Chapter 2 The Duality Of Jonathan Bates

In the wee hours of the morning, Bethany woke up to find the man next to her still fast asleep, his strong arms wrapped around her in a firm embrace. He was so close that his steady breath tickled her neck, making it hard for her to lie still.

She stirred slightly, only to feel a stinging pain between her legs, sobering her up completely. As her drunkenness dissipated, clarity returned.

Oh, God! What had she done? She had slept with her boss!

Eyes wide as saucers, Bethany held her breath and carefully extricated herself from his arms. Without a moment to lose, she quickly got dressed, packed her things, and ran to the hotel's front desk to check into another room.

Wondering what the hell happened last night, she checked her phone and found that the dirty texts she had sent hadn't gone to her best friend, Aimee Bates.

No, she had mistakenly texted someone else who had the same surname—Jonathan Bates, her boss and CEO of Ensson Corporation.

A few years ago, at a junior high school reunion, the class monitor had created a chat group and asked everyone to add each other as friends. Bethany clearly remembered that it was Jonathan who had added her, but he never messaged her, and vice versa.

Bethany ran her fingers through her wild hair in distress, unable to wrap her head around the fact that she had made such a stupid mistake.

She checked into her new room and sat down, trying to calm herself down. Then, she decisively took out her phone and left the high school chat group. She changed her social media name from Bethany to Lily and replaced her profile picture with that of a stock photo of a random girl she downloaded from the Internet.

Now, Jonathan wouldn't know who she was.

She figured it wouldn't be necessary to unfriend Jonathan. And since Room 1501 was booked by the company, there were no traces that could lead to her.

After taking these precautions, Bethany finally put her phone aside and went back to sleep.

The next thing she knew, her alarm clock was blaring into her ears. Today, she had to go to Glora Company with her manager to discuss additional funding.

The net value of the project had plummeted to its limit loss. The other party demanded replenishing, or they would sell the securities assets. In this emergency, the investment department was lucky to use Jonathan's private plane to fly to Degend for business.

After washing her face and brushing her teeth, Bethany hurried to the hotel lobby with the documents in hand. Shortly after, Aimee came downstairs, muttering unhappily, "Carson insisted we weren't the replenishing party, but I went to the trust company and checked the contract. His name was clearly on the copy!"

"Shh, Carson's coming. Don't let him hear you," Bethany warned. Just then, she noticed a tall man surrounded by a group of people walking out of the elevator.

It was Jonathan.

He had changed the silk robe he wore last night into a well-tailored black suit. His thick eyebrows were slightly furrowed, his thin lips tightly pursed as he listened to his secretary's report on something. As he walked across the lobby, he didn't even spare a glance at Bethany.

Jonathan's cold demeanor was well-known in the business world. His sharp, handsome face was always reserved and arrogant. He didn't talk much, but his mere presence was enough to make the very air around him drop several hundred degrees.

Bethany tried her best to recall, but the man in front of her seemed so different from the one who had kissed her so passionately last night. It seemed she might have remembered it all wrong.

"Oh, my God, Mr. Bates is so handsome. I would literally die to sleep with him for just one night!" Aimee whispered to Bethany excitedly, failing to notice Bethany's visible discomfort. "We both have the same surname, but why is there such a huge gap between us? Hey, earth to Bethany! Hello?"

Aimee touched Bethany's arm, snapping her back to reality. Bethany immediately lowered her head, trying to avoid being seen by Jonathan.

But just as he and the group of people were about to reach the exit, he stopped in his tracks and said to his secretary, "Find out who was checked into Room 1501 last night."

Hearing those numbers, Bethany felt as if her legs were filled with lead.

Her mind went completely blank, and she could only vaguely hear Aimee exclaim, "1501? That's where Bethany slept last night!"