Chapter 2

In an instant, everyone’s attention focused on the velvet box on the floor, and they all seemed curious about what was inside.

Sophia Hart’s brows drew together slightly.

Ever since we had gotten together, I had always gone along with everything she said. I had never embarrassed her the way I did today.

“Ethan, have you gotten bold? How can you just throw away something so important?”

For some reason, I thought I saw anger in Sophia Hart’s eyes.

She had arranged for me to give up my position, yet now she was making that face. Who was she trying to fool?

She loved Ryan Blake, didn’t she? I had given him not only the general manager’s position but her as well. She should have been secretly celebrating.

Without me standing in their way, they could finally be together in the open.

Ryan Blake stiffened and stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do.

“Ethan, I really don’t care about the position. Are you angry?”

“Don’t be angry. I’ll talk to Sophia later. I don’t want the position, and I can’t accept whatever’s inside this box either.”

“If I took it, what would everyone think of me afterward?”

As he spoke, he bent down, picked up the box, and handed it to Sophia Hart instead of me.

So he knew everything about what was going on between Sophia Hart and me.

He even knew exactly what was inside the box.

Sophia Hart gripped the velvet box, glanced at me, and smiled as she shoved it into Ryan Blake’s hands.

“Since he gave it to you, take it.”

“Ethan, let me make one thing clear. Since you’ve given it away, don’t come crying to me later and beg me to buy you another one.”

I shook my head with a self-mocking smile. I had always wanted a diamond ring, but every time I brought it up with Sophia Hart, she rejected the idea, saying it would attract too much attention at the company.

Even this ring was something I had mentioned several times before she finally agreed to buy it for me.

It really was something I had begged for.

So it wasn’t strange for Sophia Hart to say something like that.

After hearing her words, Ryan Blake didn’t hesitate. He slipped the box straight into his pocket.

“Ethan, from now on, you’ll be Ryan’s assistant.”

Ryan’s assistant?

How ridiculous. With my abilities, making me his assistant was clearly Sophia Hart’s way of using me to establish Ryan’s authority in the company.

“Since I’ve already stepped down, H&H Group doesn’t need me anymore. Naturally, its employees have nothing to do with me either.”

Sophia Hart understood the implication behind my words. Her face turned dark, but she ignored it and immediately changed the subject.

“Ethan, stop making a scene.”

“Hurry inside and celebrate with us. Ryan created this success for the company.”

She really couldn’t go a single sentence without mentioning Ryan.

She was even crediting him for the company’s current success.

“Ethan, you’ve already held everyone up for so long. Whatever you have to say, discuss it at the office tomorrow. Eat first.”

“Don’t make everyone go hungry.”

The two of them sang the same tune. Just looking at them made wave after wave of nausea rise in my stomach. How could I possibly eat?

I stood there without moving. Seeing that, Sophia Hart turned around, grabbed my hand, and pulled me inside.

She forced me into a seat by pressing down on my shoulders.

Then she walked around me and sat down beside Ryan Blake.

“Go ahead and eat. You never have time to attend the company’s dinners. Since you finally came to one, don’t sit there with that long face like we owe you a hundred thousand dollars.”

It wasn’t that I didn’t have time. It was that she scheduled every company dinner and celebration while I was away on business, making it impossible for me to attend.

And now she was blaming me for it?

As soon as she finished speaking, Ryan Blake spun the lazy Susan in front of him and sent a plate of foie gras toward me.

“Ethan, Sophia ordered this especially for me. It tastes great. You should try some too.”

Sophia Hart knew that I never ate organ meat, just as she never did.

Yet she didn’t say a word for me. She simply let Ryan pressure me into eating it.

I didn’t pick up my fork. Ryan and I silently fought over the matter, neither of us willing to back down.

Sophia Hart suddenly spun the lazy Susan. I thought she was trying to get me out of the situation, but in the next second, she dumped the entire plate of foie gras into my dish.

“Eating one piece won’t kill you. Ethan, what exactly are you being so fussy about?”

“Why are you dragging your feet like some whiny woman?”

“If I tell you to eat, then eat!”