Chapter 2The CEO's Free Labor

I sniffled hard, suppressing the bitter lump rising in my throat.

"What are you doing right now?"

Ethan's voice carried its usual exhaustion and dependence.

"Just finished a business dinner. Drank so much my stomach is killing me."

"If only you were here."

If it were the old me, hearing those words would have broken my heart, and I would have immediately said, "I'm here for you."

And then he would naturally push a pile of even more difficult work onto me.

This time, I didn't reply.

The phone was quiet for a few seconds before he spoke up again.

"Oh, right, Chloe, you probably still can't leave tomorrow."

"Mr. Wang from the Apex Group is bringing his wife and kids to Seattle for a vacation the day after tomorrow. I need you to host them for the entire trip."

The train ticket I originally booked to go home before the New Year, I had changed and canceled, canceled and changed.

I couldn't remember how many times my trip home had been delayed.

I only remembered my grandmother cautiously asking on the phone several times:

"Chloe, can you make it back this year? Grandma cured that bacon you love so much."

My voice trembled uncontrollably as I asked him,

"Why is it me again? I haven't had a day off all year, and I haven't been home in a long time."

"And Grandma is sick. You know I have to go back and see her."

Ethan's tone instantly turned several degrees colder, and he started with his usual old rhetoric:

"The company belongs to both of us. I'm out here busting my ass to get investments, so of course you have to guard the home front for me."

"Whether this partnership works out entirely depends on this hosting job. You're the only one I trust with it."

Seeing that I didn't respond, he softened his tone to coax me again.

"Be good. Once we land this partnership, I'll go back with you."

"Doesn't your grandmother want to see you settle down more than anything? Once we're stable, I'll take you back in style, okay?"

Before I could say another word, the call was disconnected.

This wasn't the first time he had made such a promise.

In the third year of our secret relationship, after he found out I only had my grandmother left in the world...

"Going home with you to see Grandma" became the empty promise he drew for me, one he never intended to fulfill.

The summer before last, when he needed me to deliver a contract across town in the pouring rain while I was running a high fever, he said,

"Deliver it, and we can sign the contract. Once it's signed, I'll go home with you to see Grandma."

During our fourth Spring Festival, when he wanted me to give up my vacation days, he said,

"Work some overtime this New Year's Eve. Once we're through this busy period, I promise I'll go back with you."

And even now, he was still saying,

"Wait until we work hard enough to buy a house in Seattle and stabilize. Then we'll go back to see Grandma and bring her here to live with us."

But in reality, he already had a house.

A brightly lit riverview mansion.

And the woman of the house wasn't me.

My phone buzzed suddenly. A message from Ethan popped up on the screen.

[Don't be unhappy during the holidays. Take this money and buy yourself something nice to eat. I'll make it up to you when I get back.]

[The company's accounts are tight this year, sorry you have to suffer. I'll definitely give you more next year.]

Then a red envelope notification popped up.

I didn't open it, but I knew the maximum amount was only two hundred dollars.

At the exact same time, that woman updated her status:

[My husband transferred the company's entire net profit for the year to my card, not a penny less~]

Attached was a screenshot of a bank account balance.

Behind the first digit, there were eight neat zeros.

A netizen who, like me, had dug into the woman's profile from the "managing employees" post asked,

[Your husband made so much this year, how much did he give that female employee to make her work so hard for him?]

She replied mockingly,

[Two hundred is plenty. Honestly, I couldn't bear to watch, so I told him to send it to that work-whore pulling an all-nighter outside, hehe.]