Chapter 432: Something Is Amiss Here
Wendy’s phone rang, and she looked at it again.
She saw the call was from Zess, and she knew what was happening.
It seemed like Timothy had already gone to her house.
Since Wendy had refused to answer any of his calls, he must have forced Zess to call instead.
Wendy had no intention of answering.
Before she put her phone away in her bag, she noticed an unread message in her inbox.
She tapped on it, and it was a message from Zess.
Through the text message, Wendy could see that Zess was worried about her.
Wendy then pretended as if nothing had happened, picked out a dress, and went to try it on.
She was going to let Timothy stew in his own juices.
"She isn’t answering," said Zess. She showed her phone to Timothy. Letting out a sigh of relief, she said, "I think she is either unable to answer or didn’t hear her phone ring."
Timothy snatched Zess’ phone and called Wendy again.
However, Wendy still did not answer.
Wendy did not turn off her phone nor reject his calls. She simply switched it to silent mode and let it continue ringing while she went about her own business.
Timothy continued holding Zess’ phone; his breathing started to sound labored.
"She is deliberately ignoring her phone. She must have guessed that I am at her house!" Timothy shouted in anger.
"Why would Corrine not answer?" asked Rosa. "She has no reason not to. I’m sure it’s inconvenient for her to talk now."
"Inconvenient? Only you would fall for that," said Timothy. "We had just called her and asked her to come into the office, but she refused. She said she was at home, but when we arrived, she had gone out. Now, she refuses to answer any calls. Do you think this is all a coincidence? She is deliberately hiding from me!"
"But, why?" Rosa frowned, feeling very puzzled. "Could it be because of the damages for the breach of contract?"
"Yes! It is about the damages!" Timothy yelled. "I had only suspected her. Now I am very certain that she is behind everything that is happening in HG."
"Timothy, be careful with your accusations," cautioned Rosa. "The damages to be paid were set within the limits that you had agreed to. She... " Before Rosa could finish, Timothy’s phone rang.
The name of the caller was a single letter ’C.’ Rosa frowned once more when she saw the caller’s name.
This was not the first time she had seen this person call.
But Rosa did not know who that person was.
She had asked Timothy, but he only said that it was one of the directors.
And other names in his phone were also listed with a single letter.
Also, whenever Timothy received such a call, he would turn away from Rosa.
Rosa had not found it suspicious because HG’s board of directors was stricter than other companies.
Although she was the head secretary, she had no right to join the board.
Even till today, she had no idea who the members of the board were.
But for a board member to call at such a timing, Rosa could not help but purse her lips.
However, Timothy did not answer but rejected the call.
That call was from Christian.
To avoid any suspicion, Timothy had named all the board members with a single letter.
’C’ was for Christian Lucas.
For Christian to call now, it must be for that two billion dollars.
"Why aren’t you answering?" asked Rosa. "Isn’t that someone from the board?"
"What am I supposed to say to the board member now? How am I supposed to explain to them?" Timothy took a deep breath. His head felt like it was about to explode.
...
"But you cannot keep avoiding them," said Rosa. "You’ll have to face them one day."
"Don’t meddle in these matters," said Timothy curtly. He was starting to be impatient with Rosa too.
"I am HG’s head secretary, and I am also your wife," said Rosa. "Whether it is for work or in private, I have the right to meddle."
Timothy did not reply.
The tension had become very thick.
"What shall we do now?" Rosa asked seriously.
"We wait. I don’t believe she won’t come home at all," said Timothy, and then he sat down on the sofa.
He looked at the time. It was three o’clock in the afternoon. Surely, Wendy would come home at night.
She would not have run away.
Her children were still in Rheinsville City.
Even if Wendy had wanted to run away, she would not leave her children behind.
That’s right, her children.
Timothy immediately took out his phone and made a phone call. "At four-thirty, go to Leah and Jake Stewart’s kindergarten and pick them up."
"What are you doing?" Rosa was shocked by Timothy’s phone call.
Was he so desperate that he was going to use Wendy’s children to threaten her?
