third person's POV
Outside the door, a few employees curiously peeked inside.
"How come Cliff suddenly came to our company?"
"What was his relationship with that new intern?"
"How come I heard that Cliff and the new girl Melinda were actually the ones dating? Then this..."
Melinda, who was passing by, heard the conversation and tensed up. She asked, "Who did you say just came?"
A few people saw Melinda coming over and quickly went back to their desks.
Melinda frowned, "I was asking you guys, who came?"
A female employee whispered, "It's Cliff, he's here, and he's calling Vanya in for questioning."
"Cliff?" A look of joy flashed across Melinda's face.
In the meeting room, Cliff leaned in close to Vanya and whispered, "Vanya, I'm doing this for your own good. Stay away from people like Theodore and Kendrick. They only get close to you because they want something."
Vanya didn't answer and took a step back. "Cliff, if there's nothing else, I'll go first."
She was the first to walk out of the meeting room. As soon as she pushed the door open, she ran into the employees in the workspace who were craning their necks to watch the show.
A trace of jealousy flashed in Melinda's eyes, but when she saw Cliff coming out of the meeting room, she immediately put on a different expression.
Melinda walked up to Cliff in her high heels, smiling brightly: "Cliff, you came."
Cliff frowned, didn't want to get involved with her.
He was about to walk around, but Melinda reached out and took his arm, acting all cute like she was talking to her boyfriend: "Cliff, did you come here just to see me?"
She looked full of expectation, because Vanya was quietly watching this scene not far away.
"Vanya, was the juice still good?"
At that moment, Calvert walked over near the break room and handed a piece of afternoon tea cake to Vanya.
Cliff showed up just now and put Vanya in a bad mood. She just went "yeah" without much thought.
Cliff looked up and met Vanya's eyes, then glanced at Calvert next to her.
Vanya seemed easygoing with every man except him.
"Cliff?" Melinda was getting a bit anxious and didn't want to mess up in front of her coworkers.
Looking at Vanya not far away, Cliff felt pretty bad. He turned to Melinda and gave her a doting smile, "Yeah, I came to pick you up from work."
"Great! Then I'll leave early today, let's go have dinner?" Melinda happily pulled his arm.
Vanya saw that and looked away.
"What's wrong? Not feeling well?" Calvert reached out to touch Vanya's forehead, and they got really close in an instant.
Only Cliff saw this scene.
The way Calvert looked at Vanya was clearly the way a man looked at the woman he loved.
"Cliff, let's go." Melinda was still acting cute.
Cliff gave a heavy "mm."
The women in the company all looked at Melinda with envy.
So young and already a grad student at a top university, plus the Todd family's CEO doted on her—she was basically winning at life.
But when we got outside the company, Melinda was still saying, "How about we go to your favorite restaurant later?"
The next second, Cliff coldly shook off her pulling hand.
Melinda was stunned and didn't get it. "Cliff?"
"Enough. Pretending like this every day, aren't you tired?" Cliff's voice was as cold as ice.
He knew Melinda was just putting on a show in front of Vanya and the staff on purpose.
After all, he had already warned Melinda that there would be no more connection between them.
He played along just to see Vanya's reaction.
But the result was, she didn't care about him at all, and there wasn't even a hint of jealousy.
"Cliff, we were married for a day, that counts for something. We did spend a night together, and now you're in such a hurry to cut ties?"
Melinda wasn't blind to it—just now at the company, Cliff just treated her like a tool.
But she didn't care, didn't she use him too?
In the end, they were the same kind of people.
Cliff gave her a cold look. "I'm warning you, if you dare use any dirty tricks to hurt Vanya, I won't let you get away with it."
Melinda's face went pale. She reached out to grab him and said weakly, "Vanya never cared about you. She doesn't even like you! But I really love you... Didn't we have a great time that night?"
"That's enough!"
Cliff shook off her hand, his eyes full of danger, "You still dare to bring up that night? Melinda, if you don't want to get fired from the Thompson family business, don't push my limits! Otherwise, I'll make Wolf International Finance School kick you out without mercy!"
Melinda's face got worse and worse, and she didn't dare to move.
She knew Cliff meant what he said, and might even do things worse than what he said.
Cliff turned and walked away, and Melinda just slumped there alone.
Elliot glanced at her and said, "Miss Coleman, Cliff already forgave you by not letting Mr. Thompson expose your lie. Please remember your place from now on and stop dreaming about taking Mrs. Todd's position."
After saying that, he left with Cliff too.
Melinda secretly clenched her fists—Cliff, you want to cut ties with me? It's not that easy!
I would never let you get what you wanted, the spot of Mrs. Todd could only be mine!
In the Thompson family business, Vanya pushed Calvert's hand away: "Everyone's gone."
Calvert smiled slightly, "Who said I was helping you? I was really worried you had a fever."