Chapter 386: Worried
"Oh come on, Yonina wasn’t the only person Michael beat up. Didn’t you all see that Christian was injured as well? Go search the topic #MichaelWendy and check out the tweets there before tweeting all these conspiracy theories. Stop blaming Michael for everything."
"I’ve checked that topic before, but who cares about those tweets? Even if they’re real, Yonina is carrying Michael’s child. Any man who hits his fiance when she’s pregnant is an a**hole no matter what!"
"Hey, are you guys dumb or just some radical feminists? Yonina and Christian were obviously plotting against Michael. Michael’s plan for the bidding was leaked by Yonina. Thus, Michael can straight up sue her!"
...
Wendy was a bit dumbfounded by some of the comments as she hadn’t seen the tweets that were mentioned yet. She then opened her Twitter.
It turned out that one of the accounts tweeted that Yonina and Christian were conspiring against Michael. It said that Christian asked Yonina to be a spy and pretend to fall in love with Michael so that she could leak the MC Group’s confidential information, which included the design MC Group drafted for the bidding.
Wendy was having a lot of fun reading tweets while pretending to be someone who had nothing to do with them.
’No wonder so many people love to follow all those celebrity gossips and talk about them with their friends. It is indeed entertaining,’ she thought.
Wendy looked at her watch, and after taking into account the time difference, it should be around 8 PM in Lake City.
’I reckon Michael and Yonina are still awake,’ she thought.
She looked down and started pondering whether she should call Michael or Yonina first as she wanted to figure out what was really going on.
After all, all the information on the Internet was nothing but gossip.
Wendy typed in half of Michael’s number as she wanted to talk to Michael, but then, she recalled how she had a huge fight with Michael when they interacted last time, so she sent a text message to Yonina instead.
In Lake City, Yonina was still lying on her hospital bed, pretending to be sick.
She was also scrolling through the news about her as she had nothing else to do.
She then received the message sent by Wendy: [Call me when you’re free.] Yonina didn’t tell Wendy about what happened at the bidding right after that because she knew that it was late at night in Rheinsville, so she didn’t want to wake Wendy up from her sleep.
However, it seemed that Wendy had woken up, judging from her message.
Yonina’s mother and Winnie were currently staying with her in the hospital room.
She thought for a second then said to her mother and Winnie, "Mom, Ms. Quinn, I’m feeling a bit hungry. Would you mind buying me some food?"
"Food? What do you want?" Winnie said without hesitation.
"I want some pasta from the Italian place at the CBD. My mom knows where that is,"Yonina said. "Oh, by the way, I want some fresh juice from the dessert place on Eastern Avenue."
"Sure. I’ll go buy them for you," Mrs. Colllins said. "Ms. Quinn, could you look after my daughter for a second before I come back?"
"Um...I want both the pasta and the juice to be as fresh as possible," Yonina said.
"Would you mind getting one each? Otherwise, they might go sour after you guys come back. The pasta might get cold."
"Well..." Mrs. Collins paused. "Are you sure that you’re going to be okay here by yourself?"
She glimpsed at Winnie as she said that. She was actually worried about Winnie as she knew that she had been mentally unstable for a long time, and she didn’t think that it was safe for her to wander the streets by herself.
’What if she runs into an accident?’ Mrs. Collins wondered.
...
Yonina knew why her mother said that, so she smiled and responded, "Don’t worry about me, Mom. Besides, there’re so many doctors and nurses in the hospital, and I’ll page them if I need any help. As for Ms. Quinn, didn’t the Lucas Family left two bodyguards outside? I think they can go with her."
Mrs. Lucas had gone back to her house, and she asked two men to stay behind because she wanted to make sure that Winnie would stay safe.
"Does that sound good, Ms. Quinn?" Yonina asked Winnie.
Winnie had always loved Yonina, so she nodded without hesitation. "Of course, darling! I’ll go buy you the pasta now."
"Okay then. We’ll go buy the food and beverage you want. Call us if there’s anything urgent," Mrs. Collins said.
"Sure thing," Yonina said while nodding at her mother.
Yonina was the only person left in her hospital room after Winnie and Mrs. Collins left.
She looked around the room as she wasn’t sure if there was any CCTV installed.
She walked into the bathroom and locked the door, and then rang up Wendy.
Wendy had been waiting for Yonina’s reply after she sent her that message.
She was thinking about getting out of her bed and starting to prepare for her work if she didn’t receive any call from Yonina in five minutes, so she picked up her phone after seeing Yonina’s name on the screen.
"Wendy," Yonina said, "did you see the news on the Internet?"
"I did," Wendy replied. "That’s why I called you. How’s everything going? Did everything go as planned?"
