Chapter 2
After a moment of stunned silence, someone knocked on my door.
I looked up. Sophie stood in the doorway, beaming at me.
“Emily,” she said, her voice soft and sweet. “I just finished reporting to Daniel, and he seemed really down. He asked if I wanted to grab drinks with him. I’m here to ask-would it be okay if I went with him?”
She was direct, even polite in her phrasing. But the smugness in her eyes was impossible to hide.
For the past six months, she had been putting on this act in front of me.
She was playing humble, hiding her ambition, but she couldn’t hide that little spark of triumph.
I watched her quietly, puzzled.
When exactly had Daniel changed?
Why had he become so fond of this girl who acted all innocent?
At first, Daniel couldn’t stand Sophie, calling her flighty and immature, sure she wouldn’t make it past
probation.
This continued until that important client meeting, when Daniel suddenly had a stomach cramp.
I was traveling for business at the time.
Apparently, Sophie cried her eyes out and stayed by his hospital bedside for two straight days without sleep
After that incident, Daniel’s attitude toward Sophie completely changed.
They grew closer by the day.
Sophie started calling Daniel her mentor, practically hanging on his every word.
soon, everyone at the office knew Daniel had taken her under his wing.
And me? I became the office joke-the so-called “official girlfriend.”
Whenever I heard those jokes, I stayed expressionless.
But Daniel didn’t care. He’d just laugh and pinch my cheek.
“What official girlfriend? Don’t listen to their nonsense. I only love you.”
Now, could he still claim he loved only me?
I smiled coldly at Sophie.
She kept grinning. “Emily, are you upset with me?”
Before I could answer, Daniel strode over.
‘Sophie, didn’t I tell you to wait in the conference room? What are you doing here?”
‘I… I just wasn’t sure if I should say yes…” Sophie twisted her fingers together nervously, as if afraid of naking him mad. “So I wanted to hear what Emily thought.”
Daniel’s expression immediately softened. “If I want you there, why would I need anyone else’s permission?”
‘But…” Sophie lowered her head, the corner of her mouth barely curving upward before she resumed her
esitant act,
Daniel turned to me, his gaze impatient.
‘Sophie’s being respectful enough, isn’t she? She’s asking your opinion about dinner, while you can’t even ake a simple joke.”
He still thought their tampering with my transfer was some harmless joke. And I was the unreasonable one.
But why?
Why should I accept this kind of “joke”?
let out a bitter laugh.
Respectful? These past six months, she had been playing games with you right under my nose. Are you eally that blind?”
She brought you breakfast and love notes every day in front of the whole office, clinging to you like hat-you call that appropriate?”
‘She desperately insisted on calling you mentor, making everyone uncomfortable. Don’t you see how fake
she is?”
Sophie’s face went white.
Her shoulders began to tremble as tears started falling.
Chapter 2
Daniel’s face darkened completely.
“Emily, when did you get so vicious?”
He let out a cold, mocking laugh.
“Act like this? Forget being the ‘official girlfriend’-you wouldn’t survive a day in my world!”