"No matter what, you can’t harm the children," said Rosa. "Leah and Jake treat you as their grandpa."
"So what?" Timothy thundered. "Corrine was the one at fault first!"
"How... " Rosa shook her head in disbelief. She felt like she was looking at a stranger.
"How did you become like this? This is not the Timothy Woods I know."
Timothy’s anger and outbursts just now were still acceptable to Rosa.
Even if he were to get angry at her, Rosa had thought he was just too stressed and needed an outlet to vent.
But now, he had instructed someone to pick up the two children and had some sinister plan.
If he were to involve the children, this was not a simple venting of frustration anymore.
Perhaps, it was the look of disappointment in Rosa’s eyes that scared Timothy. He sighed, calmed down, and said, "I’m not going to do anything to the children. I’m just getting someone to pick them up."
"I can pick up the children," said Zess. She was really scared now, and her heart was beating fast. "Jake is all right, but Leah is quite timid. She would get frightened if a stranger went to pick her up."
"Then you’ll go with my men to pick them up," said Timothy. "They’ll wait for you downstairs."
Then Timothy made another call to instruct them to come to Wendy’s house.
"Well... " Zess did not know what else she could say.
But she finally knew how serious the situation was, and it was beyond her imagination.
In the end, Zess was forced to pick up the children.
She knew that if a stranger were to pick Jake and Leah up, they would be frightened.
If she went along, she would be able to at least watch over them.
And if anything were to happen, she would also be around to protect them.
Zess walked out of the room, took out her phone, and secretly sent Wendy a text message, "Wendy, something is wrong. Mr. Woods has sent someone to pick up Jake and Leah from school. You’ll have to decide whether to come home or not. But don’t worry, even if you decide not to, I will do my best to protect the children."
Zess did not know the details of what was going on, so she had to prepare herself for the worst-case scenario.
And that was Wendy unable to return, and the two children were held by Timothy.
Wendy’s face turned pale when she read Zess’s message.
She had not anticipated Timothy using her children to threaten her.
...
Wendy clutched her phone. She reread the message before she believed that it was true.
The next moment, Wendy had turned around and was running out.
She must reach home as quickly as possible.
"Ma’am, your dress," the sales clerk shouted after Wendy. "You forgot to take your dress."
Wendy had already paid for the dress, but she was now in no mood to care about it.
Her mind was filled with thoughts of her two children.
She called Zess as she ran.
Zess answered her call almost instantly.
Zess was already on the way to pick up the children.
"What’s going on?" Wendy asked, her voice sounding extremely anxious through the phone’s speaker.
"I’m not sure either," replied Zess. "Mr. and Mrs. Woods came to your house and could not find you there and made me keep calling you. Now, I am with his men on the way to pick Leah and Jake up from school." Zess glanced at the man driving and lowered her voice, "Wendy, if this is about something serious, you should leave first.
I will think of a way to take care of the two children."
Zess was afraid that Wendy had done something wrong towards Timothy and would be in deep trouble if caught.
"Zess, are you serious? How could I leave my children behind?" said Wendy. She had already sprinted to the parking lot, found her car, and gotten into the driver’s seat.
"I’ll be home soon. Please take care of my children till I reach home."
"Don’t worry, I’ll definitely do so," replied Zess.
"That’s all for now. I’ll be right back," Wendy said and ended the call.
Then she drove home as fast as she could.
.....
After school, Leah and Jake saw Zess waiting for them outside the kindergarten’s entrance.
Leah smiled as she ran over as she usually did. "Zess... " she shouted sweetly.
"Leah... " Zess stuck out her hand to hold Leah’s.
Jake watched his sister run over to Zess and was about to do the same when he noticed several bodyguards near Zess. He frowned.
Jake slowed down and asked cautiously, "Who are they?"
"They’re... " Zess’s forced smile faded away slowly as she continued, "They’re bodyguards sent by your grandpa to protect you."
"Wow, Grandpa sent people to protect us," said Leah. She was the romantic type who was oblivious to what was happening. All she thought of was how nice Grandpa was towards her and her brother.
