What Separates Me and You
Chapter 97

Chapter 97 You Must Be Joking

Josephine gawked at Lewis. Before she could respond, he lifted her body in one fell swoop. Her instinct was to hold his neck and cautiously look at his chin. Yet, she quickly looked away in fear.

Lewis soon placed her onto her bed, then picked up her wrists to examine them. There were scabs on her wrists, and some had fallen off, revealing her newly grown pinkish skin. He stared at every inch of her hands for the longest time. Eventually, he looked at her while he asked, "Does it still hurt?"

Josephine shook her head. Following that, Lewis surprised her by caressing the back of her hand. She could have sworn she saw a tenderness in his gaze for a moment. However, she shut her eyes at once, refusing to acknowledge it. After all, he often did this. All it took was a few gentle words to fool her into thinking he loved her. Even if it weren't real, Josephine would convince herself that her dreams had become reality.

The former's cold reaction set off a blaze in Lewis. The air felt denser around them as neither spoke. Fortunately, his phone rang, alleviating the tense atmosphere. He let go of her face and headed out to answer the call.

Only then did Josephine open her eyes. Her head tilted as she peered from behind Lewis, who murmured some unintelligible words before departing the room without even looking at her. Lips pursing, she took the blanket from the couch and brought it closer to her chest. Her eyes fell shut, but a buzzing suddenly broke out in her head. Josephine clutched her head while she bared her teeth in pain.

Her suffering didn't end there. The buzzing soon ended, only to get replaced by a demobilizing pain. It was like thousands of microneedles had pierced into her body. They held her in place, making every movement painful. She curled up on the bed, her shoulders. quivering. It was unclear how long had passed, but the pain gradually dwindled. Josephine lay on her back, facing the ceiling with her eyes shut. Hands resting limply by her sides, she mused, "God. It's getting worse. I bet Lewis went to see Sierra again, huh?"

For the rest of the night, Josephine tossed and turned. She managed to sleep after dawn. Even then, she only rested for two hours before waking up again.

The mansion was as empty as always.

Josephine got out of bed and headed to make breakfast. She prepared two dishes, placed them. on the table, then knocked on the door of Lewis' study. There was no response from the inside for the longest while. That was when she realized Lewis hadn't returned home since going out last night.

That put her in a glum mood as she headed downstairs to eat her oatmeal porridge. While doing so, she gazed at the plate opposite her, replaceing the food in her mouth tasteless.

Josephine later arrived at the company. With every step she took, people around shot confused looks at her. The same happened with Hilary, who leaned across her desk to ask, "Josephine, didn't you request a month's leave of absence? Why have you come back to work so soon?-" Freezing in her tracks, Josephine frowned at Hilary and was unaware that she had requested a leave of absence.

"You have no idea how rare of an exception your case is. Apart from Sierra Woods, you're the only other person who can request a month-long leave, despite getting hired recently," Hilary

said.

That was when Sophia brought a stack of documents over and rapped on the former's desk.

Hilary's focus snapped toward Sophia as she sheepishly greeted the latter, "M-Miss King."

"Focus on your job." That was all Sophia said before she approached Josephine to hand the latter the document. "Have a read of this. If you're free today, transfer the information into a digital sheet and email it to me. Got it?"

Josephine accepted the document and nodded, replaceing Sophia's attitude toward her better than Hilary's. After all, Sophia had kept things professional and asked Josephine to do a task politely. There was no reason for Josephine to refuse, especially since Sophia was her superior.

"Perfect. Thank you." After saying that, Sophia spun on her heel to leave.

"Guys, President Alvarez didn't come to work again. Do you think he's having so much fun. banging Sierra that he forgot the time again?" Hilary gossiped with the other employees.

"No idea," one of them replied. "President Alvarez used to arrive at work with Sierra back then, but now that she's not working here anymore, it's hard to tell if they're still sleeping together."

"I wonder what Sierra did to bag our president. She's pretty, but not that pretty, you know? Not as much as Miss King."

"Yeah, she's not even as skilled or competent at work as Miss King."

It wasn't the first time the employees had wondered how Sierra got together with Lewis. That remained an unsolved question even today. Even so, that didn't stop the female employees from jealously insulting Sierra behind her back.

Hilary glanced around before adding in a soft voice, "Speaking of Miss King, I heard she used to be classmates with President Alvarez, and she's been here since he took over the company- oh my God! I have a bold guess as to what happened between them!"

"What is it?"

"Do you think they're sleeping with each other? Perhaps Sierra is innocent, and the two have

been using her as a front to disguise their affair?" Hilary suggested.

"Jeez, you've got some nerve making up rumors like that! Don't you want to keep your job?" someone thundered, startling some of the other employees and making them return to their desks. "Oh, it's not like we're announcing it to the world. Let's keep it a secret between us,

colleagues. Besides, haven't you guys noticed how Miss King looks at President Alvarez? It's like she sees him as someone special.'

"So? What does that prove? Many women have crushes on President Alvarez, but Sierra scares them all away. It's only natural that Miss King harbors secret feelings for a perfect man like him."

"It proves many things! Those other girls get scared away by Sierra, but Miss King holds a significant position in the company. She won't run away that easily. Think about it-Sierra stopping the other girls from pursuing President Alvarez allows Miss King and President Alvarez to hook up without interference. Don't you agree?" Hilary pointed at the person challenging her suspicions, her lips curving into a triumphant grin.

The corner of the opposing colleague's mouth twitched after hearing that nonsense. She then shook her head and stormed off, thinking Hilary had gone insane.

Unlike the others, Josephine fell into a daze as she stared at her computer.

Meanwhile, Daphne met up with Lewis in a café. "What is it, Lewis? Why did you insist on meeting me out here to talk?"

Lewis placed a document on the table, nudging it toward her.

She accepted the document with a frown, thinking the former was behaving suspiciously. Yet, as she flipped through each page, her features darkened. Her head shot upward to face Lewis as she exclaimed, "That much?"

It turned out that their family's company had lost more investment money than she thought.

"Yeah." Lewis took out a voice recorder pen, clicked on it, and waited as Robert's voice rang out. "He'll get what's coming if he doesn't hand over the money!"

Daphne's face grew pallid as she muttered, "W-What does Dad mean?"

"Dad thinks Seth embezzled the investment money."

"Impossible!" Daphne shot to her feet but, for some reason, sat down again and whispered," Lewis, he would never do that."

Although Lewis' lips twitched, he continued calmly, "But Dad doesn't believe him. You and I don't have a say in this matter. Dad will want someone to pay if we don't fill up the missing sum. Do you understand?"

"Seth's the best scapegoat. Firstly, he's not one of us, Alvarezes. Secondly, he's in charge of the project. Thus, it makes sense to blame him for the missing money!" Daphne mused, a frown marring her face as she couldn't help picking up the document and browsing through it again. Panicked, she gripped it so tightly that the paper nearly crumpled. "W-What do we do? Lewis, please help Seth for my sake." "It's possible to save him," Lewis stated in a low but confident tone.

Daphne's eyes lit up almost immediately. She couldn't hide the excitement and urgency in her tone as she asked, "How?"

"We just need to fill up that missing amount," Lewis replied plainly as if the whopping sum was nothing more than spare change.

"But that's over 80 billion! Lewis, you must be joking! Where will we replace that much money?" Lewis smirked just then. "It will be easy. You're the key to doing so.