Chapter 446: All The More He Wanted To Do It
After the bodyguards let her pass, Wendy hurried to Todd’s side.
Todd watched coldly as she approached him. When she reached his side, he turned on his heels and left without another word.
"Todd..." Wendy chased after him, apologizing, "I’m sorry, Todd, I didn’t want to go to the washroom with him. I was afraid he would harm you."
"So what you mean is, I am not a match for him and need a woman to protect me?"
Todd was furious. "Corrine, is that what you’ve always thought of me? That I am a weak, useless man? You’ve completely disgraced me!"
"I did not think that! That’s not what I mean." Chasing after Todd, Wendy reached out for his arm. "Todd, forgive me, please! It’s my fault. I disgraced you. I will not do it again!"
Todd pushed Wendy away from himself.
The force from that shove sent Wendy tottering on her high heels and ended up with her on the ground after losing her balance.
Clement suddenly appeared beside her, his hand stretched out in an offer to help her up.
Wendy did not dare accept Clement’s help.
Todd continued with his act. "You’ve already found another man, haven’t you?
Corrine, you’ve long wanted to leave me, right?"
"I did not, I really did not!" Wendy picked herself up from the ground, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Clement couldn’t stand watching a beauty like Wendy get bullied in front of his eyes and he couldn’t stand seeing her cry.
"Are you a man or not?" Clement asked Todd, disdain evident in his voice and eyes.
"It’s fine if you can’t protect your woman, how can you blame her for trying to protect you? If you were stronger, would she need to protect you? Why are you throwing a tantrum at her now? I haven’t changed my mind. If you don’t want her, I would very much like to have her!"
Turning to Wendy, Clement asked again, "I’ll ask you one more time, want to leave him and come with me instead?"
"I..." Wendy chewed on her lip and glanced fugitively at Todd.
"Corrine, don’t you dare leave with him!" Todd gritted out through clenched teeth.
The next instant, Todd reached out and grabbed Wendy’s hand, pulling her to him.
He shouted, "Get over here!"
Wendy ended up being roughly pulled away from Clement and behind Todd.
Todd stared vehemently at Clement and challenged, "Even if I discard her, you can’t have her!"
"You, discard her? Ha-ha..." Clement laughed and said nothing more.
However, there was murder in his eyes as he looked at Todd.
Holding on tight to Wendy’s hand, Todd pulled her after him. As he headed for their car, he scolded, "You better know your place. Even if I don’t want you, you can’t hook up with another man!"
As he watched them leave, Clement’s face lost its smile.
Wendy and Todd drove off the moment they got into the car.
After they had gone a distance, Todd checked the rear-mirror and made sure there was no sign of Clement coming after them before heaving a sigh of relief. He asked Wendy, "Are you okay? Did he do anything to you in the washroom?"
Wendy shook her head. "No. There was a lot of human traffic in the washroom. All I did was clean his shirt at the vanity counter. He doesn’t seem like a man who would force himself on a woman."
"Regardless, you must be very careful. You will need to interact with him again."
Todd’s voice was laden with worry for Wendy’s safety.
...
"I think you’re in even more danger than I am now," sighed Wendy. "When we were leaving earlier, Clement looked at you as if he wanted to kill you. He has underworld connections and if he really has thoughts of killing you, you have to be really careful."
"There were so many witnesses to our altercation today. Even if he has underworld connections, there were many other influential people at the banquet earlier," analyzed Todd, "so he probably would not try anything too obvious in the near future. I don’t think we have to worry about that now."
"It’s still better to be careful. After all, we do not know him well, who knows what he might do?" Wendy turned sideways to look at Todd. "Are you ok? It must have been really painful when Clement threw you onto the ground earlier."
"It was," grimaced Todd. "It took a while for the unsteadiness to go away after I got up. It’s much better now though, it doesn’t hurt much anymore."
Worried, Wendy commented, "We’d better get you checked out at a hospital."
"It’s okay, I’m sure there aren’t any broken bones. Look at me, I’m perfectly fine."
Todd chuckled, trying his best to reassure Wendy. "We better talk about Clement.
