Chapter 3

Since Samuel and I were university mates who stayed together throughout the establishment of the company, we had many mutual friends.

None of them knew about the bad blood we had with each other in our previous life. All they saw was the fact that Samuel had gone nuts on his wedding and broke up with his girlfriend, whom he had dated for many years.

At that time, everyone pitied me while berating Samuel for being a massive jerk.

I spent two days sorting out documents under the guise of being sad. On the third day, I barged into Samuel's office with a few friends.

The moment I entered the office, I was stunned by how filthy it was. There was trash everywhere on the floor, while empty takeout boxes littered the tables. The air stank a lot, to say the least.

I looked around my surroundings before focusing on the person closest to me. "Where's Samuel?"

The man, Joshua Hills, simpered at me. "Are you here to visit Sam, Mrs. Ford?"

"Mrs. Ford? That title isn't meant for me."

I scoffed before continuing coldly, "Let me ask you one more time. Where is Samuel? I need to talk to him about something. Tell him to meet me now."

Joshua shrank away from me. Then, he turned to look at the others pleadingly.

The office was quite small. There were six more people working in the office other than Joshua. Everyone had attended the wedding, which was ultimately reduced to a circus.

They swapped glances with each other. Finally, a man in a checkered shirt and had dark rings under his eyes answered me, "Sam has left the office. He's not here at the moment."

"You're… Tyler Zimmerman?" I managed to dig out this name from the recesses of my mind.

In my previous life, Tyler had left the company in the fifth year I got married to Samuel. His reason was that his goals didn't align with the company's anymore.

At that time, I no longer visited the company that much. But since Tyler was a friend with whom I had faced hardships, I had called him to invite him to a meal after hearing that he'd be leaving soon.

He didn't accept my invitation. All he said over the phone was, "Penny, you're a good person. Here's a word of advice—Samuel is a piece of shit. You should watch out for yourself."

At that time, I thought Tyler had said those things to me because he and Samuel got into a fight. Some time in the future, I finally realized that he must have seen Samuel's true colors a long time ago.

I took a deep breath and tried to sound gentle as I said, "I need to discuss something important with Samuel. Can you tell him to come back to the office?"

Joshua quickly took over the conversation. "Okay! Give me a second, Mrs. Ford! I'll call Sam right away!"

I frowned, but I didn't remind him to change his nickname for me.

The calling tone rang a few times. Soon, Samuel's voice drifted from the other end of the line.

"Oh, Josh. What's up?"

"Sam, Mrs. Ford's looking for you—"

Samuel ended the call abruptly.

Poor Joshua, who didn't get to finish his sentence, was left feeling awkward. He just squeezed out an awkward smile. "Um, maybe Sam's busy at the moment—"

I interrupted, "No need to explain on his behalf. Since he's not here today, please pass him a message. I want him to gather and return me the money I've invested into this office as well as the salary he owes me.

"I'm only giving him two days' time. If he doesn't return the money to me by then, I'll have to ask the court to help me out."

When we first established the office, things were insanely difficult for us. So, I invested my savings into the office and even borrowed a ton of money from Aunt Linda. When I helped Samuel with the administrative tasks, I never asked him for any salary.

Back then, Samuel had hugged me while wondering out loud what he had done to have possibly deserved a woman as amazing as me. Now, the recollection of that memory just made me feel like the biggest idiot in the world.

Joshua was momentarily stunned, but panic soon set in. "Don't do that, Mrs. Ford! Our office is doing well, isn't it? Why are you taking the money all of a sudden?"

Since their own profits were being threatened, the other staff members began convincing me to drop the case.

"Don't get mad, Mrs. Ford. You should talk it out with Sam once he gets back to the office. Don't make your decision so brashly."

"That's right! You two were together for so long, after all. Don't ruin your relationship just because of something as minuscule as money!"

"Precisely! Mrs. Ford, even if you and Sam are fighting with each other, don't go around venting your frustrations on the office, alright?"

Everyone kept talking to me at the same time. They might sound like they were advising me, but in reality, they were blaming me for not taking the situation into consideration.

I knew that everyone put their blood, sweat, and tears into starting the small company. If I were to retrieve my portion of money and leave at this time, I'd put a ton of pressure on their shoulders.

But why should I care about them?

Although these people referred to me as Mrs. Ford, they were still Samuel's friends at the end of the day.

In my previous life, when Samuel and Maggie were flirting with each other, these people—also known as the company's core members as well as Samuel's friends—must have known about their relationship. However, all of them chose to remain silent and not tell me anything.

In that case, why should I care about them?

"Don't yap about those things in front of me. Just send the message to Samuel."

After all, Samuel would have to worry about a lot more things.

…

"Penelope Waterworth, what on earth do you want from me?"

The moment I picked up the phone, I heard Samuel's enraged voice drifting into my ears. "You knew that we just made an investment to have our equipment changed. We haven't collected the payment for our new project, either. Why are you demanding money from me right now?"

"So?" I remained impassive. "What does your office have to do with me?"

Samuel seemed to be speechless for a moment. Then, he replied in a softer and slower tone, "Penelope, I know you're mad at me for canceling the wedding, but you can't just take out your anger on the office, you know.

"It's tough for my friends to work with me. I even promised them that I'd distribute bonuses to them at the end of this month. You—"

I cut him off impatiently, "Samuel, just tell me—are you going to return the money to me or not? Don't blame me for not reminding you when you receive the court summons in two days!"

Samuel falls silent for a short while. He replied gruffly, "Are you that ruthless? Aren't you going to take our former relationship into consideration? What about our friends in the office, huh?"

Relationship?

Samuel probably thought I was still the naive and soft-hearted Penelope Waterworth from the past. He thought I was angry at myself for getting dumped at the wedding, so he tried to use my morals against me.

"What sort of former relationship did we have anyway? Are you talking about the times I suffered and stretched myself thin for your sake? Or the time when I suddenly got humiliated by you at the wedding?"