Chapter 284: I Can’t Ruin Someone’s Relationship
Michael had everything ready, even the suitcase for her.
Mr. York drove Wendy to the airport himself.
Leah held Wendy’s hand the entire time. Her big eyes were full of tears.
She didn’t want to cry, but she couldn’t help it.
After a short time together, all that was left was the sadness of parting.
She hugged Wendy’s lap tightly and said, "Mommy, why don’t you take Leah to Rheinsville City with you, and Leah will go to kindergarten in Rheinsville City, okay?"
Wendy squatted down to reach out and touch her little head and said comfortingly,
"Mommy will be back in about a month or so, and then Mommy will be with you the entire time. So Leah, be a good girl in Lake City and wait for Mommy for another month or so, okay?"
Leah’s teary eyes were filled with reluctance.
But Wendy had already said so, so she could only hold back her tears and nod.
Soon after, the announcement for boarding sounded behind her.
Wendy kissed Leah’s forehead, then kissed Jake and said, "Mommy won’t be in Lake City, so you have to help Mommy take care of Leah a little more, okay?"
Jake nodded, waved his hand at Wendy and said, "Mommy, don’t worry about going.
I’ll take care of my sister."
Jake, the older brother, had always done a good job.
Wendy smiled, gave him a thumbs up and said, "Jake’s the best."
"Mommy, what about Leah?" Leah sniffled and held back her sobs as she begged for a compliment.
"Leah is exceptionally good too." Wendy gave her a thumbs up too.
Michael was very reluctant, but still held back the sorrow and said, "Time to board,
go."
The sadness and reluctance in Wendy’s heart was no less than theirs.
She opened her arms.
Michael smiled and stepped forward.
Hugging Wendy tightly, Michael turned his head sideways and kissed her cheek and said, "We’ll wait for you back at home."
"Okay, I’ll be back as soon as I can." Wendy’s eyes were also a little teary.
She blinked and her eyes grew tearful.
She didn’t want them to see her tears and turned around before saying, "Let’s go."
The few of them looked at Wendy’s back together and watched her leave.
Even when her back disappeared into the crowd, Leah was still reluctant to leave.
She stood in the same place for a long time, until finally, Michael carried her away.
When Wendy got off the plane, she called Michael first to check in with them.
When she got home, Wendy slept comfortably.
When she went to the office the next day, Timothy was surprised and happy to know about it and went to her office himself.
Before she even entered, she heard his voice saying, "Corrine, you’re finally back."
Timothy came into the office with a face full of joy and said, "I’ve been waiting every day and night."
Wendy said two days ago that she might be a little delayed.
Timothy had also called but did not dare to rush things too much.
Moreover, yesterday, Wendy did not say she was coming back. Timothy thought she still needed a few days before she returned.
"Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back? I could have picked you up."
Timothy said several sentences in a row, so Wendy didn’t have a chance to answer.
After this sentence, when Wendy saw him stop talking, she said, "Michael booked the flight for me, and I didn’t know it at first."
"Mr. Lucas booked the flight for you?" Timothy frowned in disbelief.
How could Michael take it upon himself to let her come back?
Still, it was good that she was back.
Wendy nodded and didn’t say anything more.
***
Collins home...
Yonina returns from the office in a state of exhaustion.
Collins Group had suffered an unprecedented crisis.
Christian’s DR Group had been desperately trying to compete with the Collins Group for the market.
As long as it was an important partnership for the Collins Group, the other party would snatch it.
Their prices could be twice as low or even be losing money.
Yonina had been dealing with the company’s affairs all this time.
As the saying goes, there are only permanent interests and no permanent friends.
Yonina didn’t experience it deeply before.
This time, Collins Group’s big crisis made her feel it deeply.
Whether it was a large or medium-sized enterprise, or a small company, as long as someone gave better benefits than her, the other party stopped working with them.
Even if the other party also knew that someone was deliberately pressuring the Collins Group, and also knew that after so many years of cooperation with Collins Group, there would be long-term benefits to continue cooperation with them.
But they didn’t care about the past relationship and only looked at the immediate benefits.
Of course, the interests offered by the other side were indeed tempting enough.
But the companies that they had been working with for so many years had almost all switched sides in the face of profit.
Yonina had been very tired recently, really very tired.
She had already searched for countless cooperation partners, and also offered longterm generous profits.
But no one gave her a helping hand.
She was already annoyed and tired.
As soon as she got home and sat down, she heard her father say unhappily, "What did Mr. Zimmerman say today? Did you handle it?"
