Joseph untied a few buttons of his shirt and said softly, "Ruby is just angry."
"I'm afraid she'll go crazy and do something," Irish said, and she suddenly saw the injured back of his hand, where there was blood overflowing.
"Wait a minute!"
Joseph's hand stalled in the air.
Irish's heart almost stopped, carefully pulling his big hand, urgently asking after seeing the wound, "What happened?"
Joseph was afraid of her worries, and he said, "I was accidentally scratched. It's nothing."
"What accidentally scratched? When have you been so careless?" Irish's eyes widened, and she suddenly thought of Ruby's fierce and evil appearance, angrily saying, "She hurt you?"
Joseph gently smiled, "Let's go home and bandage it for me. It is all right, don't make a fuss."
"Damn, Ruby!" Irish was irritated, growled, and was about to open the door.
Hastily, Joseph pulled her back, "It's raining heavily, where are you going?"
"I will kill her! Who encouraged her to do this to you? Why would she do this to you?" Irish said desperately, she felt more uncomfortable, and her eyes were red.
Sometimes she really hoped that Joseph could stay away from the Runestone Group. Why did he have to suffer this way?
Joseph saw her resentment, hugged her, gently coaxing her, "Honey, I'm really good. It's just a scratch, really."
"Joseph, can we leave this company? Sell our shares. What is this Runestone Group? What is this Lakes family? We shouldn't care about them." Irish spat these words in agony, worrying about him, looking at his tiresome eyes, her heart seemed to be cut by the knife, making her uncomfortable.
Joseph hugged her and looked down at her eyes. "This is the first time you have asked me for this."
"Yes, I've never asked you that before." Irish looked into his eyes and said, "I know I shouldn't ask you to give up your career, your ideal, but Joseph, you are my husband. I can't watch you work so hard every day, so hard to please others. Do we have to live this life? We can also be like the most ordinary couple. We don't need too much money, we can have a good time every day, right? And now you and I have enough money, we won't live hard, we can travel around the world. If we are tired, we can live somewhere for a while and then rest enough to go on. Isn't it good?"
Joseph looked at her affectionately. He raised his hand and stroked her hair in front of her forehead without annoyance or impatience, "I think I will meet your request soon; after all, this is the first time you have asked me this request. If I am not giving you a good life, I really do not deserve to be your husband. Irish, I promise you as long as the crisis of the Runestone Group is settled down, I will leave here. We leave together, okay?"
"Not now?" Irish asked, having a hard breathing.
Joseph asked, "If you were me, can you leave now?"
She answered nothing.
"I'm responsible for the new product, I can't run away while the company faces such a huge problem. The board is aggressive, and this mess has to be cleaned up. I can easily walk away; however, it might cause trouble to the marketing department, public relations, and even the design and development departments, which will probably suffer if I leave them. So, Irish, at this time, others can go, but not me, and I can't retreat. I can't even retreat half a step. I can't." Joseph explained patiently.
Irish barely comprehends his words.
Even after she was fired, all her work had to be handed over to other colleagues, and she knew exactly how much work she had done, so it was easy to imagine the grievances of her colleagues.
What was more, Joseph was in such a serious situation.
She knew that at this time, she needed to be calmer and more rational, but she just loved him.
"Will you give me some more time? I promise you, if I can turn things around, I will leave the Runestone Group." Joseph caressed her cheek, "When you want to travel around the world, I will accompany you where you go, this is my promise to you, And I will not renege."
Irish sighed, "But when you reverse the situation, will you still want to leave?"
Joseph raised her face, looking at her seriously, "What is more important to me is only you and Jordan. His safety and your happiness, nothing more."
"Would you like to have Jordan come back?" She was moved.
"Don't tell him first."
Irish stared at him, "But he will know sooner or later."
"We can hide it for more days. He's been practicing every day recently. He shouldn't have time for economic news." Joseph whispered.
Irish nestled in his arms, "Will your promise come true soon?"
Joseph's eyes were determined, "Yes."
She said nothing and held him tightly.
****
Late at night, in the silence, the rain was pouring heavily.
Jay stayed up all night.
He'd been looking through the records and data of the drugs, hoping to find some clues.
An ashtray settled beside him was filled with cigar butts.
Half a cigar was still in his right hand, and the ash fell on the table.
Fine smoke fluttered.
The phone suddenly rang on such a rainy night, which appeared to be more disturbing.
Jay's hand shook, and the cigar fell, not knowing whether because his fingers were burned or because of the sudden eerie ringtone of the mobile phone at midnight.
The ash fell to the ground.
With so many years of professional experience, Jay had developed the habit that he was nervous when hearing the ring in the middle of the night. He glanced at the time, 2 am. At this time, the phone rang aggressively, he was sure that it was not a good thing.
Meditating shortly, he put out the cigar and quickly took the mobile phone. He took a glance, shocked, and quickly connected the call.
There was an anxious sound on the phone.
Jay's face changed, saying, "I'll be right there!"
****
Less than twenty minutes later, Jay drove to Lilith's door. He almost accelerated to the highest speed all the way there.
Rain blurred his vision ahead. In the dark, there was a figure holding an umbrella anxiously waiting.
Jay got out of the car before he could hold her umbrella.
He called Lilith's house when he arrived and stood at the door was Kelly. When she saw him come, she cried anxiously, "She looked so scary that I really didn't know what to do."
The person who called was Kelly. When Jay connected the call, she was on the phone telling Jay that Lilith's drug addiction had relapsed.
Such a sentence made Jay lose his composure. Along the way, Lilith's painful struggle appeared in his mind.