Bethan froze. After a long while, she widened her eyes in delight. “Are you here to work?”
Alice shot her an irritated glare. “Of course!”
Alice did not know why Brettley had suddenly insisted on sending her to work in Bethan’s department, and as her assistant, no less! She slept so soundly that morning when, all of a sudden, Brettley woke her and demanded she go to work. Of course, she was frustrated by that, but she did not dare protest.
What ruffled Alice’s feathers the most was Brettley’s instructions. He had informed her beforehand that no matter what, she would have to obey Bethan’s orders.
The worst part was that Brettley did not allow her to take credit for Bethan’s work after the project was completed.
Alice could not understand any of this. She was the CEO’s wife, for God’s sake! How could she work as a lowly assistant, and for Bethan, no less?
Although her official job title was as an assistant, Alice knew that her responsibilities were to take care of everything Bethan did not want to or did not have the time to. She could not even be late or leave work early. No matter how late it was, as long as Bethan was still in the office, Alice also had to be there.
Alice grew more and more frustrated when she thought of it. She angrily hurled the rest of the items on Bethan’s desk onto the floor. “Get rid of all these useless things ! I don’t want to see them anywhere near me! “
Bethan felt her mood lift when she registered how infuriated Alice was. She smiled, kneeled onto the ground, and picked up the documents Alice had strewn all over the floor. “What position did Mr. Morrison assign you to do?”
Alice rolled her eyes in indignation. “Your assistant.”
Assistant?
Shannon, who had hovered outside the door all this while, could not take it anymore. She walked in and helped Bethan pick up her things, saying pointedly, “
From the way you’re acting, I would’ve thought you were here to take over as project director. Instead, it turns out you’re nothing but a lowly assistant.”
Bethan lowered her gaze and continued to pick up the rest of her stuff. “Be careful what you say.”
Bethan was secretly overjoyed that Alice would be working with her. Bethan thought that it was better for Alice to be spending most of her time at the company instead of at home with the kids so she could keep an eye on her.
“Director Bethan, you’ re too kind. “
Shannon tidied up the documents and could not help but added, “This is the first time I’ve ever come across such a bad- tempered assistant. I can’t believe an assistant would dare to throw the director’s documents all over the floor.”
Alice immediately scowled, “What did you just say?”
She stood up and strode over to them in her high heels. “Don’t forget I’m the CEO’s wife! The Morrison Group belongs to my husband and me. I could get you fired as easy as that! “
Shannon instinctively frowned when she heard Alice’s arrogant tone. Although she was angry, she kept her mouth shut and did not say anything else. She finished picking up the documents from the floor and quickly left the room.
Bethan stacked the documents back into a neat pile and smiled at Alice. “Do you want this office? If you do, you can have it. I’ll sit outside instead.”
Alice rolled her eyes and got up from her chair. “It’s not like I want this stupid office anyway.”
When she stood up, Alice caught sight of a framed photo on Bethan’s desk. It was a picture of her and Neil, but he looked paler and sicklier in the photo than in real life.
Alice narrowed her eyes and picked up the photo. “
Neil looks good in this.”
As soon as Bethan caught sight of what she was holding, her eyes widened. “Put down that photo.”
“Why should I?”
Alice sneered, then forcefully smashed the photo down onto the ground. A split second later, she stepped on the photograph, her pointy heels puncturing right into the smiling faces.
She clamped a hand onto her mouth, feigning surprise. “Oh, no! I accidentally dropped your photo frame, and now it’s broken! “
Bethan immediately lunged forward and shoved Alice aside.
The glass frame was smashed into smithereens, and there was a gaping hole in Bethan’s face in the photo where Alice had stepped on with her high heel.
Thankfully, Nigel’s half of the picture was still intact.
This was the last photo Bethan had taken with Nigel before she came back to Banyan City. Every time she felt tired and burnt out, she would look at the photo, and it would magically give her the motivation to persevere.
