Chapter 6 Santino Hired At Sloan Cooperation

"What do you mean?" Rhonda thought that Eliam was being partial toward Maggie.

"The way you did just now -- blunt and rude," Eliam said flatly. He was dissatisfied with Rhonda's behavior.

Rhonda didn't want to explain. She turned on her phone and played a voice note.

It was the conversation she had with Maggie earlier. Maggie kept emphasizing that Eliam had asked Rhonda to cook. She had even arrogantly told Rhonda to mind her business.

As a senior financial officer, Rhonda had always been vigilant and knew to protect herself at all times. She had always guarded herself against leaders and cunning colleagues. Recording conversations had become a professional habit. She didn't expect the record would come in handy today.

Eliam's brows furrowed as he listened to the recording. He was both shocked and angry.

After a long while, he cleared his throat and said, "My aunt recommended Maggie. I'm afraid my aunt would get offended if you fired Maggie right after becoming the hostess of the Sloan family. If you want to fire Maggie, you must wait for a while."

Rhonda knew Eliam was in a dilemma, but she didn't think such a servant could take good care of Richard.

"All right. Then, I want to install surveillance cameras at home."

Eliam understood Rhonda's intention. She was worried that Maggie would harm his grandfather.

"It's up to you." After saying that, Eliam started the car and gave Rhonda a ride to work.

Sloan Corporation was not far from Rhonda's company. Eliam didn't want to expose his identity, so he stopped the car at an intersection and asked Rhonda to get down there.

Rhonda didn't think much and got out of the car.

As soon as she entered the company, Cristina stopped her.

"I have some good news. Santino went to Sloan Corporation for an interview yesterday, and the HR officer was impressed with him. If he gets a job there, he will have a bright future."

"Look, I have nothing to do with you or Santino. Don't tell me what you guys are up to because I do not care!" Rhonda pushed Cristina away and tried to leave.

"Hey, don't go. I haven't finished yet. I heard that you have put your apartment on sale. Considering you want to sell it, why don't you sell it to me and Santino?"

"Can you make the full payment?"

"No. But we can pay in installments. If Santino works in Sloan Corporation, his annual income will be five or six hundred thousand dollars. We will be able to pay the debt at ease."

"No. I want full payment. I don't accept installments," Rhonda refused decisively.

"Hey, come on. Why are you so narrow-minded? You are Santino's ex-girlfriend anyway. Can't you make an exception for us?"

"Cristina, let me make it clear to you. I would even lower the price of the apartment but will never sell it to you two."

Rhonda ignored Cristina and strutted into her office. Cristina looked at her and stomped her foot in anger.

Rhonda's apartment was located at a prime location. The interiors looked beautiful, but Rhonda didn't want to sell the house to Cristina, which infuriated her.

Sloan Corporation's daily meeting was held in the conference room. Eliam kept yawning during the meeting.

The executives exchanged glances.

They tried guessing what Eliam must have done last night. It looked like he hadn't slept all night.

Had he worked overtime? But Eliam left on time yesterday.

Had he spent time in a bar? But Eliam didn't like going to bars.

Had he played video games all night? But Eliam never played games.

After guessing and denying the conjectures, everyone agreed that Eliam must have spent the night with a woman. The long strand of hair stuck on his shoulder, swaying with the cold wind of the central air conditioner was solid evidence.

It looked like Eliam was exhausted after having sex all night. Everyone wisely briefed their reports and ended the meeting within a short time.

However, the news that Eliam had spent last night with a woman quickly spread all over the company like wildfire.

When Eliam returned to his office, he saw the background investigation report about Rhonda lying on the table.

He propped his head on the palm of his hand and barely read two pages. Eliam's body visibly tensed when he read that Rhonda had been living with her boyfriend, Santino Byrne, for three years.

He couldn't believe she had married him when she had a boyfriend.

Besides, she had lived together with her boyfriend for three years.

This information made Eliam's blood boil.

Although he and Rhonda were just a nominal couple, who had married just for his grandfather, he couldn't accept that she used to live with another man.

Eliam had been with his ex-girlfriend for five years but never crossed the line. He couldn't accept the notion of a couple living together before marriage.

Greedy, hypocritical, duplicitous. Eliam's jaw tensed. He felt these adjectives described Rhonda the best.

He recalled the happy expression on Rhonda's face when she found out that they would divorce in six months.

After six months, she would live a happy life with her boyfriend with five hundred thousand dollars.

No, that wasn't it. She would not only get five hundred thousand dollars but the five hundred thousand Eliam lent her as well.

It was revolting. He despised Rhonda.

Eliam tightened his grip on the investigation report and almost crumpled it into a ball.

Just then, an HR officer knocked on the door and walked in.

Eliam took a deep breath and slowly raised his head. "What's up?"

The anger on Eliam's face frightened the officer. "Mr... Mr. Sloan," he stuttered, "we interviewed two people yesterday. Err... both... both of them are senior network engineers. Mr. Dixon is on leave. He told me to hire the right candidate, but I don't know how to assess the technical status of an engineer. So... so I've brought their resumes to you. Why don't you decide whom to hire?"

The officer placed the two resumes on Eliam's table and left dejectedly.

Eliam was annoyed that they were bothering him with such a trivial issue.

He glanced at the resumes. His eyes widened when he saw the words, "Applicant - Santino Byrne" written in bold letters.

Eliam picked up the resume.

Santino Byrne, male, 24 years old, majored in network engineering at a prominent university with experience working as the chief technology officer of Sunset Communications.

He wondered if it was Rhonda's boyfriend.

His talent was average, and all the certificates listed on the resume were fancy but didn't seem useful.

Eliam glanced at the address column and found it was the same address as Rhonda's.

He was now sure the two lived together.

Eliam was glad he didn't reveal his true identity to Rhonda. If a greedy woman like her knew his real identity, he wouldn't be able to get rid of her soon.

After mulling it over, Eliam picked up the phone and called the human resources department. He told them to hire Santino and offer him a salary of fifty thousand dollars per month.

Santino informed Cristina the news as soon as he got the job offer.

Cristina didn't want to miss the opportunity to show off to Rhonda.

During the lunch break, she bragged about her boyfriend's potential and salary to her colleagues. Her voice was so loud that everyone in the company could hear it.

Rhonda was absent-minded all afternoon. She made several accounting errors at work. Finally, it was time to get off work.

When Rhonda was about to leave, her brother called her and informed her that Nora had a relapse as soon as she was hospitalized.

Rhonda worriedly rushed to the hospital.

The doctor said that Nora was in critical condition. She needed to get the surgery done right away.

After a lot of persuasion, the hospital agreed to arrange for an operation for Nora after Rhonda paid a deposit of five hundred thousand dollars.

Her brother was busy preparing his thesis for graduation, so Rhonda stayed in the hospital with Nora and asked him to go back to school.

At half past nine in the evening, Rhonda's phone rang. It was a call from Eliam.