Chapter 4

The design department was the most important division in the company. Moreover, the star products released each year were all designed by me, just under Liam's name.

He immediately understood that I no longer wanted to hide behind him and be his ghostwriter.

From now on, the designs would be credited to me, Amelia Winters.

Liam put down his chopsticks and looked at me intently. "Amelia, if I did something to hurt you, could you forgive me?"

I gently took out a container of tripe soup, chiding him playfully. "Why are you suddenly saying this? Did you really do something to hurt me?"

For a moment, I thought he was going to confess.

He just shook his head, took the soup, and sighed after a sip. "Of course not. How could I ever hurt such a wonderful wife?"

I nodded with a smile. "I'll start working in the design department tomorrow then. Remember to assign me two capable assistants, okay?"

Before leaving the company, I asked Liam to take me on a tour of each department. He seemed uneasy.

When we got to the design department, a young girl gave me an unfriendly look.

She was wearing a loose hoodie and tight leggings. I studied her carefully and realized she resembled the profile picture of Liam's mistress.

She must have recognized me first, staring at me with resentful eyes. After all, Liam's phone wallpaper was my photo.

In person, she wasn't as polished as in her photos. She was rather plain-looking, someone you wouldn't notice in a crowd.

But she was indeed young. Even pregnant, she maintained a slim figure. The loose clothing hid her pregnancy.

Liam hurriedly introduced a few people, eager to leave.

I smiled and extended my hand to the mistress. "The company is grateful to have such a dedicated employee. How many months pregnant are you?"

She barely touched my fingertips before letting go. Instead, she turned to Liam with a blissful expression. "Five months," she said, then raised an eyebrow at me and proudly rubbed her belly.

What an indiscreet girl. I was a bit disappointed that Liam would cheat with someone like her.

The mistress was never my target. The one who hurt me was Liam - he was the one who failed to stay faithful to our marriage.

But I wouldn't be kind to the mistress either. I would use her well to get back what I deserved from Liam, and more.

I gave Liam's arm a squeeze. "Pregnant employees need special care. Don't give the young lady too much work."

The surrounding employees praised me: "The boss's wife is so beautiful and kind. You two are such a perfect match."

Liam put his arm around my waist, smiling smugly.

The mistress's face had turned almost green with envy.

It seems this mistress doesn't hold much weight in his heart after all.

On my first day working in the design department, the employees weren't very respectful towards me, even though I was the boss's wife. Artists tend to be free-spirited and a bit rebellious.

In their eyes, only Liam was the real boss.

The intern mistress, however, seemed quite popular in the company.

She smiled warmly like a spring breeze, with everyone greeting her.

I calmly exported this year's International Jewelry Design Competition draft from my computer. When I asked for suggestions on which gemstones to use, the mistress came over and glanced at it.

"Mrs. Winters, you design too? We usually just create entries to accompany Mr. Westbrook's work," she said.

The design director pushed the mistress aside and stared at the computer screen with shining eyes. "Perfect! Absolutely perfect! This is the most stunning piece I've seen all year. It's definitely going to win gold."

He eagerly poured me a cup of water. "Mrs. Winters, you're a true master! I'm so sorry for my poor attitude earlier. When you have time, could you please give me some guidance on my work?"

William Lewis, the design director, was someone who lived and breathed design. Many of the company's popular pieces were his creations.

But he wasn't arrogant like some artists. Instead, he was very good at management and operations. He had been with Liam since the early days, and the company's growth owed much to William's efforts.

I chose to work in the design department not only because I excelled at design, but mainly because of William.

He had followed Liam out of admiration for Liam's work - which was actually all created by me.

I wanted to take away one of Liam's arms, to have William work for me instead.

I nodded kindly. "Of course. Bring me all your work to take a look."

While working, I continued to be attentive and caring towards Liam. In the past, he often had business dinners and ate out.

Since I started working at the company, I prepared all three of his daily meals myself.

After keeping this up for a while, Liam started telling me he occasionally felt pain in his legs.

I knew this was a symptom of gout. His comeuppance was approaching.

One time, when I was bringing Liam his lunch, I ran into the mistress coming out of his office with a lunchbox.

She was wiping away tears as she walked.

Clearly, she had wanted him to eat the food she made, but Liam refused.

I pretended to mention it casually to Liam: "Did you scold Tiffany? The poor girl is pregnant, don't be too harsh on her."

Liam tried to change the subject. "What delicious meal did you make for me today, honey?"

Seeing he wanted to gloss over it, I pressed on: "I saw her throw the lunchbox in the trash right after leaving. What happened?"

Liam's expression turned awkward, his voice tinged with guilt. "She was just trying to suck up, I guess. You know I hate people who rely on tricks instead of real ability. Let's not talk about her. I'm starving."

Liam had indeed hidden things well. No one in the company knew about their relationship.

And since I started working there, Liam and Tiffany hardly interacted at all.

At home, he barely looked at his phone and received no suspicious calls.

Tiffany's gaze towards me grew more and more resentful.

The results of this year's jewelry design competition came out a month after I started working. In previous years, Liam always won the awards, but this time it was me.

Moreover, the design department staff had witnessed my entire process from initial draft to multiple revisions to the final design. No one doubted this was my own work.

