Chapter 372: Forcibly Separating The Lovebirds
"Stop talking nonsense! What interrogation?" Timothy replied quickly.
Stealing a glance at Wendy, he smiled, "I’m calling to apologize because I know that I have wrongly accused you."
"Apologize?" Todd asked, sounding surprised as he continued, "So you no longer suspect me?"
Of course...I still suspect you, Timothy thought to himself.
"No I don’t. I no longer suspect you. I was just being a scaredy cat. After all, we’ve had a mentor-mentee relationship for so many years. I was too rash yesterday," Timothy replied unhurriedly.
"Please stop being upset with me. Why don’t you join Corinne and I for dinner tonight? It will be my treat, by way of an apology. How about it?"
"We’ll see. I am very busy at work," Todd replied, sounding non-committal.
"Then how about tomorrow?" Timothy suggested.
"I’m probably busy tomorrow too."
By this time, Timothy was nearing the end of his patience and about to lose it.
However, mindful that he was with Wendy, he tried his best to stay calm and smiled, "I’ll take a raincheck then and wait till both you and Corinne are available. I’m ready to buy you guys dinner anytime you’re available."
"Thank you," Todd responded emotionlessly. "If there’s nothing else, I need to get back to my work."
"Sure, go ahead."
Hanging up, Timothy smiled at Wendy and said, "You can stop being mad at me now that I’ve apologized to Todd. Why don’t we wipe out what had happened yesterday from our memory?"
Since he had humbled himself to this extent, Wendy decided not to take it too far by continuing to be difficult.
"OK, I will erase whatever happened yesterday from my memory. However...," she paused mid-sentence.
Continuing, she said, "I hope that, going forward, you will not be so quick to doubt others. Even if you suspect other people, you should not distrust Todd and I, who had spent many years under your tutelage for so many years."
"Yes, it’s my bad," Timothy affirmed with sincerity, adding, "Since it’s lunch time, why don’t we go grab a bite?"
"I’ll pass. You go ahead. I have to prepare for a meeting with the manufacturer around noon," Wendy replied.
Looking at the time, she added, "They should be here any minute now."
"You cannot just keep working without taking your meals. Have something to eat before you meet with them," Timothy said, looking concerned.
"You’re not in tip top condition, health-wise. Don’t exacerbate your poor health by working too hard."
"The manufacturer will be presenting the samples for the second series of the Moonlight Collection. Weren’t you the one who had been pressurizing me to go to market as soon as possible with the collection?" Wendy replied.
Looking at Timothy, she smiled questioningly, "Is it no longer urgent?"
"I...," Timothy looked a tad embarrassed. .
Noticing Timothy’s non-response, Wendy secretly scoffed.
As she had expected, Timothy was not really concerned about her health.
Her own health was a non issue when compared to the profits of the company.
Appearing unaffected, Wendy said to him, "Please go ahead and have lunch. I still have work to do."
Timothy nodded, "I’ll leave you to it then."
At that, he turned and left her office.
As she watched him walking out of her office, Wendy felt emotionless and even more resolute.
She had always thought that she was the luckiest person, to have encountered a savior after having been badly hurt by Michael.
But when the truth was revealed, complete with the gory details, she had felt unimaginable pain.
Timothy did not go to lunch either. Instead, he returned to his office to catch up on his own work.
Just when he had settled into his chair, the phone rang.
It was Christian...
Looking at the caller ID, Timothy’s heart pounded rapidly.
In fact, he knew why Christian was calling.
As he watched the phone vibrating, Timothy felt the urge not to take the call.
Alas, he knew that he had to deal with it, if not now, then later because it was not going away.
In the end, he swiped across the screen and accepted the call.
"Christian...," he spoke up first.
Christian was not only the real, albeit covertly, owner of HG but also Timothy’s boss.
However, since he was a generation older, Timothy always called Christian by his first name instead of ’Mr. Lucas’.
"Found anything?" Christian asked.
Thinking of an appropriate response, Timothy paused before sighing, "Nope, not yet."
"This happened in your office and you’re telling me that you found nothing?"
Christian demanded to know, obviously upset.
He continued, "This is serious, with potentially severe consequences. Do you realize that?"
"I know that. I’ve deployed people to investigate into it. We’ve also taken the fingerprints of anyone we suspect. But, so far, we have not uncovered anything...," Timothy replied in a serious tone.
"You’ve always been soft-hearted!" Christian commented coldly, adding, "Just get rid of anyone you suspect!"
What Christian meant was that he should just eliminate anyone he suspected.
"But there is no concrete proof. I could have been mistaken," Timothy replied, sounding a little more subdued.
Havng been acquainted with Christian for so many years, Timothy knew exactly what type of a person he was.
"If you don’t want to get your hands dirtied, just pass me the list of names and I will get it organized," Christian replied coldly.
At that, Timothy’s heart beat even faster.
He knew that Christian was revealing his true nature.
Although Todd was his number one suspect, he was, after all, Timothy’s student, someone he had mentored for many years.
Two years ago, he had gone through a lot of trouble just to protect Todd.
And now, if Timothy were to inform Christian of his suspicion, the latter would definitely not let Todd go free.
