Ann Vaughn pressed her red lips together tightly as she glanced at the docunt. As soon as she picked it up, a premonition filled her mind, and her fingers gripped the docunt tightly one by one.
A hint of struggle appeared in her bright eyes. She bit her lip, not knowing how much ntal preparation she had done before she finally, and with difficulty, opened the docunt.
Upon seeing the bolded first line "Hawthorne Group dical Public Welfare Spokesperson Contract," Ann Vaughn’s tensed shoulders suddenly relaxed.
"This is...?"
"It’s a public welfare project under Hawthorne Corp’s pharmaceutical research and developnt," Cyrus Hawthorne said, his expression neither cold nor warm.
Ann Vaughn, filled with doubt, quickly scanned through it. She finally understood what this contract represented, but the joy in her heart was forcefully suppressed before it could surface.
"Why are you giving this to ?"
"Appearing on that level of shows will only bring sha to the Hawthorne Family. Sign this contract, and you won’t need to go on those shows anymore."
His words were domineering and unreasonable, leaving Ann Vaughn feeling deeply unsettled.
Even if that show couldn’t compare to any contract from Hawthorne, it was still sothing she had shown through her own efforts bit by bit.
His dismissive words seed to easily negate everything she had done.
Ann Vaughn imdiately shook her head, pursing her breath: "I relied on my efforts to do the show. How could it bring sha to the Hawthorne Family?"
"If the conditions are insufficient," Cyrus Hawthorne glanced at her coldly and mockingly, "you can simply ask, as long as you give up that show."
"I won’t give it up, and you can’t interfere in my private affairs," Ann Vaughn refused to back down, eting his sharp, piercing gaze with stubbornness.
Their eyes locked for a long ti, the already frozen atmosphere in the living room grew more intense.
Cyrus Hawthorne seed to be amused, but his gaze grew colder, and the temperature around him dropped sharply.
"Ann Vaughn, are you going to challenge my patience for that man?"
Thinking of what he heard in the clinic just now, anger surged up in his chest.
"I just don’t want to abandon sothing I’ve worked so long for, and it has nothing to do with Mr. Jennings," Ann Vaughn was a bit angry too, "don’t slander people."
Her voice, soft and sweet, even sounded like affectionate words between lovers, which she herself hadn’t noticed.
Cyrus Hawthorne didn’t have much patience for her explanations, his brows furrowed with annoyance, "Are you going to sign it or not."
The almost commanding tone made Ann Vaughn reluctantly widen her eyes, her chest clenching like it was blocked by a stone, causing discomfort.
So without thinking, she said, "Fine, if you spend the entire day with on my birthday, I’ll sign it. Do you agree to that?"
She was mad.
As soon as she said that, the first thought in Ann Vaughn’s mind was this, and her small face crumpled.
When others get angry, they often lose their reason. But her, she had lost her sense of self-preservation!
A trace of regret flashed through Ann Vaughn’s eyes as she looked at Cyrus Hawthorne’s inscrutable handso face, just as she was about to take back those words.
Unexpectedly—
"Alright." Cyrus Hawthorne’s cold gaze paused slightly and surprisingly agreed.
Ann Vaughn blinked, thinking she had misheard. After confirming that he wasn’t joking from his expression, her jaw dropped in surprise.
Her heart seed to explode with joy like fireworks suddenly blooming, "Bang!" it filled her chest with happiness.
After thinking for a mont, she tentatively asked, "No matter what requests I have that day, you’ll fulfill them, is that okay too?"
"As long as it doesn’t go against my principles and bottom line."
Receiving this definitive answer once more, Ann Vaughn finally felt a sense of reality.
Her soft red lips slowly curved into a brilliant smile, restrained enough not to be too obvious.
Looking at her suppressed smile, Cyrus Hawthorne’s irritability seed to disperse slightly, but there was a depth in his gaze.
Clearly, she could have taken the opportunity to propose more favorable conditions, whether money or other.
This woman, whether truly foolish or cleverly cunning, had only put forward such a useless condition.
After Cyrus Hawthorne left, Ann Vaughn imdiately dropped her previously composed deanor.
She dashed into her room and hugged the large teddy bear on the bed; as she buried her face into it, she rolled around a bit, letting out a few low "ah" sounds.
Her two slim legs dangled and kicked in the air.
Was she not dreaming?
Ann Vaughn imdiately pinched herself; it hurt!
Unlike Cyrus Hawthorne, who didn’t consider her request significant and thought of it as a triviality,
For Ann Vaughn, she hadn’t celebrated her birthday since her grandfather passed away.
It’s not that she didn’t want to, but because, apart from her, no one rembered that day.
So every ti, Ann Vaughn pretended to forget that day herself, so that when soone suddenly asked, she could calmly tell them she had forgotten it herself.
It wasn’t that no one celebrated it for her.
For a mont, Ann Vaughn lifted her face from the teddy bear, picked up the spokesperson contract, and looked through it again.
The Hawthorne Corp’s pharmaceutical project was thriving. Except for the previous man-made accident, the launched drugs were widely praised and greatly trusted by custors.
This public welfare project was divided into two parts, one part was established by Hawthorne Corp to support children in remote areas across S Country, and the other part was for soldiers stationed at borders.
The previous external wound dication was targeted at infection and recovery, with excellent efficacy.
Of course, the ones on the market were only slightly less effective than the military ones.
Even after finishing reading the contract, Ann Vaughn couldn’t bring herself to reject it.
Though Cyrus Hawthorne’s purpose in giving her this contract wasn’t due to appreciation of her abilities, but as a form of exchange.
She couldn’t easily submit either.
The phone on the bed suddenly rang. Ann Vaughn shifted her gaze to look, her thin eyebrows gently furrowed.
Since the unpleasant end of that dinner party, both Jade Shepherd and Howard Vaughn had contacted her several tis.
She just hadn’t answered their calls.
No need to ask to know they were about Cynthia Vaughn being in the hospital.
But Cynthia Vaughn, wanting to push her down the stairs, ended up accidentally falling herself. To put it harshly, it was reaping what she sowed.
Until the screen displayed a missed call, Ann Vaughn, her eyes slightly sore from staring, finally blinked and withdrew her gaze with a touch of bitterness.
-
Ti flew by swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, it was Ann Vaughn’s birthday.
Early in the morning, she received a text from Cyrus Hawthorne, telling her to get ready and wait for him downstairs.
As Ann Vaughn brushed her teeth, her eyes curved with a smile reading the text, then put her phone back in her pocket, quickly freshening up and changing clothes.
Since it was still capriciously hot and cold after the start of sumr, Ann Vaughn put on a white knit dress and a dark jacket over it before heading downstairs with her bag.
When she reached downstairs, she saw Cyrus Hawthorne’s car just pulling up.
As Ann Vaughn was just about to smile, the car window rolled down, revealing Mark Joyce’s face, "Miss Vaughn, President Hawthorne sent to pick you up, please get in the car."
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