Chapter 5

Zara headed back to her rented place to pack up her stuff.

"Zara, you're back? I was about to start searching for you in every hospital tomorrow if you still hadn't shown up today."

"Yeah, I'm fine now."

Cecil Jones was Zara's roommate and university dorm buddy. The two had been living together for the past six or seven years. They had always had a good relationship with each other.

Throughout Zara's hospital stay, Cecil was the only one who showed real worry for her. However, Zara kept the truth from her, claiming she was just sick and refusing any visits.

Slipping into her house slippers, Cecil walked up to Zara's room and found her crouched on the floor while folding clothes.

"Off on another business trip? You just got sick not long ago, and you're already jetting off? Can your body handle it? Why is Yosef such a jerk? Why does he always have to push you so hard?"

Cecil was well aware of Zara's rocky relationship with Yosef and had never been a big fan of him.

Zara was not sure how long she would be away, so she laid it out straight. "I've been sent to work on a project in Feria.

"Cecil, I'll pay the rent for another three months. If I'm not back by then and you need to find a new roommate, just tell me. I'll come back to grab whatever's left."

Cecil blinked in surprise. “Hold on, why the sudden relocation?"

Zara shrugged. “Reassignments are pretty normal, right?"

It was normal for others, but considering the relationship Zara and Yosef shared, how could a thing like this happen? Cecil, sharp as ever, cut right to the chase. "Did you guys have a fallout or something?"

Zara tried to dodge the question and got up to grab her stuff. As luck would have it, a slip of paper fluttered out of her pocket. Before she could even react, Cecil had swooped in, unfolded the paper, and was scanning it.

It was a medical report.

Cecil's eyes went wide as she looked from the paper to Zara, then back to the date. It was when Zara had been away!

The pieces clicked into place. "You were in the hospital for this, weren't you? It was Yosef's kid, right? Did he tell you to... And now he's kicking you to the curb? That jerk! I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind!"

Cecil might look like a sweetheart, but she was a total firecracker. She would definitely confront Yosef if she thought he had wronged Zara.

Zara grabbed Cecil's arm in a panic. "Cecil! He doesn't know, okay? It was an accident. I lost the baby by mistake."

Cecil's brow furrowed in confusion. "You didn't tell him?"

Zara's lips tightened. "He doesn't need to know."

Cecil was at a loss. "What's going through your head?"

Without another word, Zara snatched the report, ripped it to shreds, and tossed them into the trash. "Nothing much. I just figured it's not his business."

Cecil could not wrap her head around Zara's logic, but she was upset on her friend's behalf.

While Zara went to the bathroom, Cecil gritted her teeth and picked up the shreds from the trash. She put them away, just in case.

By nightfall, Zara was on a plane to Feria.

For the next month, she only touched base with headquarters to update them on the project's progress. She had zero contact with Yosef.

The other two secretaries in the office were pretty friendly with her, sometimes dishing out the latest gossip from the grapevine during their coffee breaks.

They talked about how Mr. Webb would go out of his way to look after Beatrice. He did not just show her the ropes at work; he took good care of her outside of the office too.

There was this one rainy evening when Beatrice was working overtime. Mr. Webb, who had already left, came back just to give her a lift home. That sparked a wildfire of whispers around the office, suggesting Beatrice was Mr. Webb's lover.

When the whispers reached Mr. Webb's ears, the one responsible for the rumors was promptly fired.

Just like that, there was another new rumor going around—Mr. Webb had a soft spot for Beatrice, and everyone knew it.

Zara's thoughts drifted back to her early days with Yosef, how he had taken her under his wing and taught her the ropes. At that time, there were similar rumors in the company. What was Yosef's reaction back then?

He had just shrugged it off with a nonchalant, "Aren't you?"

Over the years, Zara had worked hard to carve out her place at Azure Cloud. She finally shook off the gossip that used to follow her.

She had pegged Yosef as someone who was ruthless with the inability to love anyone. It turned out that he could be a knight in shining armor too.

It was just that she was not the one he chose to save.

Without thinking, Zara's hand drifted to her stomach. Over a month had gone by, and she was the only one who knew the secret of what she had lost.

Two months flew by, and the Feria project was almost wrapped up. Zara got the inside scoop from her two colleagues—Mr. Webb was going to swing by Feria and check out the branch office.

They told her this was her big chance to make a move and try to get back to the main office.