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.

kept me from taking on more at the company. The Design Department had been unusually

worse off than I was, barely able to stand, yet she couldn't miss the bidding

she let me, her guardian angel, take her place. "Since you've taken

encouraged her. "With your brains, we've got this

voice, coupled with her powerhouse demeanor, was quite the mismatch. After some thought, I felt confident enough in my understanding of

the bidding meeting, I saw Vinson and Clyde with their teams. I instinctively ducked my head, and of course, Jade saw them, too, heaving a heavy

Design Director, stepping in for Jade would cause a stir. I could feel one particularly icy stare from

patted my shoulder, her voice harsh, "I'll

the audience was visibly

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

lacked experience, failing to grasp certain aspects. In the end, Jade won the contract with her superior expertise. She came off stage and wrapped me in a tight

voice, I'll mute you for good." I

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

voice made

joking, Kayla, oblivious to

can you support another company? And as Design Department

glare was full of resentment, backed by a

sour mood was due to not winning the

are. Instead of helping us,

to look bad. Maybe

"No wonder we lost!"