However…
Bethan frowned and picked up the remaining shreds of the photo. The broken shards of glass cut into her finger, but she did not seem to feel any pain. She wiped the blood off and gingerly put the photo into her pocket.
“Director Bethan…”
The rest of the employees were gathered around her door with worried faces and contemplated whether to help her or not.
Alice automatically sneered when she saw how devastated Bethan was. “It’s just a photo of you and Neil. Why are you so upset about it, Bethan? It’s not like you can’t take another one with him. Neil is at Blue Bay Villa right now! If you want, I’ll let him take plenty more pictures with you. Stop acting so pitifully! “
Bethan lifted her head and glowered at Alice, her eyes seething with rage. “Get out! “
Alice scowled, “How dare you talk to me like that? Let me tell you this. Even though I’m just an assistant, I’m still Brettley’s wife, after all. I– “
“Even though you’re Brettley’s wife, you’re still an assistant! ” roared Bethan. “Get out! “
Alice had crossed a line.
Bethan allowed Alice to throw her things around the room and let her claim her office as her own because she could not care less about them; it was just an office and a few documents. Bethan was willing to endure all these as long as Alice would come to work, instead of staying at home and bullying Neil and Nellie, but then…
“Bethan, you’re going to regret this! How dare you talk to me like that?”
Alice glared at her and continued, “Do you know what I ‘m going to do as soon as I go home? I’ll– “
“What are you going to do?” a steely voice suddenly rang out from behind her.
Alice was momentarily flustered, but after a moment, she turned around and leaped into Brettley’s arms, tears welling up in her eyes. “Brettley… Bethan bullied me! She asked me to get out!
“You sent me here to work, and I arrived early in the morning. I didn’t know what to do, so I came into Bethan’s office to wait for her, but I accidentally dropped her picture frame on the ground, and now she wants me to get out…”
Alice wiped her tears daintily. “It’s just a photo of her and Neil. I can’t believe she…”
Brettley furrowed his brows and removed himself from Alice’s embrace. “I heard everything.”
Alice’s entire body stiffened. “Brettley…”
Brettley shot her a cold glance. “You broke Bethan’s stuff on purpose and used your title as Mrs. Morrison to threaten her… You promised me this morning when we left home that you’d work hard. Was this what you meant by that?”
The color drained from Alice’s face. “Brettley, I…”
Lucas, who had been standing by the door, sighed and said, “Ma’am, if only you’d keep your mouth shut… Sir came down specially to check on you. He said that this was the first time you showed willingness to help out the company, but as soon as we arrived, we saw you stirring up trouble in Bethan’s office…”
Alice bit down on her bottom lip hard. Had Brettley been there for that long already?
“Bethan.”
Brettley strode over to Bethan and extended his hand toward her. “Give me the photo.”
Bethan frowned and backed away instead of complying. She knew that Brettley probably wanted to help her piece the photo back together again to make up for what Alice had done, but…
This was a photo of her and Nigel.
Even though Brettley had seen it before, he never paid much attention to it. If she gave it to him, and he restored it for her…
Bethan was afraid that Brettley would discover the boy in the photo was not Neil as he had thought.
Brettley did not know of Nigel’s existence. As soon as he discovered Neil and Nellie’s true identities, he immediately took them away from her.
She could not lose Nigel to him, too.
“I just want to help you.”
Brettley frowned and took a step toward her.
Bethan immediately shook her head. “There’s no need. I can do it myself…”
“Bethan! “
Brettley’s brows furrowed. “Do you want me to snatch it away from you?”
Bethan paused, then lifted her head to stare at him.
A flurry of emotions was etched in Brettley’s dark eyes. Bethan bit down on her lip and remained silent. Finally, after a long while, she had no choice but to hand the photo over to him.
The photo was stained red with Bethan’s blood. It was a picture of Neil and Bethan smiling at the camera.
However, a gaping hole had punctured through Bethan’s face.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.