Chapter 54

Five minutes later, Ethan, who had quickly taken a shower, returned from the adjacent drawer with the necessary items for Stella, his complexion not looking too good. After a bit of fussing around, when the two of them lay back in bed again, Stella held her stomach, her face faintly pale. Ethan frowned at her, lips pressed, and then asked, "Do you want me to massage it for you?" Stella turned her head, paused for a moment, then guided his hand to gently press against her slightly aching abdomen. The warmth of his palm brought a comforting temperature, and the man earnestly massaged her stomach gently, with just the right amount of pressure, causing Stella to squint her eyes. Ding —— The phone on the bedside table lit up. Stella reached out and picked it up, then opened the SnapChat app with the red notification dot, finding a friend request. The SnapChat ID was unfamiliar, but the nickname and profile picture were very familiar... "What's wrong?" Ethan noticed her silence. "It should be Aaron." Stella turned her head to look at him and honestly confessed her guess. He glanced at the screen, his tone neither cold nor warm, "Add him back." "Are you saying, you want me to add Aaron back?" Stella asked, her eyes widening in disbelief, suspecting she had misheard. Ethan glanced lightly at her incredulous expression and chuckled, "What? Do you think I'm that petty?" With a nonchalant demeanor, he added, "Well, he's just a former boyfriend. I am not that petty." Stella hesitated, unsure, but in the man's casual manner, she accepted Aaron's friend request. Then, she quickly glanced at Ethan, but still couldn't find anything wrong on the man's face. She thought he was just being stubborn, thinking that he would change his mind and ask her to delete the friend request after seeing that she accepted it. But now... could it be that she was mistaken? "Stella, what's with that look in your eyes?" "Do you really want me to add Aaron back?" Ethan raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Of course." After that, he ruffled her hair and added, "Alright, your eyes can barely stay open, go to sleep." Although there were still some doubts, fatigue washed over her, and she could only sleep with weariness. In the haze of sleep, she vaguely thought: perhaps, he really did suddenly start to learn what generosity is. Whatever, it wouldn't be troublesome to delete him again after waking up. ... The next morning, Stella was awakened as usual by her alarm clock. She reached for her phone, turned off the alarm, rubbed her eyes and sat up halfway, only to find a few new notifications on SnapChat. Opening them, the first thing she saw was a file and a goodnight message sent by the new SnapChat account that seemed to belong to Aaron. Stella quickly scanned it and then exited to see the three likes and two replies on her Moments. Likes: Layla, Natalie, Kate. Layla: This married woman should pay attention to the appropriate level of showing affection. Natalie: Looks like your honeymoon last time was quite enjoyable and satisfying. After reading these two perplexing comments, Stella frowned, feeling puzzled, and clicked into her own Moments. A few seconds later, her delicate eyebrows furrowed with anger as she patted the man beside her, unable to hold back her raised voice. "Ethan! What's the deal with this Moments post?" On the illuminated screen, there was a picture of the two of them cuddling in sleep. Although only half of the chin was visible, the photo was quite beautiful, but it wasn't difficult to recognize who was in the picture! The sneakiest part was that this Moments post had limited visibility settings. As for the visible audience, it included only Layla, Natalie, Kate, and Aaron, who had just been added last night. Stella didn't have many SnapChat friends, and it was even less likely that there would be any connection with Aaron. Was this post made to prevent mutual friends from finding out? The post was sent at 2 a.m. She was already asleep at that time, so how could she have posted such a picture! The only person left with a motive was Ethan. Ethan, who had woken up earlier than her and was now sitting by the bed reading the newspaper, glanced at her phone and casually explained, "Oh, maybe I woke up in the middle of the night and didn't pay attention—" "Grabbed the wrong phone, huh?" Grabbed the wrong phone? Stella almost laughed out loud with frustration. She didn't believe his nonsense! Grabbed the wrong phone and still had the composure to edit the visibility settings? Luckily, only four people could see it. What a shameless and generous man! ... Stella went to work at the company with anger, ignoring the men who tried to strike up conversations with her on the way to work. After putting aside the matters of the North City project, she began to focus on the preparatory work for the Lush Aura and also moved to the new floor of the office