Chapter 118: Baby Sister +8 Pearls

He always saw Lemon as a little sister, so it never occurred to him that she might have different feelings for him.

Wendy tapped away on her tablet, sending Noah’s information to Sammy. She added a note: “Try to suppress that trending topic with Lemon and Noah. Fenon International wants traffic, but let's give them another angle.”

Sammy wrote, “What happened?”

Wendy glanced at Chase, expressionless. Two men had a stress reaction.

Sammy replied, “I figured Mr. Fred would. His baby sister can’t be snatched away by some rookie like Noah. Who’s the other guy?”

Wendy wrote, “Lemon’s neighbor-slash-stepbrother, Chase.”

Sammy wrote, “…”

The neighbor-stepbrother not only looked into Noah, he even investigated his entire team. When he couldn’t find much, he asked Bernard for help.

Bernard wrote, “What, you into boy bands now?”

Chase said, “Just help me dig.”

Bernard was completely confused but still did the background check. However, Bernard wasn’t as fast as Sammy, so by the time Chase was heading to bed, the information hadn’t come through.

“Should’ve asked Sammy from the start. Stick to what you’re good at. Bernard’s not cut out for this,” Chase muttered, lying in bed with Wendy.

Wendy pinched his waist. “Seriously, even Waylon didn’t go this far. You really care that much about Lemon? I’m getting jealous over here.”

She was clearly joking. Chase knew she wouldn’t actually be jealous over Lemon, so he didn’t take it to heart. He just said, “Waylon’s always busy with his task force. He doesn’t pay enough attention to Lemon. All he does is call and yell when something happens. I’ve got to look into it properly.”

Wendy rested against his chest with a sigh. “I honestly didn’t think you’d get this worked up. I already told you—it’s just publicity. They probably didn’t even stay in the same room.”

The way these setups worked, another room would have been booked in advance. The two would go up together but not enter the same suite. High-end hotels were extremely private—no way paparazzi could sneak in—so they had to wait outside for any sign. If they saw two people entering or leaving together, they’d jump to the “spent the night together” narrative. It wasn’t even based on solid proof.

“People really do that?” Chase sounded genuinely surprised.

These kinds of staged exposures were part of the game, and Wendy had used them plenty. But Chase knew nothing about the industry and didn’t understand how calculated publicity worked. Considering Cloud Hospital was going public next year, and the whole process would require some commercial tactics, he might have to get used to this kind of thing.

“By the way, Melody said we’ll have guests over during Christmas. Are we good with people knowing about us?”

Wendy countered, “You mean our marriage?”

“Yeah.”

“If we weren’t married, then putting you in that position would be the real problem. You don’t want too many people at the hospital to know about us, but in the business world, things work differently. If we’re married, they’ll view Cloud Hospital through the lens of Quinn Group’s influence, and that alone will boost its value. It’s all part of the same equation.”

She made it sound simple, but Chase still couldn’t fully grasp it. So he could only do as Melody suggested—play the supportive figure at home, sit there and smile when visitors came. Melody would handle everything else.

“You think I rely on Melody too much?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Wendy had already closed her eyes, feeling comforted by Chase’s familiar scent. “I sent Melody to Cloud Hospital to handle everything for you. She’s basically your deputy CEO. Kind of like how Mario is positioned in Typhoon Corp. The ‘personal secretary’ title is just for show.”

She gave Melody full executive pay and benefits. Cloud Hospital really was a complex operation. After the IPO, even Melody would need an assistant. There was simply too much for one person to handle.

At home, not only were red banners and blessing symbols put up, but Chase also bought a bunch of little festive lights and Christmas decorations. Wendy didn’t have time to deal with it all, so Chase took care of everything himself—he even brought home two potted plants. As soon as Wendy saw the greenery, she got a headache. Chase insisted she spent too much time in front of screens and should have a plant on her desk to purify the air and rest her eyes. He told her to look at it whenever she felt tired. But the plant died within a month. Sammy ended up throwing it out.

Now Sammy had a new job—anytime the desk plant died, he had to replace it with a fresh one—so that every time Chase visited the executive office, he’d see the green, lively plant he had “gifted,” sitting happily in front of Wendy’s monitor.