The Contracted Ever After (Cordelia and Ronan) novel Chapter 17

Cordelia continued doing her laundry, shrugging off the whole thing as a waste of her time.

"Cordelia, aren't you gonna stand up for yourself when everyone's picking on you?"

"Just let it go. No one will care about this in a bit."

"Really..." Brooklyn looked at Cordelia. "Did something really happen between you and the assistant head of HR?"

Cordelia looked back at Brooklyn. "I don't want to talk to you."

With that, she grabbed her laundry and went out to the balcony to hang it. The only thing bothering Cordelia was whether Ronan would blame her for this. After all, she had suddenly become the center of attention due to this incident.

After hanging her clothes, Cordelia sat on her bed with her laptop, writing her Top Graduates Report. Brooklyn wanted to say something else, but seeing Cordelia's unwillingness to speak, she held her tongue, only reminding her, “Don’t forget, the new hires have a medical exam tomorrow.”

Cordelia just hummed in response.

Having just become the talk of the office, Cordelia wasn’t looking forward to tomorrow’s group medical check-up. The email had said, first thing Monday morning, all newly regularized employees were to gather in the parking lot, hop on the company bus, and head over to Lumos Hospital for a check-up. If it were before, Cordelia could’ve kept a low profile, but now, she'd probably be recognized by everyone in the company.

The next day, just as Cordelia had predicted, over thirty of the company’s new regular interns were sitting on the bus to Lumos Hospital. The bus hadn’t started yet and was just parked in the parking lot.

Despite sitting quietly at the very back, Cordelia still heard lots of people asking, "Which one is Cordelia?" "Who was that guy picking her up in that luxury car the other day?" "I heard her family isn’t well-off at all. She must be a gold digger."

Lots of people turned their heads to look at Cordelia.

Just then, someone said, "Look outside."

Everyone followed the voice. Cordelia also wanted to see what could possibly distract the crowd from their gossip.

A low-profile Mercedes-Benz, the same one from the posts, pulled up next to the bus. Some nosy parkers even pulled out their phones to compare the license plate numbers with the ones on the forum.

Now, everyone was holding their breath, waiting to see who would get out of the car. Cordelia could feel the anticipation and excitement. The car door opened, and Ronan stepped out, locked the car, put his hands in his pockets, and sauntered towards the office building.

The bus was dead silent.