Viet Writer
Và Mai Có Nắng
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Chương 8
Chapter 8: Is That What a Man should Do?
Stella smiled and got up. “Watch your TV.” After going downstairs, she headed to the supermarket next door after finished buying the stuff in the pharmacy. After buying the things Sherry wanted, she looked at the sanitary pad packages on the rack and suddenly realized her period had not come for almost two months.
Ever since she had suffered a miscarriage three years ago, her menstrual cycle had been unstable and her period always came every two or three months. She assumed her period was going to come soon. In case that happened, she took a few more packages.
After paying the bill and getting ready to leave, a woman walked in and bumped into her shoulder. She did not apologize for making her drop her shopping bags, and had even patted her clothes with a disgusted look. “Are you blind?” Stella lifted her head and looked at her. There was a cold light in her eyes. “Have you not learnt how to walk after so long?”
Annie Conrad glanced at her and there was contempt in her arrogant look. “Oh, it’s you. What are you doing here this late? Could it be you’re secretly dating with other man when my cousin’s not around?” Stella was lazy to spend time on her. She stooped and picked up the shopping bags on the floor, saying blandly, “Annie Conrad, since you’ve escaped to another country, you shouldn’t come back. You might not know yet, I’m not only evil and cruel, I’m also vengeful.”
Having heard that, Annie’s expression slightly changed and she could not help but take two steps backward. “What are you trying to do?” Stella raised her eyebrow. “Nothing, but you better not get pregnant for the rest of your life, or else you might need to look out for me at any time. Who knows when I want to take revenge, and I’ll approach you by all means and…” As she spoke, she glanced at her with a level look.
Although Annie was still far from getting pregnant, she was still frightened by her look. “Are you mad? Only you yourself know whether you’re pregnant or not, don’t think you could blame it on me when I’ve just accidentally bumped into you. Plus, try doing anything to me! The Conrad’s won’t let you off! And…my cousin would certainly divorce you, and chase you out of the house, you can forget about getting anything from it!”
“It’s worth the try, I don’t mind.”
“You’re mad!” Annie scolded, turned around and left with big strides. She was secretly guilty and nervous. After getting out of the supermarket, she pulled the door of a Land Rover parked beside the road open with a gloomy look. The man sitting inside asked blandly, “Aren’t you suppose to buy drinks?”
As if she had been waiting for him to speak, Annie complained, “Horace, do you still remember the woman I’ve told you back then, who used her fake pregnancy as an excuse to force my cousin to marry her? I’ve actually met her here, I feel so disgusted just by thinking about that.” Horace only replied, “If you’re not buying drinks, we should leave.”
“Horace, you…” Before Annie finished her words, she realized Horace’s eyes were fixed on something outside the car. She followed his eyes but did not see anything. As she was going to ask him what had happened, Horace suddenly opened the door and rushed out.
Seeing that, Annie quickly followed after him. She held him back who seemed to be looking for something amidst the crowd and asked, “Horace, what’s wrong? What are you searching?” Horace slowly retracted his mind back to reality and lowered his eyes. “Nothing, I think I’ve mistaken somebody.” He saw someone who seemed to be the person he thought of day and night.
Annie said, “Then let’s go.” Horace retrieved his hand from her arms and said, “Annie, I’ll call a cab for you. I still have other things to do, so I’ll not send you back home now.”
“But you promised me…”
Horace ignored her reluctance and annoyance. He took out his phone and called a cab. “I’ve sent the car plate number to your phone, I need to get going now.” As he said that, he left without caring for Annie’s yell behind him.
After reaching home, Stella placed the things she had bought into the fridge and poured a mug of ginger and brown sugar soup for Sherry who was currently half dying on the couch. Sherry took over the mug and her eyebrows were moving with excitement. She held her phone up and shook it before her. “Guess who’s added me just now?”
“Kid the Phantom Thief, or Crayon Shin-Chan?”
“I’m serious.” Sherry showed her the phone. There were only two sentences on the screen, straightforward and clear.
I’m Horace Jason.
Do you have Stella’s news?
Stella looked at the two messages for so long that the phone automatically turned off. She was startled for a long while. Sherry only said after a couple of moments, “Horace has returned to the country. He keeps on searching for you everywhere, and I have no idea who gave him my contact number. Hey, do you want to tell him you’re staying with me now? Or should I straight away hand you to him?”
Stella subconsciously shook her head and replied, “No, not now…” Sherry knew what she was worried of. She did not force her, but only let out a sigh. She then replied the message and dismissed Horace by finding some excuses. She said she had not seen Stella for a very long time but she would immediately tell him if she had any news from her. Not knowing whether Horace could tell she was lying or not, he only replied a single ‘thank you’ and had not replied anything ever since.
Stella lied on the bed and could not fall asleep for the whole night. Those messy thoughts had been lingering in her mind and she could not get rid of them. She only closed her eyes in a confused state when the sun was starting to rise. Yet not for long, her phone began to vibrate aggressively and she only picked up the call after searching for it for a long while.
A man’s voice was heard from the other end of the call. “Missus, something’s happened to the company. You’d better come have a look at it.” Stella could not hear a single word the man had said clearly. She only started to gain a clear mind ten more minutes after she had hung up the call.
Company? What company? She looked at the incoming call history, it was from Nathan Lance, Clarence’s assistant. She scratched her head and changed her clothes, going to the bathroom to clean up and hurriedly called a cab to go there. It was exactly 12:10 pm when she reached the Conrad Tower. There were a lot of pedestrians passing by during lunch time. Those people were now gathering at the entrance of the tower, watching the fun.
“How dare you touch me! I’m your president’s father-in-law, do you believe that I’ll ask him to fire all of you?”
“How terrible, tell Clarence Conrad for me, even though they’re divorced, he should at least give us half the family property.”
“My daughter has married him for three years, and they slept on the same bed every day. How could he refuse to give a single penny when they divorce? Is that what a man should do?”
Stella was just in time to hear the last sentence when she arrived, and her face instantly went pale. The kind of humiliation she had not experienced before engulfed her and she hoped she could disappear at the spot. As she was going to leave, not knowing when, Nathan had stood beside her and whispered, “Missus, your father has messed around here for half an hour, and that has greatly affected the company. Mr. Conrad wants you to settle this matter in three minutes, if not, he’ll straight away call the police to come over and take legal action.”
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