Did you find out anything after interacting with him?"
"I didn’t find out anything new, but he is very interested in me." Wendy continued, her tone serious, "He did not do anything improper to me when we were in the washroom cleaning up the stain on his shirt. According to him, he does not like to force his way with women."
He gave me a business card and told me I should call him if I regret my decision to stay with you. I did not take it though. Men like him will start to lose interest if I accept his business card.
Doesn’t he go drinking at bars often?
We had planned to arrange a chance meeting with him at his favourite bar but after what happened at the banquet, he will probably take the initiative to investigate me now.
Here’s what we will do.
I will visit the bar he frequents tomorrow. After our big fight today, on top of what happened with HG, it would be natural for me to feel very troubled. A man has the best chance of getting to a woman when she is troubled.
Clement will very likely approach me if he sees me, alone, drinking at a bar.
I won’t have to arrange a chance meeting with him after that. He will probably find opportunities to meet me instead.
From there, we’ll just continue with our plan."
"You have to be careful. If you don’t manage to get anything out of him, don’t force it." Todd reminded, "Your safety is paramount in this."
"Don’t worry, I know my limits," said Wendy as she nodded.
After a few more minutes, Wendy said, "Let me off at the junction up ahead."
"But we’re not at your home yet," Todd asked, not understanding why Wendy had asked to be let off.
"Since we are putting on an act, we have to go all the way. Who knows? Clement might have already sent someone to investigate me." Wendy theorised, "It’ll look more like we had a fight if you make me get out of the car before I reach my apartment."
Wendy had put a lot of thought into making their act realistic.
Todd glanced at the surroundings and noticed there wasn’t a single cab in sight. He worried that Wendy would have trouble hailing a cab home.
"How about I drop you somewhere where there are more cabs?" asked Todd "No..." Wendy pursed her lips and said firmly, "For all you know, if you leave me by the roadside, Clement might come to pick me up personally."
"But that will mean you will have to face him alone," worried Todd.
...
"Isn’t that something that is bound to happen?" Wendy smiled. She reassured Todd, "Besides, didn’t you arrange for people to guard me in secret? Our aim is to get close to Clement, it doesn’t make sense if we do not give him an opportunity to get near to me."
"But it’s really too dangerous for you..." Todd continued driving, his expression full of worry. "We better stick to the original plan and meet him at the bar."
"Today’s results were better than our expectations. I feel we should strike while the iron is hot." Wendy said, "Trust me, I will be fine. I just need to bring out his protectiveness and interest in me. Other than that, we will follow the plan."
Todd knew he wouldn’t be able to change Wendy’s mind once she had decided.
With a sigh, he slowed down.
He had observed the traffic on the road and there seemed to be more cars in this area, meaning it was relatively safer than somewhere more remote.
He gradually came to a stop and turned to look at Wendy, "Be careful."
Wendy nodded before reaching for the door handle.
Just then, Todd reached out and grabbed her arm. She thought he had changed his mind and was trying to stop her. "Don’t worry, I will be extra careful," repeated Wendy.
"I’m not trying to stop you. I know you have already made up your mind," said Todd, "It’s just that, it would look more realistic if I dragged you out of the car rather than you getting off by yourself."
Understanding his line of thought, Wendy nodded.
Todd then got out of the car and went around the front of it to the passenger seat.
He reached out and opened the door.
"Get out!" Todd pulled Wendy roughly out of the car.
He had not actually put any force into his actions, it was all an act.
Wendy fell onto the ground after getting out of the car, as if she had been thrown out of it. She even reached out to grab hold of Todd’s hand.
Mercilessly, Todd kicked her away with one foot.
He then returned to the car and drove off.
Wendy watched the car disappear into the distance before slowly picking herself up off the ground.
As she was standing up, the heel of one of her shoes broke. She decided to simply take both sides off and hold them instead.
At this time, Clement’s underling was giving his boss a call.
"Boss, Corrine had been thrown out of the car by Todd. She’s walking along the road now. She’s barefoot and seems to be struggling along. I think she might have injured her leg."
