Chapter 420: Why Don’t You Explain Yourself
"It’s not that I’m suspecting her. I just want to look and see," Timothy Woods’s tone was stern as he retreated a few steps. He did not want to let Rosa Perrie snatch the phone.
Timothy attempted a few passcodes, but did not unlock it.
He was unable to guess what Wendy Stewart would have set either.
However, other than via a passcode, the phone could also be unlocked using fingerprints.
Timothy walked to Wendy’s side, picked up Wendy’s right hand and started to try using every finger to unlock it via fingerprint.
"You can’t do this!" Rosa went up to stop Timothy. She reached out to block him.
"It’s illegal to do this."
Prying into others’ privacy and forcefully unlocking others’ phones was indeed illegal in Rheinsville City.
Moreover, Wendy was, in Rosa’s eyes, a huge benefactor of HG right now.
Timothy should not treat her like that.
"You don’t understand. Don’t stop me!" Timothy reached out and pushed Rosa.
Rosa was unstable and was pushed back a few steps.
"Timothy! Just what are you doing? Do you really want to make Wendy be completely disappointed with you?!" Rosa yelled.
"If her phone doesn’t have the evidence I need, then there’s nothing wrong for me to look at it for a bit." Timothy said. "As long as there aren’t Michael’s texts in here, I will apologize to her when she wakes up."
Wendy was blurry, feeling like her head was in a daze.
She had a dream. In her dream, Christian Lucas and Michael Lucas were holding knives and pointing them at each other.
Both of them were covered in blood.
Just as she saw that Michael’s knife was about to be stabbed into Christian’s heart, the two children suddenly appeared in Christian’s arms.
He held the knife to Leah Lewis’s neck and laughed extremely horrifyingly, threatening Michael to stab himself.
Wendy was yelling from the side with all she had for him to stop, but it was as if no one could hear her.
Just as Michael was about to stab himself in the heart, Wendy felt that it was very noisy.
The quarreling voices were very familiar. It seemed to be Timothy and Rosa.
Wendy woke up bit by bit, and opened her eyes naturally.
She saw that Rosa and Timothy were in a heated argument.
Timothy pushed Rosa and he even came over to take her finger.
Once Wendy completely opened her eyes, she clearly saw what Timothy was doing.
He held her phone and wanted Wendy’s fingerprint to unlock it.
"Timothy, why are you like this!" Rosa shook her head in disappointment. "You even suspect your own staff, and even personally pry into others’ phones. Why have you become like that?"
Still, Timothy did not listen to what Rosa was saying.
Timothy was set on trying the fingerprints.
Wendy lifted her right hand and said weakly, "Right thumb..." Timothy subconsciously took Wendy’s right hand.
Once he unlocked the phone, a smile appeared on Timothy’s face as he saw the screen appear.
Then, he regained his senses and lowered his head to look at Wendy.
"Cor... Corrine..." Timothy was ultimately doing something criminal.
Having been caught by Wendy, he was a little flustered and swallowed his saliva as he subconsciously said, "Didn’t the doctor say that you’d wake up after two hours?"
"Then it’s really not the time for me to wake up," Wendy replied with a mocking laugh.
"Corrine, you’re up, do you feel uncomfortable? Want me to help you call the doctor?" Rosa was really caring toward Wendy, but she also wanted to change the topic to help Timothy clear the air.
It was a shame that Wendy did not fall for it.
She shook her head slightly.
...
"Mr. Woods... He... he took your phone, but he didn’t have any other intentions.
He..." Rosa Perrie realized that she did not know how to help him clear the air either.
Sighing, she might as well have said nothing.
She was also afraid that if she had said too much, it would make the situation even worse.
Anyway, Timothy Woods’s action was originally too much.
If it was her, she would have been very angry as well.
"I..." Holding onto the phone, Timothy was awkward that he did not know whether to return it to Wendy Stewart or look at it.
It was still okay to secretly spy on it, but looking at it in front of the owner was a little too much.
But the phone was just in front of him. If he did not look now, even if Wendy had betrayed HG, she would delete what had to be deleted later and he would not be able to see anything.
Hence, Timothy was a little reluctant to return it to Wendy.
Wendy had long guessed Timothy’s intentions.
"I never thought that Mr. Woods’s suspicion towards me would be so deep," Wendy said. "I thought that you were just saying it. I still thought that you were just a little stressed out from doing such huge things for HG. And that I should empathize with you and I shouldn’t be so calculative."
