Chapter 112: Keep His Guard Up
"I’m sorry, Wendy," Zen apologized remorsefully before she bit her lip and drooped her head down in shame. She knew that she was in the wrong.
Wendy felt quite disappointed by Zen.
"I’m genuinely sorry. I thought Christian wanted to call you over to his company merely because he wanted to show off to Michael. I didn’t think much about it," Zen explained, and her eyes reddened. She feared that Wendy would despise her for this.
Wendy sighed and, out of consideration for their friendship, decided to forgive her. "I’ll let things slide this time, but I hope that such a thing will never happen again in the future," she warned.
"Never again," Zen vowed instantly.
After a moment of silence, in an attempt to assure Zen, Wendy noted, "Don’t worry. I’ll never Work for DR."
"Oh, Wendy..." Zen called out when she heard this, and her eyes began to sting badly.
She knew that Wendy was assuring her that she would never take her position away from her.
Zen really had been solely worried about how her position would be threatened back then in the room. Zen was fully consumed by guilt right now and felt too ashamed to face Wendy.
Even though they haven’t met in five years, Wendy had always treated Zen as her best friend, worried about her situation and remained considerate about the difficulties that she faced.
Meanwhile, Zen had become viewed this situation with tunnel vision, seeing only her own struggles.
Wendy reached out her hand and brushed the tears away from Zen’s eyes before she gave her a hug and consoled her, saying "Alright now. Let’s forget about today’s incident."
"Thank you, Wendy," Zen replied and bit her lip as she stared at Wendy remorsefully and apologetically.
"There’s one more thing that I want to emphasize to you again," Wendy noted. "Christian is a vicious and devious man. It’s not a good thing for you to remain by his side. If you ever want to return to MC, please just let me know."
"I..." Zen began. She seemed as if she wanted to say something, but ultimately, she only managed to utter the one word. The rest of the sentence remained stuck in her throat. Eventually, she could only manage to nod.
"I’ll be heading back to the office. Let’s meet up again soon," Wendy concluded and released Zen before she waved her hand and turned to leave.
Meanwhile, Michael and Christian were still seated in the private room and they did not bother to talk to each other. After all, there was nothing for them to talk about. As Michael knew that there were things that Wendy wanted to talk to Zen about, he did not bother to chase after her at the first possible chance. He had decided to give them some time to talk things through themselves.
When he saw Zen return, he took it as his cue, rose to his feet, and strode out of the room without hesitation.
"Michael, won’t you at least take a bite?" Christian asked as he stared at Michael’s silhouette. However, Michael simply ignored him.
When Christian noticed that Zen’s eyes had turned red, he stabbed his fork into the vegetable and took a bite before he asked casually, "Did Wendy settle the scores with you?"
He knew that it was very likely of Wendy to be angry and to settle scores with Zen, since he had used her to get to Wendy.
"Christian, how could you use me like that? Why are you trying to bring Wendy over to DR?" Zen fired away furiously as she pointed her finger at Christian. "Are you hoping that Wendy will fall out with me?"
"Why would I want her to fall out with you? I was clearly relying on you to get her over to DR," Christian replied.
"Dream on. She’ll never work for you," Zen said and took in a deep breath of air before she continued, "After all, she’s Michael’s wife, and she loved him for so many years. It’s impossible for you to snatch her away from Michael."
"You are in no position to lecture me now," Christian retorted and his smile was instantly replaced by a frigid look of indifference. He remarked, "Don’t forget that you willingly followed me back then."
Zen could only blame herself for making the wrong decision all those years ago.
"Christian, you kept trying to get close to Wendy five years ago. Five years later, you still want to get her to work at DR. Are you really doing this just because of how capable she is?"
A particular night that took place four years ago inevitably surfaced in Zen’s mind.
"Shut up!" Christian snapped and flew into a sudden rage. Slamming his fork on the table violently, he jumped to his feet and glared at her viciously before he threatened, "Don’t you dare say a single word that you’re not supposed to."
...
Wendy managed to check off an item on the list of her concerns after meeting Zen. Although there was a gap between reality and her expectations, she was relieved that both of them were still alive and well.
Wendy continued to work as usual when she got back to the company. She then knocked off from work on time and headed straight back home.
However, unknown to her was the fact that Michael was silently tailing after her in his car.
After Wendy stepped into the elevator and pressed the button to close the door, a hand suddenly appeared and stopped the door from closing.
Wendy frowned when she was greeted by Michael’s familiar, smiling face, and she remarked sarcastically, "Mr. Lucas, do you actually have a fetish for tailing someone home?"
Michael was not the least affected by Wendy’s taunts, and he strode into the elevator before he replied, "This elevator doesn’t solely belong to you, does it?"
Wendy fought hard against the urge to roll her eyes at him. The elevator began to rise and it soon arrived at the floor of Wendy’s apartment.
Upon arriving, Wendy immediately treated Michael as though he never existed, and she exited the elevator.
Unsurprisingly, Michael followed close behind her. When Wendy arrived at her apartment, she took out her keys and opened the door to her house. She knew that it was highly likely of Michael to follow her into the house and thus, she was swift with her actions. The minute she stepped into the house, she quickly turned to lock the door after her.
However, Michael was even quicker than her, and he immediately reached out his hand to stop the door just when it was about to close.
Michael’s hand was just between the slit, and if Wendy had slammed the door shut, his hand would be caught in the door. Michael seemed to be banking on the fact that Wendy wouldn’t be so cruel as to slam the door on his hand.
Wendy couldn’t refrain from smirking contemptuously. Is he banking on the fact that I wouldn’t dare to slam the door on his hand? Fat hope! Wendy thought.
Slam!
Wendy flung the door shut violently. Michael drew in a cold, sharp breath from the pain.
