Chapter 2 One-sided Love

Luis was the one who opened the door. It appeared he was on his way out.

Raegan balled her hands, turned to him, and nodded. "Hey, Mr. Stevens!"

Without waiting for him to respond to her greeting, she walked past him and entered the office with the document.

Mitchel was seated behind a large luxurious desk. In an expensive suit and matching tie, he looked particularly handsome.

Raegan noticed it wasn't the same suit he had on when he left home last night. How did he get changed?

With her eyes lowered, she swallowed that question and said instead, "Mr. Dixon, this is from the Marketing Department. Please sign it."

Mitchel was expressionless as he signed the document at a glance.

Raegan walked out the door as soon as he handed the document back to her. Luis was still standing at the threshold.

It wasn't until she went out of sight that Luis turned to Mitchel and said in a hushed tone, "Shit! Do you think she heard us?"

Mitchel's appealing eyes were expressionless at the moment. Obviously, he wasn't paying attention to what Luis was saying.

To Mitchel, Raegan had always been docile and never felt jealous of anyone.

Her strict obedience was all Mitchel demanded from her in exchange for treating her well.

In the elevator.

Raegan held her breath just to hold back her tears. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

She had thought two years would be enough for Mitchel to realize how much she loved him and reciprocate her love.

Now, it turned out that was just a pipe dream.

She realized she would always play second fiddle to Lauren, Mitchel's true love.

Reagan wiped her tears when the elevator halted. Save for her pale face, she looked normal when the doors opened.

She dragged herself to the break room, intending to make herself a cup of tea.

Several employees were chatting inside.

"Guys, have you heard? Lauren Murray is back."

"And who is that?"

"Oh, my! You don't know her? Lauren is the heiress of the Murray Group as well as a world-class designer. Most importantly, she's the only girlfriend Mr. Dixon has ever shown off in public. She's his first love!"

"Why is her return such a big deal? Isn't it rumored that there is something between Mr. Dixon and Raegan?"

"Raegan? She's probably one of his many sex toys. Mr. Dixon never admitted that he was dating her. And that is no surprise to me. After all, look at her. She's not even that beautiful. Yet, she behaves as if she's already Mrs. Dixon. What a fool!"

Standing at the door, Raegan smiled with self-mockery as she listened to them. It turned out everyone else saw the truth except her.

The love was one-sided.

"Ha-ha, has Mrs. Dixon finally woken up from her wild dream?"

A voice of mockery suddenly came from behind. Raegan turned around to see Tessa Lloyd, Mitchel's cousin, who had always despised her.

Tessa must have also heard the employees gossiping.

The last thing Raegan wanted to do now was argue with Tessa in the company. She turned to leave, but Tessa blocked her way.

With a cup of coffee in her hand, Tessa uttered sarcastically, "Lauren is back now. Do you think Mitchel will still give you any attention?"

Raegan said nothing to that.

Seconds later, Tessa continued the ridicule. "I heard you are quite good in bed. How about I introduce you to a couple of men? They could really use your service."

Raegan clenched her fists and said coldly, "Ms. Lloyd, we are in the company, not a brothel. If you are interested in that kind of business, you know where to go."

"You..."

Raegan had just insinuated that she was a pimp. This made Tessa's face change.

The next second, Tessa raised her hand and emptied the cup of hot coffee on Raegan.

Raegan didn't think for a second that Tessa would do something so crazy. She held up her arms just to block the hot liquid from her face. In no time, the coffee burned her arm and her skin turned red.

"Ouch!" Raegan frowned in pain. "What did you do that for? Are you out of your mind?"

It was lunch break and many employees were free to watch the drama. Tessa was even more complacent when she saw growing onlookers.

She put on a mean-girl look as she said, "What makes you so smug every day, huh? Do you seriously think that others don't know you are just a bastard without parents? The nerve of..."

A crisp sound was heard all of a sudden.

Tessa was silenced by a hot slap to her face.

Her jaw dropped to the floor. She had never expected that Raegan, who was so quiet and timid, would slap her.

Tessa held her cheek and stared blankly for a while. Then, she stuttered, "You... You hit me? How dare you!"

Raegan eyed her and replied, "Yes, I did! It seems you need to be taught simple politeness."

Indeed, Raegan lost her parents when she was a child. But that didn't mean she would allow someone to walk over her for it.

Wrinkles appeared on Tessa's face as she frowned in anger. As Mitchel's cousin, she was used to being fawned over and respected. This was the first time she had been treated like this.

"You bitch!"

Tessa charged at Raegan like a raging bull, raising her hand up high to return the slap.

This time, Raegan was fully prepared for what was coming. She grabbed Tessa's wrist so tightly that the latter couldn't move another inch.

Tessa was shorter than Raegan. As a result, Tessa struggled like an octopus that had one of its tentacles stuck in a fishing trap.

Tessa cursed angrily, "How dare you put your filthy hands on me? Who the hell do you think you are? You are nothing but Mitchel's toy. You are worse than a prostitute who fucks many men!"

These harsh words attracted more people to the break room.

"That's enough!"

Out of the blue, a baritone came from behind. Mitchel had left his office and ran into this hullabaloo.

The entire room fell silent.

