Chapter 16
Josephine was about to scream for help when the dark figure covered her mouth. She instinctively threw her elbow back, successfully striking the figure's ribs.
The shadow let out a muffled groan, the voice strangely familiar.
"You've got quite a punch there."
Gideon carried her into the living room, his strong arms pinning her to the couch. The lights were off, making the living room dark. Josephine couldn't see his face clearly, but that didn't stop her from cursing.
"What's wrong with you?" Was he deliberately trying to scare her?
Gideon chuckled. "Just wanted to see how well you'd defend yourself against a stranger."
"Get off me."
"No." Gideon's voice was husky. "We haven't seen each other for two days. That's 48 hours, 2,880 minutes, 172,800 seconds..."
He never held back on sweet talk with Josephine, but unfortunately, it no longer moved her.
"Gideon, you're hurting me."
Gideon immediately got up and turned on the lights, examining her carefully. "Where does it hurt?"
Only to find Josephine simply getting up to change her seat.
He laughed softly. "You really know how to play me."
"I want to go back to the company." Josephine got straight to the point.
Gideon asked, "Why?"
"Do I need a reason to return to my husband's company?"
After years of marriage, she knew exactly how to handle him.
Gideon sat beside her, and she didn't pull away. He wrapped his arm around her waist, greedily breathing in her scent. "Isn't being a full-time wife at home good enough? Working at the company is exhausting. I can't bear to see you work so hard..."
His words sounded nice... but he was probably afraid she'd see Lorelei!
Josephine forced herself to endure his closeness. "I want to go to the R&D department."
That wouldn't conflict with Lorelei's position as a secretary.
Gideon frowned slightly. "You're not skilled in that area. Those people in R&D are stubborn and difficult. I'm worried they'll give you a hard time."
Josephine suddenly stood up, breaking free from his embrace. "Forget it then."
She was clearly upset. Gideon sighed and pulled her back to his side, patiently saying, "Alright, I agree. I'll arrange it for you, okay? Why are you angry? If you want to work, go work. I'll find you an easy position. You just need to show up, and you'll get your monthly salary. How does that sound?"
Josephine said flatly, "I'm tired." Having achieved her goal, she didn't want to deal with him anymore.
"I'll go with you to rest."
"Gideon, you should go home."
The smile gradually faded from Gideon's face as he held her hand. "Jojo, are you planning to abandon me after getting what you want?"
Not exactly. She just wouldn't be able to sleep with him around.
"Gideon, I'm exhausted. Tomorrow I need to report to the company. I don't want to ride in the same car with you, and I don't want people to know about our relationship."
When Josephine previously worked at the company, she never mentioned being Gideon's wife. Nobody knew her identity except for Gideon's assistant.
Back then, she didn't want people to feel distant from her or think she got the job through connections. Now... She didn't want to be associated with him at all.
Gideon thought for a moment, then agreed. "Fine. I'll do whatever you want."
He was trying to please her, even though he really wanted to stay. In the end, he respected her wishes and left. As soon as he walked out, Josephine locked the door. The fingerprint lock had Gideon's prints registered and had never been changed. She changed it first thing the next morning.
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The R&D department had been established three years ago, initially with just a few core members—Josephine's original research team. Now it had grown to over 20 employees. Everyone moved around in a hurry, looking busy. Josephine's arrival didn't attract any attention; everyone was absorbed in their own work.
She wasn't in a rush. She quietly observed and quickly identified the leader among them—a young man who had appeared twice that morning. Each time he came, he gave orders that everyone followed without question. While everyone else was busy, this well-dressed man moved freely through the lab without doing any actual work. He didn't even look at the data.
By noon, she felt she'd seen enough. She directly intercepted Marshall as he was heading to lunch.
Yes, she recognized him immediately. Marshall's eyes looked too much like Lorelei's.
"New here?" Marshall glanced at her impatiently and waved her off. "Don't block my way. Go do whatever you're supposed to do. Find a senior employee to show you around."
He started to walk away.
Josephine blocked his path again. "You should know who I am."
Marshall paused, his expression turning strange. Once all the colleagues had left, he finally spoke. "I completely understand that the CEO's wife wants to experience working life. I'll give you the respect you're due, but I have only one request—don't interfere with our work."
His words were dripping with contempt for Josephine.
"Assign me a workstation."
Marshall gave her a long look, then silently arranged a desk for her. As he turned away, his expression darkened. He had thought a stern warning would make her back off—after all, she was the CEO's wife, probably not used to such treatment. He hadn't expected her to be so persistent.
Josephine sat down at her assigned desk. The computer was there, and she spent the afternoon going through the files, getting a basic understanding of the R&D department. She knew that establishing herself here wouldn't be as simple as she imagined.
And indeed, it wasn't. For three straight days, Marshall didn't completely ignore her. He even assigned her some work. But the tasks were exhausting and thankless—time-wasting chores that kept her away from anything important. After a full day's work, her energy was drained, and she still hadn't accessed any core projects.
She remained patient and did everything thoroughly. After three days of grunt work, not just her colleagues but even Marshall was starting to look at her differently. But the better she performed, the more wary he became.
Sophia had asked her about it: "You went back to R&D to make big moves, but you can't even access the core projects or materials. Aren't you getting impatient?"
Josephine just smiled. "I want to be the one moving the chess pieces, not a pawn being moved by others. To be the one moving the pieces, you need patience."
"What are you waiting for?"
"An opportunity to step onto the field."
That opportunity came soon enough. Early one morning, Marshall called her to his office and gave her an important task.
"I've observed your performance these past few days. Even though I've only given you trivial work, you've done well. So I've made a decision." He handed Josephine a file.
"This is a drug solubility data optimization task. I need you to solve the data inconsistency problem and improve the model accuracy from 62%. Do a good job and give me the results next week."
"Okay." Josephine responded briefly.
As soon as she left, the deputy director walked in wearing a red dress, looking sensual and alluring. She sat directly on Marshall's lap. "Why give it to her? Mr. Getty is waiting for this. The data is quite important. If we organize it well, Mr. Getty will definitely praise you."