It’s so hot! If Miles didn’t want to cook for me, he could’ve just said so, I wouldn’t have forced him. Why would he deliberately hurt me like this?!”

Before I could react, Wynnie’s slap landed across my face.

“Miles, when did you become this vicious? Apologize to Ash. Now!”

That was it. I could not hold back anymore.

I shot the two of them with a vicious glare, then turned around and stormed out of the room.

As I looked at the mess all over my body and my arm, scalded red, my hatred for Wynnie reached its breaking point.

…

By the time I had cleaned myself up and headed to the routine meeting, the team members were giving me strange, complicated looks.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

They looked awkward.

“Well… I went to get Ms. Lynn just now, but Ash was inside. She said she had something to deal with, so tonight’s meeting is canceled.”

A few teammates could not help but mutter under their breath, “Isn’t this a bit much? Pre-mission meetings are a long-standing rule at the Institute. How can she just cancel it like that? Especially when Miles is here, she…”

I dug my nails into my palm, forcing myself to calm down.

“Let me go take a look.”

The moment I pushed open Wynnie’s door, a coquettish laugh drifted out.

She was sitting on Ash’s lap, one arm hooked around his neck, posing deliberately for the phone camera.

When Ash saw me, his smile grew even brighter.

“Hey, Miles, don’t get the wrong idea. Wynnie and I are just really close like brother and sister.”

Wynnie shot me an indifferent glance, making no move to stop his hands as they roamed all over her body.

“Don’t let your seniority as an interpreter go to your head. If you don’t want a divorce, you’d better apologize to Ash immediately.”

“And when we get back, talk to the director and get him to approve Ash’s full-time transfer.”

I wanted nothing more than to storm over and slap their faces, then yell at her, “I want a divorce!”

However, my sense of reason barely managed to rein in my rage. It was not time to tear the mask off yet.

I clenched my fists and said through gritted teeth, “The Translation Institute isn’t my personal property and the director isn’t my father. I don’t have the power to turn an external hire into a full-time employee.”

Wynnie sneered, acting as though it were the most reasonable thing in the world.

“Didn’t you just receive an award last week? Trade your medal for a full-time slot. That shouldn’t be difficult for you.”

I took several deep breaths, telling myself not to stoop to their level.

“I came to notify you that it’s time for the meeting. Everyone’s waiting.”

Before Wynnie could respond, Ash cut in impatiently, “Are you all useless or something? It’s just a routine meeting. Does Wynnie really need to attend personally? I honestly don’t know how people like you even got into the Translation Institute. What? Did you all get in through connections?”

Then, he buried his face into Wynnie’s neck.

“Wynnie, you promised to spend the night with me. Don’t go back on your word. I even prepared several spicy uniforms just for you.”

A faint blush crept onto Wynnie’s cheeks when she heard that. Her eyes shimmered with unmistakable sense of desire.