Free Web NovelChapter 141: A Glimmer Of Hope
Winnie was already trembling all over from her rage.
Michael was right. She was the one who kicked up a big fuss in the office in a bid to blow up the matter first.
All the other employees watching the show outside the office were discussing it among themselves.
"oh my god, oh my god! Does that mean that Winnie Quinn was purposely here to create trouble for Miss Swift?"
"Goodness me! That means the child is really Mr. Lucas? So, that means Corrine is really Wendy Stewart!"
"I can’t believe Winnie Quinn doesn’t even want to acknowledge her own grandson! This is the first time I’ve seen a grandmother like her! Don’t these rich and powerful families place a lot of significance on lineage? Miss Swift’s son would be considered a legitimate son of the Lucas family, wouldn’t he?"
"Well, Winnie Quinn has always wanted Mr. Lucas to marry the heiress to Collins Group, so l suppose she has other plans."
"But Mr. Lucas is a really domineering character too. It seems like he’s serious about Miss Swift. He’s even willing to fall out with his own mother for her sake. Those novels about billionaires falling hopelessly in love with an ordinary woman are true after all! I’m going to stan Mr. Lucas!"
"Do you think she’d apologize? What do you think?"
....
"Mum, I’d advise you to apologize," said Michael after Winnie stood still and didn’t look like she intended to apologize. "It’s better for all of us."
Wendy was really surprised that Michael was asking his mother to apologize. But there was no way she was going to say that an apology wasn’t necessary just to look polite.
After all, Winnie had come with ill intentions and was obviously here to ruin her reputation. There was no need to be polite to such a person. Besides, Wendy didn’t care to butter up to a mother-in-law like Winnie, so it didn’t matter whether she offended Winnie today or not.
Winnie looked hard at Michael and realized that her son wasn’t joking at all. This boy was determined to stand up for Wendy.
She clenched her fists more and more tightly as she glared hatefully at Wendy. She was going to blame Wendy for everything that happened today. But for the sake of keeping her relationship with her son, she swallowed a mouthful of saliva, looked away from Wendy and spat, "Sorry."
Jill purposely pretended to dig her ears and said, "What did you just say?"
"This is none of your business!" Winnie glared fiercely at Jill.
"What do you mean by its none of my business?" Jill pointed at her broken phone on the floor. "You broke my phone, so you ought to compensate me for it."
"Why, you..."
Winnie was about to go on when Michael cut in, "Mum, an apology ought to be sincere."
She swallowed what she meant to say to Jill and emphasized every syllable, "I. Am. Sorry."
Then she turned and marched right out.
As she walked out, she noticed that several employees outside were holding their phones up and taking videos of this entire thing.
The moment they saw her walk out, they quickly kept their phones away and looked elsewhere, as if nothing had happened.
She was angry but had nowhere to vent her frustrations, so she snatched a few of their phones and smashed them on the floor.
After that, she stomped her feet furiously a few times and walked off.
Winnie’s apology was clearly not sincere enough, but the fact that she actually said that she was sorry was already a humiliation for her.
After Winnie left, Michael glanced at Wendy.
He had a lot he wanted to say to her, but he knew that Wendy had no regard for him now, so he decided not to disrupt her work any further.
He just nodded slightly without saying anything, then turned to leave.
When the other employees saw that Michael was leaving Wendy’s office, they quickly ran back to their seats.
In fact, Michael had purposely allowed the employees to watch this entire spectacle. If he didn’t want them to see or hear anything, he would have given them strict instructions and shut the door. But he had allowed them to do this because Winnie had gone overboard. He wanted to stand up for Wendy.
"Thank you..." Wendy finally squeezed these two words out of her mouth as Michael headed for the door.
Those two simple words made Michael stop in his footsteps.
He almost couldn’t believe his ears. Did Wendy just thank him?
Michael slowly turned back and stared straight at Wendy with a look of pleasant surprise. "Wendy, what did you just say?"
Wendy blinked a couple of times as she met his eyes, cleared her throat and pushed her hair behind her ears.
She looked away and said flatly, "Never mind if you didn’t hear it."
"No, I heard you." He took large strides towards her and grabbed hold of her hands excitedly as he asked again, "Did you just say thank you’?"
Ever since Wendy returned, Michael didn’t even dare to dream that she would ever love him again. He didn’t think he would ever hear her thank him either.
Did that mean Wendy was willing to accept him? Or, at least, she approved of what he had done today?
"So, you heard me the first time. Why did you ask then?" said Wendy as she looked at him and cleared her throat again. "It’s office hours right now, so if there’s nothing else, I think we should all return to our workstations."
Saying thank you once was enough. She couldn’t find it in herself to repeat it again. Also, she was only thanking him for helping her out of this situation.
