Enchanted By His Charm

What Irish hated the most was that he always talked about her work attitude, sneering, "Mr. Dover, why are we saying this is my second purpose?"

"Well, I'd like you to use these two words to describe it." He replied jokingly.

Irish clenched her fingers, and he remained quiet.

"What an outrageous command!"

Joseph slowly turned the steering wheel, and the speed of the turn remained steady. "Every employee who enters the Runestone, even a cleaner, knows the most basic knowledge about diamonds and jewelry. You are a member of the Lake family," he said. "And, I recruited you as the company's psychological counselor, I will be more strict with you than anyone else. "

Had she not broken into Runestone's flagship shop at the mall, he might not have known her weakness for jewelry. Judging from her comments on various kinds of jewelry, it was not difficult to see that this was something naturally inherited from her family. This kind of appreciation of jewelry was not a natural love of jewelry for women but a professional point of view.

"If I don't?" Irish did not know what he thought.

"The Runestone's incentive fund for its employees has always been generous, especially given your position. You have to work hard to win the prize," he said. "If you pass the test of your expertise in two weeks, you will be able to take away a large amount of money, but if you do not, you have to pay the entire amount of the prize."

Irish almost bit her tongue, "What is this bullshit rule?"

"What I give you is also the Runestone's internal information, if you can not pass the test, the company will, of course, have to consider you a risk."

She stared at his indifferent face.

"If you pass, the consultant's bonus is $15,000," Joseph added in indifference.

Money left an imprint on Irish, whose eyes flickered like diamonds, "How, how much?"

"$15,000." He smiled slightly.

"I'll take the exam!" Irish promised hastily.

"Work hard," Joseph seemed to have expected her to agree, "Because I will bet  your examiner if you failed."

"You're belittling me. You'll have to pay me $15,000." He should know that in school, she had been called the queen of examinations. For every test, she ranked top on the list. For the money, she would spare no effort. When she studied abroad, what kept her succeeding was the scholarship she received.

Thinking of that, she hurriedly leaned back, picking up the book which had been thrown on the back seat, and gently touched it with self-pleasure. A book worth 15,000 dollars, how could she treat it roughly?

Joseph looked at her as the car slowed down. She smiled like a mouse with the book in her hand. He could not help sighing. It was the first time he had ever seen a woman who was so realistic and unobtrusive, oh, woman.

*****

Irish was no stranger to the Lake residence.

The lonely building and the cold metal gates were hard for her to forget. But of course, access to the old house was planted fully with French sycamore trees, the thick leaves swaying gently in the summer night.

She had never stepped into the old house, and she and her mother were only qualified to wander outside the door.

For this family reunion dinner, Henry Lake seemed to have been waiting for a long time. He ordered chefs to prepare various kinds of dishes early and feared that Irish had a different taste, so he asked Ruby to inquire about what she liked to eat. But Isabel did not want to answer Ruby's phone calls. So Henry prepared all the delicious food, just in case she wouldn't like something.

The tall dining room hung with luxury crystal lights, which reflected the silverware on the long table and the fine porcelain plates. It looked more like a celebration of an event or a business feast. Was this a usual meal for the family?

The Lake house had always been crowded. The people living in this huge house were not only Henry Lake and his wife Shirley Lake, Roy and Ruby Lake, a pigeon pair, as well as Lilith and her parents, that is, Henry's brother and sister-in-law, William and Kelly. After seeing Shirley and Kelly Lake, Irish could not help but laugh coldly. It was really a family friendship over generations, the two Channing daughters had married the two Lake brothers, never giving a foreign name a chance to join this family. But it sounded like the relationship Between Shirley Channing and Kelly Channing was not necessarily good. It was easy to understand that Kelly was the second daughter of the Channing family, but she married the eldest son of the Lake family, and the elder sister only married the Lake's second son. Was Kelly Channing feeling happy about that?

Of course, Shirley Lake did not like Irish, but as the hostess and because of the early victory over Irish's mother, she naturally looked dignified and elegant. People that saw that would really think her to be a tolerant and generous woman.

William Lake, the younger brother of Henry, who was the uncle whom Irish had to admit, was enthusiastic. From the moment he saw Irish seated at the table, he constantly smiled, fearing that she would think of herself as an outsider, so he asked her lots of questions and talked with her the whole time. Her aunt remained silent. At best, she just accompanied what someone else had said with a smile. Irish always caught faint alertness in her eyes.

Alert?

Irish sneered. Did she think that she came back for the property? Funny!

****

This family feast showed more than one scene.

As a patriarch, Henry was authoritative but still showed his regretful expression to Irish. By contrast, Shirley was haughty and arrogant, together with gentle Ruby, while her uncle William was hospitable. At the same time, aunt Kelly and Lilith formed a contrast since the former was scheming while the latter was more talkative and outgoing. Irish sat beside Lilith, so the surrounding environment was not quiet at all for her.

However, Joseph sat across from her, still keeping silent while Ruby asked him light questions here and there.

But there was still someone missing. Ruby's twin brother Roy didn't show up.