"No." Yonina sat on the couch with a slight headache. She pressed her temples,
closed her eyes and said, "He said the same thing that those people said before.
Someone offered a more generous offer, but he couldn’t reveal who it was. But without revealing it, we know that it’s DR."
"Yonina, listen to us. The Collins Group is no longer something you can carry on by toughing it out."Mr. Collins sighed, sat next to Yonina and said, "Our Collins Group was already in a financial crisis, and the DR must have known this, so he took the opportunity to attack us.
Although Christian’s company is half dead now, he was able to take out a billion to attack the Collins Group when his own company was in crisis, which means that DR is not at all what it seems to be.
Since they dare to take billions out to grab customers, there must be a billion or even billions more.
With such a strong opponent, we certainly won’t be able to cope with the task merely relying on our own abilities..."
Yonina knew very well what Mr. Collins was going to say.
Because she had already heard it countless times these days.
She interrupted Mr. Collins’ words and said helplessly, "Dad, why do you always think of relying on others? Can’t we get through this crisis on our own?"
"The Collins Group has gone from a market capitalization of ten billion to only one billion now in just three to four months. Moreover, there are still people suppressing us, so you tell me, how can you get through this crisis? If you can get through, would the Collins Group be like this today?
Mr. Collins also sounded more serious.
"It’s not that I didn’t do what you said." Yonina got more and more vexed as she said, "But Michael doesn’t like me, and he has a wife and children.
Are you asking me to break up someone’s family now?
I did have a crush on Michael before, but that was before, when everyone thought Wendy was dead.
Now, they are a family of four, and I can’t do something that would ruin someone’s relationship!
Even if I snatched Michael, would that necessarily help the Collins Group?"
"Michael’s company is the leading corporation in Lake City," Mr. Collins said.
"Besides, Michael and Christian are mortal enemies, and Michael was the one who took down DR Group. If we want to revive Collins Group, Michael is our only hope."
He then continued, "As long as you have Michael at your side, we stand a chance.
He is the only one who can help us against Christian, even if his company is still struggling."
He moved a bit closer to Yonina, tapping her shoulders, and kept trying to convince her, "I know that you’re not Michael’s favorite person at the moment, but it might change in the future, and besides, Winnie Quinn likes you. If you can win over Winnie, she will definitely try to force Michael to divorce Wendy."
"Don’t you know that Winnie is a psycho now? Don’t you know that she tried to chop her own son with a knife? Aren’t you worried about my safety, Dad? How are you going to sleep at night if she goes psychotic and kills me?"
"How would I let it happen?" Mr. Collins replied. "She loves you so much that she basically treats you as her de facto daughter-in-law, and you might’ve been married to Michael if Wendy hadn’t come back. Besides, didn’t you say that Winnie is always calm whenever you’re around? She won’t attack you."
Having heard that, Yonina sneered at her father as she didn’t know how to respond.
"What the hell did you mean by that?" Mr. Collins stood up, pointing his finger at her,
his face turning red. "Yonina, Collins Group is my life’s work! I will never allow it to go bankrupt!"
"Did I say I’d allow it? I’ve been working on it every day for months and slept for less than four hours every day," Yonina answered back. "What more do you want me to do? Do you really want me to wh*re myself out?"
"Why do you always beat yourself down like this? If you let go of your pride and go pursue Michael, I bet he’ll waver. You’re a beautiful girl, not to mention that you have a rich father like me. You can attract any man you want."
However, her pride was the one thing Yonina valued the most.
"But I can’t," she said.
"Do you want me dead?" Mr. Collins raised his hand, trying to slap her, but he withdrew after seeing that Yonina would not even move to dodge it.
Mrs. Collins walked out of the kitchen as she heard them arguing. She immediately walked towards them, seeing both of them infuriated, and said, "Why are you two fighting again? Dinner’s ready."
"Dinner? Do you even know what’s happening?" Mr. Collins turned to Mrs. Collins and screamed at her. "I told you countless times that I wanted a son after Yonina was born, but you refused, saying that she didn’t want siblings and needed all our love.
Look at her! What a great daughter we’ve raised. Collins Group is going down the drain, yet she still cares more about her pride than saving our family business!"
This wasn’t the first time that Yonina heard her father say something like that.
She was an only child, and she did mention that she didn’t want any siblings when she was growing up.
However, she had done everything in her capacity to help her father.
Right after her graduation from college, she had been working in Collins Group and helping the business prosper.
She thought, ’I’ve devoted my entire adult life to it. Why is it only my fault when it runs into a crisis? Why did I do wrong? Is it only because I’m a girl instead of a boy?’
