Chapter 297: Memory Failure
As with all final meetings, this one was emotional and filled with parting sadness.
Eventually, all good things must come to an end, and this meeting was no exception.
Walking down the stage, Wendy noticed that many of them were teary-eyed.
She walked towards one of the designers and held out her arms.
Happy for Wendy but sad that she was leaving them, the designer hugged her warmly.
Then, Wendy went on to hug another designer.
And so, it went on. She hugged each one of them in turn.
After she had hugged each member of her design team, Wendy sniffed and, unable to control her emotions any longer, began to cry.
"Oh, Miss Swift, please don’t cry. You’re making me cry too."
"Me too... boohoo... " And so, the conference room was filled with sounds of people sobbing.
Trying to alleviate the sorrow in the room, Todd smiled and opened his arms to Wendy, "You’ve hugged everyone here. Don’t forget Timothy and me."
Wendy’s sobbing turned into a laugh as she stepped up and hugged Todd without hesitation.
After the meeting, almost everyone left the conference room with eyes swollen from crying.
That night, Wendy did not sleep well.
She had already completed the final design copy. What remained to be done were some minor tasks to tie up loose ends. Once she identified the person to take over from her, she could return to Lake City.
Despite knowing that she had completed what she had come to do and could now relax, Wendy felt unusually heavy-hearted.
She received a call from Michael the next morning.
It was their usual time to talk via video.
She felt a lot more relaxed when she saw the familiar faces of Michael and her two children.
As usual, Leah was the first to greet her, looking into the frame with her big, round eyes and smiling sweetly.
She said in her babyish voice, bursting with energy, "Good morning, Mummy!"
"Hi Leah," Wendy waved to the cute face on her screen. Just hearing her daughter’s voice made her feel like the world was a better place.
"When will you be back, Mummy?" Leah asked.
Then she quickly added, "But I’m not pressuring you, so you must eat regular meals, leave work on time, and not work too late into the night, OK? I don’t want to see Mummy with panda eyes when she comes back to us."
Wendy knew that Jake had taught Leah what she had just uttered.
Leah was a simple girl. All she wanted was for her Mummy to come back to her as soon as possible.
But Jake had reminded her not to pressure her Mummy to come home quickly. He explained that to come back to them in the shortest possible time, Wendy would have to work excessively long hours.
However, working excessively long hours would take its toll on their Mummy’s health.
At Jake’s explanation, Leah was at once concerned about Wendy’s health and wary about pressuring her to come home quickly.
Comforted by Leah’s words of concern, Wendy replied, "I will be back very soon."
Wendy had originally intended to tell them that her work had been completed. All she needed was to do wrap up some loose ends and plan out the follow-up tasks.
And that, she should expect to come home in about three days.
However, she stopped herself before the words came out of her mouth.
Thinking it through, she decided not to inform them and surprise them instead.
Michael and the kids would not have expected her to complete her work so quickly, despite working regular hours.
"Mummy, you must put your health first," that came from Jake.
"Don’t you worry, I’m fine," Wendy replied, her smile becoming increasingly soulful.
"I’ll send them to the kindergarten now. Take care of yourself," Michael waved into the frame.
Waving also, Wendy said a quick goodbye and hung up.
That call had indeed been a real energy booster for Wendy.
She was in a really good mood now. Also, she did not have to get to work in a hurry.
So, she made herself a simple breakfast.
It was the first time she had made breakfast in the two months that she had been here.
***
Of late, Winnie’s condition had been unstable, with some good days and some not so good days.
On a sunny day, Michael received a call from the family home.
Since it was a fine day, Winnie had asked to go outdoors for some fresh air and to do some shopping.
And Michael had agreed.
The psychiatrist had also advised that, for a patient with Winnie’s mental condition, keeping her locked up at home would not do her illness any good.
Michael could not possibly lock her up forever.
However, he would not allow her to leave the house on her own.
He ordered one of the helpers at home to go with Winnie and also sent them two bodyguards.
Winnie, who had originally intended to go out alone, was upset when she realized that she was being followed by a group of people. Stamping her feet, she complained, "Stop following me! I want to go shopping on my own!"
Actually, Winnie had intended to go see Yonina.
She had not seen Yonina for a very long time.
Every time she called, Yonina would brush her off by saying that she was too busy.
And there were a few occasions when Yonina had even declined her calls.
But Winnie was well aware that, with so many people following her, she would not be able to go see Yonina.
Because Michael did not want her to hang out with Yonina.
"Madam, please don’t make things difficult for us...," the helper pleaded with her.
"Madam?" Winnie asked in confusion. Frowning, she asked questioningly, "You just called me Madam?"
Winnie pointed to herself.
The helper nodded, explaining, "Yes that’s right. You are Madam."
"I’m Madam?" Winnie was still puzzled, and asked again, "Then who’s Young Madam?"
"Well, the Young Madam is...," the helper looked down, unsure of how she should respond.
It was obvious, from her questions, that Winnie was not in the right state of mind today.
If the helper informed her that Wendy was the Young Madam then Winnie would surely be triggered into having another episode.
The helper thought it through carefully and finally decided to evade the question, saying instead, "Oh, you’re also the Young Madam."
Stepping forward, the helper took Winnie by the hand and smiled, "The weather is excellent today. What would you like to do? Go shopping or visit the park?"
"Shopping...," Winnie looked up confidently and said, "I had some jewelry custom-made some days ago and have yet to collect them. I must go pick them up."