So nice that Grandpa even sent people to protect her.
However, that caused Jake to become more cautious.
His grandpa had never done this before, and he could also tell that Zess was forcing herself to smile.
He sensed that something was amiss.
Zess held out her hand to Jake and said, "Jake, let’s go home."
Jake slowly reached out his hand and then pulled it back.
"Grandpa and Grandma are waiting for you at home, too. Let’s go," said Zess.
Though Jake could tell that something was not right, he also knew that since Zess had been forced to bring all those men along, a little boy like him would not be able to escape so easily.
Also, if he were alone, he might be able to work things out. But Leah was here too.
Even if Jake managed to escape, he could not leave Leah behind by herself.
However, Jake still proceeded with caution.
He glanced at the bodyguards following behind and whispered to Zess, "What’s going on?"
"I’m not sure either," Zess sighed and shook her head.
...
"Is it something very serious?" Jake continued questioning.
"I can’t say how serious it is." Zess really had no idea what was going on.
"So then... " Jake continued, "Is it really Grandpa and Grandma waiting for us at home?"
"Yes."
Jake felt relieved at Zess’ positive affirmation.
Because no matter what had happened, Jake believed that his grandpa would not do any harm to him and Leah.
Jake had been most worried earlier that these men were not sent by Timothy but by someone else who had coerced Zess to pick them up to kidnap them.
Jake, Leah, and Zess sat in the car driven by the bodyguards.
In the car, Leah chattered happily with Zess about what she had learned at school today. She also showed Zess the full marks she had scored on a small test. "Zess, I scored full marks today. Wouldn’t Mummy be very happy to see this?"
"I’m sure she’ll be very happy," replied Zess. She and the two children were sitting at the back of the car. She held the children’s hands, afraid that something bad or an accident might happen, so she could not let her guard down.
"How about you? Are you happy?" Leah continued asking cheerfully.
"I’m very happy too," Zess nodded.
Leah did not notice anything wrong. In her mind, she thought about how her mummy would be very happy after seeing the test result.
Then, Leah carefully put her test paper back into her little school bag while imagining how happy her mummy’s face would be.
Leah’s smile became brighter the more she thought about it.
On the other hand, Jake was seated upright, his big eyes examining his surroundings, taking note of all that was happening.
He was thinking of how he had to protect his little sister in case something happened.
Wendy had gone to a mall that was about thirty minutes away from home.
No matter how fast she drove, she would not arrive before Zess and the children.
Wendy looked at the time. Zess should have picked up the children already.
But she was still a little uneasy, and so she called Zess again.
Zess answered immediately. "Zess, have you picked up the children already?"
Wendy asked straightaway.
"Yes, I have," Zess replied. "Don’t worry. There are no problems yet." Zess knew what Wendy was worried about.
Wendy’s heart was relieved by Zess’ reassurances.
"Is that Mummy?" Leah and Jake both asked in unison.
Zess looked at them and nodded.
"Can I talk to Mummy?" Leah asked immediately.
"Sure," said Zess, and she passed the phone to Leah.
Leah was still thinking about the full marks she had gotten on the test and reported it to Wendy, "Mummy, I scored full marks today. I’ll show my test paper to you after I reach home, ok?"
"Yes, of course," Wendy said, relieved when she heard Leah’s voice.
Wendy did not dare hang up and so continued to chat with Leah.
She had to hear Leah’s voice to be sure that they were both all right.
After Leah had finished telling Wendy about what happened at school today, Wendy asked, "Leah, why don’t you sing a song for me? I want to hear you sing."
"What do you want me to sing?" Leah was still holding the phone as she got out of the car. "Mummy, we’re home already. When are you coming back?"
Wendy looked at the clock and saw that she would still take another ten minutes or so. "I’ll be home real soon. I want to hear you sing. Could you sing for me?"
"Of course! What do you want to hear?" Leah asked sweetly.
"Anything. I love any song that you sing," said Wendy.
