The Mistakes We Made Together

Chapter 2: Secretary

They remained locked in a standoff for a few seconds before Benjamin let go of her hand. He turned and walked toward the sofa at the foot of the bed.

His bedroom was spacious, half of it was used as a sleeping area, the south side had a small living space, and further inside, there was even a study.

This single bedroom was practically a suite.

He sat down, leaning back into the sofa, and closed his eyes. With his right hand, he gently flicked the lighter on the coffee table.

The air was quiet for a few seconds. Benjamin didn't open his eyes as he spoke, his voice carrying a faint hint of tiredness: "How's work at the company lately?"

It was late, and Emma was also a little tired. She didn't stay standing by the door; instead, she took two steps into the room and sat down on a sofa far away from Benjamin.

"Not bad," she replied.

She worked as an Operations Director at one of the Brown family's advertising companies.

She had majored in this field as an undergraduate, with excellent grades in school. During her internship, she had even received an offer from another major corporation. To be honest, climbing to this position in just two years was almost entirely due to her own abilities.

However, lately, there had been people gossiping behind her back inside the company.

Thinking about these trivial matters, her eyebrows furrowed again. After a moment, she let out a soft sigh, feeling a touch of annoyance.

"How are things between you and David White?" Benjamin suddenly spoke up.

Having sat for the entire day, Emma's shoulders felt stiff. When she heard his question, one of her hands was still resting on her shoulder, kneading it gently.

After a moment of thought, she answered truthfully: "If everything goes smoothly, we'll get engaged by the end of the year."

The man leaning in the sofa let out a very faint scoff, his tone giving no clue to his emotions: "That's good."

Emma's hand paused mid-knead, and she didn't say anything more.

Benjamin also fell silent after that. He lay back against the sofa, his right hand resting on the coffee table, flicking the lighter casually every now and then.

His hair was a little messy, and so was his pajama. Before she came in, he must have really been sleeping in bed.

He had been extremely busy ever since he came back. She heard that earlier that day, he had even gone to the neighboring city to attend a government meeting.

Emma thought there was no point in staying any longer. Just as she was about to take her leave, Benjamin opened his eyes, brushed his hair aside, and sat up.

He tossed the lighter he had been playing with onto the table, not looking at her: "Quit that operations job. Come be my secretary instead."

Emma looked over at him.

Before taking over the family company, Benjamin had always run his own business. He had majored in internet and big data as an undergraduate, and after graduation, he had founded a game studio and a technology company.

Two years ago, when Henry wanted him to return to the family group, he went to New York and had been handling overseas affairs there ever since.

His team and several of his deputies had stayed at the New York branch. This time, when he came back, he only brought along one assistant he was used to working with.

Emma frowned. After a moment, she spoke: "I can't do that. My major is in new media."

Benjamin rubbed his eyebrows, picked up his phone from the table, turned on the screen, and glanced at a message: "It's fine. You can learn."

Emma still pressed her lips tightly together. After a few seconds, Benjamin put down his phone, took off his glasses as well, and looked at her.

He let out a laugh, his tone neutral: "FSAN is a company you've worked at before. You know it well, using you will be the most convenient."

"What are you overthinking?" he said.

Earlier this year, she had indeed worked at FSAN for half a year. And when Benjamin came back, FSAN was the first company he took over.

Emma thought for a few seconds: "I don't know anything about secretarial work. FSAN already has a team of executive assistants. You can use someone from that team."

Benjamin picked up a magazine from the table and flipped through a couple of pages casually: "FSAN's senior management is going through a reshuffle. I don't trust anyone who isn't on my side."

Several of the Brown family's companies weren't fully owned by them, their shareholding ratio was small. In the past two years, the shareholders of those companies had been trying to seize power. Henry had called him back specifically to sort out the internal affairs of these companies.

Emma lowered her head slightly and raised her hand to smooth out the wrinkles on her suit pants.

She had gone on the date with David White straight after work and hadn't had time to change clothes.

She didn't say anything. Benjamin put down the magazine, looked up, and noticed the brooch on her blazer.

It was a simple rose design, adorned with white diamonds and crystals.

Following his gaze, Emma also looked down at herself.

David had given it to her, he had handed it to her during dinner that night and asked her to put it on and try it. She had been distracted at the time and had forgotten to take it off after putting it on.

