Chapter 19: Sister-in-law
Wendy did not accept the flowers. Rather, she shook her head with a smile on her face and said in a straightforward manner, "Christian, this is our second time meeting. On top of that, I’m your sister-in-law. Isn’t it inappropriate for you to give me flowers?"
"As you said, you’re my sister-in-law. That means we’re family. There is no complicated meaning behind one family member giving flowers to another. I don’t know what you like, which made it difficult for me to pick a meeting gift. If I buy one that’s too expensive, you wouldn’t take it. If it’s too cheap, it would reflect badly on me. So, after putting a lot of thought into it, I decided that it would be appropriate to buy flowers for you.
Christian’s actions all seemed calculated and deliberate. Wendy was led to believe that Christian’s goal in approaching her was so he could seduce her. As for why Christian wanted to seduce her, it was obviously because he wanted to retaliate against Michael.
"Christian, if you’re only approaching me because of Michael, I can conclusively tell you right now that you picked the wrong target. Even though I am Michael’s wife, our marriage has been in vain and we will be getting divorced tomorrow. So, even if we develop a close relationship, Michael will never get angry about it, let alone jealous. Moreover, besides Madam Lucas, everyone in the family hates me. I hope this clarifies things for you."
Christian was not stupid, of course, he understood Wendy’s meaning. However, he did not expect Wendy to shut him down from the start. He had investigated Wendy’s background in the past. The results revealed only Wendy’s deep love for Michael and that she had never complained about working as Michael’s personal assistant in his company, where all she did was serve him tea, coffee, and water.
Not many employees in the company even knew about her existence. Despite Wendy’s status as Michael’s legitimate wife, she always swallowed her anger and did nothing whenever Yvonne bullied her.
At the start, Christian had zero interest in Wendy after seeing the results from his investigation.
He never planned on approaching her either. However, their meeting during Mrs. Lucas’s birthday celebration convinced him that Wendy was not as boring or useless as the investigation had led him to believe.
Therefore, he decided to ask Wendy out for a meal with the intention of testing her. He never expected her to be so smart and for her to reject him so thoroughly. She left nothing for him to work with.
"Wendy, you’ve gone slightly overboard," said Christian. He remained smiling as though he had not heard a single word Wendy said. After placing the flowers on the table, he pulled Wendy’s chair out for her like a gentleman would. He continued, "I just wanted to treat you to a meal. I really do see you as my sister-in-law, which is why I wanted to tell you about what’s been happening within the company."
Because Christian stood behind Wendy, all she could do was take a seat.
Christian then took his seat opposite Wendy. He handed the menu to her, saying, "You can decide what you want to eat.
Wendy was not here for a meal. She said, "Christian, I didn’t come here to eat with you. I think I’ve already made myself very clear, and I hope that there will be no further contact between us in the future."
lgnoring Wendy’s words, Christian ordered many dishes on his own accord. After handing the menus back to the waiter, he said, "You haven’t returned to the company for some time, so you probably don’t know what has been happening there. I have officially entered MC Enterprise, and I’m now the vice-president there. I know that you used to be my brother’s personal assistant, but he ended up firing you. The real reason why invited you for a meal today is because I want to hire you as my personal assistant. You know that I just returned from abroad, and I don’t really know anyone else. That’s why I thought to ask you to help me."
Wendy treated Christian’s words like a joke. She thought, ’after going around in circles, he just wants to make use of me to anger Michael.’
Wendy explained herself again, "Christian, I think that if you really want to anger Michael, you should go after Yvonne and ask her to be your personal assistant."
"That won’t do, I have deep admiration for your capability," said Christian with a smile on his face. He picked up the glass of water beside him and slowly took a sip.
Just as Wendy was thinking about how to respond, Christian suddenly put down his glass, leaned over, and reached out to tuck a stray hair behind her ear.
Wendy was taken aback by Christian’s gesture. She instantly stood up and pointed her finger at Christian, exclaiming, "That’s too much."
Christian redirected his gaze from the private investigator back to Wendy. He backed off and lowered his head apologetically, saying, "I did that without thinking, completely subconsciously. I just noticed your hair was out of place. I’m sorry."
"I’m not staying for dinner, goodbye." Wendy grabbed her purse and added, "Let’s never meet again." With that, Wendy turned around to leave.
Christian knew that Michael had sent someone to follow him, so he did all of this on purpose. He really needed Wendy to cooperate with him by staying for dinner. Regardless of whether Michael would feel jealous over Wendy, she was still legally his wife right now. Christian knew that even if a man did not love his wife, he could not put up with another man making a move on her. This would be even worse, as he was Michael’s biggest enemy.
"Wendy, do you want to know what I plan to do next?" asked Christian as he stared at Wendy’s back view. "I’ll follow you home."
Wendy froze as she was walking away. She had come to discover that Christian was not only scheming, but he was also very callous.
Seeing that she had stopped, Christian smiled and walked up to her. Raising his eyebrows, he said, "Wendy, come on, just have a meal with me before leaving."
"Christian, you..." Wendy did not know just what to say to him at that moment.
"Please, take a seat," said Christian as he gestured at the chair.
Wendy thought, forget it, since I’m already here, don’t want to make things ugly between us either. If that happens, I’m the only one who will suffer
Christian saw her, and a look of concern crossed his face. He said, "Wendy, are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?"
