Chloe sat at her desk, clutching her laptop as she tirelessly typed away.
"What are you writing?" Donovan asked from behind her. The bed was positioned behind the writing desk, and Donovan, perhaps feeling the room too stuffy, struck up a conversation with Chloe.
"It's for an outstanding graduate report," Chloe replied distractedly, continuing her typing.
"Just you?"
Chloe heard the sting in those two words and couldn't shake the feeling that Donovan was belittling her.
Chloe turned around to meet Donovan's gaze, "What, Mr. Blake, didn't you know that New East Group always recruits top graduates? If I weren't excellent, how could I have been offered a permanent position? Or maybe I wasn't good enough, and you, Mr. Blake, just said a few words to your subordinates to keep me working under you so you can control me?"
Donovan had made the comment offhand and wasn't expecting Chloe to confront him so directly, hitting the nail on the head with every sentence.
He had known all along that this woman was no simple character.
Disinterested in continuing the conversation, Donovan closed his book and went to freshen up.
Chloe, after being provoked by him, felt her response had been too harsh. after all, he was the CEO, and she, being at the lowest rung of the company, had spoken inappropriately. Feeling somewhat apologetic to Donovan, she was unable to continue writing her report and decided to go freshen up as well.
By the time Donovan entered the room, Chloe was already sitting on the bed.
Donovan picked up his book again to read.
"Mr. Blake, how did you manage to keep me in the finance department?" Chloe asked, trying to make conversation and also genuinely curious.
"Do I need to explain why I kept an intern?" Donovan responded nonchalantly.
Chloe thought to herself: 'As expected, Donovan must have intervened to keep me.'
"But if you don't explain, people will speculate."
His gaze swept over her carelessly, "Speculate? Are you implying that what happened between us isn't real? That us being married is a lie?"
Chloe fell silent.
With nothing more to say, she lay down and listened to the sounds of Donovan turning pages, switching off the light, and lying down, eventually drifting off to sleep.
Returning from Samuel's house, the journey was uneventful. however, on the way back, Donovan transferred Chloe ten thousand dollars - twenty thousand less than before since they had hired a cleaning service this time.
Yet, neither of them uttered a word.
Now, every time Donovan sent her money, Chloe felt uncomfortable, although she couldn't quite pinpoint why.
Donovan's car stopped at the same spot where he picked up Chloe the day before and then drove away.
Before Chloe could reach her dorm, she received a WhatsApp message from the HR Director, Winslow: [Chloe, the previous dorm arrangement was temporary. Now, the apartment in 1507 is available. A woman from the operations department got married and bought a new house with her husband. You can move into this two-bedroom apartment with Sofia. What do you think?]
Chloe was momentarily stunned, thinking: 'Just because Donovan couldn't stand the musty smell on me, he got my room changed, and a two-bedroom at that. The perks of being the CEO.'
Sofia had already checked out 1507, which was similar in size to their previous four-person dorm but only for two occupants.
The entire afternoon, Sofia was shocked as she packed her things and moved into a new dorm room.
After switching dorms, Chloe stayed busy doing laundry, determined to wash all her clothes that had developed a musty smell.
"Chloe, you've got to see this." Chloe was scrubbing clothes in the bathroom when she heard an agitated call out from Sofia. Moments later, Sofia entered the bathroom, clutching her laptop.
"Weren't you at the hospital visiting your mom yesterday? Just look at what these people are saying."
Chloe turned off the faucet and leaned in to look at the laptop screen.
It was open to the company's Invisible Veil Forum, a highly active platform where tens of thousands of employees often posted.
The thread was titled, "Who's keeping her?"
There were over a dozen photos, all taken the day before when Chloe visited Financial Street and Moonlight Cafe. She was wearing a very appropriate dress, had makeup on, and was clearly dressed up for the occasion. She got into a luxurious Mercedes, glancing around as she did.
The Mercedes' tint was thick, concealing the identity of the person inside. Since no one could see who was with her, the speculation ran rampant with "Who's keeping her?"
The employees were especially interested in such gossip, and posts multiplied rapidly, making the thread very popular.
Sofia had commented, "This is my roommate, she was at the hospital yesterday."
But Sofia's reply lacked credibility, and soon after, someone responded, "Since when does going to the hospital require dressing up? Parking near our dorm isn't hard, so why not just stop out front? Also, I heard she's competing with another grad student from Pearl Peak Institute of Technology for a spot at the prestigious New East International Group. The other student works diligently every day, so how come she, who's always taking leaves, is the one who stays on? There must be something suspicious going on."
"Keep it down. She's got connections upstairs."
"At the team-building event, I saw her toasting the deputy director of HR."
There was no shortage of nasty comments. During the team-building event, Chloe indeed had toasted the deputy director of HR, but she did it alongside James Turner. It seemed her actions had been manipulated by those eager to stir drama in the large corporate world, where internal power struggles were common.