Mr. CEO, You Look Strangely Familiar

Chloe Marshall stood up, stepped on the woman’s hand, and pulled out her phone to call Nora Ainsworth. ”Nora, can you send a few of your Men in Black over?”

”...”

”Okay, I’m in Boss Ellsworth’s office.”

After she hung up, it wasn’t long before several Men in Black arrived.

”Use a knife to carve the words ’I’m a bitch’ all over her face,” Ethan Ellsworth ordered. ”Then deport her back to her country, and she is never to be allowed back into Fravia.”

Chloe Marshall remained silent and nodded at the Men in Black.

Before Alice could even cry out in terror, she was knocked unconscious by the Men in Black, and her body was quickly dragged away.

The office fell silent.

Ethan Ellsworth took her hand and placed it over his heart. ”You have no idea how fast my heart was just beating.”

Chloe Marshall leaned against his chest. ”You have no idea what was going through my mind just now. I was thinking, ’You were looking down, getting the money for her. What if she’d tried to stab you? What if you couldn’t react in time...?’ I couldn’t bear to think about it. Boss Ellsworth, we can’t always be the good guys. There’s no such thing as a purely good person in this world. From now on, I’m going to be the bad guy. Anyone who comes after me, I’ll give it right back to them. I’ll make them pay!”

He kissed her forehead. ”Come on. Let’s go to the recording studio. I wrote a song for you, and I want to sing it for you.”

Her heart swelled with emotion as she followed him to the recording studio.

It was just the two of them inside, no one else. This was Ethan Ellsworth’s private practice room and recording studio.

He took off his jacket, leaving him in just a white shirt. The top buttons were undone, revealing his tanned skin.

Instead of dress pants, Ethan Ellsworth was dressed casually in a pair of light-colored jeans, his white shirt tucked in. The look wasn’t strange at all; in fact, it was incredibly handsome.

He sat down at the piano, rolled up his sleeves, and patted the bench beside him. ”Come sit here, my love.”

Chloe Marshall sat down beside him and smiled. ”So this is where you record your songs. It’s great. You have all sorts of instruments.”

He tested a few keys.

Then he told her, ”Listen closely. I wrote the lyrics and composed the music myself.”

His fingers began to dance across the keys, and the sweet, gentle sound of the piano filled the air. The melody was peaceful, warm, and beautiful.

”My heart, long since closed off,

I give it all to you,

As long as you’ll accept my devotion.

My heart, long since dark,

Is bright for you,

As long as you open your own heart to receive it.

Time passes, little by little,

And my heart changes.

It tells me it belongs to you.

As long as you stay where you are,

We can be together.

My heart, long since closed off,

I give it all to you,

As long as you’ll accept my devotion.

Loving you, OH~ has long been a habit.

Maybe you don’t quite believe it,

But the truth is,

No one can replace you.

My heart, long since dark,

Is bright for you,

As long as you open your own heart to receive it.

Loving you, OH~ maybe it isn’t easy,

But my heart beats only for you.

Chloe, ah, my woman,

My life has fallen into your hands.

I surrender willingly,

With no complaints and no regrets,

Only for you.”

Chloe Marshall sat there, her eyes welling with tears. Looking back, their journey together had been anything but easy.

But in this moment, she felt that as long as she could be with him, nothing else mattered.

As the final note faded...

She was already sobbing.

”Boss Ellsworth, I love you.”

He turned to the side, his long fingers gently wiping the tears from the corners of her eyes.

”Silly girl, I love you too.”

He pressed his lips to hers.

They kissed with abandon.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! A sudden rap on the door.

The two immediately pulled apart and looked toward the door. Herman Hawthorne was truly everywhere.

”Can’t you two be more mindful of your image?”

Ethan Ellsworth stood up, handed him a can of beer, and grabbed one for himself. ”Why would I need to keep up an image in front of you? I heard you went to Young Master Grant for advice a few days ago. You never show up unless you need something. Are you here for my advice, too?”

Herman Hawthorne clinked his can against Ethan’s and took a long drink. ”Young Master Grant told you that? I went for advice, alright, but he didn’t tell me a thing.”

”Young Master Hawthorne, why have you let things get to this point? Do you really still want to be with Zoe?”

”Obviously.”

Ethan Ellsworth looked at him. ”Then show her your heart. Do you even know how to prove you love her?”

Herman Hawthorne sat down. ”I did show her, but it seems she really doesn’t like me anymore.”

”To be honest, I don’t really understand my sister’s temperament all that well myself. It’s hard to figure out what she’s thinking.”

Chloe Marshall stood up and looked at him. ”Young Master Hawthorne, if Zoe still loves you, then she’s just putting on a front. She’s like a hedgehog, using her quills to protect herself. You need to get past those defenses. The one thing women can’t stand is a man who gives up too easily. If you love her with all your heart, she’ll be able to feel it.”

Herman Hawthorne went on, ”Young Master Grant gave me a terrible idea. He said I should bring another woman around and deliberately flaunt her in front of Zoe...”

Ethan Ellsworth burst out laughing. ”You could try Young Master Grant’s idea, but I imagine it won’t end well for the other woman.”

Herman Hawthorne fell into thought, then set down his beer can. ”I’m going to head out.”

”You’re really going to try it?”

Without looking back, he replied, ”I have to at least see how she reacts. I need to be sure.”

Ethan Ellsworth took a sip of beer and chuckled. ”He’s digging his own grave.”

”Boss Ellsworth, do you think we should...”

Ethan Ellsworth waved a dismissive hand. ”Let them figure it out themselves. If they don’t stir up some trouble, how will they ever know how much they mean to each other?”

After hearing that Zoe Ellsworth wasn’t at her shop, Herman Hawthorne went to a place called Lip Service.

An idea sparked in his mind.

He found an innocent-looking young woman. Despite the late winter weather, she was dressed very skimpily.

He sat with the woman on a sofa on the ground floor, ordered several bottles of expensive liquor, and drank slowly, waiting for Zoe Ellsworth to come downstairs.

Lip Service was always quiet in the afternoon.

A soft, melancholic love song drifted through the air.

Herman Hawthorne sat there in silence.

He held a pale blue drink in his hand, his gaze fixed on some unknown point in the distance. The woman beside him had been ecstatic to get a call from Herman Hawthorne, so happy she could barely contain herself. But now that they were sitting here, he hadn’t said a single word to her. She wanted to break the silence, but one look at his expression and she lost her nerve.

The seconds ticked by.

Over an hour later, Zoe Ellsworth finally came downstairs, looking slightly drunk.

As soon as he spotted Zoe Ellsworth in the distance, Herman Hawthorne immediately put an arm around the woman beside him. ”You’re very pretty.”

Startled by his sudden warmth, the woman blushed shyly. ”Thank you for the compliment, Young Master Hawthorne.”

Herman Hawthorne’s gestures were deliberately intimate, and it didn’t take long for the scene to catch Zoe Ellsworth’s eye.

She froze. After a moment’s thought, she spat out a single word: ”Asshole!”

She slowly walked over and sat down across from Herman Hawthorne, pouring herself a drink. ”Well, well, if it isn’t Young Master Hawthorne. Here to pick up women?”