Chapter 95: Chapter 94: Be Sensible
Charles Jennings was clearly in the dark, but he recovered quickly, once again donning his gentle and refined mask. "It seems I’ve truly misunderstood Miss Kennedy. However, regardless of where that money ended up, she accepted it of her own free will."
Simon Lockwood said nothing, his expression growing colder.
Charles Jennings continued at an unhurried pace, "Donated to a charity... How did Mr. Lockwood find out? Did Miss Kennedy tell you?"
He let out a laugh, his tone laced with a hint of mockery. "Did she also happen to mention why I gave her the money, and what she promised me in return?"
’Joanna Kennedy isn’t just unintelligent,’ Charles Jennings thought, ’she’s also childish. To swindle me out of such an insignificant sum, she even dragged herself into it.’
Charles Jennings waited with keen interest for Simon Lockwood to question him.
After a moment of silence, Simon Lockwood scoffed and said casually, "Is President Jennings so reluctant to part with that money that you’re this fixated on it? Did you come all the way here just to tell me?"
The smile on Charles Jennings’s lips faltered. "You really don’t want to know?"
"If she wanted to tell me, she would have. I won’t believe a word from anyone else." Simon Lockwood barely lifted his eyes, his tone full of lofty contempt. "If the Jennings Group is truly in financial straits, I’ll have someone wire the exact amount to President Jennings’s account. Now, would you please leave, President Jennings?"
"..."
Charles Jennings left, his face wiped clean of his usual gentle smile. He had never believed in a love that was sincere, passionate, and built on unconditional trust.
To him, love was nothing more than a fleeting, cheap emotion woven from lust, desire, and hormones.
Just like his father with his mother.
Or perhaps a necessary performance for a predetermined agenda, just as he was with Serena Sutton.
Sooner or later, Simon Lockwood would understand that true love didn’t exist in this world.
And as for Joanna Kennedy, that foolish, beautiful girl...
A neurotic twitch pulled at the corner of Charles Jennings’s mouth.
He would teach her himself.
*
Back in the reception room, with the irrelevant person gone, Simon Lockwood’s expression turned completely cold.
He trusted Joanna Kennedy, yet he couldn’t completely ignore Charles Jennings’s words. But Simon Lockwood hoped even more that Joanna would tell him on her own.
Unfortunately, from the past until now, Joanna Kennedy had never mentioned it.
Her distressed state when they reunited at the banquet had already raised Simon Lockwood’s suspicions.
’Didn’t Joanna Kennedy leave me for a better life? Why did she look so wretched? What happened to her all these years?’
Simon Lockwood had sent people to investigate that very night. A damp, cheap rental, a job at a library, accidentally stumbling into the entertainment industry—the girl had staggered her way through life, and it had been anything but easy.
His Joanie had only been eighteen back then.
But what he hadn’t expected was the discovery that Joanna Kennedy’s bank account had once made a sizable donation to a charitable organization.
After the Kennedy family’s bankruptcy, Joanna Kennedy only had a few hundred to her name. Where had she gotten such a large sum of money?
So, Simon Lockwood had his people trace the source of the funds, and it wasn’t hard to find out what had happened.
Charles Jennings, the psychology teacher who had briefly worked at their school.
This led to an even bigger question: why would this psychology teacher, with whom she’d had little contact, give Joanna Kennedy money?
A gentle, wealthy young teacher and a pure, beautiful young woman, mixed up with money—it was a combination that naturally led one’s thoughts to inappropriate places.
But if there really was something between them, why would Joanna Kennedy have donated the money?
It didn’t make sense.
Simon Lockwood thought, ’This is between me and Joanna Kennedy. No matter what, I’ll only believe her explanation.’
Simon Lockwood never considered himself a good person. Since Charles Jennings had dared to come and provoke him, he shouldn’t be surprised when Simon decided to settle all their scores, both old and new, at once.
After leaving Riverbend, Anna Yates dragged her out to go clothes shopping. Joanna Kennedy was distracted the entire time.
Sitting in a luxury brand boutique, Joanna Kennedy couldn’t stop checking her phone. Besides work messages, there was only the latest gossip from their circle, shared by Shirley Shepherd.
Anna Yates came out after trying on an outfit and saw her staring blankly at her phone. Waving a hand for the sales associate to bag the clothes, she walked over. "Jo, are you still thinking about that?"
She said comfortingly, "I was just asking. Don’t read too much into it."
’How could I not think about it? Simon Lockwood’s mind is narrower than a pinhole right now. If he found out, he’d eat me alive.’
Joanna Kennedy sighed faintly, feeling like her neck was on the chopping block. ’I should probably buy some more thick necklaces to wear these days.’
"To be honest, I’m pretty surprised you two got back together," Anna Yates said, her tone complex.
"...I didn’t expect it either."
"Back then, after you left, Simon Lockwood came looking for me many times. Since you didn’t have many close friends, he had no choice but to cling to me... his only lifeline."
Anna Yates let out a soft, self-mocking laugh as she said this.
The brilliant, aloof boy had ultimately succumbed to a cliché, brought down from his pedestal by the torments of so-called love.
"Jo, if you really do still love Simon Lockwood, you should find a chance to clear things up with him soon. It’ll be much easier for him to hear it from you than to have someone else flaunt it in his face."
Joanna Kennedy nodded silently.
She would tell him. She just had to wait for the right moment, for Simon Lockwood to show that he loved her a little bit more. Just a little more, and then she could...
At five in the afternoon, Simon Lockwood returned to the villa early from the office. His gaze swept the room, but he didn’t see the familiar figure, and his brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
The housekeeper, who had just finished cleaning Mimi’s litter box, saw him and said, "Miss Kennedy went out with a friend."
"...I wasn’t asking about that," Simon Lockwood said with a frown.
The housekeeper smiled faintly and said nothing.
Simon Lockwood: "..."
"I was just asking if all her things have been brought over. It’s not like I have time to help her move."
The housekeeper replied smoothly, "Yes, they have."
Simon Lockwood: "..."
The housekeeper headed to the kitchen to prepare the ingredients for dinner.
A few seconds later, the man’s cold voice sounded in the living room. "Which friend?"
The housekeeper: "..."
Maintaining her smile, the housekeeper dutifully replied, "A Miss Yates."
Yates. Anna Yates.
Remembering what he’d seen last time, Simon Lockwood’s face suddenly darkened. He took out his phone and dialed her number. It rang several times before she answered.
"Where are you?"
Simon Lockwood’s cool, detached voice came through the line. Joanna Kennedy paused for a second before answering honestly, "I’m eating."
"Did you forget what I told you?"
’What had he told me?’
It only took Joanna Kennedy a second to remember. Right, Simon Lockwood had told her to move into the villa.
She said, "I’ll go get my luggage from my apartment right after I finish eating."
"Half an hour." Simon Lockwood’s voice was flat, yet it held an unmistakable threat. "Joanna Kennedy, be sensible."
After the call ended, Joanna Kennedy pouted.
’Joooanna Kennedy... Beee sensible...’
’Sooo CEO-like!’
’He’s really grown up, gotten rich, and now that he has me, he doesn’t cherish me anymore!’
