"Goodbye, sis~"
Sharon immediately recognized that voice. Even though she just got to know Alex's cousin who was like a sister to him today, the tone that seemed unable to ever carry any dispiritedness.
For a second, Sharon felt a twinge of envy. She envied the brightness of the younger Lenner. She envied the protection and love the latter must have grown in to become the way she was now, full of optimistic and vibrant charm.
She never had a brother to shield her throughout her life, nor lead her. But she had her mother. Thinking about her, she couldn't stop a small, soft smile from coming to grace her lips. Even though there had been hardships, even though their lives had not been easy, she had never lacked love. Never.
Not far in front, Jenny finished waving inside the office, and closed the door as she stepped out. She wore back the sunglasses she had taken off before, and raised her head when she paused imperceptibly at the sight of Sharon walking over.
Jenny's eyes lit up behind the dark lenses. Sharon was indeed different from the women she had seen with Alex over the years. Even though she looked confident in both her beauty and her appearance, she had that different kind of confidence added to it, an intellectual sharpness lingering around her. And she could see a bold temperament that seemed to have been subdued, but was still there.
His brother's new assistant seemed to have more to herself than it seemed. In her, Jenny couldn't help but see a bit of her Aunt Grace, just a bit, only younger, and with more youthful sharpness. And with a weaker taste in fashion.
Jenny lowered her hands with a smile, and along with them, the glasses she was still holding:
"Sharon, right? My brother's assistant."
Sharon nodded, her smile more polite, but not distant:
"And you are Jenny, the little princess of the family."
Jenny couldn't help but laugh at those words:
"Is that how Lance described me?"
Even without thinking, she could guess that Lance must have been the source of information about her, and she knew that only he could have said something so cringeworthy to introduce her.
Sharon shared Jenny's amusement, and with Lance's unreliability as their ground for common understanding, her smile softened with slight friendliness:
"Well, from what he said, that is how the chairman treats you."
Jenny laughed softly and did not deny the words. Instead, she focused on something else:
"Chairman? Didn't my brother forbid you from calling him that?"
"No?"
Jenny smirked:
"Then you must not have stepped on that mine yet. When I did, he taught the words acting chairman, and its synonyms."
Sharon blinked:
"Because he is not interested in being the heir?"
Jenny's smile turned deep:
"Just be careful with your words. My brother can be really petty sometimes."
Seeing Jenny dodge her question, Sharon smiled at her words, and nodded with an obvious lack of concern:
"I will keep that in mind."
Though Jenny didn't know what had fooled Sharon into not taking her words seriously, she only let her smile deepen, and raised her hand to put her glasses back on her nose. She opened her mouth, but Sharon spoke before she could put an end to their exchange, changing the subject to something else:
"You really fought well just now."
Jenny paused, then waved her hand with a happy smile:
"Oh, please. My brother just wanted to check whether I have been lazy."
Sharon replied, her smile deepening:
"And you have not been, especially judging from your kicks. I couldn't help but notice how flexible you were with your legs. And they are very beautiful too."
Sharon added the last sentence, looking at the white limbs continuing below the short skirt of Jenny's dress. Even as a woman, she couldn't deny the appeal of those legs. She had to admit their beauty, shape and all.
Jenny didn't feel coy at all. She proudly looked down, before smiling at Sharon:
"Thank you for the compliment. I have been put to it without much of a choice at the start, but my brother chose a discipline for me that he said will not give me muscles in the arms, but will help me with keeping my stomach flat and making my legs beautiful. He didn't trick me, so I kept up the hard work."
"He must have been a really good teacher, seeing how good you are now."
Sharon's remark made Jenny snicker without denying:
"Hehehe… Lance even told you that."
*Ding*
The sound of the lift's door opening came from afar, and stopped Jenny before she could continue speaking. She glanced behind Sharon, then back at her:
"I think I should go. You were coming for big sister Leyna, right?"
"Yes. I have some things to ask for her help with, so I came hoping for some advice from her."
Sharon nodded along with her words. Jenny nodded, and put on her sunglasses:
"It has been a joy meeting you, Miss Sharon. I hope you survive here at the Group, and good luck being my brother's assistant. Bye~ See you later~"
Without waiting for a reply to her last comment, Jenny waved her hand, and hurried past Sharon. The latter turned to look at the energetic back, then shook her head, refusing to linger on the ominous words of the younger woman.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
Sharon crossed the last few meters to the door to the office Jenny came out of earlier. She knocked on it, and as the sound of notification from the doors of the lift came from behind her again, opened it, acting on the permission she received. Leyna was where she had expected it, but Lance's listless appearance, sprawled on the sofa, had her pausing in surprise.
He was like a fish out of the water lamenting his fate and waiting for the end of the world to come and end everything. He really looked depressed, with how he had gone from being an energetic chatterbox to… what he was being now.
"What happened to him!?"