Chapter 3

Nikita turned around as surprise flitted past her eyes. It was Regina and Nathaniel.

Regina cheerily bounded over to Ruby and linked arms with her affectionately. She smiled and said, "Sorry, Ruby. I don't have much money because I've just graduated this year, and I've been too busy to buy you anything.

"All I can do is give you a scarf that I knitted. Once I get my salary, I'll definitely make it up to you. Is that okay?"

The ice in Ruby's eyes melted away as she smiled and said dotingly, "Oh, you. I'm happy enough that you're here. To think you knitted me a scarf! The day Nathaniel learns to treat me like you do will be the happiest day of my life."

There was a clear sense of affection in her words that one would only appear when she was around friends and family.

Nikita frowned. She had a general understanding of the Foster family's friends and family, but she couldn't recall any of them having Lane as a last name.

Regina also dressed quite plainly in daily life. Even today, she wore a simple evening dress that was probably worth a hundred dollars or so. It was hard to imagine her coming from an affluent family.

Regina turned, acting like she'd just seen Nikita. She smiled and said, "You're here, too, Ms. Shea!"

Then, she held Ruby's hand and said, "I'm in awe of your charm, Ruby. Even Ms. Shea is here to celebrate your birthday with you! She's really cool, you know, and everyone respects her at the company. She's the chief secretary, too! Anyone who can get to that position at her age will shine anywhere!"

Ruby's expression turned disdainful. "Certain people don't need to have skills, Gigi. All they need is to engage in shameless behavior to climb the ladder. Unfortunately, such people are also the ones who generally end up the worst."

Naturally, Nikita caught Ruby's underlying meaning. However, she was already used to it. She'd heard worse in the past.

Regina's innocent expression morphed into one of confusion. She asked, "What do you mean by that, Ruby?"

Ruby shot Nikita a derisive look before saying, "You're too innocent to understand, Gigi. Well, certain things are better left unknown. You don't have to puzzle over it."

Nikita glanced at Nathaniel out of the corner of her eye, but his attention wasn't on them at all. He was lazily speaking to a few friends.

She sighed to herself and bowed her head respectfully. "I still have work to attend to at the office, Madam Ruby, so I'll leave you to it."

…

Nikita returned to the company. Before she could even sit, her assistant, Laura Anderson, ran over to her in a panic. She pushed a financial document to Nikita and cried, "Look at this, Nikki!"

Nikita hurriedly flipped through a few pages and soon realized something was wrong. Several sets of data were wrong, and a crucial measurement had been shortened. She flipped to the front of the document and saw that Regina had checked them.

Laura's forehead was covered in sweat. "This report has already been sent to the production line. What are we going to do? Will we be in time to recall this?"

Nikita didn't answer her. Instead, she quickly flipped through the rest of the document to ensure nothing else was wrong before saying soothingly, "Don't panic. I'll call them and check."

Fortunately, this wasn't the first batch that had been sent to production. In the past, if there were any changes in measurements, Nikita would remind the production line and verify the changes beforehand.

Hence, the manufacturer hadn't started producing the items yet. When Nikita called them, the person in charge had been preparing to see her. She apologized for the mistake and quickly sent the amended documents to them. Then, she sighed in relief.

Laura was furious. "All Regina does with her pea-sized brain is use it on ways to seduce men! She's made multiple mistakes just from verifying some data; putting her in the secretariat department is a recipe for trouble!"

"That's enough." Nikita stopped Laura from going any further. "Since nothing actually went wrong, let's just pretend none of this ever happened."

Laura gnashed her teeth, looking indignant. "Doesn't she have to bear any responsibility for this? The company would've lost millions of dollars if this batch of materials had gone to waste!"

Nikita fell silent. Knowing how protective Nathaniel was over Regina, he probably wouldn't say anything if he'd lost the money, let alone the fact that nothing had actually happened now.

She could only appease Laura and say, "She's still young and careless when it comes to her work. She'll get better as long as we keep reminding her in the future."

Unfortunately, what Nikita didn't expect was to hear news of Laura being fired later in the day. A colleague told her that Regina had returned late that afternoon, and Laura couldn't help telling her off a little.

She hadn't used a harsh tone, but Regina's eyes had reddened on the spot before she'd started weeping. Nathaniel had seen this.

The colleague couldn't help feeling disgusted yet envious of Regina. She clucked her tongue and said, "Honestly, I don't know where Regina got her luck from. I can't believe Mr. Foster is so protective of her."

She looked at Nikita and fanned the flames. "I think you're much better than her, Ms. Shea. None of these mistakes have ever happened with you in the secretariat—"

Before she could get any further, Nikita said, "Alright, that's enough. I'll deal with this."

She didn't have anything against Regina. Since Nathaniel wanted to defend her, the latter would have the privilege to make a few minor errors without any consequences.

It was just that Laura had many important tasks at hand. If she were to leave just like that, it would be easy for things to go wrong without anyone to follow up on her work.

After some hesitation, Nikita still went to the CEO's office. When she knocked on the door and entered, Regina was still weeping softly while Nathaniel coaxed her. He didn't show any sign of impatience.

When he saw Nikita, he said coldly, "Wait outside."

She had no choice but to turn and leave. Before shutting the door, she heard Regina say, "You can go ahead and deal with work, Nathaniel. I'll be fine."

His voice was gentle as he said, "It's fine. Nothing is more important than you are."

Nikita lowered her eyes, concealing the emotions in them. She stood in the corridor and waited for close to two hours. Finally, Nathaniel came out of his office.

She shifted her legs, which were numb from standing, and greeted him. As soon as she did so, he held up a hand to stop her. "Keep your voice down. She's asleep."

Nikita felt like something was lodged in her throat. She couldn't say anything else.

Nathaniel's expression turned frosty as he looked at her. "Didn't I tell you to guide and protect her? Is this all you can do?"