Because Christian was someone who would not stop at anything to achieve his goal.
Since he had broken the law many times over, what was one more crime to him?
"I’m well aware that this incident has severe consequences. But the good news is that the safe has not been broken into.
"What we’ve got so far are unconfirmed suspicions. If you intend to eliminate all whom we suspect then you’d have a never ending task on your hands," Timothy said.
Deliberately sounding vague, he added, "There are many people at HG who are familiar with my office. They are all on my suspect list.
"Besides, if something goes wrong during your elimination process, it might alert our opponents of cracks within our organization and backfire on us.
"Letting the enemy be forewarned is not a smart move, is it?"
From Timothy’s words, Christian could tell that he was protecting somebody.
And it was all too easy for Christian to hazard a guess as to whom Timothy was protecting.
"Mr. Woods, that beloved student of yours should have been eliminated two years ago. If you had not been protecting him, I would have had him taken out a long time ago.
"How would he have gotten the opportunity to set up his Lewis Design Company...," Christian said, cutting to the chase.
Continuing, he said, "I know that you don’t want anything bad to happen to Todd but, this time, he has crossed the line.
"As of now, I don’t even know for sure how much he knows about our operation.
Even if he is innocent and has been wrongly accused, eliminating him would still not be a bad thing."
"I’ve checked the fingerprint analysis. His prints don’t match." Timothy responded, adding, "Besides, didn’t you check the surveillance tapes yourself?
"Todd had been with Wendy throughout that night. She couldn’t possibly have known about the safe.
"Todd would not want to implicate Wendy in anything. They have just started dating and would not want to spend time thinking about anything else other than themselves."
It would have been better if Timothy had not made the last comment because once he said it, Christian, on the other end of the line, looked positively evil and murderous.
"Dating and passionately in love?" Christian sneered, "I’m in the mood to tear these lovebirds apart forever."
Timothy’s heart missed a beat when he heard that.
"But Christian, if you have Todd killed now, Wendy would be emotionally affected," he said hastily.
He added, "This is the crucial time for the launch of the second series of the Moonlight Collection. Aren’t you strapped for cash now? Don’t you need to claw back some funds?"
Timothy was not aware of Christian’s feelings for Wendy.
In his mind, he did not think that someone like Christian was capable of loving anyone.
That was why it had never even occurred to him to take that into consideration.
Truth be told, Timothy had once, in the past, harbored the notion of marrying Jill off to Christian once she graduated from college.
However, as time went by, he gradually dismissed the idea.
He found out that Christian was a dangerous man.
Timothy had become too deeply embroiled with him and could not possibly back out now.
And he did not want to drag his only daughter into the quagmire as well.
That was the reason why he had not forcibly dragged Jill back.
If Timothy had been really against Jill joining the entertainment industry, he could easily drag her back here again.
It did not matter how many times she managed to escape and where. He would always be able to find her and drag her back here.
After much thought, he had decided to leave a door open for his daughter.
He wanted her to stay away from the designing industry, to stay away from his circle.
As far as Jill’s future was concerned, this would not be a bad thing.
Nonetheless, Timothy felt that it was lamentable that there was no one to take over from him.
To this day, he still felt that it was regrettable.
But then, there was nothing he could do about it. After all, Jill was his one and only child.
"I don’t care if you are merely protecting your mentee or if you really care about HG’s funding challenge," Christian said, sounding a lot more chilly and resolute.
"Just step on it and find me some answers or be prepared for the consequences!
Don’t forget that we are in the same boat. If I go down, you will not be able to escape either."
"Of course I know that. That’s why I’m very anxious about this also," Timothy tried to soothe Christian.
"In any case, you should not be overly worried. The fact that the safe has not been broken into means that no one has seen the contents inside," he tried to appease Christian.
"It had better like you said," Christian uttered, hanging up immediately.
Hearing the engaged tone, Timothy heaved a sigh of relief.
Feeling physically drained after the call, his hand shook as he put his phone on the desk and hung his head low.
Shaking his head, he smiled, muttering to himself, " My dear Todd, I have done my utmost to help you. This is where it stops.
"I just hope that you are really innocent and have nothing to do with this incident.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t know how we could maintain our relationship going forward."
At this moment, Wendy had already met with the manufacturer’s team.
The manufacturer had brought with them three sets of samples for Wendy to choose from and make the final decision.
Although she had full autonomy to make the final decision, out of respect for Timothy, Wendy took the manufacturer’s team to his office for a discussion with him.
Of course, Wendy was not really doing this out of respect for Timothy. It was just a ruse to trick Timothy into thinking that she still respected him like she used to.
Also, if anything were to go wrong with the collection during the ensuing process, she could claim that she had made the decision together with Timothy.
At that moment, Timothy had been so engrossed in his thoughts about the incident with the safe that he jumped when he heard the rap on his door.
He turned ghostly white when he looked up and saw that it was Wendy at the door.
He looked positively guilty, as though he had been caught in the act of doing something illicit.
Even his heart had begun to pound more rapidly.
Instinctively, he pushed the phone to one side and forced himself to smile, albeit a tad awkwardly, "Oh, Corinne. What brings you here?"
