Chapter 66: Fight
Wendy still felt sulky the following day. Even though she took the same car as Michael to the company, she did not say a single word to him the entire way there.
When he tried to start a conversation with her, she would merely hum in response.
After brewing coffee for him as usual and packing the documents on his desk, she returned to her office.
Around 10 A.M, she felt an urge to go to the toilet. Hence, she left her office. To her surprise, she heard Yvonne’s voice when she was still in the cubicle.
She thought, didn’t Michael tell me that he had already made things clear with Yvonne? What is she doing here again?
Yvonne’s presence reminded Wendy of what Christian told her the day before.
She thought, is Michael really intending to attend the party tonight with Yvonne as his companion? What about me? What does that make me?
Feeling aggrieved, she stood up from the toilet bowl and got ready to step outside. However, Yvonne’s voice reached her just in time, causing her footsteps to halt. She said, "Wendy Stewart is nothing more than a pawn to Michael. It’s pathetic how she really thinks of herself as Mrs. Lucas."
An unidentified person responded, "What do you mean she’s just a pawn to Michael? He has been very good to her recently."
"If he didn’t treat her well, would she have left Christian’s side and gone back to work for Michael? Now that I think about it, Wendy is truly a very shameless woman. She kept claiming that she has been in love with Michael the entire time that they were married, but the moment Christian returned from abroad, she hooked up with him. Think about it-Christian and Michael have always been rivals, do you think Michael would just sit back and do nothing about his younger brother stealing his wife from him?"
"But isn’t this extremely unfair to you?"
"I know, right? I rarely even see Michael these days, and to prevent Wendy from becoming suspicious, I had to play along when he fired me. You also know how bad my reputation is now. But it’s okay, because Michael has promised to make it up to me once this matter is resolved. He intends to divorce Wendy and marry me instead."
"I knew it. After all, Mr. Lucas has pampered you for so many years-I thought it was strange that he would suddenly fall in love with Wendy Stewart within such a short period. Now I see what’s really going on."
"Ah, there’s just too much internal fighting in wealthy families. But since I love Michael very much, I have no choice but to play along with him. I can put up with anything as long as he loves me back, even If it means that I have to play such a role in the show that he is orchestrating."
"Then, what’s going to happen at tonight’s party?"
"The president asked everyone to be secretive about this and specifically instructed us to keep it from Wendy Stewart."
"Talking about this makes me angry. Michael said he is going to go big and make an official announcement about Wendy being his wife. I don’t mind playing along for other things, but l can hardly bear with this."
"What will you do, then? Since he loves you so much, I think there should be a way out of this if you really don’t want him to take such a step."
"Of course, I have my ways. Michael will listen to me if I just act cutely in front of him and whine about it. If you’re done touching-up on your make-up, we should go. Oh, right, you mustn’t tell anybody about this. I’m only telling you this because we’re close, and I don’t want you to misunderstand my beloved Michael."
The conversation between Yvonne and that unidentified employee ended here. Their footsteps were heard as they walked out of the toilet. After they walked through the door, Yvonne deliberately looked back. She knew that Wendy was inside the cubicle.
This was precisely why Yvonne was here. And of course, that speech had been meant for Wendy to overhear.
This was a tactic that Yvonne would not have been able to think of herself. It was Christian who came up with it for her. For the first time, Yvonne felt that Christian might be useful to her, after all.
...
After coming out from the stall, Wendy felt completely dazed. Yvonne’s words echoed in her mind.
She thought, is tonight’s party really for my sake?
Even though this should have been a very happy occasion, she could not bring herself to feel that way. Her rationality told her that she should not just blindly believe Yvonne.
However, she could not deny that they deeply affected her.
She knew that Michael had been in love with Yvonne for over four years, and that they had met before she even entered his life. Michael also once fell out with his family over Yvonne and allowed her to get a job at his company, which was in clear defiance of Mrs. Lucas’s strong objections. Indeed, it was impossible for Michael to lose his affection for Yvonne within a short period of only 2 months.
Wendy looked up and sniffled, stopping her tears from flowing down her face. She did not know how she ended up back in her office, all she felt was a numbness throughout her entire body.
wendy Stewart... When Yvonne saw her, she started provoking her. "Let me tell you, don’t presume that Michael will ever genuinely acknowledge your status. I won’t let you succeed tonight."
Wendy never used to take Yvonne’s provocation to heart. But now, she could not help but stare at the woman standing in front of her.
She thought, is the marriage that I have worked so hard to maintain over the last three years really unable to withstand the involvement of a b*tch like Yvonne Taylor?
She believed that she was more attractive and intelligent than Yvonne, but Michael just did not love her back. Lowering her head, a wry smile surfaced on her lips.
