Free Web NovelChapter 135: I’ll Take My Leave
Yonina wasn’t stupid. She knew Michael’s feelings towards her. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
At the banquet the last time, she could already tell that Michael treated that Corrine very differently from everyone else.
Regardless of whether Corrine was Wendy or not, Michael seemed to have focused all his attention on her alone. But she had other reasons to be here.
"Auntie Winnie, did I come at a bad time?" Yonina had a confused and slightly aggrieved expression on her face as she turned to look at Winnie.
"Nonsense! I was the one who invited you here, so anytime is a good time to come!" Winnie patted Yonina’s hand as she glared angrily at Michael. "Michael, I was the one who invited her here. You can’t possibly chase her away, right?"
Michael sighed in frustration.
He rubbed his temples and said, "Mum, can you stop interfering in my matters?"
"What do you mean?" Winnie turned around. "You mean your mother doesn’t have the right to invite someone to the house?"
Her expression crumbled and her voice started to crack. "Your father is already so heartless, and now even you have begun to despise your mother? I’m good friends with Yonina and I can’t even invite her home? I really don’t have any status or rights in this family!"
Winnie was quick to change her tone. Since Michael clearly hated the idea of her trying to matchmake him with Yonina, she now claimed that she had invited Yonina over as a friend and had nothing to do with Michael.
That way, Michael wouldn’t be able to stop. Sure enough, Michael didn’t know what to say. Since Michael didn’t protest, Winnie took Yonina’s hand again and walked into the house as she said, "My son has always been a rebellious boy, so don’t take it to heart. He’s not purposely picking on you, he’s like this to everyone. His temper is terrible."
Yonina just smiled back a little awkwardly.
His mother was going to drive him up the wall someday, Michael thought to himself. From the moment Yonina appeared, he had a bad feeling about this. Today wasn’t going to be a peaceful day.
Wendy was still in the kitchen making lotus cakes. If she came out and saw Yonina, things were going to end badly.
Michael quickly ran into the kitchen to see how Wendy was doing.
Her lotus cakes had just finished baking and the fragrance hit his nose immediately.
"That smells really good! I really want to eat it now," said Michael as he reached out for a piece.
Wendy slapped his hand away hard.
She pointed at the frying pan on the stove and said icily, "You walked away halfway through frying the vegetables and didn’t turn the fire off. If I weren’t in the kitchen and noticed it, you’d have set this place on fire by now!"
He turned and saw that the vegetables in the pan were all burnt and looked rather embarrassed.
He didn’t know how to cook in the first place and he just wanted to cook something to placate his grandmother. Besides, he didn’t think walking out with Winnie would have taken this much time. Then he noticed that Wendy had placed the cakes on a tray and was about to bring it out. He quickly asked, "Wendy, where are you going?"
"The cakes are ready, so I’m going to call Grandmother to come and eat," she replied reluctantly. She didn’t want to answer him at all.
"I’ll do that for you." He had to stall her for the time being since Yonina was still out there. The last thing he wanted was for her to run into Yonina.
He stretched out to take the cakes from her, but Wendy turned to one side and dodged him.
"I’m done with my cakes, so I’ll do this myself," she said.
"I’d better do this instead." Michael smiled and pointed to the pan as he said, "Could you help me to whip up a couple of dishes? Just two simple ones? Then at least I’ve got something to serve Grandmother? Please?"
Wendy glanced at the messy kitchen countertop and refused Michael flatly. "You promised Grandmother that you would cook and I only promised to make her lotus cakes. I’m done with my cakes, so I’m done here."
"Help me, please?" He held onto her sleeve and refused to let her go, staring at her with a pleading look in his eyes. "Grandmother wants to try my cooking, if I’ve spent so long in the kitchen with nothing to show for it, she’d be so disappointed."
"If l do the cooking, then you can’t say you cooked it anymore," she retorted.
"If Grandmother knows you cooked it, she won’t be disappointed and she’d be even happier," he said.
Then he swung her sleeve from side to side and started whining like a kid, "Wendyyy...."
She felt goosebumps all over her skin when he whined like that.
"Wendyyyyy..." he whined again.
She couldn’t stand it anymore. She thrust the tray of cakes at him and agreed, "Fine, I’ll do it!"
Once she agreed, he happily let go of her sleeve and took the cakes from her. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that she had gone back in to cook and taken the cakes out. But instead of looking for Mrs. Lucas, he went looking for Winnie and Yonina first.
In order to make sure that the two women never ran into each other, he felt that it was best that he got Yonina to leave first.
After placing the cakes on the table, he asked the servants where Winnie and Yonina had gone.
They told him that the ladies were in the back garden, so he went there to look for them, only to see them chatting and laughing away merrily. He really couldn’t understand why his mother liked Yonina so much and wanted her to become her daughter-in-law. What was so bad about Wendy?
When Winnie spotted him walking over, she thought that he was here to apologize. So she quickly stood aside and said, "Apologies to Yonina, you hear me? Your attitude earlier was terrible."
He nodded and said to Winnie, "I’d like a word with Yonina in private. Could you leave us alone for a while?"