As Wendy had expected, Clement had set a man on their car.
The corners of Clement’s mouth turned up in a smile as he listened to his subordinate’s report. He said, "Give me the address."
After he finished the call, Clement hung up and put his cell phone away. Grabbing a server who was walking past, he instructed, "Tell the host that I am making a move first. I will treat him to a meal some other day."
The server nodded.
Clement then left the banquet.
His car soon arrived at Wendy’s location.
Wendy had been walking along the road for a while and tried to flag a couple of cabs but they all ignored her.
This was a no-stop zone and cabs mostly would not stop at such zones as they would incur a fine.
Clement’s car rolled up slowly beside Wendy.
The windows were slowly wound down and Clement stuck his head out. "Hi, Beautiful. What a coincidence, we meet again."
Wendy put on a surprised look when she saw Clement. "Oh, it’s you. Why are you here?"
"I’m on my way home." Clement stopped his car. He asked, "What about you? Didn’t you leave with your boyfriend? How did you end up here alone? Where is your boyfriend?"
"He...He had something to attend to." Wendy defended Todd.
Clement’s interest in her seemed to have been further piqued by her reply.
She’s obviously hurt, and yet she was still defending her boyfriend.
...
"What is so important and urgent that he has to leave you by the road like this?"
Clement’s eyes swept over her and landed at her bare feet.
Wendy realised he was looking at her feet and drew them back, embarrassed.
She was not wearing any shoes and had been walking for quite a while. Her feet had inevitable gotten quite dirty.
She covered her embarrassment with a little laugh.
"Where do you stay?" Clement asked.
"I..." Wendy bit her lip and looked down. Somewhat cagily, she said, "Just up ahead. It’s not far."
"Why so defensive? Are you afraid I will abduct you?" Clement took heed of Wendy’s wariness towards him and laughed louder. "You’re just a little slip of a thing! If I wanted to do anything to you, you wouldn’t be standing there still!"
Clement was not exaggerating when he said that. He was involved in the underworld and was probably fully capable of many unspeakable things.
"Aren’t you going home? You should be on your way." Wendy said, "I will get home soon."
With that Wendy clutched her shoes tighter and hurried away.
She wasn’t really going to leave, of course.
After a few steps, she started hobbling, and she slowed down.
Clement looked at her bedraggled state and immediately drove the car up to her, stopped and got off.
He went to Wendy and physically blocked her way. "I already told you, if I wanted to do anything to you, you would not be able to resist."
"I..." Wendy looked up at Clement, then lowered her head again bashfully.
She chewed on her lip and kept quiet.
In Clement’s eyes, Wendy’s current state and expression were sin-inducing. He found her irresistibly attractive.
However, they were in the middle of the street, and Wendy had a boyfriend. Clement could only wait. He was patient. He would make her leave Todd and come to him willingly.
A woman who came to him of her own accord was different from one who was forced.
"Get in the car, I’ll send you home." Clement remained in front of Wendy, He had no intention of giving in and letting her leave.
"Wendy shook her head firmly and said fearfully, "We only just met for the first time today. There is no need for you to send me home. Besides, if my boyfriend found out, he would be furious."
"Ha-ha..." Clement laughed uproariously at Wendy’s words. "You’re a kind one.
Your boyfriend abandoned you in the middle of nowhere and you’re still worried about him getting angry?"
"He... He did not abandon me," Wendy replied helplessly, "He just had something urgent to attend to and will be back for me soon."
As if afraid that Clement would not believe her, Wendy blinked at him innocently, and reiterated, "He will come back for me."
Clement’s eyes lit up with inflamed interest at the woman he thought was pure and innocent.
She wouldn’t let him send her home?
All the more he wanted to do it!
"You think he will come back for you after leaving you here?" Clement asked. "Come with me. I promise I will send you home safely. Don’t worry, I am not a bad person."
"Thank you for your kind offer, but I really don’t need a ride home." Wendy rejected him again.
"I have never been so patient with a woman in my life. However, I hope you understand that there is a limit to my patience." Clement said as he walked to the passenger door and opened it, inviting Wendy to get in.
