Winter walked to the secretary's desk and, to her surprise, saw Iris, the same secretary who had worked for Aiden.
"Iris!" Winter called her name, and Iris raised her head and was stunned.
"Winter? Wait, it's really you!" Iris got up from her seat and walked towards Winter. Iris hugged Winter as she hadn't seen her late boss' wife for so long. "How have you been? Congratulations on your wedding, by the way. Sorry I couldn't make it to your wedding, you know… invitation only…"
Winter smiled bitterly.
She had wanted to invite Iris to her wedding, but Camilla gaslighted Winter to let her do everything, including filling out the guest list.
And to her dismay, Camilla didn't even allow any of her friends and relatives to attend the wedding. She had even barred Winter's old mother from coming.
Winter had protested once she saw the guest list, but at that point, the damage had been done, and there was no way to rearrange the guest list when the wedding was in two days.
Among the few friends Winter had wanted there was Iris, Aiden's secretary, who was around her age. They became close friends but gradually lost contact after Aiden's death.
Since then, she never heard from Iris anymore and lost contact with the only person who could give her information about what happened in the office.
Winter tried to lighten the mood by saying, "It's fine. The wedding was boring anyway, and the first night was dry. Just look at Sebastian, working the day after our wedding."
"Well, I was surprised too when I saw Mr. Saenz this morning," Iris said, managing a forced smile when Sebastian was brought up, trying to make it less obvious how much Iris disliked him. "Is everything alright, Winter? I mean, with you and your new husband…"
"Oh, everything is just fine," Winter replied calmly, as it had been a template for her whenever someone asked about her relationship with Sebastian in her previous life.
On top of that, she didn't want to implicate Iris in this mess. Iris already had a family of her own, and she also had a child. So, it wasn't fair to put pressure on her when she was already busy with her job and family.
"I'm happy that you're still here," Winter continued. "I thought Sebastian would replace you with another secretary since you've been working here as Aiden's secretary before."
"About that—"Iris hesitated momentarily, staring at Winter with a silent cry of help from her eyes.
"It's okay, you can tell me," Winter assured.
"Well… I've heard from the HR department that Mr. Saenz is searching for a new secretary, so I'm not sure how long I will stay in this company," Iris said. "But it's fine. Even if I get laid off, I can find another job immediately. So you don't need to tell your husband about this, okay?"
"It's up to me whether I want to tell him to keep you as a secretary here or not," Winter said calmly. "But you should know that I consider you a friend, not just an employee. So I will never wrong you."
Iris didn't know what that meant. Of course, they were friends.
They had known each other for years, and Winter always asked Iris about Aiden's work before his death.
But she knew that statement meant something.
"I'm going to meet with him now. He's in his office, right?"
"Yes, he's probably resting after a long meeting in the morning," Iris informed. "Should I let him know you're here?"
"No need. I'm going to give him a surprise," Winter said. "Unless he has someone with him right now."
"Mr. Saenz is all alone. So you can always come in. You're his wife, after all," Iris reassured her.
Winter walked to the wooden door with intricate carvings. She stared at the metal plaque on the door.
—
Sebastian Saenz
CEO of Goldmine Realty.
—
She sneered at the inscription.
'It should've been Aiden's name on it. He is the true owner of this company. Just because Aiden is gone doesn't mean Sebastian can change everything,' Winter seethed inwardly. 'But it's also my fault because I was too stupid to defend what Aiden gave me.'
Winter pushed the door open, wanting to see some exciting scene before her.
Since that scoundrel already thought everything that Winter owned was already his, maybe she'd caught him having an intimate call with one of his mistresses, just like what she had witnessed in her previous life.
'Oh, that would be perfect, so I can catch him red-handed, and it will be a perfect ground to get an uncontested divorce while seizing more than half of Aiden's assets,' Winter thought.
That idea gave her glee, but to her disappointment, all she saw was Sebastian sitting at the CEO's desk, reading and signing a stack of documents one by one.
He was so absorbed in his work that he didn't notice Winter watching him for at least a minute.
"You don't need to order me lunch, Iris. I'm going to eat in a restaurant nearby before the meeting," Sebastian said as he thought it was just his secretary asking if he wanted to eat something for lunch.
However, when he didn't get any polite answer as usual, he glanced up for a second, and his heart skipped a beat as he saw Winter standing near the door, wearing a black dress that made her look like she was attending a funeral.
"Winter…" Sebastian murmured her name absentmindedly. "Why are you here?"