When Love Becomes a Cage by Nora

Chapter 52

Chapter 52



One night, we barely caught a wink of sleep.

Jade's design was brilliant, thoughtful, and eco-friendly to boot. But somewhere along the line, a minor misstep led to a gaping flaw in the final design. It wasn't until I combed through everything from the beginning that I spotted the root of the problem. "Look here. You didn't make this change, did you? The measurement is off by an inch."

Jade pushed up her glasses, squinting at the screen before slamming her hand on the desk.

"No way. Who messed with my design? No wonder the numbers were all over the place! Somebody must've fiddled with the file when I wasn't looking. I thought I'd accidentally deleted the original file!"

I had suspected as much but hadn't said anything until then.

With no time to figure out who messed up, Jade got straight to fixing the data, and I was there to help her out.

After a few hours of hard work, we finally got all the files in order as dawn broke.

With a hoarse voice, Jade hugged me tight. "Melanie, I'd be toast without you. You saved my ass out of the mess. You are my savior!"

"Don't be silly. We're best friends." I patted her head, only to have my hand swatted away as she grimaced, her throat too sore to even speak. Running on no sleep and dealing with a headache, I decided to call in sick.

it felt like Clyde deliberately kept me from taking on more at

I was, barely able to stand, yet she couldn't

discussion, she let me, her guardian angel, take her place. "Since you've taken the day off, give

your brains, we've

familiar with the project. She was worried about potential oversights. Her raspy voice, coupled with her powerhouse demeanor, was quite the mismatch.

their teams. I instinctively ducked my head, and of course, Jade saw them, too, heaving a

Patterson Group's Design Director, stepping in for Jade would cause a stir. I could feel one particularly icy

patted my shoulder, her

make. When Jade started speaking onstage, the audience was visibly shocked. But she powered through, presenting the entire design

though the Patterson Group's design was thorough, it just couldn't compete with Jade's lower

end, Jade won the contract with her superior expertise. She came off stage and wrapped me

talking to me with that voice, I'll mute you for good."

to my arm, playfully whining. "Melanie, my hero, my

voice made my

were leaving, laughing and joking, Kayla, oblivious to

you're with the Patterson Group. How can you support another company? And as Design

resentment, backed by a few from Design

was due to not winning the contract

all know how talented you are. Instead

want us to look bad. Maybe Melanie even shared our designs with

"No wonder we lost!"