Instead, rumors started circulating in the company that Liam's previous works had all been done by me.

William Lewis solemnly invited me out for coffee.

I brought my laptop and gladly accepted.

When I arrived, he had already been waiting for over half an hour.

Actually, I had arrived early and observed him from a hidden corner, watching him fidget anxiously with a furrowed brow.

I knew then that my chances of convincing him to work for me had increased to about 20%.

"Hi William, sorry I'm late," I said.

Seeing me arrive, the straightforward William got right to the point: "Were all of Liam's previous award-winning designs actually created by you?"

I smiled gently and turned my laptop towards him.

I had kept copies of all my design drafts. When designing, I had a habit of hand-drawing my initial sketches and signing them at the bottom of the page.

William's expression grew serious as he flipped through them one by one. As he progressed, his brow smoothed out and his eyes began to sparkle with admiration.

He kept muttering, "So beautiful. Your talent is truly unparalleled."

After finishing, he gripped my hand tightly, staring at me intently.

His expression was so exaggerated that I uncomfortably pulled my hand away.

"You should be shining brightly in the jewelry world. Why did you hide behind Liam?" he asked gravely. "Did he force you?"

I shook my head. "It was my own choice. But that doesn't matter now. William, I've come to my senses. I want to have my own independent design studio. Would you like to work with me?"

William nodded frantically. "Of course! I originally followed Liam hoping to improve my skills. But all these years, I never created anything that surpassed myself. Just this past month with your guidance, I finally feel like I'm breaking through my limits."

"I've never cared about how much money I make. I only hope to design pieces that will stand the test of time. I'd work for you even without pay."

I had bet correctly. William was a born artist. In his eyes, talent and creations were more important than fame, fortune or sentiment.

I tactfully told William about Liam's affair and my future career plans.

Though he disdained worldly relationships, he was very perceptive. He immediately understood my true intentions when I explained.

I wanted to bring Liam down.

But he didn't care about that. He only asked that I guide him on each of his future designs.

I agreed, of course.

My studio had actually started being set up two weeks ago. To separate it from Liam, the legal representative was my father.

William acted quickly, immediately submitting his resignation to Liam. He didn't even bother with the resignation procedures.

He didn't want his final month's salary either, packing up and leaving the very next day.

I was in Liam's office when HR informed him of this.

Liam was furious, barely containing his anger as he called William.

He couldn't believe that his right-hand man, who had been with him since the beginning, would leave without a word.

When he dialed, he found William had already blocked his number.

That was typical of William.

I almost couldn't control my expression, having to bite my tongue hard to keep from laughing out loud.

Liam angrily threw his phone, shattering the screen of the latest model.

That wasn't enough. He swept everything off his desk onto the floor.

The HR person trembled in fear.

I gestured for them to leave and went to comfort Liam. "Honey, don't be angry. It's just losing a design director. His work wasn't as good as mine anyway. I'll take good care of the design department from now on."

Liam collapsed into his chair, deflated, his hands shaking uncontrollably.

"Honey, I'll have to trouble you with the design department then. It's good that I have you," Liam said, looking at me tenderly. "Being a director is hard work. Don't squeeze time to cook for me anymore. Let's just eat out."

I stood behind him, gently massaging his temples. "It's no trouble at all. Taking care of your health and stomach doesn't feel like work to me. Don't worry, I'll lead the design department to create even better pieces."

After becoming the design director as planned, I finally got access to the company's key clients. These were all ultra-wealthy individuals.

For their exclusive custom jewelry, the design director needed to personally bring the designs to show them the renderings before creating the final product.

After interacting with these wealthy clients for a while, I locked onto my target - a divorced businesswoman named Vivian King.

I took the initiative to build a closer relationship with her. Given her love for jewelry, I would let her see all my new designs first.

This time, Vivian had already claimed dibs on my award-winning piece.

However, after she purchased the finished product, I successfully convinced her to replace the pendant with an 11-carat pink diamond.

This would bring the total value of the piece to $30 million.

When I told Liam this news, he was initially worried we couldn't source an 11-carat pink diamond. After all, gems of this caliber were usually in private collections and rarely came on the market.

But I emphasized that closing this deal would bring in nearly $10 million in profit.

I told him that in two weeks, at a Sotheby's auction, there would be a nearly 12-carat flawless pink diamond. Based on historical prices, diamonds larger than this one had sold for no more than $20 million.

What I didn't tell him was that those were prices from five years ago, and that he would absolutely not be able to win this pink diamond at auction.

Liam believed that as long as we prepared $20 million, we would definitely be able to acquire it.

When he personally signed the delivery contract with Vivian, his hands were shaking uncontrollably with excitement.

His leg pain had been getting worse lately, and his hands shook more and more frequently.

But with the mess left behind by William's departure, he was too preoccupied to pay attention. Plus, I reassured him it was just from overwork, which he fully believed.

The reason I encouraged Liam so much was that for these custom jewelry contracts, we had to collect full payment from the client in advance and guarantee delivery.

Otherwise, we would have to pay the client ten times the amount in compensation.

For this deal, if Liam breached the contract, $300 million in damages would be enough to bankrupt him.