Mellisa stared back at him with a frown and said nothing. She could feel the heat from her wrists sweeping across her body like flames spreading across the prairie.
The woman tried to back away again, but her efforts were useless. She became increasingly impatient with this game of push and pull. Mellisa said in a blunt and harsh tone, "What are you doing here? I'm very busy! I don't have time to play with you!"
Leonard raised his eyebrows when he heard that. He didn't mind Mellisa's aggressive appearance. In fact, he preferred wild and stubborn women to quiet and obedient women like dolls.
The corner of Leonard's mouth lifted into a grin. In the next second, he mustered his strength to pull Mellisa to his side. The woman almost fell onto the bed, but she managed to regain her balance.
Mellisa glared at Leonard with vengeance. She wanted to scold the man, but her position here was much weaker. Mellisa always felt like a mouse being played by a cat when she faced Leonard. But come to think of it, this guy had a black belt in Taekwondo. Mellisa couldn't possibly beat him.
After Mellisa sat beside Leonard with an awkward expression, the man began to look around the hotel room. The corner of his mouth kept rising into a faint smile, as if he was in a good mood.
He did not expect that Mellisa would actually stay in a hotel with inadequate facilities. Didn't that woman go to Surabaya by plane? Did she spend all of her money just to buy plane tickets? Leonard couldn't stop thinking about Mellisa's eccentric actions.
"Have you eaten?" The man asked after being silent for a while.
Mellisa looked at him with a strange look. Then she hurriedly averted her gaze and snorted coldly, "What do you care if I have eaten or not? After all, didn't you come to deliver my dinner? What did you do with my food?"
Then, she heard the man laugh softly. The man's laughter sounded like the sound of a piano leaping slowly and making Mellisa's heart beat even faster.
Mellisa's ears felt a little hot and she could feel the man's breath on her neck. She remembered that night, when the man whispered in her ear at the time she was drunk and sad.
"Fried rice with an egg alone is not nutritious and healthy. You need to eat well," The man's voice brought Mellisa back from her memories.
As Leonard spoke, he slowly let go of Mellisa's wrist. He watched as the woman immediately pulled her arm away in a defensive posture. Mellisa's fingers continued to rub the marks of Leonard's grip, as if her skin had been burned by the man's touch.
Mellisa looked at the man with concern. She and Leonard met by accident. Leonard mistook Mellisa for one of the girls at the bar, while the man happened to be drinking alone. Both of them were very drunk that night.
When Mellisa tried to leave the bar, Leonard stopped her. The man gripped her arm and pulled Mellisa towards him. She crashed into the man's broad chest, then everything went out of control.
Mellisa believed that this was just an accident. Even though it was her first experience, Mellisa didn't really care as long as she could survive. It's just... she didn't think that Leonard was a cop.
The woman found out when she woke up that morning and checked Leonard's wallet, who was still fast asleep. Mellisa was so shocked when she saw the police ID that she almost dropped the man's wallet. At that time, she was still living in hiding, therefore Mellisa didn't want to get involved with the authorities, let alone someone from the police.
So Mellisa returned Leonard's wallet without taking a dime, then she slipped away silently. The woman thought that Leonard wouldn't care about the strange woman he had a one night stand with, but she was wrong.
Mellisa's decision to run away without a trace provoked Leonard's instincts to chase and capture her. Somehow, that man always managed to find Mellisa with accuracy. Every time they met, the man would do one of two things. Leonard would probably lecture her not to do illegal things, or like now, he might just walk in uninvited and interfere with her life.
Even though Mellisa was annoyed that the man kept chasing her, she couldn't hate Leonard. The inspector never detained her, even though Leonard knew that Mellisa and her group were doing illegal odd jobs. Without Mellisa realizing it, seeds of unknown feelings began to grow in her heart.
Mellisa continued to stare at Leonard, but her thoughts weren't there. She wondered if all men were like this. Just because Leonard was her first man, that man insisted on taking responsibility for his actions. Of course, Mellisa had repeatedly turned down his offer. Even so, Leonard was just as stubborn— no, that man was much more stubborn than Mellisa.
The woman ran her fingers through her hair with an irritated expression while sitting on the bed. She always did this when she remembered something frustrating.
The strange buzzing sound brought Mellisa out of her mind. She turned her head and saw Leonard was pressing the switch of the electric kettle to heat water.
Two people were in the same room, and the sound of boiling water was the only sound heard in the room at this time.
Mellisa bit her lip and wanted to speak. But before she could say anything, the door to her room was knocked again.
"Hello, this is a delivery!" This time, that person really was a food delivery man from the restaurant.
When Mellisa saw the lunchbox Leonard brought from the door, her stomach rumbled loudly. Mellisa's face suddenly turned red. She glared at Leonard trying to suppress his laughter until his shoulders shook violently.
The food looked fuller and was indeed more nutritious than the plain fried rice with egg that Mellisa ordered.
There was a four course meal, a bowl of soup, and fried rice with golden eggs. The aroma of the food filled the entire hotel room.
That night, Mellisa did have an uninvited guest, but at least she ate well. The woman lowered her head and ate slowly, while the man looked at her with a smile on his lips.
In this awkward atmosphere, Mellisa's face was getting hotter. She was determined to kick Leonard out as soon as the man was done with his business!
*****
The next day, in one of the most expensive hospitals in Surabaya, in the inpatient department of heart surgery, right after eight in the morning, Lilia and Jean went to the hospital. Half an hour later, they took the VIP lift directly to the senior ward area.
On the way to the hospital earlier, Lilia learned the real cause of Chris's injury from Jean. It turned out that the man was seriously injured in order to save his aunt, Jenny.
It all started when someone robbed Jenny with a knife. The incident happened so sudden and fast.
On that day, Jenny happened to go to one of the companies owned by the Hartanto Family with only a bodyguard with her. During the few minutes that the bodyguard drove off to park the car, Jenny was attacked before she entered the lobby of the office building.
Jenny panicked and tried to throw the wallet in her hand at her attacker. However, the culprit didn't care and kept lunging at her. The knife in the man's hand was aimed at Jenny's chest, as if targeting her heart.
Just at that moment, Chris had just walked out of the building. As soon as he saw the incident, he immediately ran towards Jenny and pushed her away without thinking. Chris's action startled the attacker, but the knife actually stabbed him deeply.
The incident took place in front of the Hartanto family office.
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