This was a sign that Winnie’s memory was not quite right.
Fact was that she had not ordered any custom-made jewelry.
It was impossible to tell which incident she had recalled.
Playing along with her, the helper obliged, "OK, let’s go to the mall then."
Relying on her memory, Winne went to a store.
Upon entering, she instructed the salesperson, "Bring me the jewelry that I had custom-made recently. I’m here to collect them."
Now, since Winnie had been a frequent customer, the salesperson knew who she was.
As far as she knew, Winnie had not ordered any custom-made jewelry from them.
Looking surprised, she smiled, "Mrs. Lucas, has your memory failed you? I don’t think you have ordered any custom-made jewelry from us in the recent past."
"Are you saying I remembered wrongly? Impossible!" Winnie became increasingly loud as she insisted, "I am a frequent customer of yours. Bring my jewelry to me right now, quickly."
"We...," the salesperson was about to speak up again when the helper hastily stepped forward. Pulling the salesperson aside, she whispered, "Just bring her something. We will pay for it."
Since the salesperson could not have known about Winnie’s unsteady mental state, she was naturally a tad puzzled by the helper’s request.
Whatever it was, the customer was always right.
However, when the sales person showed her some jewelry pieces, Winnie took one look at them and threw them aside, "Are you planning to just humor me? I had ordered some luxury pieces but what are these? How dare you try to humor me with this inferior trash?"
The sales person was flustered, not knowing what to do next.
She had absolutely no idea what was going on here.
"Bring me the jewelry I ordered," a woman’s voice sounded from behind them.
It was a voice that Winnie knew very well.
It was a voice that she hated with a passion.
Winnie turned around immediately and, there she was, Lily Yates.
Her first instinct, upon seeing Lily, was to step forward and hit her.
Nonetheless, Lily was prepared for her. She smiled and stepped backwards quickly, leaving Winnie punching the air with her hands.
Seeing them, the helper hastily stepped up to pull Winnie back.
The reason why Michael had instructed this group of people to follow her around was just this. He did not want her to cause a stir.
Little did he expect that his mum would run into Lily.
"Let go of me!" Winnie was so furious that she was trembling with her rage, "I want to kill this bi&%h today!"
The helpers hung on to her even more tightly, as though their lives depended on it.
Ignoring Winnie’s punches, scratching, and pinching, they hung on to her for dear life.
Very quickly, the salesperson appeared with the jewelry that Lily had ordered.
Lily opened the jewelry box and picked up the dazzling necklace. Smiling, she showed it to Winnie and deliberately taunted her, "Is this the type of jewelry that you like?"
Indeed, it was the type of jewelry that Winnie liked.
And that was because all the jewelry pieces that Lily had ordered were custom-made according to the styles and gems that Winnie liked.
In the past, Lily had been an invisible mistress who could not see the light of day.
But now, ever since Winnie’s mental condition came to light, Anthony had stayed away from home.
Everyone in the upper echelon of society in Lake City now knew that Lily was Antony’s woman.
She was finally able to walk tall in Lake City.
Having suffered humiliation and abuse from Winnie for so many years, Lily was naturally not about to let go of this opportunity to get some payback.
"I had that custom-made!" Winnie insisted strenuously.
Pointing to the salesperson, she demanded to know, "Why are you giving what I had ordered to that woman? Are you all ganging up on me?
"I’ll have you know that I am Winnie Lucas, mother of Michael Lucas, the richest man in Lake City.
"If you dare gang up on me, I will have my son shut you down for good!"
Winnie’s behavior caught the attention of many of the other salespersons who had started to walk over to them.
Truth be told, they had not seen Winnie in the store for a long time.
Seeing her today, they somehow felt that there was something odd about her.
In the past, she had always been elegantly dolled up, emanating glamor and luxury.
But today, she looked like a bad-tempered, uncouth woman from a street market.
If they had not seen Winnie Lucas before, they would never believe that this woman standing before them was Mrs. Anthony Lucas.
"Ah, Mrs. Lucas. You must have remembered wrongly...," the store manager walked over to her and said smilingly.
By way of an explanation, he said, "You have not ordered any custom-made jewelry from us at all in the past three months.
"This lady here, however, did in fact order these pieces two weeks ago and has come here today to collect them."
"I remembered wrongly?" Winnie immediately shook her head, claiming, "I could not have remembered wrongly."
"Erm...," the store manager was stumped, not knowing how to respond.
The helper, who was standing behind Winnie, was also in a dilemma, not knowing what to do next.
Surely she could not inform the store manager of Winnie’s illness?
Because that would make Winnie a laughing stock.
Smiling, he helper tugged at Winnie’s hand, coaxing her, "M’m, let’s go to the other store. I just remembered that you had ordered some jewelry from that other store."
Getting Winnie out of the store as soon as possible was the right thing to do.
At the very least, she would not come face to face with that Lily Yates.
However, Lily was not about to let go of this golden opportunity to ridicule Winnie.
In fact, she had come here with the sole intention of meeting Winnie.
She extended her arm to block Winnie’s passage and asked with a smile, "Do you like this piece of jewelry very much?"
Indeed, Winnie liked the jewelry very much but she hated Lily more. She hated Lily so much that she wanted to tear her apart, limb by limb, and burn her down to ashes.
She struggled to free herself but, try as she might, she could not get out of the iron grip of the bodyguards.