"Why won’t you say something?" Yvonne said again. "Don’t think that Michael will take your side again just because you’re acting like this."
After a long silence, Wendy suddenly looked up and said solemnly, "I will admit defeat if you can stop Michael from revealing my identity at the party tonight." Wendy’s tone made it sound like those words could have been meant for both Yvonne and herself.
If things were really as Yvonne had described and the party tonight was meant for Michael to announce her identity to the public so that he could use her as a pawn against Christian, there was still nothing that Wendy could do about it.
She thought, I’m just a chess piece to everyone, right? And if Yvonne can stop this from happening, it would mean that she truly has a much higher place in Michael’s heart than I had expected.
Besides Yvonne herself, no one else could force Michael to give up seeking revenge on Christian.
"Really?" Yvonne did not expect Wendy to say anything like this. Seizing the opportunity, she quickly continued, "If I succeed, you must promise to leave Michael."
Wendy shrugged her shoulders. Regulating the negative emotions rising in her heart, she put on an indifferent act and said, "I can promise you that, but only if Michael is willing to divorce me."
"You’re messing with me, Wendy Stewart!" Yvonne hated Wendy’s indifferent disposition most, as if she did not care about anything. It made Yvonne feel helplessly frustrated.
"I’m not messing with you. Since you know that Michael only wanted me back so that he could get revenge on Christian, you should also know that this means he won’t agree to a divorce so easily, or at least not before he completely defeats his brother."
It was true that Michael kept delaying their divorce procedure and was unwilling to go through with it when Wendy previously brought it up with him.
"So what if he refuses to get divorced right now? He will still dump you sooner or later," said Yvonne viciously. "I am the only person who is worthy of truly being his wife."
"Michael, why are you here?" Wendy said lightly.
When Yvonne heard that, she immediately wiped the vicious look she had off her face. Within an instant, her expression transformed into one that was loving and tender. She said, "Michael..."
However, there was no sight of Michael when she turned around.
"Wendy Stewart!" Yvonne was enraged now, "You really are messing with me!"
Indeed, Wendy was messing with her. Even though she now knew that Michael did not genuinely love her, and that he still loved Yvonne, she would no longer force herself to put up with Yvonne’s behavior like she had been doing over the last three years. Since she felt so unhappy, she would make sure that Yvonne felt the same.
However, Yvonne’s fury did not bring as much. joy to Wendy as she had expected. Her heart felt numb from the pain.
Yvonne raised her hand to hit Wendy, but Wendy grabbed it in time and flung it aside. Unable to regain her balance, Yvonne stumbled back.
Surprisingly, Michael really did show up just then. When he saw that Wendy and Yvonne were involved in yet another physical altercation, he frowned and said coldly, "What are the both of you doing?"
Yvonne resorted to her usual tactic of acting pitiful. She said, "Michael, it’s all my fault. I was involved in a dispute with Wendy earlier and she ended up pushing me in a moment of anger. It’s all my fault, I should not have brought up our past to Wendy and made her angry. In any case, I didn’t have any ill intentions, I just felt nostalgic and wanted to reminisce. I never expected such a big reaction from her."
Wendy was still thinking about what Yvonne had said earlier in the toilet. At this moment, she did not feel the same adoration for Michael as she did in the past. Her face remained sullen.
Michael, on the other hand, had come to her office to win her back. He felt bad for making her stay angry the whole of yesterday. Wendy had ignored him the entire morning, which made him begin to feel a bit frantic. He was afraid that if he did not do some damage control, Wendy might refuse to attend the party with him tonight.
After all, he knew just how stubborn she could be. However, he did not expect to walk in on her fighting with Yvonne. Right now, his instinct was to simply believe Wendy. He was also aware of Yvonne’s little tricks.
Sensing that Wendy was still angry, Michael deliberately put the ball into her court. He asked her, "Wendy, is what Yvonne said true?"
"You can think whatever you want," Wendy said coldly with her gaze lowered, refusing to meet Michael’s eyes. "Anyway, you only believe what you want to believe."
Those words made it difficult for Michael to respond. He thought, why does her temper seem so fiery today? Did what happened yesterday really affect her so much? I regret my actions now. I should have just told her the truth from the start.
Michael shifted his focus back onto Yvonne, "Why are you here?"
When Wendy saw Michael engage with Yvonne, she sneered and said, "Please, have a good chat." With that, she left the office without looking back.
She did not hesitate or stop even when Michael called out her name a couple of times.
The moment Wendy left, Yvonne grabbed Michael’s arm and sighed. She said, "Michael-"
Before she could finish talking, Michael calmly removed her hand from his body. The light in Yvonne’s eyes dimmed for a moment as her gaze became filled with disappointment and anger. However, she quickly suppressed those feelings.
"Don’t come here if there’s nothing important" said Michael mercilessly.
