Martha was ready to strike Patricia in case she came out of the office with a smug or evil expression. But now... she seemed to have overestimated this person named Patricia.
’As expected of my boss...’ Martha regained her senses and praised Ivy: ’She never suffers a loss.’
She watched as Patricia remained sitting on the ground for a few minutes before standing up and walking away with trembling legs.
Ivy stared at the white wall in front of her with a blank gaze; the chilly aura in the so-called office, which had the same structure as the other apartments in the base, hardly had an effect on her.
Remorse filled every inch of her fiber. Before she could even begin to loathe herself, an entire day passed. Yet Ivy remained seated.
At night, when everyone was packing up, Martha, who was worried about Ivy, came to check on her. Seeing her motionless made her heart freeze.
Her call snapped Ivy out of her daze. Ivy’s eyes unconsciously fell on the window, and looking at the vast amount of darkness looming in the base, she realized that the base still didn’t have streetlights, making it difficult for the citizens of the base to navigate at night.
"Yes?" Her voice was devoid of emotions; however, for Martha, who knew how to read the room, she read the unspoken pain.
"It’s nighttime... aren’t you planning to leave?" Martha asked worriedly; without her realizing, her features had softened ever so slightly, and her grip on the file she was holding tightened.
"You can leave. I still have some work to do." Ivy replied.
Marth pursed her lips, hesitant to leave. For the first time in the two days, she saw Ivy showing such a fragile state.
"Miss Ivy, if something is troubling you, you can tell it to me. Maybe I can help."
At her words, Ivy paused, a bitter chuckle escaping her lips, and it was as if she was waiting for that line, because the next second, words tumbled out of her mouth.
"I messed up. Pretty bad. Now, I don’t think he will ever forgive me... I... I feel so dumb."
Martha froze, hearing the desperation and the remorse, as well as a faint hope in her boss’s tone.
’I truly have the urge to hug her and pat her on the back,’ she sighed in her heart. ’She looks so young and inexperienced.’
"Miss Ivy, have you heard the quote, ’It’s never too late to start again’? Taking initiative can change many things." She suggested, with a probing look.
Ivy paused before clenching her fist. "I have a friend..."
Martha: (ᵕ—ᴗ—) Hey, it always begins with, I have a friend.
"She was loved deeply by a man. That man fought against his family for her and only dared to admire her from the shadows when he realized that my friend didn’t like him to confess openly. Bought food for her when she was hungry, protected her when she was abused by her adoptive family, and always respected her decisions. But she left the man because she thought it was for his own good..."
"Your friend is stupid." Martha blurted out, and in an instant, the temperature of the room plummeted.
Ivy : (;¬＿¬) Do you need to phrase it like that?
Martha choked back the laughter bubbling in her chest. "I am stating the truth. Boss, you might not realize that you can always find a man who says sweet nothings and flirts with you, but... only a few, like the man you...r friend has, can go to such an extent for a woman they love."
"Then what should she do?" Ivy asked anxiously; she kept on feeling Martha might truly have a solution to her problem. "He already has a substitute, and they are about to hold an engagement party!"
Martha’s eyes widened in fury. Having a substitute? This guy is definitely a scumbag! No...
Martha paused and remembered Patricia. Was she the substitute Ivy was talking about? Eh? But... from the way Patricia behaved...
After working for a CEO with a complicated love life, Martha could proudly claim that she understands scumbags, substitutes, white moonlights, and contract marriages better than any novelist.
"Boss, how many days has it been... since that man found the substitute?" Martha asked with narrowed eyes.
"Three days," Ivy replied like an honest child.
She accepted that her EQ when it came to romance was dangerously low and needed help.
’Three days? No. To find a substitute, one needs at least a week. Even after finding a substitute, one needs to bond with them and tempt the substitute with money before any kind of romance could even begin.’
Martha fell into deep thought and soon came up with two theories: ’First... that scumbag was already keeping the substitute in the closet. Second...’
"Miss Ivy, has your friend ever seen the substitute before?" She asked with a strange face.
"No." Ivy shook her head. To emphasize her point, she even mentioned, "That man never looked at any other woman."
She was worried that Patricia would think of Silas as a scumbag.
"Have you seen that man and the substitute together?" Martha pressed on, feeling she was very close to the truth.
Ivy was stunned and shook her head, her face darkening. Has Patricia tricked her? Was the story a lie to begin with?
"Do you suspect the substitute is lying?" Ivy asked in a suspicious tone.
"Hm... that would depend on where you met the substitute first," Martha asked, a glint flashing in her mind.
"In that man’s sister’s house," Ivy replied hurriedly, her heart skipping a beat as joy surged.
’Boss’s sister-in-law... I see. After Patricia left, Miss Ivy didn’t look miserable or bullied... instead she looked like she had realized her mistake... ’
No way a substitute could swagger in the base just to tell the white moonlight about her mistake until...
Martha’s eyes widened, and she looked at Ivy with pity.
’With a scheming man like that... will boss be eaten till no bone is left?’