Free Web NovelChapter 110: A Meal Invitation
After hanging up the call, Zen looked up at Christian who was sitting across from him and her expression darkened slightly as she replied, "I’ve called Wendy over."
"Great" Christian acknowledged with a faint, approving smile. "Seems like Wendy still trusts you and feels at ease with you," he noted.
"Why do you want me to invite her here?" Zen began with a frown on her face. "If you want to meet her, you could simply ask her yourself, couldn’t you? Now that things have turned out like this, I’ll be embarrassed to face Wendy," she said, sounding quite baffled.
Zen was aware that Wendy had returned. She was genuinely overjoyed when she knew that Wendy had returned to Lake City alive.
However, she was now an employee of Christian’s company. Wendy was, after all, Michael’s wife.
This meant that they were both on opposing teams now. This was why Zen never found the courage to contact Wendy. Back then, she only agreed to Christian’s request to work at his company because she thought that Wendy was dead.
If Zen had known back then that Wendy was alive, she would have to take Wendy’s feelings into consideration and would never have agreed to leave with Christian. After all, they were as close as sisters and Zen had no intention of breaking ties with Wendy or to grow apart from her.
"Why would you be embarrassed?" Christian asked. "This matter is between me and Michael. What goes on between you and Wendy is only limited to the two of you. You guys can continue to be sisters, but when it comes down to work, you girls are competitors."
"You obviously know that ... " Zen broke off halfway and said no more.
She then closed her eyes and decided against saying anything more.
Christian obviously knew what she wanted to say. A deep, serene-looking smile broke out on his face and he walked out of Zen’s office as he added, "Have a good time catching up with your sister. I take you girls out to lunch in the afternoon."
Christian was implying that he would meet Wendy later on, too. Zen felt a stifling sensation in her chest as she watched him leave.
Meanwhile, as Wendy was in charge of the design department, she did not need to apply for leave no matter where she wanted to go to. She was free to go where she pleased even during work hours. Thus, she quickly left to meet Zen after giving out simple instructions to Jill about work-related matters.
Zen had been waiting for Wendy in the company’s lobby for a long time. When she spotted Wendy, she instantly went over to receive her. "Wendy!" she called out.
"Zen!" Wendy greeted and walked up to Zen with her arms wide open.
Zen dived into her arms and returned her hug. Resting her chin on Wendy’s shoulder and taking in Wendy’s warmth, she sighed happily and remarked, "It’s so great that you’re still alive."
Wendy patted Zen on the back and replied apologetically, "I’m sorry for not sending you news about me over all these years."
"You being alive is all that matters," Zen assured and heaved out a long sigh of relief before she released Wendy and took hold of her hand. With a beaming smile on her face, she replied, "Come on. I’ll show you my office and my team of designers."
"Aren’t you afraid that I’ll learn all that there to know is about your company and use this to compete against you later on?" Wendy joked.
She knew that Zen wouldn’t be afraid, since she was the one who had invited her over. However, unbeknownst to Wendy, Zen’s expression darkened slightly upon hearing what she had said.
After all, she hadn’t invited Wendy over out of her own accord. First of all, she felt guilty towards Wendy over the fact that she was now Working in Christian’s company. Secondly, she already had a rough idea of why Christian told her to invite Wendy over.
Zen turned and chuckled before she shook her head and replied, "I can only concede defeat if you choose to compete with me. I can never beat your talent in design." After all, Wendy had returned to the country under the identity of Corrinne.
Although Zen had toiled hard for five years, all that she could do was to manage a team of designers. She might be fairly well-known in Lake City, but she would be a nobody overseas.
On the other hand, Wendy was already a globally renowned designer.
Zen led Wendy on a tour around the office of the Department of Design before bringing her over to her office. Wendy scanned her eyes across Zen’s office and noticed how spacious the room was and how tastefully styled the interior design was. However, Wendy’s main goal in taking a trip down to Zen’s office was to find out why she would work for Christian.
They had spent some time catching up with each other earlier on, and she had also taken a tour around the office. Wendy remarked as she stared at the ground, "Your office is pretty impressive and the design team is quite big, too. I can see that you’ve put in a lot of effort to reach where you are today." She pursed her lips hesitantly, but ultimately, she decided to dive right to the point and ask, "Zen, can I ask what made you would decide to work for Christian?"
Wendy had wondered about this before and wanted to know if Michael had fired her back then. However, she felt that this was unlikely, despite his foul temper, Michael was not one to let his personal considerations interfere with business.
As Zen had always put in effort in her work and was someone who could help the company to earn a profit, it was quite unlikely of Michael to make use of his personal power to pick on her, especially when she was merely a designer.
"I’ve been waiting for you to ask this question," Zen replied and took in a deep breath of air.
Feeling rather afraid to meet Wendy’s eyes, she lowered her head and stared hard at her fingers.
After remaining silent for a long time, she finally replied, "Back then, I thought you were dead, and Christian sought me out after he was fired by Michael. He asked if I’m keen to leave with him. I hesitated for a very long time, but I eventually left with him. There are too many talented people in the design department at MC, and I knew it would be pretty tough for me to stand out among them. Even if I were to work my guts out, I’d still lose out to the people who are more talented and hardworking than me, so I agreed to leave with Christian for the sake of my career. I wanted to work under him, since I’d at least be a founding pioneer of the company. Besides, Christian never treated me badly and now, I’m even in charge of a whole department here. If I was at MC, I would never be promoted to this position no matter how much effort I put in."
