Chapter 515: Praise Me
"I understand." Wendy nodded, then said to Zen, "Wait for me." She then turned and walked toward Michael.
"Mr. Lucas, they have been chatting for quite a while. Shall we go over to them?
We’re just salaried employees, please don’t make things difficult for us," one of the guards said with a smile. Michael’s piercing gaze snapped to his face, making the guard falter and stop talking.
When Michael saw Wendy approaching him, he asked her softly, "What happened?"
The guard saw Wendy coming towards them and immediately started walking to Zen.
"Stop right there!" Wendy ordered. The guard froze. Wendy quickly whispered in Michael’s ear, "Zen wants to leave Christian. Let’s help her."
Michael frowned but did not say anything. He waited for Wendy to continue. "Can you call for more men?
We’ll take her by force," Wendy said softly but firmly.
The moment Wendy said they were going to take Zen by force, Michael knew what he had to do. Michael would support whatever decision Wendy made.
He nodded, then turned and took out his cellphone. Initially, he planned on calling Mr. York to have him arrange something. However, he eyed the two guards and felt worried that they would inform Christian if they realized he was planning something.
So he quickly composed himself and sent Mr. York a message instead.
Wendy walked back to Zen. On her way, she passed by the two men who were supposed to be guarding Zen and said coldly, "We are not done talking yet. Stay here and don’t move."
"I..." The two guards looked at each other helplessly. There was nothing they could do. If it were anyone else, they might have ignored them, but they dared not to offend Michael and Wendy. Especially since Christian was not with them.
"Why does it seem like something is off?" one of the guards whispered to the other.
"Should we inform Mr. Lucas?" They were referring to Christian Lucas, of course. The other guard nodded.
However, when he took out his cellphone, Michael noticed. "What are you doing?"
Michael asked with a chilling smile.
"N-nothing. Ha ha..." The guard put his phone back into his pocket under Michale’s watchful gaze.
When Wendy returned to Zen’s side, she whispered to Zen, "We’ll wait for Michael’s people to come. They should be here very soon. There are only two of Christian’s people here now, and they should be fairly easy to deal with. All we have to do is get you out of Lake City before Christian has time to react. Once you get out of Lake City though, you’ll have to depend on yourself."
"Thank you, Wendy," said Zen sincerely, as she nodded her agreement to Wendy’s plan. If it weren’t because they were at a hospital, Zen would have fallen to her knees to thank Wendy. She owed Wendy way too much.
"Don’t thank me yet. Christian is not that easy to fool. As long as you are still in Lake City, he could still find you and stop you," warned Wendy.
"I know that." Zen knew that all too well. She knew Christian better than Wendy did.
However, she had made her decision and would accept the outcome, whatever it might be.
"Let’s pretend we are still chatting." Wendy glanced at the guards from the corner of her eye. Their attention was on the two of them. It was obvious they were afraid of letting Zen out of their sight, even for a second.
"Okay." Zen lowered her head, trying to think of a topic to talk about. However, she suddenly had no idea what she could talk to Wendy about.
...
"Oh! By the way, do you know what Christian has been up to these past few days?"
Somehow, Zen simply could not escape the topic of Christian. "He keeps asking me to come up with new designs and to take photos with him," she said. "He even arranged for reporters to interview us at the hospital some time ago. It seems he’s trying to make it appear as if the two of us are very close."
"He must be creating public personas for you and him, with him as the loving man and you, the strong career woman," Wendy told Zen the truth just as she saw it.
"Both of you are on almost all the entertainment columns and tabloids. The reports are all about either about your deep love for each other, you working late into the night despite your advanced pregnancy, or you declaring your love for design."
"Career woman?" Zen had guessed that Christian was making himself out to appear to be deeply in love and devoted, but to make her out as a career woman? What was that for?
"HG has fallen and Christian needs a company to front his laundering. He cannot use DR since it is responsible for his new projects and so it is under the public eye. You have a certain amount of reputation in the design world and your designs sold pretty well previously. He is probably trying to use his carefully constructed image of you to increase the sales of your designs. It doesn’t matter even if no one actually buys anything. As long as there’s a lot of publicity, he will be able to make use of your designs to launder money."
"No wonder. So that’s why Christian has been forcing me to come up with new designs everyday." Zen finally understood. "A few days ago, he suddenly said he didn’t need me to draw anymore. Why do you think that’s about?"
Wendy frowned at Zen’s words. Suddenly thinking of something, she took out her cellphone and showed Zen a picture.
Zen took the phone and looked carefully at the picture but she didn’t know what she was supposed to be looking for. "What’s wrong with this design?"
"Did you draw this?" asked Wendy.
Zen shook her head. "Christian has had me locked up at home for months and I’m seven months pregnant on top of that. I have no inspiration at all. This is not a design I can come up with in my present state."
