Luana clutched her heart as if it were about to stop beating from the unbearable pain, barely supporting her weak body back to her workstation.
She was determined to resign and hoped to complete the resignation procedures as soon as possible.
She simply couldn't bear to witness the two of them flaunting their love in front of her every day for the little time she had left.
She feared she wouldn't be able to endure such mental torture and worried that she might impulsively confront Cline about his cruel treatment towards her.
After drafting her resignation letter, she went straight to Laura, the person in charge of the CEO's office, to request approval.
Laura, who never had a good impression of her, casually said a few words and then agreed to her request.
However, the company's resignation process usually takes a month, and Luana couldn't leave immediately.
With no other choice, she applied for a half-month annual leave.
Seeing her urgency, Laura couldn't help but roll her eyes at her.
"You can have the leave, but you must come back immediately after to handle the work handover," Laura said.
Luana responded with an "Okay," grabbed her bag, and left Winward Group.
She had just walked out of the company's door when she ran into Travis Elan, the CEO of Elan Group.
He was notoriously known as a playboy in Los Angeles, with heinous and appalling ways of manipulating women.
Seeing him approach her with a smile, Luana's heart filled with fear, and she turned to run back into the building.
Travis, however, reacted quickly, sprinted over, grabbed her hand, and forcefully pulled her into his arms.
"Where are you going?" he said, then deliberately lowered his head, bringing his lips close to Luana's ear, and blew a breath.
The warm air on her ear made her shiver.
She struggled to push Travis away, but he tightly held her waist, immobilizing her.
"Your scent is so delightful..." he said, sniffing her hair and then attempting to touch her chest.
Luana immediately pressed his hand with hers and said, "Mr. Elan, behave yourself."
Travis lightly nibbled on her earlobe and said with a rascal's tone, "Excuse me?"
Travis's voice wasn't unpleasant, but his words were repulsive. Luana was extremely averse to his behavior.
She turned her head, showing extreme disgust, but Travis didn't care.
To him, the more a woman resisted, the more he wanted to conquer her, as it brought him immense satisfaction.
Travis hooked her chin with one hand, his almost translucently fair fingers gently stroking her cheek.
Luana brushed his hand away and said, "Mr. Elan, I don't even know you. Please behave yourself."
Luana had been targeted by Travis a month ago when she delivered documents to Elan Group.
Since then, he often came to Winward under the guise of business discussions to harass her.
Every encounter involved either physical advances or verbal indecency and harassment.
Previously, Luana needed her job to support herself and earn income, so she didn't dare to offend him and chose to endure in silence.
But now that she had left Winward, she wasn't afraid of Travis anymore.
However, to her surprise, even with her cold treatment, he didn't get angry and instead affectionately pinched her face.
"Sleep with me, and we'll get acquainted real quick," Travis said.
Luana thought him shameless and, suppressing her disgust, forcefully pushed away his approaching body.
Seeing her resistance excited Travis even more, and he couldn't help but forcefully kiss her cheek.
The cold touch almost made Luana vomit on the spot.
As she was about to push Travis away again, an aged voice came from behind.
"Cline?"
Hearing the name, Luana's body froze, and she stood rooted to the spot.
She slowly turned her head from Travis's arms and looked at Cline, who was standing by the elevator.
The distance was too great for her to discern his expression clearly, but she felt his deep, charming eyes fixed on her, with a cold aura emanating from them that seemed capable of consuming her in an instant.
Dawn Ortega, the chairman of Winward Group, had just entered the company when he saw Cline and quickly approached with a group of shareholders.
"Cline, why do you have the leisure to visit Winward today?"