Wendy found Zen’s explanation reasonable, and she could also empathize with her. Zen had worked tirelessly so that she could make a name for herself in Lake City. If there was a better opportunity for her, she would, without a doubt, snap it up to move herself up the corporate ladder. However, Wendy kept having the nagging feeling that Zen was hiding something from her.
"Wendy, I really thought that you were dead back then," Zen insisted anxiously as she grabbed hold of Wendy’s hand. "I didn’t pit myself against you intentionally. I’d certainly have stayed on at MC to await your return had I known that you were still alive," she added.
Wendy let out a slight sigh and squeezed Zen’s hand as she assured her, "You don’t have to explain this to me. There’s nothing wrong with you planning for your future. You and I will just have to compete fair and square when it comes to business."
Zen chuckled humorlessly when she heard this, and she replied, "Wendy, are you trying to be funny here? How can l ever compete with you..."
Honestly speaking, as a friend, Zen was overjoyed to know that Wendy had returned to Lake City. However, as a fellow competitor working in a rival company, she also felt extremely conflicted. Zen knew that she was not as talented as Wendy in terms of design.
Besides, Michael and Christian have been arch enemies for their whole lives, and since she had chosen to support a different party from Wendy, they would inevitably clash head-on in the future.
Zen knew that she would disappoint Christian if she were to lose.
"Don’t belittle yourself like that. Being able to be where you are today already goes to show how capable you are," Wendy encouraged her.
After a moment of hesitation, she added, "Actually, I want to ask if you might be keen to return to MC with me."
Wendy would never hesitate to ask this question had it been in the past. But now, she was Corinne-the person in charge of the Department of Design in MC. If Zen were to return to MC, she could only work under her.
There was a saying that it was better to be first in a village than second in Rome. Now that Zen was independently managing a team on her own, it would likely be hard for her to play second fiddle to Wendy.
"This is your first visit to my company and you’re already thinking of poaching my staff?" Christian interjected and walked in through the door, beaming. After sizing Wendy up, he extended his hand toward her and greeted her, "Long time no see, my dear sister-in-law. You look even prettier than before."
"Thank you," Wendy acknowledged and smiled diplomatically without accepting his handshake.
However, Christian wasn’t the least bit awkward in response to her rejection and merely retracted his hand as though nothing had happened.
"My dearest sister-in-law, Zen is now an enormous asset to our company and we’ll suffer an immense loss if you were to poach her," Christian remarked.
Wendy felt repulsed by how Christian kept addressing her as his sister-in-law, and she corrected him sternly, "My name’s Corinne. Mr. Lucas, I’d appreciate it if you could respect me and call me by my requested name."
"Sure..." Christian agreed before sneaking a glance at the time and suggesting conveniently, "Well then Ms. Corinne, may I have the honor of inviting you out for a meal?"
"Mr. Lucas, I’m afraid we aren’t that well acquainted, so let’s forget about dining out together," Wendy declined, as she had originally intended to dine with Zen. After all, they have not seen each other in five years and still had many things to catch up on. But now that Christian was here, Wendy naturally lost the mood to dine Out.
"It just so happens to be lunchtime. Come on Wendy, you’re definitely having a meal with me" Zen persuaded her as she hooked her arm around Wendy’s. "Mr. Lucas owes me a meal as well. Let’s get him to treat us," Zen sided with Christian.
"That’s not necessary. I..." Wendy began.
However, Zen simply ignored her intention to turn down the invitation, and dragged her towards the exit as she replied, "Either way. you’ll have to eat something. Now that you’re here at our office, you’ll make me look like a bad host if you were to leave without having a meal."
Meanwhile, Michael had just ended his meeting.
Upon returning to his office, he was greeted by Mr. York, who informed him awkwardly, "Mr. Lucas, Mrs. Lucas went over to DR an hour ago. Zen was the one who called and invited her Over."
DR was Christian’s company. freewebnøvel.coɱ
"Why did you only tell me about this now?" Michael chided with displeasure. "Don’t you know that Zen is now working for Christian?"
Michael never told Wendy much about Zen, since he wanted her to broach the subject with him on her own accord. As Wendy was willing to approach him voluntarily, it would be an opportunity for him. However, Michael hadn’t expected Christian to take action so swiftly. In the morning, they were still unaware of Wendy’s contact details but now, they already managed to get her to head down to DR. Michael was suddenly overcome with regret and wished that he had told Wendy about Zen’s situation earlier on.
At the very least, Wendy wouldn’t have been so trusting towards Zen and would have kept her guard up.
"You’re constantly in meetings, so I never had the opportunity to tell you about it," Mr. York explained before he assured, "Although Mrs. Lucas had gone over to Christian’s company, I don’t think anything bad will happen, even though Christian might try to poach her. I believe that Mrs. Lucas would never agree to his proposition."
Five years ago, Michael had doubts about Wendy’s relationship with Christian, and he even suspected that Jake Stewart was Christian’s son. Now, he knew that Jake was his biological son, and he understood that there was nothing going on between Wendy and Christian.
However, he knew his brother too well. He felt certain that Christian would stop at nothing to get Wendy to leave him. It would certainly be terrible if Wendy were to agree to Christian’s offer. But if she were to disagree and antagonize Christian, Michael feared that it would spur him to do something harmful toward her.
Nonetheless, the possibility of this was low. From Michael’s point of view, he had only just recovered Wendy, whom he had lost previously.
He would never allow anything else to happen to her.
"Where are they?" Michael asked as he grabbed his car keys.
"They’re at a restaurant" Mr. York replied and offered, "I’ll drive you to the place."
Michael grunted in acknowledgment and accepted his offer.
