Chapter8 You're Not Worthy
Linnea had a busy and fulfilling month.
During work hours, she was the CEO's official assistant, always in a state of busyness. Caius only gave her special benefits in compensation and position. As for other things, he showed no indication.
Like other ordinary official secretaries, Linnea had to work desperately and compete for promotion opportunities. But even so, she had access to more work that was beneficial to her self-improvement. She was already very satisfied.
After work, she would regularly enter Caius's manor and go to the manor's hospital for routine checkups by the family doctor. They drew her blood and had her do various tests, trying to find the key element in her that relieved Caius's mania.
However, looking at the family doctor's worried expression, the situation didn't seem very optimistic.
After the 27th reason was also ruled out, he shouted in despair, "Forget it. Maybe Caius just likes you!"
Linnea laughed until her abdomen hurt. "Don't drag me down to lose my job with you!"
"I just think this result is an insult to my medical expertise." The family doctor began to boast. "My professional competence is extremely high. I frequently won scholarships in college. You know, the most famous university in the city center..."
Linnea complained inwardly. What were scholarships? When she switched majors at this university, several professors tried hard to keep her, praising her as the lucky star of the laboratory, saying her departure was a huge loss to the medical field. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to retain her, they were heartbroken to tears.
And at night, there was a high probability she would sleep alone in a luxurious penthouse apartment.
She had originally lived in a collective apartment arranged by the company, but Caius ordered her to move into one of his properties so that he could show up on a whim to have sex with her without worrying about running into colleagues. Yes, Caius rarely invited her for sex, let alone took the initiative to find her.
Even though Linnea could relieve his mania and help him sleep, he showed restraint. Just as he said, he didn't need to be cured at all and wouldn't pin his hopes on a woman of unknown origin. His self-control was simply amazing.
This man who was difficult to seduce troubled Linnea slightly, but more than that, she felt secretly pleased.
She had been planning her revenge for five years and could tolerate slow progress. But Caius's performance in bed was so fierce that she found it hard to handle. She had even been forced to take leave several times.
Seeing him in the company made her legs go weak uncontrollably.
Besides this, she also commissioned Cora to help her investigate the whereabouts of her mother's belongings.
The result was that the batch of things had been dumped by renovation workers into the garbage station. Valuable clothes and jewelry had all been picked up and were almost impossible to recover.
Fortunately, those unsigned paintings hanging on the walls had been bought separately by several galleries.
So she planned to contact the gallery first and buy back her mother’s painting.
"Sorry, our boss isn't here today." A sweet voice pulled her back to reality. It was a gallery employee. "The batch of anonymous paintings you're asking about, since the boss hasn't set a price yet, can't be sold temporarily..."
Linnea signed her name in the reservation book and sighed regretfully, but suddenly her attention was drawn to a painting in the corner.
"You like this painting?"
No, her mother liked it. This kind of exciting, novel, abstract painting was her mother's preferred style.
But Linnea was willing to own things her mother liked. She showed an interested look.
"The author of this painting is one of the youngest painters in the gallery, extremely talented. Most importantly, he's a junior in the medical department at Laurentian University."
"Would you like to buy it?"
The employee quoted an affordable price. Linnea paid decisively. "Then please wrap it up for me."
The other person cheered quietly. Humming a song, she got materials to wrap it for her. But as soon as she took down the painting, a stern voice interrupted her. "Please stop. This painting already belongs to Thorne Corporation."
Linnea looked up and saw a professional woman wearing flame red lipstick. She recognized this person.
This was Amy, a favored secretary around Caius who had just joined two months ago. Last week, she had been secretly criticized by colleagues for firing an old assistant who was three minutes late.
Someone revealed that she was probably just upset that the old assistant was good at making the coffee Caius loved to drink.
Before today, Linnea didn't believe this rumor.
But when she politely stepped forward to explain the situation to Amy, "Ms. Amy, I've already paid for this painting, sorry..."
Amy frowned in disgust, waved her hand to cut her off, and said in an exaggerated tone.
"Linnea, you said you needed to take leave today for special circumstances. So you came here for entertainment? This is work time. The project you're responsible for has recently reached a critical moment. You're absent from work without reason. I'll forgive you for now. But you're being even more excessive, trying to interfere with the CEO's pleasant conversation with partners tonight?"
Hearing Amy say that, Linnea understood completely—Amy was at this Thorne-owned gallery to pick out paintings as gifts for a partner company.
But Linnea was on her scheduled vacation.
During her time off, she had no reason to give way to a superior who, for some unknown reason, held such obvious hostility toward her.
"If I make mistakes at work, you can report me to the CEO, but this painting legally already belongs to me. You have no right to take it away."
"Isn't it just money? What Thorne Corporation lacks least is money." But Amy said contemptuously. "I'll pay ten times the price. Now, can you give me the painting?"
It was just a painting her mother might have liked. To Linnea, it really wasn't precious. She still had to go to several other galleries and had no time to play childish debate games with Amy. But just as she was about to relent and agree, Amy's red lips curled mockingly.
"Linnea, why don't you guess, in his heart, is a secretary who can help him win a cooperation project more important, or is a little assistant like you who climbed up by selling her body more important?"
Linnea froze for a moment.
Caius said that?
That couldn’t be right.Caius didn’t seem like the kind of man who’d share details of his sex life with his subordinates.
"How did you know?"
"Do you even need to ask?" Amy thought Linnea was panicking and immediately laughed arrogantly like she'd won a battle.
"Previously, you actively requested to accompany Caius to that third-rate dinner. Wasn't it just to seduce him? But if I'm not wrong, he didn't take you seriously at all, right? After fucking you, he just gave you a small assistant position and abandoned you."
So it was a guess. Linnea couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Linnea had laughed enough. She raised her hand and slapped her hard. “Talk about me? You’re not worthy.”
The slap landed with full force, sending Amy crashing to the floor. One side of her face turned red and swollen almost instantly.
Amy sat there, clutching her cheek, shouting in disbelief, “Linnea Clair! I’m the daughter of the Jane family! You’ll pay for this. My parents won’t let you off!”
The gallery staff didn’t dare say a word. Linnea simply took the bubble wrap from Amy’s hands and started packing the painting herself.
“Caius…”
She suddenly heard Amy’s voice soften, calling out a name.
Who?
Caius?
Linnea turned around in disbelief and met the deep, emerald green eyes of Caius.