The Reclaimed Rose (Annalise and Steven)

Sasha belatedly felt nervous at the sight of the crowd. She turned to Zane and asked, "Do you need to put on make-up? Do you need..."

Before Sasha could finish, I interrupted and said, "Calm down. Leave the rest to us."

Sasha asked hesitantly, "Really?"

I said firmly, "Yes."

Then, Sasha sat aside and looked at me with puppy eyes. Shane immediately took over setting up the equipment. It wasn't because he was helpful; Sasha had simply assigned him the job.

After the setup was done, Zane went on stage. After hosting many meetings at work, Zane was used to speaking publicly at events like these. Following a brief opening, he began sharing his experience with the crowd.

Everyone listened to him intently.

With his deep voice and dependable presence, Zane gave off a sense of security —as if he could fix any problem. Seeing him like this made me feel calmer. When

at Sasha, she had calmed down from

how lucky I was to encounter and

hands when it was time for questions—they all had questions to ask

trying to test him. It was evident that they were trying to embarrass him, but Zane answered with composure. With that,

everyone asked questions about their companies After answering each of them, Zane

the

and told everyone how to approach similar

The man stood up to explain his understanding, wanting to receive Zane's affirmation if he

replied politely, "If

in starting a company, I would call you a prodigy. But the truth is you have a rather successful company. It shows your lack

refuted, "Find somebody more professional than I am,

refused to believe that anyone could give a better