The Wife He Forgot to Marry (Winona and Yule) novel Chapter 626

Accustomed to having her ego stroked and the world handed to her on a silver platter, Giselle couldn't swallow the indignity of being spoken to like a useless intern. Trembling with rage, she grabbed her purse and drove straight to the hospital, fully expecting Sylvan to rain hellfire down on Ziegler for disrespecting her.

But Sylvan was already miserable. Being confined to a hospital bed had left him foul-tempered and exhausted. When Giselle waltzed back into his room—not to check on his health, but to complain about her job—his patience evaporated.

He let out a harsh, mocking laugh. "Let’s get something straight, Ms. Reed. Your last name is Reed, not Scully. Did you actually start believing you were my flesh-and-blood daughter? I put you in that institute to be my eyes and ears, to work. I didn't hire you to play a pampered heiress. You botched your own job, alienated your boss, and now you want me to clean up your mess?"

Giselle paled, panicking as her safety net frayed. "Mr. Scully, the only reason I’ve been missing work is because I was here taking care of you! Now Ziegler is icing me out and letting someone else steal my position. I’m just a junior researcher; how am I supposed to fight off a seasoned shark like him? Besides, the whole city thinks I’m your daughter. If he treats me like garbage, he’s basically slapping you in the face!"

Sylvan remained entirely unmoved, his eyes cold.

Desperate, Giselle played her trump card. "If Mom finds out how miserable I am at work, she’s going to be so upset. She’ll probably march into Ziegler’s office herself. You don't want to stress her out right now, do you?"

The mention of Wynne worked like a charm. Sylvan’s rigid posture relaxed a fraction, his expression softening.

"Don't you dare bother her with this petty nonsense," Sylvan warned, his voice low. "She spent years in therapy agonizing over her missing twins. You being successful is supposed to be her comfort. If she finds out you're completely incompetent, she'll blame herself. She’ll think she failed you as a mother."

Being called incompetent to her face made Giselle want to scream, but she bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted copper.

She needed him. A few insults were a small price to pay for power.

Sylvan didn't explicitly agree to help her, but he didn't refuse either.

Giselle did the math. Going back to the office meant facing the smirks and whispers of her colleagues who knew she had been benched. It was better to stay here, play the devoted daughter, and butter Sylvan up until he made the call to fix her career. Once he handled Ziegler, securing her name on the final research paper would be a breeze.

Back at the apartment, Winona and Stefan finished a quiet dinner. She slipped into the study to lead a thirty-minute video conference with her team.

When she finally logged off and stretched her arms, she noticed a massive stack of books sitting on the corner of the mahogany desk.

They were parenting books. Some were in English, some translated from German, and others were dense medical texts.

Amused, she picked one up and flipped it open. Stefan had aggressively highlighted key passages, leaving detailed, handwritten notes in the margins.

Glancing up, she realized an entire section of their bookshelf had been cleared out and replaced with volumes on early childhood psychology.

Clearly, her husband was taking this very seriously.