third person's POV
Elliott asked, "Cliff, should we have Mr. Thompson fire Miss Coleman?"
"No need." Cliff said flatly, "From now on, I won't get involved in Melinda's business anymore."
"Yes."
"Go drive, I wanted to see Vanya."
"Go to the Thompson family business?" Elliot was stunned—wouldn't that mean running into Miss Coleman?
"Some things, I wanted to ask her myself."
On the set of the Thompson family business, Vanya was drinking the juice Calvert brought.
Calvert let her be his assistant on the surface, but actually didn't ask her to do anything. He just let her stand by and "zone out."
Calvert smiled at her while filming, and Vanya made a face back at him. His smile got even bigger.
At that moment, Sabrina stood at the door and saw what was happening. She frowned and said, "Vanya, come out for a second, someone's looking for you outside."
Vanya got up and straightened her clothes. She was wondering who would come to see her during work hours, and then she saw all the female employees in the office standing up and looking toward the door.
Evans followed Cliff and said eagerly, "Cliff, the project we worked on together got a great response from the market. It's an honor to have you come and check out our work."
Cliff had been absent-minded until he saw Vanya, then his eyes softened a bit.
Sabrina said on the side, "Mr. Thompson, Cliff, the person is here, this is Vanya."
Vanya frowned, didn't expect Cliff to find this place while she was at work.
"Find a quiet meeting room, I wanted to talk to Vanya alone."
"Okay, okay, I'll have someone get it ready right now!" Evans immediately told Sabrina to take care of it.
Sabrina glanced at Vanya with dissatisfaction, her eyes full of disdain and jealousy.
Evans looked at Vanya and then at Cliff, and said to Cliff, "Cliff, anything else?"
Elliot said to Evans, "Mr. Thompson, you go ahead and do your thing. Cliff will leave soon after he finishes asking questions."
"Then I'll get back to work. The meeting room is just ahead, it should be ready, please go ahead." Evans said, glancing at Vanya again.
I really couldn't figure out what the relationship was between this intern and Cliff.
Actually, the one who should've been involved with Cliff was Melinda. The relationships in this circle were really messy!
Vanya walked into the meeting room and asked, "You came all the way to the Thompson family business to find me, so what else do you want?"
She thought she'd made things clear last time they met.
Cliff said in a low voice, "What exactly was your relationship with M Group?"
"You already asked this yesterday," Vanya said. "Did you drink too much yesterday, Cliff, and forget?"
Cliff frowned, "Vanya, I did this for your own good. Kendrick was a ruthless businessman. The Dalton family working with him wouldn't end well."
"Kendrick was bad, but still better than you." Vanya clearly remembered how the Dalton family lost in her previous life.
Cliff used his family and then kicked them aside, even taking away their most profitable business bit by bit.
She hadn't forgotten any of that, and now Cliff said these things, which just made her feel it was funny.
"Kendrick, Wilmot, Derek, and Theodore..."
Cliff's cedar pheromones suddenly got thick like ink, carrying a burning sulfur smell as he slowly stood up. Every step he took closer made the ground seem to shake.
The invisible pressure rushed toward Vanya like a tide, and her vertical pupils narrowed into dangerous slits in the shadows.
He went on, "You got close to so many men, all for the Dalton family, right?"
"This had nothing to do with you!"
Vanya's lily of the valley pheromones put up a sharp barrier, and the wolf ears pulled back a little in resistance. My fingertips tensed up without thinking, almost ready to pop out wolf claws.
"You said you liked me back then, insisted on forming a contract with me, all for the Dalton family, right!"
Cliff's voice carried a suppressed wolf howl, and violent sparks burst in the scent of cedar.
His knuckles showed silvery wolf fur from the force, and there was the fury of betrayal swirling in his eyes.
Vanya looked up at him—she used to really like Cliff and wanted to marry him no matter what, but he had never truly chosen her.
Her pupils slightly dilated with the change in her mood.
"Yeah, I did it all for the Dalton family. Honestly, I never even liked you. Happy now?"
Her voice was as calm as a frozen lake, but the scent of lily of the valley carried a sharp, stinging resolve.
"Vanya!" Cliff punched the wall, and there was a dull crack as the bricks broke.
His fist was already half-beast. Silver-gray wolf claws tore through his palm, and blood mixed with pheromones burst out.
The veins on his forehead bulged like twisted vines, "So you were playing me all along!"
"Yeah, did Cliff come to see me just to prove that?"
Vanya said calmly, The lily of the valley pheromone covered all emotions like thin ice, so that messy anger couldn't hurt me.
"You had Melinda, and I had someone else. That was fair."
When Melinda was mentioned, the pressure around Cliff disappeared all of a sudden like a balloon being popped. The cedar pheromones cooled down right away, the violence in his vertical pupils faded, and there was only a blank, pale emptiness left.