Chapter 262: Cold Tea and Colder Truths

After Nava left, Ellis also headed out to work. She had landed just yesterday at noon, and the company had only given her half a day to recover. As soon as she arrived, her colleagues in the executive suite greeted her, and some asked if the business trip had worn her out. Unsure of how to respond, she simply smiled.

Lois called her on the internal phone system, summoning her to her office. Upon seeing her, Lois glanced at Ellis’s expression and said, “Taking care of Casey in Averton must have been hard on you.”

Ellis smiled. “It wasn’t tough; it was what I should do.” Staying in Averton hadn’t felt difficult at all; in fact, being back in the country felt more taxing. To be precise, it was emotionally exhausting.

Lois gave her usual instructions, then fell silent. Ellis thought she could leave, but Lois stopped her. “Wait a moment, Ms. Harper.”

Ellis halted and looked straight at Lois. Lois didn’t rush to speak but instead seemed lost in thought as she stared out the window. After a moment, she continued, “Taking care of Casey wasn’t company business; it was a personal favor you did for me. I’ve arranged for a sum of money to be deposited into your account tomorrow as an extra bonus.”

Hearing this, Ellis’s face lit up with a radiant smile. “Thank you, Madam Lois!”

Lois glanced toward the door; Ellis knew what that meant and turned to leave. What she didn’t know was that as soon as she closed the door to Lois’s office, Lois quickly redialed a number she had called several times before, saying, “The person I’m sending now is to take over the responsibilities I had given Ellis. Don’t think about sending them away.”

“Mom, didn’t you promise I could stay independently in Averton for a while?” Casey protested the sudden change, as Lois had agreed just three days ago, but today she had backtracked.

“I never agreed to you staying in Averton alone; you misunderstood,” Lois paused. “I only agreed to call Ellis back to the country.” If Casey hadn’t insisted on independence, Lois would still have found a reason to call Ellis back.

Easton had personally contacted her, asking her to end Ellis’s business trip. He did not want her assigning Ellis any out-of-town tasks in the future. The Tate Group and Hudson Group had considerable differences in scale, and as the head of Hudson Group, Easton was a man Lois couldn’t afford to offend.

While she didn’t understand Easton’s motives, offending him would not be beneficial for her or the company.

“Mom,” Casey protested. “You’re misleading me!”

“Enough, stop your whining and get back to your experiments!” Lois had no time to entertain her son’s protests and hung up the phone. Her son’s insistence on not needing anyone to look after him, wanting so-called independence, was something she didn’t have time to figure out. Instead, she was more curious about Easton’s sudden concern for his ex-wife. However, this was something she couldn’t discuss with Ellis. Preventing Ellis from possibly revealing anything to Easton was crucial to avoid trouble. Employing the former wife of the Hudson Group’s boss as her secretary was a double-edged sword; whether it was a good or bad move depended entirely on her own intelligence and caution.

Chapter 262: Cold Tea and Colder Truths.

Refining her tea-making skills.

Just as she finished brewing a pot of tea, someone sat down across from her and placed a cup by her hand, signaling her to pour him a drink. Without looking up, Sophia knew it was her son. His visits had become almost daily, sometimes even staying overnight.

“You again, you rascal?” Sophia complained as she poured the tea. Her son had spent the previous night there, and now he was back again before evening. Familiarity breeds contempt; not seeing your child makes you miss them, but seeing them too often could be annoying. As she served the tea, she added, “Drink up and get going.”

“Mom,” Easton didn’t touch his tea but looked directly at her.

“Stop calling me all the time; it gives me a headache.”

“Are you and Ellis not seeing each other anymore?”

Sophia looked up. “Why bring up Ellis? What are you trying to do?”

Last month, Easton had suddenly asked her if he was unattractive. After she called Ellis, she suspected her son was holding a grudge against Ellis for something said, but the situation seemed more complex than that. Easton and Ellis weren’t saying much, and with both busy handling urgent work, she hadn’t thought much about it then.

Today, with her son mentioning Ellis again, she felt like she was sinking deeper into a mystery, stirring a desire to unravel it.

“You used to treat Ellis almost like a daughter, always talking about her fondly, even though she wasn’t your real daughter. Why haven’t you met with her since she and I divorced?”