The Reclaimed Rose (Annalise and Steven)

For years, Annalise had been the one soothing everyone's emotions, including Chloe's.

Steven finally understood Chloe wasn't as wonderful as he had once thought. When Annalise was still by his side, she had gone out of her way to shield him from his mother's outbursts, fearing they would affect his work.

No matter how much trouble Chloe caused, Annalise would quietly handle it behind the scenes.

Steven took a deep breath. And yet, despite everything Annalise had done for him, he hadn't cherished her.

A wave of exhaustion washed over him.

Chloe broke the silence by asking, "What's there to think about?"

Steven said coldly, "In all the years Annalise was with me, she didn't spend as much money in total as you and Jessica do in a single month-or even a week." He paused before adding, "To be honest, probably not even in a single day." Chloe frowned, feeling irritated. "But isn't the money you earn meant to be spent?"

Steven replied with a bitter laugh, "My wife and son didn't get to spend it. It all went to you instead."

Chloe bristled at his words. What did he mean by "it all went to her"? She had worked hard to raise him. Wasn't it only right that he spent money on her? Was that something to hold against her?

Still, Chloe decided not to argue further. "You're just in a bad mood; I won't hold it against you."

And with that, she hung up the phone.

...

I was incredibly busy lately-I had to design the collectibles and also work on the freelance projects. Apart from caring for Willow, every other moment of my day was consumed by work.

Though I was tired, it felt great that I was able to earn enough money to do many things.

Just then, Eric called and exclaimed, "My gosh! Why didn't you tell me the freelance business you handed off to me was this successful?"

"If business was just average and didn't affect my work, I'd obviously handle it myself. There'd be no need to outsource it," I replied.

Eric paused, realizing the logic. However, he didn't mind, as the high commission earned him good money. "The good news is our orders are increasing rapidly every day."noveldrama

I smiled and asked, "So there must be bad news too?"

"The bad news is production can't keep up," Eric replied immediately.

This was within my expectations. With high demand and increased production, it was natural for manufacturing to eventually fall behind.

I asked, "Have you contacted Sasha?"

Eric responded, "Yes, but she said

after we last contacted her, she'd already referred all her contacts to us. She's since recommended a few more manufacturers that approached her, but she likely can't find even more."

Eric was genuinely worried about this issue, as his earnings were nearly equal to what Zane was paying him.

I thought this was an easy problem and pointed out, "If Sasha can't find more people, it's likely because some people don't know her company exists yet, meaning their company isn't that well-known."

Eric nodded. "That makes sense."

I continued, "If you look at it from a different angle..."