Wendy’s face was pale-white and her voice was weak as she paused a while before continuing, "Since Mr. Woods suspects me so and would like to check my phone, why should I be so sneaky? As long as Mr. Woods says it, I’ll just let you see it directly. My life was saved by you in the first place. The position I am in today is also given by HG."
"I..." Wendy’s words made Timothy even more awkward.
All of a sudden, he did not know what to say.
"Go ahead and look." Wendy closed her eyes after saying this.
She gave an extremely disappointing look.
"You can’t look, Timothy!" Rosa was still discouraging Timothy from looking at Wendy’s phone.
If he looked, the nature of the situation would be different.
Suspecting her without taking action was still alright. But by checking her phone, it would mean that Timothy was insistent that Wendy was a huge suspect.
If so, Wendy would be so heartbroken.
Still, Timothy wanted to see just whether there was any evidence on her phone rightnow.
The phone was just in his hand.
For him not to look, Timothy could not do it despite knowing that he was wrong.
"Timothy!" Seeing that Timothy had still lowered his head and swiped at the phone screen with his finger, Rosa’s tone was stern and serious like never before.
Timothy opened Wendy’s call records and scrolled a bit, but he did not see Michael Lucas’s call records.
After scrolling for quite a while, there still was nothing notable.
However, almost all of the call records on Wendy’s phone were marked.
Typically, Wendy would not pick up calls from unknown numbers.
But there was a call two days ago that was unmarked.
And that call had lasted three minutes.
Timothy creased his forehead and took out his phone.
His phone had Michael’s phone number on it.
He matched the two numbers carefully.
Catching the traces, Timothy held the phone and put it in front of Wendy, questioning her, "Corrine, I think you need to explain."
Hearing Timothy’s voice, Wendy opened her eyes.
Seeing that he had dug up Michael’s call record, she asked with a dark expression, "What do you need me to explain?"
"This is Michael’s number, right?" Timothy asked seriously.
"Yeah," Wendy did not hide it as she very blatantly answered.
"The call was made by you and it lasted three minutes. I think you need to explain what y’all have talked about in these three minutes," Timothy questioned Wendy beyond sternly.
Was this evidence to catch Wendy?
...
Wendy Stewart looked at the phone screen that Timothy Woods brought over.
She shot a glance. Timothy had indeed dug up the call records.
"Mr. Woods, since you’re set on the fact that I was betraying HG in these three minutes of a call, then is it important whether I explain or not?" Wendy once again closed her eyes. Her pale face was full of exhaustion.
"So you’re admitting it?" Timothy’s hand that held the phone was clearly gripping it tighter. "Then I think you need to address how you’ve allied with Michael to take down HG. Or else, don’t blame me for mercilessly handing it to the judiciary. This matter is, after all, too huge an implication and it could even be said as a financial crime."
Wendy was not surprised at all at the huge term of "financial crime" being brought down on her.
In the past, she did not know what kind of person Timothy was, but she had now long known.
Hearing Timothy and Wendy’s conversation from the side, Rosa Perrie’s forehead was even more creased. She walked up, looked at Wendy and looked at Timothy, then asked, "Timothy, are you confirming that Corrine has betrayed HG?"
"It’s not that I’ve confirmed. It’s just that the evidence is displayed here," Timothy said. "I’ve given her a chance before. I am asking her to explain what this call was about and it’s her who has silently admitted it."
"But Corrine and Michael were previously of husband-and-wife relationship after all.
It’s still within reason that the two communicate once in a while. Moreover, they have children. Hence, the call could possibly be to ask about the children?" Rosa still did not believe that Wendy would betray HG.
"You don’t understand..." Rosa was after all Timothy’s wife. He lowered his head and pondered, and decided to tell Rosa clearly, "We’ve long suspected that Corrine is involved in this crisis in HG this time. After all, the Moonlight project had been brought up by her singlehandedly.
If she wanted to do something to it, it wouldn’t be known to others.
Right, it’s true that I took over for the last few days, but I didn’t do anything to it.
Wouldn’t I be most clear about it?
Furthermore, I have no reason at all to do anything harmful to HG."
"Y’all?" Rosa doubtfully asked him. "Who else suspects Corrine?"
This question had indeed panicked Timothy a little.
He definitely could not say that it was Christian Lucas.
Hence, Timothy smoked a bit, "The assistant, I’ve discussed this matter privately with the assistant before."
He could only let the assistant be the scapegoat.
"Then there’s no reason for you to sabotage HG and wouldn’t Corrine have any reason either," Rosa said.