"I’m fine, I just have a sensitive stomach," said Wendy as she returned to her seat. Grabbing her purse, she said, "I’ve sat down for a meal with you. I hope that you won’t insist on following me home still"
"I, Christian Lucas, always mean what I say," said Christian as he glanced over at a man with a cap, who was sitting a distance away. He added, "But, Wendy, if you need me to, I will..."
"Stop," said Wendy. She found Christian to be shameless, and she continued, "Goodbye."
"Wendy, you left the flowers behind," said Christian as he handed her the flowers once again.
Wendy rolled her eyes at Christian, but in order to finally get herself out of this situation, she took the flowers. After leaving the restaurant, Wendy threw the flowers right into the trash bin.
Once she departed, Christian glanced at the fish. Their dishes arrived quickly. Christian served Wendy, portioning out some food into her bowl. When they sat down, Wendy had begun to think that it would be a good idea to have dinner here after all, as this meant that she did not have to return home and cook for herself. But despite her good appetite, she immediately lost all desire to eat the moment Christian picked up some food for her. All the while, the private investigator snapped photographs of Christian as he did so.
The waiter placed a plate of fish on their table and said with a smile, "Everything has been served. Please enjoy your meal."
When Wendy caught a whiff of the fish, she suddenly felt nauseous. She stood up and ran to the bathroom. She retched into the toilet bowl for quite some time, but she never actually vomited. Wendy had been pregnant for over a month. She had started experiencing periodic symptoms of nausea over the past two days. It seemed that her morning sickness had begun.
After emerging from the bathroom, Wendy saw Christian waiting for her at the door.
When on the table. He whipped out his phone and made a call, "Check all available records of Wendy Stewart, I want it to be as detailed as possible. The previous information that you gathered was too superficial, I need real information this time."
...
Many photographs popped up on Michael’s phone. They all showed Christian and Wendy having a meal together that night. In the photographs, they appeared to have an intimate relationship. The flowers, Christian tucking her stray hair behind her ear, serving some food for her, and when Wendy left, she did so holding Christian’s flowers in her hands.
Michael could not help but frown as he examined these photographs. He squeezed his phone tightly as though he wanted to crush it. He shouted, "Christian Lucas!"
Michael had arranged for a private investigator to follow Christian since the day before. Over the past week, Christian had made too many movements. Even though he had remained abroad all this while, he was still a descendant of the Lucas family. His official identity had been publicly acknowledged at Madam Lucas’s birthday celebration as well. In the eyes of outsiders, Christian only went abroad because he wanted to avoid crossing paths with Michael. With that, he himself had earned a good reputation.
Moreover, Anthony always felt that he owed Christian a lot. Hence, even though Winnie did her best to prevent it, Anthony had still arranged for Christian to join the company. As for Mrs. Lucas, she merely turned a blind eye to this matter. Michael knew that Christian had returned prepared. He could not drop his guard and had to undermine Christian.
Even still, he never expected Christian to approach Wendy. Michael recalled the night of Mrs. Lucas’s birthday celebration when Christian flirted with Wendy right in front of him. And today, he thought, Wendy must have agreed to a private date with him. On top of their intimate actions, she even accepted flowers from him.
Could it be that Wendy only agreed so easily to a divorce this time because of Christian?
The more Michael thought about it, the more he felt that she was a materialistic and vain woman. In the past, she had schemed endlessly to marry him. Now, after realizing that he would never fall in love with her, she had decided to go after Christian.
Michael thought, ’no I will not let Christian and Wendy get what they want so easily.’
The following day, Wendy woke up early to wash up and put on makeup just like she had before.
However, she waited until noon at the Civil Affairs Bureau this time and still caught no sight of Michael. Nobody answered when she called.
Wendy wondered, could it be that Michael had to deal with something urgently? Otherwise, she couldn’t imagine a scenario where he wasn’t eager about anything related to their divorce.
Frowning, Wendy contemplated it for a short while and ultimately decided to pay him a visit at work.
The last time that their divorce proceedings fell through, Wendy felt lucky, as she did not want to cut ties as husband and wife just yet.
However, their repeated failed attempts to get divorced left Wendy starting to feel panicked. Firstly, she knew that this divorce had to happen sooner or later, and it was meaningless to keep delaying it. Secondly, she was already starting to experience morning sickness from her pregnancy. If this went on, Michael would find out that she was pregnant, and she would be in big trouble. She had initially thought that their divorce was bound to happen since they had already broken the news to Mrs. Lucas as well.
Wendy stayed up all night the previous night thinking about this.
Unexpectedly, Michael failed to show up again. After driving to the office building, Wendy was stopped by the receptionist at the front desk. As she was no longer the personal assistant to the president of the company, she could not meet Michael without a prior appointment. All Wendy could do was call Mr. York to ask him about Michael’s whereabouts.
Mr. York was the only person at the company who still respected he.
The call went through, but before Mr. York answered, Christian, emerged from the elevator and approached her. He said, "Ah, my dear sister-in-law, have you come here to for yourself what’s going on?"
The receptionist was bewildered after hearing how Christian addressed Wendy. She thought, why did he just refer to her as his sister-in-law?
Isn’t Wendy merely an assistant who was fired by the president? Could it be that Wendy is actually the president’s wife? At this, the receptionist shook her head to clear her mind of her own thoughts. That was impossible. The entire company knew that the president was not fond of Wendy Stewart. If Wendy really was the president’s wife, what did that make Yvonne Taylor?
