“I never said I would fire you,” Aaron said.

Alyssa frowned impatiently. What is he dawdling about? Just sign the damn thing! “Yes, you didn’t. I want to quit. Can you just sign it?”

She was mad at him, but she didn’t know why. She just found him annoying at this moment.

“Stay. You’ll be my personal assistant, like Callum, and your pay will be doubled,” Aaron offered.

Alyssa grunted. She cared more than her position and her pay. She wasn’t that short-sighted.

“Do you know what I just heard in the elevator?” she asked.

Aaron met her eyes in confusion.

“The female employees think I slept with someone to get the new contract signed. Huh, they are right. Only that I don’t like foreigners or men with a hairy chest or a beard,” she went on.

He looked at her. She wore a disdainful expression, the look in her eyes wistful.

“Terrel doesn’t have a beard, and he is Chinese American,” Aaron announced.

Alyssa weighed her choices. If she left, Pamela won.

She should stay, do a better job than her and take that bitch down!

“Deal! I’ll stay. But I need one day off. I’ll come to work tomorrow,” she decided.

“Granted,” Aaron said.

Alyssa walked out of his office. At the entrance, she stopped and sat on the steps. Suddenly, her phone buzzed. It was Basil.

Before she had left for America, she had told him nothing about it. Nor did she say anything afterwards. She had had a long sleep after she came back, and then had been busy with her resignation. So, they hadn’t talked for a while. On some level, she had been avoiding his calls. She didn’t want to worry him.

“Hello?” she said.

“Alyssa, where are you?” Basil asked anxiously once she answered the phone.

“I’m at the entrance of JK Group.”

“Wait for me. I’m going there to pick you up,” he said.

After hanging up the phone, Alyssa waited on the steps, with her hands propped against her chin. She watched the busy traffic and thought she had to do something.

She pulled out her phone from her bag and texted her friends on the WeChat group chat.

Basil got there soon. He took her to a cafe. He was quiet all the way along, his face grim. Sitting at the table, Alyssa twirled the coffee mug nervously, too worried to look at him.

“Alyssa, what were you thinking? That’s ninety million! How do you plan to pay it off? And you neither told me about it nor asked me for help. Instead, you went to America alone,” Basil complained.

When Alyssa had been in trouble, she hadn’t thought of him. He wasn’t happy about it.

“How could I possibly ask you for help? Your parents already look down on me. If I ask you for 90 million, I’ll never earn their respect,” she muttered.

She didn’t think she had done anything wrong.

“You should have at least let me know. I’m your boyfriend. I should be helping you. Otherwise, what do you need a boyfriend for?”

Basil was so angry he couldn’t help raising his voice. She seldom counted on him and would rather solve her problems on her own. It made him feel that he was merely an outsider to her.

Alyssa lowered her head, looking dejected. Basil had noticed her low spirits when he reached the entrance of JK Group. She had looked melancholy sitting there alone.

Then she told him what happened and how Pamela had set her up. Alyssa was ambitious, and Basil knew how much she wanted to prove herself in JK Group. He could imagine how sad she was right now.

He stood up, walked over to her, and pulled her in his arms. “I was worried about you. It was a significant matter. How could you deal with it by yourself? You should have counted on me.

Cheer up. No matter what, you’re the best,” he coaxed her tenderly.

She was sensitive, so he took care with his words. It pained him to see her hurt.