"I previously did not want to understand why Corrine would do so, so I had some suspicions. But now, it’s very clear that she and Michael have allied to snatch HG’s market share."
Timothy analyzed, "Michael had failed in the tender with Christian, so he wants to develop the clothing industry. HG is famous in the entire clothing industry that taking HG’s clients would be equivalent to solving all of MC’s sales channel problems.
It’s even possible that Corrine had transferred to MC after HG had collapsed to work for MC again, once again creating a legend in the clothing industry.
And she’ll no longer create it for HG."
Timothy did not say it all, as he still could not talk about his dealings with Christian.
Rosa just shook her head after listening and said, "This reason isn’t sufficient. It’s just a normal call record. It can’t prove anything.
Moreover, Michael has a fiance now. The child will be born in a few months’ time. Why will Corrine help Michael at this time? Although Corrine isn’t considered a bad person, she still wouldn’t have such a big heart to help her ex-husband take down her own company. That wouldn’t make sense."
...
"Yes, that is why I wanted Corrine to explain exactly what happened during the phone call." Timothy helplessly said, "But she didn’t want to explain herself and just agreed to it."
"But..." For a moment, Rosa was at a loss for words.
She was anxious and turned around to look at Wendy, "Corrine, why don’t you explain yourself?"
With that said, Rosa was worried that Wendy would think she was doubting her and added, "I don’t doubt you but you have got to at least explain yourself clearly right?
Only then can this issue be resolved, right?"
Rosa indeed does not doubt Wendy but she was unable to refute Timothy’s words as well.
Wendy took a deep breath as she laid on the hospital bed. She looked up to stare at Timothy with her eyes filled with disappointment as she mumbled, "Mr. Woods, what you need is really just my explanation? If I said that this phone call that I made to Michael ended in an argument, will you believe me?"
"Argument?" Timothy scoffed as he asked.
It was obvious that Timothy did not believe her.
"So, what else do you need me to explain? Since you already believe that I’ve betrayed HG, do your investigation on me. If you found any evidence, just hand me over to the police or something. Wendy coldly and plainly said, "It’s totally up to you."
"What is this attitude you’re showing!" It was obvious Timothy was riled up by Wendy’s attitude and replies. "This whole incident involves Michael. You guys have a recorded phone call together, I just wanted to check on this, is that so wrong? You behaving like this just makes you look guilty."
"Yes, I’m guilty." Wendy smirked and burst out laughing.
However, she just regained consciousness and her laughter led her to cough out loud as well.
Rosa quickly walked over to her side and helped her to sit up. She then prepared a cup of warm water for her and assisted her to sip it slowly.
"Can’t you just keep your thoughts to yourself first? Corrine just regained consciousness. Even if you want to understand the situation, you should wait a couple more days till her body recovers." Rosa reached out to gently pat Wendy on her back as she complained.
"I..."
Before Timothy could finish his sentence, they suddenly heard rushed footsteps hurrying their way.
Todd burst into the room with his face full of worry. He was panting crazily and it was obvious he ran over.
"Corrine, what happened to you? Todd noticed Wendy is awake and heaved a sigh of relief.
If she is awake, it shouldn’t be too bad.
However, looking at Wendy’s pale and exhausted face, he felt a slight pain in his heart.
"I’m fine I’m fine." Wendy knew that with Todd around, she didn’t need to explain herself any longer.
Todd would do the explanation for her and the effect will be better.
Hence, she coughed several times before purposefully saying, "Mr. Woods, if you would like to report me to the police, just do it. If not, please leave the room, I need to rest."
Todd heard the word ’police’ and frowned while staring at Timothy. He asked, "Police? Mentor, why do you want to report her to the police?"
"I..." Timothy coughed lightly. He thought, Todd no longer belonged to HG and he didn’t want to spread the news to him.
However, Rosa had felt bad towards Wendy and explained, "He suspects Corrine to have betrayed HG. He also heard the phone call recording between Corrine and Michael and wanted her to explain herself. However, Corrine only clarified that she had an argument with Michael. Timothy didn’t believe her."
Rosa simply and carefully explained the situation to Todd.
"You suspect Corrine?" Todd chucked out loud. "Mentor, even if you don’t trust others, you shouldn’t suspect Corrine. You should be most aware of how much Corrine had done for HG all these years. In recent years, all of HG’s performance was due to her efforts. She wouldn’t have any reason to betray HG after all the effort she had put in."
