Chapter 5

Jasmine was in a terrible mood.

She had originally planned to tell Sean the truth. For the sake of their three years as husband and wife, maybe she could ask him to look after her family.

She let out a contemptuous laugh. She still hadn't completely given up on him. If she could rely on him, she wouldn't have swallowed her pride to ask Logan for help.

Before the car even started, messages in the work group chat exploded like fireworks, beeping non-stop.

Luna: [Jasmine, it's urgent, come back quick.]

She saw Luna's message and could feel her anxiety.

Following that was a string of messages from other department members.

[Jasmine, the Horizon Tech deal is on hold. I called to follow up but they won't even pick up.]

[Jasmine, Mr. Gray just came by and said if this deal falls through, he's going to reorganize the sales department.]

[Rumor has it that woman Mr. Gray met yesterday could be our future first lady around here. Sounds like she's already trying to flex.]

[Is she just going to destroy our sales department? Why isn't Jasmine responding?]

[Jasmine, we've been working on this project for over two months, everyone's been working overtime. We can't let it fail just because Mr. Gray wasn't around yesterday. All our hard work for the past month would be for nothing, right?]

She could not care about Sean or the company, but these colleagues who had worked alongside her—she couldn't not care about them.

Her head suddenly started throbbing. She let out a long breath, pressing her fingers hard against her temples, waiting for the wave of pain to pass.

Jasmine: [Don't worry, let me find out what's going on first.]

Now wasn't the time to fight with Sean. Their entire sales department had worked hard for a month, all of them counting on a nice bonus after signing the contract. They couldn't become casualties of her and Sean's conflict and let everyone down.

Most importantly, Helix Technologies had burned through all its cash reserves to develop the core algorithm for humanoid robots. If they couldn't land this Horizon Tech order, the company's R&D budget and employee salaries for next month could be affected.

Finding Zachary's number, Jasmine patted her face to make her smile look more natural.

When the call connected, she made her voice sound energetic and cheerful: "Zachary, I need to apologize first."

Zachary's voice was flat: "Manager Harris, this is about the contract, right? I'll be straight with you—we don't work with people who aren't sincere."

Jasmine quickly said: "Zachary, please don't be upset. There must be some misunderstanding here. You should have seen our sincerity during the preliminary stages."

Zachary let out a cold laugh: "Seen what? All I saw was that after we agreed to sign, I waited in your company's conference room for an hour, while your CEO was at the airport with his arms around some woman, making it onto the business news headlines."

Jasmine explained: "That was definitely our mistake, Zachary. I hope you'll give me a chance to make it up to you."

"I know you've worked hard, but you're just the sales department head. So I'm sorry." Zachary easily rejected her.

Fair enough. If she were in his shoes, she'd be skeptical of a company that showed no sincerity and wasn't irreplaceable either.

Jasmine took a deep breath before slowly saying: "Zachary might not know this, but besides being the sales department head, I'm also—Sean's wife. We just haven't made it public, so please rest assured, I can represent the company."

"Manager Harris, are you so desperate for this contract that you'd make that kind of joke?" Zachary clearly didn't believe her.

Jasmine smiled, her tone very confident: "Do you need me to send you our marriage certificate?"

The other end went silent for a few seconds before he finally said: "Since you're saying that, here's the deal—there's a dinner party tonight that many tech company executives will attend. I need a date. After the dinner, I'll give you twenty minutes. That's it."

Jasmine finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank you, Zachary."

After hanging up, she sent another message in the group chat to calm everyone down: [Everyone relax, just wait for my update.]

Looking at the dresses in her closet, she didn't choose the flashy red or gold ones, only picking a low-key white gown. When she put it on, it made her face look even paler.

She reapplied her makeup carefully, adding red blush to finally look a bit healthier.

Following the address Zachary gave her, Jasmine drove to the venue. As soon as she entered the banquet hall, before she could find Zachary, she saw the most familiar figure.

It was Sean.

He wore a dark suit, and beside him, in a tight black dress, was Kayla, lightly holding his arm with a faint smile.

Jasmine wanted to turn and leave, but before she'd taken two steps, she heard Zachary's voice: "Manager Harris, over here."

When Jasmine turned around, she'd already adjusted her expression, smiling gracefully as she slowly walked toward Zachary.

Zachary's call obviously caught Sean's attention too. His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly as he looked at Jasmine with warning in his eyes.

Jasmine pretended not to notice, walking up to Zachary with a smile: "Thank you for the invitation today, Zachary."

But Zachary's expression was somewhat strange: "Don't thank me yet, Manager Harris. You said you were Mr. Gray's wife, so why is there another woman by his side now?"

He glanced again at Sean and Kayla. The intimacy between them didn't look like that of ordinary colleagues: "I thought Manager Harris was someone with principles. Didn't expect you'd stop at nothing to succeed either."

"Zachary, you've misunderstood. I really am..." Jasmine anxiously tried to explain. If there was another misunderstanding, this deal would probably be lost for good.

"Zachary, long time no see." Sean walked over with Kayla. "Let me introduce you—this is Kayla, our core technical partner. I'm really sorry about missing yesterday's signing. I just wanted so badly to secure this kind of talent for both our companies."

"Kayla, this is Zachary, founder of Horizon Tech. We're currently preparing for deep cooperation with his company." Sean threw out the statement first.

When Sean looked at Jasmine, his smiling face carried a warning in his eyes.

He didn't want her to reveal their relationship.

Jasmine couldn't help but frown. She could not care who he brought along, or whether her position would be threatened—after all, she'd already sent the divorce papers.

But this contract affected their entire sales department and the company's future. If her identity was questioned again, this contract probably really couldn't be signed.

"Zachary, Ms. Bailey here is indeed an engineer we specially brought back to the company..." Jasmine smiled calmly, trying to explain why they would appear together.

Kayla smiled faintly at Zachary and picked up the conversation: "Ever since I came back to Astoria, Sean's been telling me how amazing Horizon Tech is, how bold and visionary Zachary is. Meeting you today, you live up to your reputation."

Zachary's gaze swept between the three of them, his tone cooling: "Mr. Gray, Manager Harris just said she could represent Helix Technologies. But from what I'm seeing now, this Ms. Bailey by your side seems more like your date."

The smile on Sean's face stiffened slightly.

Of course, he knew why Jasmine said that. As long as he acknowledged her identity, this negotiation still had a chance.

But his peripheral vision swept over Kayla.

In just one second, he made his choice.

"Zachary, you've misunderstood." Sean's voice was steady. "Manager Harris is just our company's sales department head. Nothing more."

"Nothing more?" Jasmine repeated, her lips slowly curving up.

She finally understood. This contract, her dignity, even their three-year marriage—in front of Kayla, none of it mattered.