Chapter 10 — Love Awakens After Leaving

Abnormal Signs

On Tuesday morning, Tuyet Nhi's private office only had the sound of the air conditioner running steadily and the computer mouse clicking every time she scrolled through each document page. The morning sunlight shines obliquely through the thin curtain, creating long streaks of light on the wooden table. She was reviewing the cooperation documents between Doan Gia Group and Tong Group to prepare for the official signing meeting scheduled to take place right after the engagement ceremony - a task so familiar that it was almost mechanical, dozens of pages of paper dense with legal terminology that she had skimmed countless times in her career as an assistant.

Until her finger stopped halfway through page thirty-seven of the appendix.

A small clause, the font size was even smaller than the rest of the document, was nestled in the middle of the section "joint financial management after marriage" - which at first glance was nothing more than an innocuous administrative procedure. Tuyet Nhi intended to scroll past as usual, but something made her eyes stop, pulling her back to read from the beginning of the sentence. She read each word slowly again, then again, the cold feeling down her spine became clearer and clearer. That clause stipulates that if the marriage contract between Bach Vu and Van Khanh was officially established before the law, a portion of Doan Gia Group's shares would be transferred to an investment fund in the joint names of the two families, managed and operated by the Tong family. Tuyet Nhi no longer had the mind to pay attention to the peaceful scene around her, all her attention was focused on the tiny words on the screen, her hand suddenly tightened around the computer mouse.

With three years of experience working side by side with Bach Vu, handling countless large and small contracts, she clearly understands that such cleverly installed terms, hidden in the name of "post-marriage strategic cooperation", often hide much deeper calculations than their simple appearance. She immediately compared it with the original contract that was originally drafted, and realized that this clause had only been added in the most recent edit, sent by Mr. Tong Ba Nghiem's personal lawyer's office, which the legal department of Doan Gia Group apparently had not had time to thoroughly review because of the heavy workload before the engagement ceremony.

She took the contract and went to Ha Duc Long's office immediately.

"Mr. Long, please help me look at these terms." Tuyet Nhi put the document on the table and pointed to the suspicious text. "I feel like something is wrong."

Duc Long took the document and read it through, his face gradually becoming serious. "It's really strange. This clause is very cleverly written. If you don't read every word carefully, it's easy to miss, because it is integrated into the appendix on joint financial management after marriage. It sounds like a normal administrative procedure."

"But it actually allows the transfer of shares, right?" Tuyet Nhi asked, her voice tense.

"If you read the words correctly, that's true." Duc Long nodded, his expression equally worried. "And worse, that joint-name investment fund is primarily managed by the Tong family, meaning that in essence, if this provision is approved, they will have the right to control a significant portion of Doan Gia Group's shares without having to make any corresponding direct investment."

Tuyet Nhi felt a cold current run down her spine. "We need to notify Mr. Vu immediately."

"Wait." Duc Long raised his hand to stop him, his voice cautious. "This matter is related to Mr. Vu's engagement, and also involves the chairman. If we report hastily without enough clear evidence, it will likely be considered sabotaging an important cooperative relationship, or worse, suspected of having personal motives. I think we should quietly investigate more thoroughly first, collect all the evidence, and then present it to Mr. Vu."

Tuyet Nhi nodded, even though she was still worried. She understood that Duc Long's reason for being cautious was reasonable - in the business world, an unfounded accusation could destroy an important partnership, and as Bach Vu's special assistant, she needed to be even more careful to avoid giving anyone a reason to doubt her motives, especially when the relationship between her and the person who was about to become Bach Vu's fiancee was already not very good.

"So where do we start?" Tuyet Nhi asked, her voice regained some composure.

"I will contact a few connections in the corporate lawyer world to see if anyone has worked with the Song family's law office to learn more about the history of their previous deals." Duc Long pondered. "And you, as a special assistant, have access to more internal information than me. See if you can find out more about the current financial situation of the Song group, see if there are any signs that they are having cash flow difficulties."

That night, when she returned to the backyard, Tuyet Nhi could not sleep. She lay on the bed, looking up at the ceiling, her mind reeling with a series of unanswered questions. If her suspicions were correct, it meant that this entire engagement, which had made her suffer silently for so many weeks, was not simply an ill-considered business decision by Mr. Chi Kien, but also contained a carefully calculated plot aimed at the Doan family's own assets and future. She turned around, thinking of Bach Vu's face sitting quietly at a family meeting that day, accepting the arranged marriage as an irrevocable responsibility, and her heart ached even more when thinking that he might be walking into a trap without his own relatives even knowing.

The next morning, before going to the office, she stopped by the small kitchen in the backyard, where her mother was preparing breakfast. Mrs. Lanh immediately recognized the tired, sleep-deprived look on her daughter's face.

"What are you doing up so late that you have dark circles under your eyes?" She asked, her voice worried.

"I have some urgent business that the company needs to take care of, mom, it's nothing serious." Tuyet Nhi reassured her mother, even though in her heart she knew clearly that this was probably the most serious thing she had ever had to face during her three years working at the corporation.

During the following days, Tuyet Nhi quietly spent time outside of official working hours to learn more about the Tong group, reviewing public financial reports, news on business newspapers, and even sporadic information she had heard through parties and meetings with representatives of both sides present. She remembered the gossip she had overheard at the group's fifteenth anniversary party, about Mr. Tong Ba Nghiem being in financial difficulty because of a real estate project in the west of the city. Piecing together those disparate pieces of information, a picture gradually appeared in her mind, much more disturbing than she initially imagined.

One evening, after reviewing a series of public financial reported of the Tong group for the last five years, Tuyet Nhi noticed a clear anomaly - their revenue had continuously decreased in the last two years, while loans had skyrocketed, especially focusing on the real estate project in the west of the city that she had heard discussed. If that project fails, or was even just behind schedule, the Song group was at risk of falling into a serious financial crisis. And in that context, a marriage contract with Doan Gia Group, accompanied by a cleverly installed share transfer clause in the contract, could be the lifeline that Mr. Tong Ba Nghiem needed, carried out under the perfect cover of a mutual marriage.

Tuyet Nhi sat quietly in front of the computer screen, her hands shaking slightly as she typed out her notes. She understood that if these suspicions were true, not only was Doan Gia Group's assets in danger, but Bach Vu's future was also being placed in a calculated gamble that he was completely unaware of. She looked at the clock, it was almost midnight, but she still decided to send a short message to Duc Long, making an appointment to meet as soon as possible the next morning to present what she had just discovered, before things went too far to be salvageable.

Before turning off the computer to go to sleep, she stopped for a moment and looked at the background image on the screen - a panoramic photo of the Doan Gia Group headquarters at sunset, the towering building silhouetted against the bright red-orange sky. She remembered the story Mrs. Lanh once told, about how Bach Vu's grandfather built this business from scratch, going through many ups and downs to get to the position he was in today. If that inheritance were to fall into the hands of another person just because of a cleverly inserted clause in a marriage contract, it would be an unforgivable betrayal of the many generations of people who had worked so hard to build it. She clenched her hands, telling herself that no matter what difficulties she faced, she would find the truth, not only because of her responsibility as an assistant, but also because of the deep affection she had for the entire family that had cared for her and her children for more than twenty years.