31: Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Kate's eyes widened, "What did he tell you?!"2

Mai flinched when Kate raised her voice. She instinctively scooted away from Kate until she reached the edge of the seat.

"W—Well, Mr. Grant told me that you're pregnant with his child, and that… your relationship with him has been going on for a while before he even entered the company as CEO, and it's going strong, he said that you even plan to live together." 

"That piece of—" Kate shut her mouth before she said something vile. She was pregnant right now, and she didn't want her baby to hear vile words. 

She took a deep breath and stared at Mai, who had already hunched her back and lowered her head, 

"Okay, first of all, that's just not true. I don't have a relationship with him and we're definitely NOT going to live together, understand?"

"Um, it's okay, Ma'am," Mai said as she nodded her head. "Mr. Grant told me to keep it a secret because you're a very professional lady, and you don't want your relationship with him to disturb your work."

"That's not—ugh, okay, whatever," Kate rolled her eyes. That bastard seriously had the nerve to give false information to Mai. "Just don't say anything to anyone about this, okay? I don't want this to affect our work," Kate said as she gave up on explaining the situation to Mai. 

It seemed that Mai trusted Henry more than Kate for whatever reason. So Kate couldn't do anything other than letting her go.

Mai nodded, "T—Then, please excuse me, Ma'am. I have to talk to the HR department since Mr. Grant already changed my job from editor to his secretary."

"Yeah, you can go now."

Kate watched as Mai left her car and returned to the office. 

After making sure Mai was gone, she grabbed her phone and tried to find Henry's phone number.

She then realized that she hadn't saved Henry's number at all. It was just he who had her number.

"Ugh, I should've asked for his number too!" Kate complained for a moment but quickly threw that idea out of her head. "Wait, why should I have to ask for his number? He'll think I'm into him! That guy surely has the confidence and audacity to think that every woman is into him!"

As Kate was busy groaning and complaining, her phone suddenly rang. 

She checked the caller Id, but it was actually an unknown number.

Kate knew instantly the identity of the caller. So she took a deep breath and accepted his call.

—

"Didn't expect you to pick up the call so fast, Kitty. Did you miss me already?" The man on the call asked flirtatiously, much to Kate's disgust.

"Mr. Grant, what did you tell Mai? How come she somehow thinks that we're dating?!" Kate asked straight to the point. 

"Hm? I just told her that we're a couple, and I'm just here to help you to run the company," Henry said without a worry in his voice, as if being romantically involved with an employee had no repercussions whatsoever. 

Well, he wouldn't suffer from any repercussion because he treated this company like a toy castle he could crush if he wanted to. 

But Kate had suffered enough from malicious rumors in her office. For the past four years of her career in Emperor Publishing, she had endured enough of those evil gossips.

"You—Do you know how bad it might be if she told your lies to everyone?!" 

"Don't worry about that. I already told her to keep it a secret," Henry said. 

"That still doesn't guarantee that no one will find out or that Mai won't accidentally tell someone!" 

"You're overthinking, Kitty," Henry assured. "I won't let her do anything that will damage your career or reputation. I just needed something to convince her to let her guard down around me so that she would trust me enough to give me your schedule."

"Besides, what did I tell you about calling my name?" Henry recalled.

Kate's lips thinned, and she muttered, "You're crazy, Henry."

"I know, that's why I'm always in your head, right?" Henry chuckled. "Anyway, I'm still on the road, I'm not going back to the office because it bores me to death. I'll call you later in the evening, don't miss me too much, okay?"

Beep.

—

"That son of a gun!" Kate yelled as she threw her phone at the empty passenger seat next to her. "How could he treat his job like some kind of preschool gathering where he could come and go as he pleases? Does he not know anything about integrity and discipline?! Argh!" 

She finally took a deep breath and rested her head on the steering wheel, "Good thing nobody in the office knows about my current marital status. It'll be a huge scandal if Henry spreads false rumors about us and ends up becoming the trending topic for the gossip hunters in the office."

Contrary to everyone's belief, Kate was actually not that close to the rest of her coworkers. She rose up in rank really fast because of her ability to spot best-selling manuscripts with a quick read, she didn't have time to mingle with others between her job and her chores at home. 

With her quick rise in ranks, many of those who worked in the office before he became envious and started spreading malicious rumors that she was using her body to seduce Mr. James Grant.

Those malicious rumors hurt her at first, and Matt never really did anything to help her, "He didn't even try to comfort me when I told him about my problem, he kept telling me that his life was harder because he failed another audition… come to think about it, maybe I've been tolerating him way too much…."

Fortunately, the malicious rumors didn't last long when Kate managed to prove herself deserving of her position with all the merits and profits she gave the company.

But that rumor still damaged her relationship with her coworkers nonetheless. She became a recluse in her own office. So far, nobody in the office knew about her personal life, be it her husband's identity or even her address.

"Just like how I became estranged at my own home with Erin replacing me to be Matt's new woman since I'm too busy at work…."

Kate tried to ignore the pain in her heart. She had been trying her best to give a good life to everyone around her, but none of them ever gave her credit for everything she had done and sacrificed for them.

The only thing they had in mind was her inability to have a child, and they always put all of her achievements down because of that. 

Kate slowly put her warm palm on her stomach and murmured, "Now that I have a baby of my own, why don't I feel as happy as I thought I would be? Is it because the baby has no connection to my husband at all? Or is it because my baby was conceived over heartbreak that night?"

Kate didn't understand either, but all she wanted was to protect her baby and to carry on with her life.

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