The Enchanted Night

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It was in the Tang Group.

The door of the CEO office was pushed open. The thrust echoed through the office as Lionel stormed towards Rufus, who was signing off some document. The loud noise made him look up from the document and gaze at the approaching figure of Lionel. He stopped in front of Rufus's desk, then slapped hard on it with his palms, making it shake under his hands.

"Rufus Luo! What on earth do you want?" Lionel questioned, his voice trembling with rage.

Rufus stared back at him with a rather nonchalant look. Refusing to pay any heed to Lionel's intimidating demeanor, he turned his head towards Leo and instructed, "Send this document to the human resource department. Tell them to complete all the procedures within a week."

Leo took the file and paced towards the door. But before he could even reach the door, he found Lionel standing right in front of him. In one smooth move, Lionel blocked his way out of the room and grabbed the file from his hand.

After that, he slapped the file back on the desk so hard that all the contents inside the file came out and got scattered on the floor.

Lionel's eyes fell on a piece of paper on top and his pupils got dilated. It was a dismissal notice.

Picking up the note, he thrust it back in front of Rufus and shouted with disbelief, "He is the marketing manager of our company! How can you just dismiss him! Have you ever considered the consequence?"

Rufus did not reciprocate to the temperament displayed by Lionel. Rather he maintained a calm and cool composure. He just leaned back to the backrest of the chair, folded his arms as he maintained the indifferent gaze on Lionel. It was as if he wasn't a part of the quarrel and he was just watching the episode as an outsider.

Rufus's cool and adamant behavior frustrated Lionel all the more.

"Rufus Luo! Right now you are too much indulged in your role as the CEO of the company! Don't forget the person who granted you the power! If father ever realizes that you are dismissing the employees at the management level randomly as per your own whim, which will adversely affect the company, he will take his action against this!" Lionel attempted to threaten Rufus.

However, Rufus looked completely disinterested in getting into a confrontation. He even refused to utter a single word in retaliation to Lionel's threat. Instead, he lifted his head, and gave a cold stare at Lionel.

"This is the decision of the board of directors, not me. We had a vote. As the marketing manager, he didn't actively establish relationship with new clients, which was part of his responsibilities. Moreover, some of our regular customers even turned to our competitors because of him! How can we continue to hire such a worthless man?"

Lionel's rage was showing in his eyes which were literally burning. He was aware of the meeting, but wasn't informed that it was about human resource management. Busy with Ivy, he decided not to attend. Now he regretted, and attempted to revoke this decision.

"He was hired during father's term. Now you want to fire him, but you haven't asked for his approval!" Lionel brought up the topic once again to negotiate with Rufus.

Rufus's silence was getting on his nerves by now. He brought up the name of Horace once again and tried to suppress Rufus.

Rufus then stood up. With his height and build, he was firm and unwavering.

"When you referred him to father, you had never mentioned that he was Ivy's cousin," Rufus stated coolly.

This sentence, though not long, thumped on Lionel's heart heavily.

Indeed, this person was suggested by Ivy. After talking to him for several times, Lionel felt that this person could possibly be hired for the manager's role. And it happened that there was a vacancy for marketing manager. So, he suggested his name to his father.

In order to avoid suspicion from others, he had never revealed this fact to anyone else. How could Rufus possibly know about the secret!

Yet Lionel wasn't ready to give up. Suppressing his voice low to sound firm, he warned Rufus, "You know that Ivy is pregnant with the eldest grandson of the Tang family. If she gets to know that her cousin is fired, she may get agitated, which in turn would probably affect the baby. Do you think you can escape from the blame?"

Rufus smirked at Lionel in a s

Drugged one night by her ex-boyfriend, a mysterious man took advantage of her in an ecstatic night filled with sex. To take her revenge, she married the man, and used him. "As long as I'm alive, I'm still his legal wife, while all of you are just his mistresses.”She remained adamant even when he was involved in scandals with other women...

Rufus aspire to become the right hand man for Horace. His purpose behind joining the Tang Group was different. He had a very discreet vision in his mind when he joined this company.

He was here to make Horace regret. Yes! He wanted to make him regret the choice he had made. Horace deserved it. He should regret choosing Jill over Rufus's mother. He should regret devouring all his love on Lionel instead of Rufus! Rufus gritted his teeth, and his jaw line stiffened as he thought about it.

He could not wait for the time when he would make Horace aware, that his return wasn't the hope of Tang family. Rather, it was the start of a nightmare!

At the hospital, Cassandra looked out of the window wistfully. Pristine white snowflakes transcended from the sky and touched the ground. The view was extremely soothing and she could spend hours looking at this surreal phenomenon.

It had been five days since she was hospitalized. No matter how upset, how bored she felt, she never mentioned about getting discharged from the hospital.

When the female doctor with a poker face checked on her, she whined once, "Everyone whishes to get out as soon as possible. This girl is so special. She loves staying here instead of going home."

Cassandra just laughed helplessly as the doctor stroked the tip of her nose and said that she was just feeling sick.

But in her heart, she was still dreadful at the thought of getting back to Tang family.

Except for Horace and Rufus, no one in the family would be kind to her. The very thought of it made her shudder.

This was especially the case with Jill, who had never given her a smile since the first day they met. The old woman sincerely disdained the girl who got married to her son only to save her own family.

Lionel was enjoying his life with his old girlfriend Ivy. He never developed any attachment towards Cassandra.

As for Ivy… It was better for Cassandra to stay away from that woman. As the faces of Jill, Lionel and Ivy flashed though her mind, she could feel the coldness inside her heart. All these people were so distant from her without a touch of warmth, care or concern.

After a few days of hospitalization, she had recovered completely from the fever, but Rufus insisted that she should stay in the patient ward.

He was trying to protect her as he feared that she would be ill-treated in the Tang family.

Cassandra was moved by Rufus once again. The care and concern that she could not find in her family came to her from an absolutely unexpected corner. She had never expected to get solace and a sense of warmth from Rufus.

Her eyelashes quivered and she closed her eyes to control the tears that began to surface on her eyes.

'Rufus, what shall I do? Every time I want to push you out of my mind, I feel your love for me.

How can I make up my mind to stop thinking about you?' she asked herself.