area. Although she couldn't let trivial matters affect her work, she didn't feel the anger in her heart ease until the afternoon, after working straight through. Just as she picked up the progress report on the industrial workshops turned production lines submitted by Aurora, she heard a knock on the door. "Come in." After receiving permission, a slim man wearing black-framed glasses pushed open the door and walked in. It was Dorian Ravenscroft, who had recently joined the company. "Good morning, Mrs. Powers," Dorian greeted with a smile. "Good morning. It's only been a year, and you've become so polite," Stella said. She and Dorian had known each other since their time at New Era. Their professional relationship was decent, and this was one of the reasons why she was able to successfully recruit him. Upon hearing her words, Dorian felt a bit embarrassed but persisted, "You are my superior now after all, and besides, Lyra reminded me countless times to thank you for your kindness." Dorian had worked for several years at Germany's top biotech company. In terms of research and development capabilities, he and his team were capable of competing with any rival team. Stella promised to delegate all R&D matters to Dorian and offered him the benefit of 20 original shares, demonstrating her trust in him. Even though these shares would become void upon leaving the company, she wasn't worried that Dorian would leave. After all, this somewhat old-fashioned engineer was one who obeyed his wife's commands. With this in mind, Stella smiled. "No need to thank me. I hope our choices will be mutually beneficial." "You can count on me," Dorian nodded. He had more confidence now because when he left New Era, Aaron waived the relevant confidentiality agreement period. Of course, for Dorian, who was single-mindedly focused on research and development, he didn't care why Aaron was doing this. In the end of the workday, Stella received a call from Natalie. "The brand negotiations are settled, and the contact information for the media has been sent to your email." Natalie's cheerful voice came through the receiver. "That's great, thank you," Stella responded. This was a favor Stella had asked of Natalie earlier. Natalie chuckled on the other end of the phone and teased, "Never mind! And, I've also arranged something big for you." Stella was surprised, raising her eyebrows slightly. "Oh? What is it?" "Lavinia's free promotion," Natalie said with a hint of excitement. "And don't thank me this time. She brought it up herself when she came for her haute couture fitting yesterday. It seems she also wants to make a friend." Lavinia had always favored haute couture brands like BG, and Natalie had a good relationship with her. Although Director Sheffield's film "Transformers 7" had not been released yet, it had been submitted to several film festivals, and Lavinia had already won the Best Actress award at the Oscars. While Avery missed out on "Transformers 7" and faded into obscurity due to subsequent controversies, Lavinia, as her opponent, became a sought-after international film festival queen. Now, Lavinia's free promotion was definitely a big favor. Stella was genuinely surprised and said, "Thanks are still in order. After all, Lavinia is your connection. Let me treat you to a meal sometime." "Sure, when I have some free time," Natalie replied honestly. "By the way, do you know that Avery isn't taking on any new projects now? I heard she's planning to transition to behind-the-scenes work in makeup. Even though Granpa Qin kept urging Aaron to get engaged, Claire never looked highly upon her. Now that she has money on hand, does she want to prove that she's not just a decorative vase?" Avery's money came from the profits of the shares she sold a few months ago. This money could have made her worry-free, but she chose to invest in starting a company, perhaps wanting to prove something. "Let her be." Stella didn't have any other thoughts on the matter. Seeing that she didn't care, Natalie changed the subject, "So, how about you?" "I'm fine," Stella replied. Natalie chuckled teasingly, "I called you this morning, weren't you still mad at Ethan?" Stella hesitated for a moment before replying, "Shouldn't I be mad?" "Of course, a little quarrel between couples is normal. When you were with Aaron, you two never quarreled. You weren't even in a romantic relationship. I used to think it was just because you were gentle, and your relationship was calm. Now it seems that Ethan taught you how to be in a relationship." Natalie understood Stella's expectations for a partner better than anyone. She also understood Stella's stubbornness and persistence in sticking to what she believed in. But the person Stella chose to overlook all of this and choose was Ethan. After a pause, she sighed, "In comparison, you and Aaron are simply work partners." Was this what a normal relationship looked like?