After Nina left, the Platinum Palace slipped into a weird kind of chaos.
At first, Ethan really didn’t take it seriously.
She was just a secretary.
If one left, they could hire another.
The presidential residence had never lacked people desperate to climb the ladder.
But very soon, he realized it was not that simple.
Nina had never just been the person pouring tea and handing over documents.
For the past three years, under the title of secretary, she had quietly taken on a mountain of messy, trivial, but absolutely critical work.
Cabinet files needed sorting, schedules needed lining up, all kinds of relationships needed smoothing over.
So many headaches nobody else wanted or knew how to deal with had been silently carried by her alone.
Now that she was gone, a lot of that work just ground to a halt.
The secretariat was so busy everyone was practically running on fumes.
Paperwork errors kept popping up, and the schedule was going off the rails one mess after another.
“Mr.
President, this document needs your signature, but…
Nina didn’t hand over the background materials, so we don’t know the exact details of the clauses.”
“Sir, Congressman Reed called to ask whether the district funding plan Nina promised before is still happening or not.”
“Sir, for this afternoon’s press conference, your speech…” The chief of staff swallowed hard.
“He said Nina always drafted it before, and right now nobody can write in that style.”
Ethan sat behind the huge desk, listening to the chief of staff report issue after issue.
His temples started pounding like crazy.
“Useless!” He slammed the pen in his hand onto the desk, voice icy and sharp.
“What, this whole presidential residence falls apart the second one person leaves?
What exactly am I paying all of you for?”
The chief of staff lowered his head at once, cold sweat dripping down his back.
He didn’t dare say a word.
Ethan yanked at his tie, clearly irritated.
Of course he knew Nina was capable, but he had never imagined she had become this essential, this impossible to replace.
He had always thought she was just considerate, obedient, easygoing…
and easy to keep under control.
“Go check,” he said coldly, each word clipped.
“Find out where she’s staying now.”
“We already did,” the chief of staff replied carefully, his tone extra cautious.
“After Ms.
Harlow left the Platinum Palace, she went to…
a private hospital.
But the hospital’s security level is very high.
Our people can’t get in.
And…”
“And what?”
“And there are foreign nationals going in and out.
Looks like they’re not small-time.”
Ethan’s eyes darkened in an instant.
Foreign nationals?
He remembered what Nina had said before she left—”Once you sign it, I’m done with you.”
Back then, he’d treated it like nothing more than a line thrown out in anger.
But now, looking back, she had been far too calm—almost detached.
That weird, nameless unease in his chest came rushing back again.
Right then, a soft, delicate woman’s voice came from outside the door.
“Ethan, are you in there?”
The door was pushed open.
Tiffany came in with one hand at her waist, walking slow and graceful.
She was wearing a loose maternity dress today.
Her face looked a little pale, which only made her seem even more fragile and pitiful.
Behind her was Ms.
Masland, the household manager, carrying a paper box in both hands.
The day after Nina left, Tiffany had smoothly moved into the main building of the Platinum Palace under the excuse of resting and taking care of her pregnancy.
By now, pretty much everyone in the Blackwell family had already accepted her as the future First Lady.
Quite a few servants and housekeepers had started circling around her, eager to flatter her and get on her good side.
Masland had always been Tiffany’s planted confidante in the first place.
Seeing how things were turning, she worked even harder to suck up to her.
“Ethan,” Tiffany said softly as she stopped by his side, “I had Masland sort out the things Nina left in the guest room.
Those old clothes and shoes really don’t belong in the palace.
I told them to take everything away and dispose of it.
You don’t mind, right?”
Ethan frowned.
His first instinct was to say, “Just leave it there.” But when he saw the expectation in Tiffany’s eyes, and thought of how sensitive and fragile she had been lately, he only gave a light nod.
“Do as you like.”
The moment Masland got permission, she smiled so hard it almost looked greasy.
“Ms.
Ashford is really kind.
She even personally cares about this sort of servant business.
I’ll take it out and burn it right away, so it won’t be an eyesore.”
She turned to leave, but a worn gray coat slipped out of the box and dropped onto the floor.
Ethan’s gaze landed on that coat, and his pupils suddenly tightened.
That was the one Nina had bought from a roadside shop last winter when he had taken her to inspect the disaster zone.
At the time, heavy snow had started falling out of nowhere.
Her lips had been frozen purple, yet she still insisted on giving her only down jacket to a child from the disaster area.
She had worn nothing but that cheap padded coat herself.
After they came back, he had casually said, “It looks ugly.” But she had kept it all this time, saying it was the most meaningful thing she had ever done.
“Stop.”
Ethan’s voice was cold as ice.
Masland jumped in fright and hurriedly turned around.
“Y-Your Excellency?”
“Who gave you permission to touch her things?” Ethan rose to his feet and walked toward her step by step.
The pressure coming off him was so intense it made Masland’s legs go weak.
“Put it down.”
“Ethan…” Tiffany’s expression shifted.
“They’re just some old things.
Masland was only trying to help you clean up…”
“Put it down!” Ethan suddenly barked, his voice sharp enough to make the air shake.
Masland’s hand jerked.
The cardboard box slipped with a loud smack and crashed onto the floor, everything inside spilling everywhere in a messy scatter.
Ethan bent down at once and picked up the gray coat.
His fingers brushed over the rough fabric little by little, and the look in his eyes was so complicated it was almost chilling.
“Get out,” he said without even lifting his head.
“Sir, I…”
“I said, get out.”
Masland was so scared she practically stumbled and crawled her way out.
Tiffany stayed where she was, her eyes reddening almost instantly.
“Ethan, you’re yelling at me over one of Nina’s old things?
I’m still carrying your child…”
Ethan closed his eyes for a second.
When he opened them again, the storm in them had already been pressed back down, leaving only calm.
He reached out and held Tiffany’s shoulder, his tone easing.
“I wasn’t yelling at you.
I just…
don’t like people touching my things without permission.
You’re pregnant.
Don’t waste your energy on this kind of small stuff.
Go back and rest.”
Tiffany bit her lip and nodded with a wronged expression before turning to leave.
But the second she stepped out of the study, all that softness vanished cleanly from her face, like a mask being ripped off.
What replaced it was a dark, icy gloom.
Nina.
That bitch was already gone, yet she still wouldn’t stop haunting this place.
She lowered her hand to her still-flat belly, and a vicious glint flashed through her eyes.