Now that she saw Benjamin looking at it, there was no reason to take it off at this moment. So she just rested her hand on the sofa and didn't move.

It was unclear whether Benjamin had seen it clearly. His gaze swept past it, he rubbed his temples, and leaned back: "I've already talked to your aunt. Come to FSAN to take up the position next week."

His words made it clear that the matter was already settled, there was no possibility of changing it.

Emma didn't try to argue further. She stood up from the sofa: "I'll head back first."

Benjamin leaned back in the sofa, looking lazy, with his eyes closed. His voice was half-hoarse: "Hmm."

When she walked out of Benjamin's bedroom, she happened to run into William, who had just finished playing games and was coming upstairs.

William had a game console tucked under his right arm. He glanced at the direction she had come from and yawned: "Brother still awake?"

"No," Emma shook her head, then added, somewhat unexpectedly: "He wanted to talk to me about work."

William didn't care about the family company's affairs. He just nodded a couple of times, yawned again, and pointed upstairs with his finger: "I'm going to bed."

Emma nodded and walked toward her own room.

She entered her room, closed the door, and finally let out a sigh of relief. She stood by the door for a while, ran her hands through her hair, then stood there for a moment longer before taking off her clothes and heading to the bathroom.

That day was Friday. Benjamin wasn't at home for the entire weekend. During dinner, Emma heard Sophia mention that he had gone to Jcity to discuss a merger and acquisition.

FSAN was going through an internal reshuffle recently, some senior executives had sold confidential information and fled abroad. Benjamin would have to stay this busy for another two months to stabilize the company's internal situation.

And there were three or four other companies that required his attention and take-over. So he would be swamped until the beginning of next year.

On Monday morning, when Emma went downstairs for breakfast, only Sophia was there.

She had just sat down when she saw two people coming down the stairs again.

Benjamin was walking in front, fastening the cufflink on his right wrist with his left hand. William was crowding behind him, fidgeting restlessly: "Brother, can you get me tickets for that boxing match? I promised my friend I'd take him."

Looking up and seeing him, Sophia put down the bowl she was holding and frowned: "Stop pestering your brother. And go back to sleep after breakfast, you didn't get home until four o'clock last night. I don't even know where you were fooling around."

Emma scooped a spoonful of porridge into her mouth, not looking up, but she could feel that the two people on the stairs had come down and were walking toward the dining room.

Half a minute later, the chair to her left was pulled out.

The man sat down, and a sharp yet faint woody scent clung to him. She put down her spoon and turned her head to glance at him.

Benjamin was wearing an ivory-white shirt. On his right wrist, he had a watch with a black dial, and the bezel was inlaid with a few inconspicuous dark blue gemstones.

After a quick glance, Emma looked away and continued eating her porridge.

William sat down across from them, grabbed a piece of bread casually, and kept pestering Benjamin about the tickets: "Brother, please."

"You got tickets for my sister before. Why can't you get two for me?" He gestured toward Emma as an example.

Caught off guard by the mention, Emma said in her calm voice: "I went there to learn."

Sophia tapped his bowl with her chopsticks: "Eat properly. We'll talk about this after breakfast. And besides, can you even compare yourself to your sister? What kind of grades did your sister get in school, and what kind of grades do you get?"

Just thinking about it gave Sophia a headache: "Next time I go to your school, if I hear your teacher say you're failing again, you'll see."

A maid walked past behind Emma and handed Benjamin a set of tableware. Benjamin took it and answered William, who had been looking at him with eager eyes: "I'll call a friend later. Which section do you want tickets for?"

"B1, B1! First row!" William exclaimed.

Sophia cut in: "Enough. Eat your food!"

The dining table was long. Even though they were sitting next to each other, they wouldn't bump into each other. Emma didn't say much and just ate her meal quietly.

Sophia looked at her again: "Your car's been sent to the shop for maintenance. Do you want to drive mine today?"

Emma had just looked up when she heard the person beside her interject: "No need. She'll go with me."

"Oh right," Sophia remembered, "You two are going to FSAN together, aren't you?"

They had talked about it some time ago, Emma was being transferred to be his secretary.

After breakfast, Emma and Benjamin walked out of the house together.

Since they were heading to the same destination, there was no need to drive two cars. Emma followed behind Benjamin and walked toward the parking area.