Winnie immediately nodded and thought that her son was finally seeing the light. But once Winnie had gone out of sight, Michael’s expression grew solemn as he said to Yonina,
"I’m sorry, I was very rude to you earlier."
Yonina looked down shyly and replied in a gentle and elegant manner, "it’s alright."
"You know what my Mum is like. She’s a real busybody. I wanted to talk to you alone because I need to make things clear," he went straight to the point. "I’m sure you know by now that my wife is Wendy Stewart. She’s now known as Corrine. In short, I’m a man with a wife."
It didn’t take a genius to understand what Michael was trying to say. Yonina didn’t expect Michael to want time alone with her to say such things. This was the first time she had been rejected by a man, and it was such a direct and harsh rejection too.
Her expression immediately fell.
"So, what are you really trying to say?" Yonina was so angry that her face began to redden from the humiliation she felt. "I wasn’t the one who wanted to come here. Auntie Winnie called me to come yesterday, so l agreed. I didn’t know you’d be home either."
"I’m sorry, perhaps I phrased my words a little poorly," said Michael as he nodded apologetically. "I don’t mean anything else. I just hope that you don’t just believe anything my mother says because it could be her own personal opinion."
He was pretty sure that Winnie must have told Yonina that he liked Yonina but just wasn’t good at expressing his feelings or something along those lines.
After all, it wasn’t as if Winnie hasn’t said those things about him before.
Yonina looked at Michael and saw that his gaze was very solemn. In other words, everything he just said was from the bottom of his heart. Even though she did like Michael very much, she couldn’t stand being rejected like this. He made it sound like she had been delusional and tried to throw herself at him.
She slowly clenched her fists tightly. "All right, I get it now. I’ll take my leave then." She turned to walk out towards the door.
How much Winnie liked her didn’t matter. Michael had made his stand very clear. Michael did feel rather apologetic towards her since his mother was the one who caused this misunderstanding in the first place. Yonina was really a victim in all of this too.
*****
Jake had been playing video games for quite a long time now. Mrs. Lucas was afraid that it would affect his eyesight, so she brought him out to the back garden.
The first person they ran into when they stepped out into the garden was Yonina.
Jake remembered Yonina. She was the woman whom Michael held hands with that night. But today, Yonina looked clearly furious.
Jake turned and spotted Michael.
The little boy frowned. It was obvious that Michael and Yonina had spent time together alone, but Yonina was storming off with a furious expression on her face.
Yonina saw Mrs. Lucas and greeted her politely, "Hello, Mrs. Lucas."
"Oh hello, Yonina," Mrs. Lucas was both shocked and surprised.
She immediately looked back to the house to see if Wendy was anywhere nearby. Her first reaction to seeing Yonina was the same as Michaell’s. She didn’t want Wendy to see Yonina either.
"Mrs. Lucas, I have another appointment, so I’ll take my leave first. Take care."
Mrs. Lucas was surprised that Yonina was already leaving. She was still trying to think of how she could make sure that Yonina and Wendy never ran into each other.
It was better this way. If Yonina left by herself, then she wouldn’t have to think of anything. So, she smiled and said, "Sure. Since you’re so busy, you’d better run along."
Mrs. Lucas’ reply stunned Yonina. Wasn’t the old lady going to ask her to stay just out of courtesy? In fact, it was lunchtime, so wasn’t it just good manners to invite her to stay for lunch?
She turned to glance at Michael, then back at Mrs. Lucas. She felt like something was amiss. Winnie had been watching Michael and Yonina all this while. Even though she didn’t know what Michael had said to Yonina, she quickly appeared, now that even Mrs. Lucas had run into Yonina.
"Yonina, even if you’re busy, you’ve got to eat, right? Why don’t you stay for lunch?" Winnie said to Yonina with a big smile on her face.
"It’s all right, Auntie Winnie. I really should go." It seemed like only Winnie was happy to have her around. Yonina didn’t understand why the rest didn’t seem to welcome her, but she wasn’t going to stick around and suffer any more humiliation.
"Surely, you’ve got to eat something, right?" Winnie went forward to take Yonina’s hand in hers. "Our chef cooks really well, so since you’re here, you really should eat before leaving."
"Mom, since Miss Collins has to attend to something else, don’t force her to stay," said Michael as he walked over.
"That’s right. It’s good that youngsters focus on their careers," Mrs. Lucas chimed in.
Jake looked up at the adults around him and listened without saying anything or getting fidgety.
This felt like the most awkward moment in Yonina’s life. Michael and Mrs. Lucas clearly chasing her out. She couldn’t possibly agree to stay for lunch.
She pulled her hand out from Winnie’s and forced a smile as she said, "Thanks for the thought, but we’ll eat together another time."
"Today’s a good time!" Winnie refused to give up and continued trying to make Yonina stay.
At the same time, she glared fiercely at Michael and clearly blamed him for driving a guest away that she had taken so much effort to invite.
She regretted letting Michael have time alone with Yonina.
"The cakes are ready, so where’s Grandmother?"
Wendy spotted the cakes sitting on the table untouched, so she walked out to look for Mrs. Lucas.
To her surprise, she saw a group of people standing in front of the door.