"Mitchel?" Tessa's blood ran cold at the sight of Mitchel. She had always been scared of him. Her mother also warned her against provoking him.

But when she remembered that Raegan slapped her, she put on a pitiful expression and sobbed. "Mitchel, look at my face. She slapped me."

The sunlight from outside fell on Mitchel's handsome face.

Raegan felt so grieved all of a sudden, and lowered her head to look at the back of her arm which was scalded by the coffee.

Their gaze met in the air. With a deep frown, Mitchel looked at Raegan and said, "Raegan, have you forgotten the rules of the company?"

His ruthlessness made Raegan's breathing cease. She couldn't believe her ears.

No one dared to make a sound at this moment.

Raegan just stood straight there with her slender figure.

When she got employed here, Mitchel had told her that the Dixon Group wasn't a place for her to mess around and that he would not tolerate her making any mistakes.

Raegan could understand why he took this stand.

However, at this moment, she was desperate to know whether Mitchel had heard those hard words Tessa scolded her or he was just pretending not to have heard because he agreed to those words.

Did he really see her as a tool for his pleasure?

Scared to death by Mitchel's rage, the crowd soon dispersed. A few employees were bold enough to peep from a distance, unwilling to miss the good show.

Mitchel's cold eyes made Raegan shiver from head to toe.

Raegan pinched her palm to suppress her emotions as she looked at Tessa.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Lloyd. As an employee of the Dixon Group, it was wrong of me to have hit you."

Eyeing Raegan, Tessa raised her chin complacently. "Humph! Don't think you'll be let off the hook just by making a simple apology. I don't buy..."

"The slap has nothing to do with the company. Personally, I refuse to apologize to you. Now, if you'd excuse me," Raegan chimed in.

She then walked past Mitchel without sparing him another look.

"You... You bitch!"

Tessa's face turned blue after hearing what Raegan said.

Never in her years of being alive had she been so humiliated. She was always the bully, not the victim!

The humiliation was so much that tearing Raegan into pieces now wouldn't appease her anger.

Pointing in Raegan's direction, Tessa shouted, "Mitchel, did you hear what that woman just said? She slapped me in the face, yet she's still so arrogant. Call her back. I have to slap her until she cries for mercy!"

Mitchel, staring at Raegan's thin back, had an ambiguous expression at this moment.

"Enough!" he said coldly, raising his hand.

As someone who lived and breathed drama and cruelty, Tessa didn't think Mitchel was partial to Raegan just now. She assumed that Mitchel didn't care about Raegan at all.

Tessa gritted her teeth and said viciously, "Next time, I'll get someone to teach that bitch a lesson."

"Tessa!" Mitchel's tone and squint made it a reproof.

Tessa trembled at once.

With a somber face, Mitchel said, "I'll only say it once. Forget about what happened here today. Leave Raegan alone."

The aura he exuded made her tongue go dry. All the vicious ideas she had in store against Raegan disappeared in an instant.

She stammered, "Ok... Okay, got it..."

Mitchel cast a cold glance at her and spoke to Matteo. "Irrelevant people wouldn't be allowed in here from today onwards."

Without catching the drift, Tessa flattered Mitchel. "Nice call. This is a top company. Not everyone gains access in here."

Matteo nodded to Mitchel and then walked over to Tessa. He gestured to the exit. "Ms. Lloyd, this way, please."

It wasn't until this moment that Tessa realized that she was the irrelevant person Mitchel just mentioned. She tried to speak to him, but Matteo blocked her way. The security guards then threw her out.

They showed her no mercy. Her struggle was useless.

Meanwhile, Raegan got changed when she returned to her office.

Her heart was filled with sadness as she thought of how Mitchel looked at her minutes ago.

Closing hour soon rolled by.

Raegan took her bag and headed for the exit. However, Matteo stopped her.

He said, "Mr. Dixon has something urgent to deal with, so he asked me to drive you home."

Raegan declined the ride without thinking twice.

She was blind before, but now she could see through the situation.

In Mitchel's eyes, she was just a nobody.

How could Mitchel agree to accompany her to visit her grandmother when he didn't even care about her?

Upon arriving at the hospital, Raegan saw that the nurse was about to feed her grandmother dinner. Raegan took the job over and did it by herself.

All her life, her grandmother had been living in the countryside, enjoying a quiet life. Everything changed last month when her routine medical checkup showed that there was something wrong with her pancreas. Raegan insisted on bringing her to the city for better treatment.

Her grandmother wasn't aware of her marriage to Mitchel.

Raegan had planned to surprise her today. But as it turned out, that was no longer necessary.

Raegan waited for her grandmother to fall asleep before she left. She walked out of the hospital and waited for a taxi.

In the distance, a black luxury car pulled into the entrance of the hospital.

Raegan's eyes lit up when she saw it. She recognized that car as Mitchel's.

Did he come to pick her up?

At this moment, she forgot all the pain she had been feeling.

Were her thoughts about him all wrong? Did he care for her, contrary to the gossip?

The door of the driver's side opened and Mitchel got out.

Raegan started walking toward him with her heart brimming with joy.

Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Mitchel had just walked over to the other side and carried a woman out of the car.

Worry and compassion were written all over his handsome face.

This wiped the smile on Raegan's face. Her heart sank.