Chapter 243 - Road To CEO

Noah hummed the OST of Howl's Moving Castle as if his life depended on it. He was overridden by guilt with what Jess said. Indeed, he was immature and selfish. He gave Jess a cold shoulder, without thinking that she was the one who suffered, not him. 

He put his phone into its highest volume in an attempt to hear every sound Jess was making on the other end of the line. But it seemed that her phone slipped off her hand already. The image he was seeing on the screen was something red. 

Jess was wearing red pajamas. She must have already fallen asleep. He heaved a deep sigh and thought of what he can do to make her feel better and to apologize for his action. 

'Should I buy her another ring?' he thought, scrolling the website of the famous jewelry shop, a direct competition of the jewelry company where Jess and Luke got their rings. 

He didn't see anything that Jess would like from the website. Besides, Jess doesn't seem to like jewelry that much. 

He has already ordered flowers for her. This time, he had chosen yellow tulips. The flower symbolizes cheerful thoughts. When Jess received the flowers, he hoped they would cheer her up. 

He knew that Jess doesn't want the other members of the team to give her too much attention, so he contacted Aadir and instructed him to bring the flowers to Jess's room when no one is around. 

He also told Aadir to keep a bowl of the mini-pineapple tart that Jess loves so much in her room. 

Those are the things that make her happy. Come to think of it, they were too simple. With the money he has, he could buy the whole factory of the pineapple tart that Jess loves. He could send her the most expensive bouquet of flowers there is every day or even better— buy her a flower field. 

However, Jess does not like extravagant displays of emotion or things in general. Jess doesn't like showing things, and she can be around anyone just fine, so he didn't get the idea she was from a rich family until he had her investigated.

She simply enjoys things that she loves and that's it. She doesn't care about anything else. Hence, Noah was having a hard time thinking of a get-well present for her. 

In the end, Noah wasn't able to get something for her from browsing the net. He ended up buying her books of her favorite authors. He was thinking that Jess didn't bring books in her luggage, and tomorrow Dr. Sison would give her an off, she has nothing to do all day. She could read a book and enjoy her pineapple tart in bed. 

Those things were enough to make Jess happy. 

"Sir, excuse me," Miss Garcia peeked on the door of her inner office. 

"Yes?" he asked. A bit annoyed that his thought of Jess was disrupted by Antonio's assistant secretary. 

"I already sent to your email the minutes of the meeting," she said with a huge smile on her face. 

He looked down on his phone and then looked up again to Miss Garcia who was still beaming in front of the glass door. 

"Thank you, Miss Garcia. Close the door. I don't want to be disturbed." 

He returned his attention to his ongoing call to Jess. He doesn't hear anything from the other line. But he has no plan to drop the call. 

He opened his computer and checked the email that Miss Garcia sent. One of these days, he has to ask Antonio if Miss Garcia is an effective assistant. He doesn't like that she was too comfortable disturbing him. 

He read the summary of the meeting that he abandoned to answer a call from Markus. Reading the report that Miss Garcia prepared, he wished Antonio could do something about Miss Garcia's habit that he doesn't like because she does her job well, he thought as he scanned the documents on his computer screen. 

While he was already on his computer, he suddenly remembered the program he had installed on Jess's computer. He opened an icon on his computer desktop, waited for it to open and when it did, he input some passcode and without much delay, he was on Jess's computer. 

He checked the latest research that she was checking. A big sigh escaped his mouth when he saw that he wasn't working on the research that made him install the spy program on her computer. 

After scanning her browsing history, he got out of her computer, feeling like a bastard. He grimaced thinking, it wasn't just feeling like a bastard but he is an actual bastard with what he did. 

He was thinking that the thing that he did was something that was common in the business world. Everyone was paranoid and did not trust other people. Thus, they always collect other people's dirty secrets, thinking that after getting all those dirty secrets, they file them for future use. 

Mostly for blackmailing. 

It's easy to control something or someone when you have their dirty secrets in your hands. But then, everyone was thinking the same thing, that's why Noah was being paranoid about seeing a therapist and neurologist. 

He knew for a fact that a lot of people in the company would have a party if they found out about his health problem. They would use it against his and his grandfather's plan for him to handle the business. 

His grandfather wanted him to take care of almost everything in the company. And that's mean, kicking his own father's ass off the position he was holding right now—the CEO position of ANAT Pharma and Co. 

He wanted something that his father had. And that is the position of the CEO of their family business. There are other people in the family that wanted the same position but unlike them, he has his grandfather's support behind him. 

He doesn't want to be comfortable with the idea that his grandfather wanted him to take the CEO position, the last thing he wants is for people to think he's going to be a puppet of his grandfather, as his father was.