He Stole Me From My Deadbeat Husband
Chapter 392

Chapter 392: Chapter 392

"I—Is it so obvious?" Kate asked. She got a bit insecure, thinking she had become fatter these days.

"Aside from the belly, I won’t say obvious, you’re still the same pretty woman. You just get more feminine," Irene said without hesitation.

"Feminine?"

"Mhm, you were a scary lady before, beautiful but scary. You were like a hungry wolf that would eat me if I make a mistake in my draft," Irene complained. "But I guess your motherly instinct awakens once you get pregnant."

Kate didn’t know if Irene was just being polite or if she was serious about Kate being more feminine.

’Have I been so intimidating this whole time?’ Kate wondered. ’I mean, I can be stern at times at work. But surely, I’m not that scary, right?’

Kate had no time to ponder more about this when Irene leaned closer to her ear and asked, "So, who’s the baby daddy? Is it Mr. Grant?"

Kate’s body stiffened, and she nodded shyly.

Irene giggled. She released her arms on Kate’s shoulder and sat at the table, "Come on, tell me about what happened, Kate. I want to hear your story with Mr. Grant!"

"Why do you want to know?" Kate asked as she sat facing Irene.

"Why? For my next novel, of course!" Irene replied excitedly. "Oh, I can’t wait to start a new novel about an office romance!"

Kate’s cheeks turned even redder until she looked like a tomato, "I—I guess you can say that we’re getting a bit too close to the sun and were burned together for one night."

Of course, Irene understood what Kate was saying. She grinned mischievously and leaned closer towards her, "So, you two do the deed inside the office then?"

Kate felt like she began to melt out of embarrassment when facing Irene’s question. She cleared her throat and returned to her work persona, "This is not the right time to talk about my personal experience, Miss Banks. We’re here to talk about your draft."

"Can we not talk about it in here? I’m exhausted," Irene sighed. She lost her brightness immediately. "You don’t need to worry about the contract. I will follow you even if you jump to another publisher again."

"Well, this is for your own good, Miss Banks. I have noticed the inconsistency in your new novel. It’s telling me that you have a lot of distraction when writing it," Kate said.

"Well, of course, I’m so stressed out with the problem in Emperor Publishing," Irene complained. "I doubt that publishing company will last long. It doesn’t have a chance to survive without you."

...

Kate put her iPad down and focused on Irene, "Actually, I know nothing about Emperor Publishing after I resigned. What happened?"

Irene rolled her eyes. It was even more obvious when she scoffed, "That company is doomed to fail. After you left, they told the authors that you got fired for unprofessional behavior, which is a huge shock because all the top authors know you’re the lifeline of that company."

"They have a new chief editor who takes care of us. But none of us like him," Irene said. "I don’t understand how the company could hire a man who has no idea how to write a romance novel as a chief editor. All of his ideas are terrible!"

"Terrible? Did he give you a bad recommendation?" Kate asked.

"Oh, more than that, actually. He told me that the male lead of my book shouldn’t cry in the sequel because it’s not ’manly.’ Can you believe that?!"

Irene got increasingly irritable once she began to ramble about all the problems in Emperor Publishing.

They replaced the Chief Editor with a completely new person that Kate didn’t know, so the parent company probably thought her job was simple, even though it was very complicated.

Reading and editing a book required a lot of effort, especially when Kate had to deal with many popular authors and their egos, and see it from the marketing perspective.

They also replaced the CEO with someone else from the parent company who had no idea how to run a publishing company.

So Emperor Publishing was doomed the moment Kate left.

Kate sighed.

She was sad, of course.

After all, she had an emotional bond and many memories in that company.

That publishing house was the job that propelled her career. She became the breadwinner of her family and was also able to find her true passion as an editor.

’Also, that company is where I met with both James... and Henry...’

Kate began to recall the countless days she spent with James. There were many sweet memories that she shared with James.

—Flashback—

"Mr. Grant, are you alright?" Kate asked as she saw James sleeping on the long sofa during one of their busy overtime.

He was heaving, and looked pale.

"I...I’m alright, I just need rest," James replied, but it didn’t convince Kate. So she put her palm on his forehead, and her breath stiffened.

"Sir, you have a high fever. Why didn’t you tell me?!"

"I—It’s just a slight fever. I need ten minutes rest, and I’ll be alright..." James tried to get up, but Kate pushed his chest until he was forced to lay on the sofa.

"Nonsense, you’ll die if you don’t have a good rest. Let me go to the convenience store in the office lobby. I think it’s still open before midnight."

James had no chance to refuse as Kate rushed to the office lobby. She bought a fever med, vitamins, and a cold pack.

She put the cold pack on his forehead and then asked him to drink the fever medicine and vitamins.

"Now that you’ve drunk the medicine, you should sleep until tomorrow morning, okay?" Kate said.

"No," James shook his head. "That’s impossible. We still have a lot to do."

"Oh, don’t worry about that. I will make sure to finish everything before morning. I think I can rush it if I don’t take a break," Kate said. "Now, go to sleep so you can work tomorrow."

As Kate got up from the sofa and wanted to leave, James suddenly grabbed her wrist and muttered, "Katherine, don’t leave me... please."

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