The Silent Wife

While Rachel was in the midst of her conversation with Hans, she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket.

Upon reading the message that she had received, she looked stunned.

"What's wrong?"

Nothing. It's just a spam message. Don't you still need to provide legal aid? Go on with it, then.

Hans took a look at his watch. "Aright. We shall leave it at that for now. I'll talk to Janice if you want to continue with your plan so that she can get someone in the system to help you out." After he left, she unlocked her phone again and frowned as she stared at the text.

It was a message from Justin.

'Don't go anywhere after work. I'll come and pick you up.

If it weren't for his saved caller ID, Rachel would have had a hard time believing that this was something Justin would say.

'I have a meeting at noon, which means I'll get off later than usual today. So, I don't want to bother you!

Still, she didn't receive any reply after sending him that text.

As Rachel was still busy with her work, she didn't think much about it and kept her phone in her pocket.

At noon, Sandy, the library's director, went to Rachel's department to get a few helping hands.

"We do not have enough manpower, so I'll need one person from your department to help attend to the guests during the meeting for these two days."

Upon hearing that, everyone in the office looked down. It seemed like none of them wanted to do something that wasn't beneficial to them.

Why would someone want to attend to guests when they could just stay at the back and scroll their phone?

"Rachel should be the one." Suddenly, an ill-intentioned voice rang out from the corner.

A stunned Rachel looked up from her laptop.Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.

"We are all super tired from rearranging the archives, but Rachel took a two month holiday and probably had rested well, so I think that it would be fair to get her to do it. Don't you think so as well, Rachel?” However, Sandy frowned and interrupted before Rachel could say anything, "Adelyn, if you don't want to take the job, you don't have to make others your sacrificial lamb.”

The woman who was by the corner answered with a voice that wavered, "I was just kidding."

Sandy glared at her before deciding, "Is this a suitable time to crack a joke? I've decided-you'll be the one then. Follow me."

Upon hearing that, Adelyn's expression changed.

Moments after Sandy left with Adelyn, everyone in the office looked at each other before they started to gossip

"Didn't I mention before that Rachel has someone backing her up? Look at Miss Patterson's attitude earlier. She was obviously shielding Rachel."

"Nah. I feel like Adelyn asked for it since she shouldn't have assigned someone else to do the job that she didn't want."

"I mean, Rachel took so many days off this month and she even took sick leave for a few days after returning from her wedding leave. I heard that her husband actually contacted the manager and personally informed him about it."

"Seriously?"

"Why would I lie to you?"

Some of their gossip had reached Rachel's ears, which caused her to frown instinctively. Still, she maintained her composure and continued her work to bookmark the overdue books that hadn't been returned on her laptop.

Nonetheless, just because she avoided trouble didn't mean that it wouldn't look for her.

"Rachel." Olivia, who was sitting right in front of Rachel, knocked at the partition between them. "It's been a while since you got married, but we still haven't met your husband. What does he look like? Who is he? When are you letting us meet him?"

When she recalled Justin's face, Rachel felt her heart tightening.

He's just an ordinary man. There's not much about him.

"That's impossible. Your husband has sent his secretary over to provide us with your wedding sweets after your return from your wedding leave. He even contacted the manager for your sick leave and the manager immediately gave you a month off."

As she was aware about this, Rachel looked shocked when she heard Olivia's words. Did Justin contact the manager to take a month of sick leave for me?

Well, he overreacted. I'm fine anyway. Aren't I at work now?

"Still, we all want to meet him, Rachel.".

Nevertheless, Rachel knew that none of these people cared about her wellbeing after her marriage. Instead, most of them just wanted to see her making a fool out of herself.

Still, this conversation would never end if she refused to let them meet Justin.

He's coming over to pick me up from work later tonight.

"Is that so? That's so sweet!" Everyone in the office sounded jealous.

"He even picks you up from work!"

Rachel lightly added, You guys can meet him by then.

"Sure! We will just observe him from afar to satisfy our curiosity."

Still, her facial expression was nonchalant and devoid of any emotions.

While the others were still gossiping, the landline on Rachel's table rang.

"Hello? This is the file management department."

"Rachel, I need you to come and help at the meeting room. We don't have enough manpower right now."

It was an internal call from the vice manager of the library.

"Miss Patterson has asked someone else to help out, though. Do you guys still need more help?"

"Oh, that's being responsible for giving out drinks for the guests. We still need someone to serve the executives at the front row, which you're most suited for."

A slightly confused Rachel still agreed in the end.

It had been a while since the meeting had started and when she entered the room with a jug of water, Mr. Ronin, who was the manager, only informed that the person whom Rachel would serve was seated in the first row.

Among the midst of men in suits in the meeting room, there was a woman in a royal blue working suit who was on her feet. She had a slender body with perfect makeup and she was now currently seated in the first row of the room.

Miss Patterson pointed at that woman. "That's the person in charge of the charity donation by the company this time."

As the man sitting next to that woman was extremely tall, most of her figure had been blocked by him. So, Rachel was unable to see the woman well even after looking in the direction that Sandy pointed at. "Just serve them water as you go along."

Alright

Rachel quickly went over with a jug of water.

As the attendees were having a short break from the meeting, the entire area was noisy as everyone discussed the new building expansion.

At the same time, she had bent down to refill the glasses of everyone in the first row before she finally reached the woman in the royal blue suit. Right when Rachel was about to refill the woman's drink, her familiar voice rang, "What a coincidence. We ran into each other again."

Rachel was shocked as she looked up to meet the woman's gaze.

It was at that moment when the atmosphere became tense.

Who else could act so obnoxious if it wasn't for Tina?

Why is she here?

Rachel felt pity toward Tina after learning from Justin that Henry had passed away. She couldn't help but wonder whether Tina was aware of the news yet.

"Is it that hard to refill my drink? Do I have to do it myself?"

Tina's voice caused Rachel to return to her senses.

I'll do it.

Rachel refilled Tina's drink before giving Tina a look that indicated that she was leaving.

However, Tina suddenly smirked and pushed the glass of beverage that Rachel had just refilled right in front of her while no one noticed.

"Hey!"

The document on the table was immediately almost drenched, which caused the planning department's executive to gasp as he stood up abruptly. "Hey, what are you doing?!"

Rachel couldn't believe that Tina would frame her blatantly right in front of everyone.

"Did

I you do that on purpose?" She glared at Rachel coldly with hatred in her eyes. "I can't believe that the professional qualities of an employee in City Council Library would be worse than that of the workers in our frozen warehouse!"

Rachel's expression froze.