"I knew it. This isn’t one of your designs." The first thought that sprung to Wendy’s mind when she saw the design was that it did not seem like one of Zen’s designs.
"Do you know who drew it?"
Zen’s forehead creased into a frown as she scrutinized the drawing.
"This..." Zen’s thoughts were in a jumble. There was no way she could compose herself enough to figure out who the designer was based on the drawing style.
"It’s okay if you don’t know," Wendy patted Zen’s shoulder reassuringly. "Don’t think about any of this after you leave Lake City. Have your baby in peace. Forget Christian and forget everything that happened in Lake City."
Zen nodded as she looked out into the distance. She had deep feelings for Lake City.
Ever since she started university, she had stayed in Lake City. After she graduated, she had thrown herself into work for the purpose of finding a foothold in Lake City.
Meeting Christian had derailed all of her plans It wasn’t long before the cluttering sound of footsteps came from the corridor. A group of bodyguards dressed in black suits surged into the room.
The moment Michael saw them, he strode to Wendy and grabbed her hand, at the same time, telling Zen, "Go! Quickly!"
Zen reacted immediately to his words. She turned and went down the stairs, accompanied by the bodyguards in black suits and with Michael and Wendy as well.
"Miss Tanner!" The two bodyguard’s sent by Christian shouted when they saw her leaving.
Unfortunately, their cries were disregarded. Michael’s men had taken up the entire corridor and stopped the two guards from going after Zen. Zen was unable to move fast due to her belly so Wendy supported her as they hurried downstairs. There was a car already waiting at the entrance of the hospital with its doors open and the trio immediately got in.
...
After they were safely in the car, Zen clutched her tummy gently. She had run a little too fast earlier and exerted herself. A fine sheen of sweat covered her forehead. Her eyes kept darting worriedly to the road behind them, making sure no one was following them. When she was sure no one had followed, Zen finally heaved a sigh of relief. Now that she had finally relaxed, she felt her belly tense up painfully.
"Are you okay?" Wendy asked in concern when she saw Zen rubbing her belly.
Zen did not try to hide the truth. "It hurts a little, but it’s tolerable."
"It might be because you overexerted earlier." Wendy reached out and patted Zen reassuringly, "If it gets too painful, you must tell us. Don’t try power though it. You must put your baby’s safety first."
Zen nodded, "I understand." Wendy observed Zen while talking to her. Finally satisfied that she did not seem to be in too much discomfort, she finally relaxed.
Wendy took out her wallet from her bag and withdrew a card to pass to Zen. "Hold on to this. You and the baby will need money. There should be enough money here to last you a few years. Let me know if you need more."
Zen shook her head and passed the card back to Wendy.
"Wendy, I cannot take your money. You’ve already helped more than enough."
Pushing the card into Zen’s lap, Wendy said, "Don’t worry about that anymore."
Wendy wanted to help Zen on account of their past friendship.
Now that Zen was willing to try to redeem herself and wanted to leave Christian on her own accord, Wendy no longer regarded her as an enemy. She could forgive, but she couldn’t forget Zen’s betrayal. However, money was of no consequence to Wendy now. It was just a number. If she could help Zen, she would. At least with Zen leaving Christian, she would have one less enemy.
Zen picked up the card and returned it to Wendy. "I have money, don’t worry. I’ll be able to take care of myself and my baby. Besides, I wouldn’t dare to use your card even if you gave it to me. The moment I use it, Christian would find out where I am."
"That’s true." That possibility had occurred to Wendy too, but saving Zen was a spur of the moment decision. So, Wendy did not have much cash with her either.
Troubled, Wendy spoke to Michael, who was beside her. "See if you can stop somewhere to withdraw some cash for Zen. I don’t think she has much with her and it’ll be difficult for her to find work so close to the birth."
"Wendy..." Zen was overwhelmed with emotion and started choking up after hearing Wendy’s words. She did not expect that Wendy would not only agree to help her but go out of her way to do so.
"Why are you so good to me?" Zen reached out to hold Wendy’s hands, tears streaming down her face. She was having trouble speaking over her sobs, "I did all those terrible things to you. How am I to ever repay you for being so good to me?"
"Well, we were once good friends. After you leave Lake City, we might never meet again," said Wendy. "Take good care of yourself."
She had just finished speaking when her gaze fell on a briefcase Michael had pulled out. He opened the briefcase and they saw it was filled with hundred dollar notes.
"This..." Wendy’s eyes widened at the sigh of the money.
Michael arched his brow at Wendy proudly, as if saying ’praise me’. "I had someone prepare this for Zen. There’s two hundred thousand inside. It would be inconvenient to bring any more than that with her. If she uses the money prudently, it should see her through the birth of her child."