A red mark had formed on the back of his hand the moment the door slammed shut on it. Since Michael’s hand was caught between the door, it certainly wouldn’t close properly.
Wendy was in high spirits when she saw Michael’s face contorted with pain. She then turned and entered the apartment with a grin on her face.
Michael never expected Wendy to shut the door on his hand. He had thought that Wendy would never be able to bring herself to do that. He stared at Wendy’s silhouette and forced himself to endure the pain as he followed her into the house.
’Since my hand’s already been injured by the door, I might as well follow her into the house. Otherwise, none of this would have been Worth it,’ he decided.
"Mummy..." Jake called out when he heard the commotion at the door. Knowing that his mother had returned home, the boy immediately tottered over to hug her thighs before he cocked his head up to look at her. "Mummy, you must be tired. Come and take a seat. I’ll rub your shoulders," Jake offered.
Jake and his sister, Leah, would always massage Wendy’s shoulders together when they were in Rheinsville City. Although the children were still young, they were quite strong.
However, to Wendy, of course they were really just her babies. Wendy suddenly felt a little regretful that Leah was not here with them. As this thought crossed her mind, Wendy suddenly began to miss her adorable daughter.
Michael closed the door after him when he entered the house. He felt a sense of joy when he saw how considerate Jake was towards Wendy as well as how sensible and adorable he was.
That’s my boy, he thought proudly.
However, in the next moment, Jake looked up at Michael, who was many heads taller than him, and frowned as he asked, "Mr. Lucas, why have you come over to our place again?" It was obvious from his tone of voice that he regarded Michael with disdain.
This was actually a question that Wendy wanted to ask as well.
Is he worried that I will jump ship because I had said that I would consider Christian’s offer earlier on? she wondered.
"I came to see you," Michael cooked up a random excuse and replied. "I’m here to see if you’ve been obeying instructions as a good boy would" he explained.
Jake was obviously dissatisfied with his reply, but nonetheless, he kept his anger in check and merely shot Michael a look as though he was an idiot before he rebutted, "I’m the only one at home, so who could be around to give me the instructions? A ghost?"
Michael was instantly at a loss for words.
Michael was the proud CEO of MC, and he never expected a young boy, let alone his own son, to be the one to shut him up.
Wendy patted Jake on the head before she replied, "Don’t worry about him."
Wendy knew that it would be hard to chase Michael away, since he would rather allow his hand to be caught in the door than to let go of his chance to spend time together. However, she felt sure that it wouldn’t be long before he decided to leave as long as both Jake and she ignored him.
All of a sudden, the doorbell rang.
Jake immediately got up from the sofa and dashed over to the door as he explained, "it must be the take-out that I ordered!"
Sure enough, he was greeted by the delivery man upon opening the door. However, as Jake was still a young boy, the take-out was too heavy for him to carry alone.
Jake then turned to look at Wendy and requested, "Mummy, could you help me out with this?"
Wendy was rather surprised to see the take-out, and she asked, "Why did you order that?"
"Mommy, take-out food is so convenient. You must be tired after working so hard. It’ll be too exhausting for you if you still have to cook after coming home from work, so let’s eat take-out food today. Mummy, don’t worry. I ordered from restaurants that have high sanitation ratings," Jake explained.
As they had maids to prepare meals for them back in Rheinsville City, Wendy only needed to cook on weekends. Since Zess would report to work tomorrow, Jake felt that it wouldn’t hurt to make do with take-out today.
Wendy’s expression softened when she saw how sensible her son was. On the other hand, Michael gave him a frown of disapproval.
Pointing his finger at the take-out food, he interrogated, "Have you guys been eating garbage like this for all these years?"
However, neither Wendy nor Jake bothered about him. Wendy opened up one of the bags of food and laid the dishes out on the table. She was, indeed, getting hungry and the dishes seemed pretty appetizing.
Michael felt slightly awkward when neither of them replied to him.
Taking off his jacket, he rolled up his sleeves, strode into the kitchen, and declared proudly, "Give me a moment. I’ll whip something up for you guys. Take out is bad for your health and it’s also unhygienic."
However, the duo continued to ignore him. In fact, Wendy never even bothered to look at him.
She had only moved into the apartment two days ago, and she never had the time to shop for groceries. Thus, the fridge was empty as could be.
Michael instantly felt a sense of defeat when he flung open the door of the fridge and discovered that there was nothing inside at all. His culinary skills had improved significantly during the past five years, since he would return to their home every night. He could only feel Wendy’s presence and warmth when he was back in that house. He never hired a maid and would always prepare his own dinner when he got home. His culinary skills were only relatively better than what they had been in the past, and his abilities were really only sufficient for preparing his own meals. But at the very least, he was able to prepare some simple dishes. He had wanted to flaunt his skills to Wendy with the hope of surprising her.
However, his plans were foiled, since there was nothing for him to work with at all.
Jake popped his head into the kitchen and asked Wendy softly, "Mummy, do you hate him?"
Wendy nodded.
"I’ll chase him away then," Jake assured and got out of his seat at the dining table before he dashed over to the kitchen. Wendy beamed and shook her head as she watched Jake runoff.
Michael was now sticking to her like glue. He followed her to Christian’s office, and now, he even followed her home. Wendy never harbored much hope when Jake promised to chase Michael away, since Michael would rather have his hand caught in the door than leave.
Jake tottered over to the kitchen and tugged the corner of Michael’s shirt before he looked up at him and requested, "Mr. Lucas, Mummy and I would like a drink, but we don’t have anything in the house. Could you get something for us?"
Michael frowned slightly as he stared at Jake blinking his huge, sincere, and clear-looking eyes. Listen to him speak as if he’s an adult, Michael thought. He couldn’t help but keep his guard up against the boy.