"It went okay. I think Christian will be the one who wins the bidding. He’s been smug since the morning here, and he hasn’t noticed anything fishy yet."
"That’s perfect. Things have been going pretty smoothly on my end as well," Wendy said, relieved. She then asked concernedly, "How is your injury? Is it really that bad?"
Yonina couldn’t help but smile after hearing Wendy asking about her well-being. She said, "I’d be lying if I say it wasn’t bad as Michael didn’t hold back at all when she hit me. But then again, it’s such a crucial moment for all of us, so I don’t mind that pain at all."
"Thank you. I really appreciate that."
"That’s too flattering. I’m only doing it for Collins Group," Yonina said while trying to lower her voice as much as possible.
Both Yonina and Wendy were silent for a brief moment.
Wendy pursed her lips. And before she could ask Yonina about how Michael was doing, she suddenly hear a different voice coming out of her phone.
"Ms. Collins? Are you here, Ms. Collins?"
It was a woman’s voice.
"I’m in the bathroom. Can I help you with anything?" Yonina said, startled.
"I’m here to check your temperature, Ms. Collins," the nurse said. "I’ll check back if it isn’t a convenient time for you."
"All good. I’m coming out now." Yonina hung up without saying goodbye to Wendy.
Wendy looked down at the screen as she felt sort of out of breath.
She then glanced at the time, and she knew that she should get up now.
She then cooked herself some simple breakfast, finished it, and left her place.
After she got down to the ground floor, she saw Todd waiting there for her as always.
Zen said, "I just realized that I have some tasks that I need to finish in my company.
I’ll need to head soon."
Zen then left. She didn’t want to be the third wheel anymore as she could tell that Wendy and Todd were getting closer.
....
Wendy was still angry at Todd because of what happened before, so she didn’t know what to talk about with him.
Because there wasn’t anyone around, Wendy didn’t want to pretend to be nice to Todd, so she strode ahead while being completely silent.
Todd thought for a brief moment, looking solemn, then he caught up with Wendy and explained, "Sorry, Corrine, I didn’t expect what happened two days ago would take such a toll on you. I just thought that we should at least show that we’re a close couple when we’re in public."
He then continued, "Perhaps Michael and you think that it isn’t necessary to do that in front of a taxi driver as he probably doesn’t even know us, but I think we need to be as cautious as possible. All of us have put in so much time and effort, and now we’re even betting lives on it. I don’t want us to lose because we aren’t careful enough. And besides, it was Michael who made the biggest mistake here as he shouldn’t have shown up in Rheinsville City anymore. I’m pissed off by that as well.
After all, I betrayed my vow to my mentor by helping him, yet he’s so feckless when it comes to our safety."
"I’ll admit that I was getting a bit petty and trying to irritate him."
Wendy slowed down after hearing what Todd said as she agreed that Michael was too careless when it comes to their safety.
There would be much more time for them to talk about their emotions and feelings, but this wasn’t it.
Todd could tell that he had knocked some sense into Wendy after seeing her slow down, so he continued, "Certainly, I’m not blaming everything on him because I should have been the bigger person. We should have told Michael to stop being so childish, and besides, I was thinking that any misunderstandings between you and Michael would be naturally resolved after we defeated Christian. After all, the so-called relationship between you and me is fake anyway."
Wendy took a deep breath, turned around, and saw how serious and regretful Todd was. She said, "I agree. It was indeed Michael’s fault, and I can’t blame you for much.
Sorry that I have been giving you the cold shoulder for two days. Can we forget about it?"
"Have you forgiven me?" Todd asked Wendy timidly.
Wendy smiled and shook her head. "Forgive you? You didn’t do anything wrong anyway, so what am I going to forgive you for? On the contrary, I should be thanking you for helping us and our future."
Indeed, Wendy wasn’t in the place to blame Todd for anything as Todd had been risking his life to help them unconditionally.
And besides, the accident happened because Michael was being a total brat, so there was nothing that she could be angry about at Todd.
Todd had mixed feelings after hearing what Wendy said. On the one hand, he was happy that Wendy wasn’t angry at him, but the line ’What am I going to forgive you for’ suddenly plunged him into sadness.
Looking at Wendy’s eyes, Todd knew that Wendy wasn’t blaming him because she thought that she shouldn’t be doing that.
She could be angry or even throwing a tantrum at Michael, and she would scold Michael if she was very irritated. On the contrary, she was always trying to act rationally in front of Todd.
She was so rational that Todd felt a bit distant from her.
Todd tried to keep that smile on his face, but he subconsciously clenched his fist.
He then looked away as he didn’t want to face Wendy directly.
He put on a broader smile and said with a more gleeful tone, "Thank god that you’re not angry. I was worried that you won’t talk to me anymore."
