The Cursed King

When Alex and the other girls returned from the cafeteria, they were shocked to find Marc came back from the pantry and gave Elise her lunch box back. It was already washed clean.

Wait a minute. Did their boss wash the lunch box for this new girl? They all wondered in unison.

"Thank you, Marc—Uhm, I mean, Boss…." said Elise with an awkward smile.

She couldn't stop Marc from taking her lunch box and washed it for her. Before she had a chance to say anything, Marc had disappeared with the hello kitty container. Finally, Elise could only let him be.

She knew Marc must have done it to show his gratitude for the delicious food that she shared with him earlier, so she also felt bad about rejecting the gesture. Well.. she just didn't expect Marc to like Loriel's food that much.

"Hm," said Marc with a flat expression. He wiped his lips and turned around, leaving behind the female staff around Elise looking dumbfounded.

He must keep his cool, he thought. He was, after all, still the boss of this company. So, he pretended as if nothing happened and waltzed into his office nonchalantly.

"Did you… eat lunch together with Mr. Sanderman?" Linda, the finance girl, asked Elise, looking really intrigued.

"Uhm…. I did, yes," said Elise innocently. 

She didn't expect they would all gasp in unison when they heard her response. The girls all stared at Elise like she just grew another head.

They looked disbelief and jealous at the same time. How… how could this new girl eat together with their big boss?

And… HE did the washing?

Were Elise and their boss involved romantically outside of work?

But… if he was indeed dating her, why did Elise only have three sets of work outfits? They had noticed her for the past week. She only wore three sets of outfits that she mixed and matched every day.

So, it seemed, she didn't have many nice clothes for work in her closet that she had to recycle her outfit. A woman who was dating Marc Sanderman would never have to experience fashion calamity. 

She would be showered with free clothes from all the highest-end brands since their group had some luxury brands and upper-class department stores under it.

In fact, even by showing their employee ID cards, they could already get discounts if they shopped in those brands.

So.. it was really hard to believe that Elise was in a romantic relationship with Marc. It's true that she was stunningly beautiful, but some of them had seen the type of women that Marc would date and dump all this time.

Even though the man was very good at separating his private life from business, his curious staff had seen snapshots of him holding new girls every few weeks in the magazine or online entertainment news.

Those women were usually very sexy and not afraid to show off their assets. Most of them were models, B-rated movie stars, or some famous influencers.

Marc didn't date C-rated, or worse, D-rated actresses because he said they were usually too clingy and only wanted his wealth or his influence to boost their careers.

He also didn't date A-listers because those stars had the power to create a scandal if he dumped them and they didn't want to be dumped.

Basically, B-listers were his go-to. Both parties would have fun and end the flings amicably when the time came.

Those who would create scandals or sell his private life to the public would be instantly blacklisted. One or two models had experienced this treatment. They couldn't get gigs and had to retire from the industry.

That's who Marc Sanderman was. His staff knew this. So, unless they were some sort of star with a beautiful face and sexy appearance, they didn't even dream they could attract their boss.

However, today, he looked like he was sharing a wonderful moment, having lunch together from a lunch box with this new hire...

Elise was not a model, nor an actress, even a socialite. She was very beautiful but looked very humble. There was nothing sexy about her pink cardigan, black top, and purple pencil skirt.

This was so confusing!

"Why are you all looking at me that way?" Elise tilted her head and looked at the other women around her with a confused expression.

It was Alex who finally responded, on behalf of the others. "Nothing. You can go back to work."

She glanced at the others and gave them a side-eye. Somehow, Alex believed that what happened between Elise and Marc was quite innocent. Maybe Marc was just starving and too lazy to get his own food?

Alex knew Elise was not Marc's type. And a naive woman like Elise wouldn't possibly be Marc's mistress like many staff had wrongly assumed.

Sometimes, the best explanation was the simplest one.

She shoved the others to go back to their cubicles while she went back to her room and continued her work.

Meanwhile, Elise didn't think about the incident further. She made a note on her phone to bring more food tomorrow and shared it with Marc.

Elise didn't know that she became the talk of the office because of the lunch she had with Marc. It added fuel to the gossip that she entered the company through nepotism.

However, nobody could really guess who she was to Marc actually and if she really worked there because of nepotism.

So many things just didn't add up. For example, if she went in by nepotism, it meant she should come from an upper-class and wealthy family. But why did she walk to work? She also only had a few sets of work clothes.

Another thing to consider was, her job was an entry-level with a low-level salary. There was nothing special about that. If she was dating Marc, why would she need to work in the first place? 

Marc could easily pay for all her needs. Plus, she didn't look the part.

Remember, Marc only date models and B-list actresses?

Right.

So... who was Elise actually?