Evelyn Kendrick arrived just as Leon Sterling was placing the last dish on the table. Her timing was perfect.
Hazel Sinclair opened the door and saw her dressed in a suit with a pair of sunglasses on her face, looking incredibly sharp.
"Mr. Kendrick, please come in." Hazel Sinclair immediately stepped aside, gesturing for her to enter with a smile.
Evelyn Kendrick lifted a hand, took off her sunglasses, and tossed them onto the entryway cabinet. After coming inside, she changed into a pair of slippers.
Looking at the sumptuous feast covering the table, Evelyn Kendrick raised an eyebrow and said, "Your man’s a pretty good cook."
"Of course he is. Leon Sterling’s the best cook there is." Hazel Sinclair readily accepted Evelyn Kendrick’s praise.
Leon Sterling placed bowls of rice in front of both women and poured them some juice.
Evelyn Kendrick picked up the juice and took a sip. It was the flavor Hazel Sinclair liked.
She glanced again at the busy Leon Sterling. ’Great cooking skills, attentive, handsome... Not bad at all.’
’A hundred times better than Jasper Fletcher. A thousand times, even.’
After tasting the food Leon Sterling had made, Evelyn Kendrick finally understood why that girl Hazel Sinclair was always praising his cooking.
’His skills really are amazing. The flavors are on par with any top chef.’
"So? It’s delicious, right?" Hazel Sinclair said with a wide smile, her eyes sparkling as she looked at her.
"Delicious." Evelyn Kendrick wasn’t stingy with her praise. She gave a thumbs-up to the man sitting next to Hazel Sinclair. "Your skills are easily on par with any top chef."
Despite being praised like that, Leon Sterling remained calm as he finished his meal, simply saying, "Thank you."
"Of course my man’s skills are amazing," Hazel Sinclair said with a laugh, puffing out her chest. You couldn’t imagine how proud she looked.
The man’s cooking was the woman’s pride.
Hazel Sinclair was overjoyed that her friend had eaten Leon Sterling’s food and even praised it.
In her delight, she turned to Leon Sterling and said, "I want to eat shrimp peeled by you."
"Okay," Leon Sterling replied. He picked up a pair of disposable gloves from the side, put them on, and started peeling shrimp.
Evelyn Kendrick took in the scene, and unable to resist, she raised an eyebrow and asked, "Did the old Chairman Sterling used to peel shrimp for her too?"
Leon Sterling thought back to the past. The two of them rarely spoke when they sat together, and besides, the shrimp always arrived at the table already peeled. He never had to lift a finger.
He shook his head honestly and added, "Because the chef had already peeled them."
Now that there was no chef to peel them, he would do it himself.
Evelyn Kendrick nodded, not letting her gaze or the conversation linger on him.
All her questions stemmed from a single worry: that Hazel Sinclair, who couldn’t do anything but cry, wouldn’t be treated well by him.
Everyone just wanted her to be happy.
"I heard you got a job?" Evelyn Kendrick asked, looking at her.
Hazel Sinclair looked at Evelyn Kendrick, a little puzzled. ’How does everyone know I got a job?’
’Did they plant a tracking device on me?’
"Yeah," Hazel Sinclair answered straightforwardly despite her confusion. "I’m working as a live streamer."
"If you’re going to be a live streamer, why not come work at my company?" Evelyn Kendrick asked.
’Hazel Sinclair is beautiful. If she did live-selling for me, my company’s products would definitely sell even more.’
"How much would you pay me?" Hazel Sinclair asked.
’Live streaming is live streaming no matter where I do it. If Evelyn offers a higher salary, I might as well switch over to her company.’
"How much does your current job pay per month?" Evelyn Kendrick didn’t answer right away, asking about her current salary instead.
"The base is twenty thousand, I think. On a good month, it can be seventy or eighty thousand," Hazel Sinclair said, a little uncertain.
"Alright. Come to my company. I’ll give you a base salary of twenty-five thousand. As long as you’re good at selling, the commission is high too, and I’ll cover your social insurance and housing fund." Evelyn Kendrick nodded.
’The benefits are much better than the company I’m at now.’
As soon as Hazel Sinclair heard that, she immediately said, "Deal, deal, deal!"
Listening from the side, Leon Sterling quietly spoke up. "She can’t work..."
"Shut up!" the two women shouted at him in unison.
Evelyn Kendrick fixed him with a displeased glare and said, clearly annoyed, "What do you mean, she can’t work?"
"Are you trying to take away her freedom?"
"She married you, she wasn’t sold to you! All you need to do is treat her well and support whatever she wants to do. What’s this nonsense about ’can’t’?" Evelyn Kendrick’s tone was laced with impatience. She hated men like this the most.
’Who is he to say whether she can work or not?’
"I’d support her even if she wanted to be a street performer to make money." Any shred of good impression Evelyn Kendrick had just formed of him was instantly wiped out.
"I’m not restricting her freedom. I just want her to do something she truly loves," Leon Sterling repeated, sticking to his point.
Hazel Sinclair watched him from the side and sighed. She didn’t understand why he was so stubborn about this, bringing it up again and again.
"She wants to be a live streamer, which means she’s interested in this industry right now. When she’s not interested anymore, she’ll naturally move on to something else," Evelyn Kendrick retorted with a scoff.
Unable to win the argument against the two of them, Leon Sterling finally fell silent and said no more.
Seeing that he had quieted down, Evelyn Kendrick dropped the subject and turned back to chat with Hazel Sinclair.
"Jasper Fletcher is incredibly arrogant. He’s always thought I have no head for business, that women should just stay home and be housewives." At this, Evelyn Kendrick scoffed. "He’ll pay the price for his arrogance."
"I’ve recently gotten ahold of his company’s core... It won’t be long now..."
Hazel Sinclair knew what she was going to say next. Her eyes lit up as she said, "Are you really that amazing?"
"I’ll be waiting for the moment you succeed."
After dinner, Hazel Sinclair stood in the entryway and handed Evelyn her sunglasses. She took them, put them on, and said, "Report to my company the day after tomorrow."
"Don’t listen to him. You can do whatever you want," Evelyn Kendrick added with a smile.
Having been rivals for so long, Evelyn Kendrick wanted her to step into the business world so they could compete with each other again.
"Don’t worry, I won’t," Hazel Sinclair replied.
Closing the door, Hazel Sinclair stretched languidly, then took some plastic wrap and carefully wrapped it around her bandaged area.
Once she was done, she grabbed a change of clothes and went into the bathroom to shower.
After her shower, she walked into the bedroom and saw Leon Sterling sitting in front of the computer, tinkering with something.
Seeing her enter, Leon Sterling’s gaze fell on her as he asked, "Didn’t you say you were going to lend me three million? Can you give it to me now?"
"Sure."
Hazel Sinclair didn’t ask any questions, simply figuring out a way to transfer the money to his account.
After the transfer went through, Leon Sterling saw his balance change and went back to what he was doing.
Just then, Hazel Sinclair came up beside him with a notebook, saying with a wide grin, "Leon Sterling, if you read the contents of this notebook out loud, I won’t be mad at you anymore."
"And I’ll even let you kiss me."
The moment he heard he could get a kiss from his wife just by reading something, Leon Sterling immediately stopped his work. He took the notebook and glanced at it, his expression turning earnest.
"Alright, I’ll read it for you," Leon Sterling agreed at once.