Winnie was his mother after all, but he had been willing to stand up to her in front of so many people. She felt that she ought to thank him for at least that.
Of course, the part that touched her most deeply was the fact that Michael had chosen to believe that Jake was his son without any hesitation.
She thought that he wouldn’t believe her. But so what if he believed it now? She hadn’t forgotten the hurt she had felt from five years ago.
If he had been willing to believe her back then, none of this would have happened today.
Even though Wendy was clearly telling him to leave the office, Michael was still in high spirits.
He smiled and replied, "Of course, of course. I won’t disrupt you any longer."
As long as Wendy’s stance towards him softened, there was hope. He was willing to be patient.
Given Wendy’s personality, if he were to be too impatient, he would end up repulsing her instead.
Michael had walked into her office with a grim look on his face, but he was now beaming from ear to ear.
None of the employees outside knew what Wendy had said to Michael. All they saw was Michael emerging with a huge smile on his face.
"Am I seeing things? Mr. Lucas walked out smiling, didn’t he?"
"You weren’t seeing things. That smile stands out way too much."
"But when he reached the door earlier, his expression was still so grim. How did it become a smile in just a few minutes? What happened?"
"Argh! I want to know too! This is killing me!"
****
After Michael left, Jill bent down to pick up the pieces of her broken phone.
She gave a long sigh and asked Wendy, "Miss Swift, can my phone be considered a sort of injury in the line of duty?"
Wendy sat back down on her chair and looked up at Jill with a laugh. "How much could your phone cost? Are you going to claim for damages now?"
"it’s not about the amount. If it’s something I’m entitled to, then I ought to make a claim, right?" said Jill with a grin.
Jill was a lowly assistant to Wendy in the office, but she was actually Timothy Woods’ only precious daughter. The cost of a phone was nothing to her.
Wendy laughed and shook her head. "Fine, you can claim for damages. Go look for the accounting department." freēwebnovel.com
"Yay! Thanks, Wendy!" replied Jill happily.
But even though she had been given the go-ahead, she stood where she was and didn’t look like she was leaving the office.
Wendy raised an eyebrow. "I just said you could go to the accounting department to claim for damages. Why are you still standing here?"
Jill grinned even more brightly since Wendy had actually asked her. She walked over to stand next to Wendy and put an arm around her shoulders with a nosy expression on her face. "Wendy, this Mr. Lucas seems to be really nice to you..."
The smile on Wendy’s face faded immediately before Jill could even finish her sentence.
She pushed Jill’s hand away and looked sternly at her as she said in a serious voice, "We’re in the office, so don’t be rude. Please continue to address me as Miss Swift in the office."
"Yes, yes, Miss Swift it is." But Jill wasn’t going to give up just yet. "Miss Swift, I’m being serious here. I’ve not interacted much with Mr. Lucas, but ever since I came to Lake City, he’s been helping you all this time no matter how you treat him."
You purposely embarrassed him at that dinner, but he didn’t get angry. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
Then you knocked him down with your car and injured him, and his mother even called the police, but he made a trip to the police station just to defend you.
And now, his mother came looking for you with a paternity test report, but he chose to believe you without hesitation and even declared that he would fall out with his mother in front of everyone else.
Miss Swift, don’t you think that everything Mr. Lucas has done so far is enough to prove that he truly loves you?"
"What? He truly loves me?" Wendy scoffed.
She looked at Jill and said very seriously, "Jill, you don’t know what happened between us, so don’t try to persuade me to forgive him."
"Well, this is something I’ve always wanted to know, but you’ve always refused to tell me." Jill was young and always eager to listen to juicy gossip.
She had always wanted to ask Wendy about her past, but Wendy never talked about what happened five years ago.
So, she held onto Wendy’s sleeve and started swinging it from side to side as she whined, "Miss Swiiift... Wendyyyy... won’t you tell me?Please? Pretty, pretty pleeeease?"
"Stop it! We’re in the office!" Wendy had always treated Jill like her younger sister. Timothy had treated her like family in the five years she spent in Rheinsville City.
Jill was smart and pretty, but a little rebellious from time to time. But she hadn’t gotten into any major trouble so far.
She just didn’t like being a designer and didn’t want to take over her father’s work.
She preferred to sing and wanted to enter the entertainment industry. With a face and figure like hers and the clout her family had, she would probably have become a big star pretty easily. But Timothy was a traditional man with only one daughter, so he insisted that she continue his trade.
The two of them were always at loggerheads because of this. That’s why Timothy gave up and left Jill with Wendy, allowing Wendy to bring his daughter to Lake City and train her up.
Jill marched to the office door and said very loudly to the employees outside, "All of you, go back to work! Stop trying to eavesdrop!"
Then she slammed the door shut and came running back to Wendy’s side. "Okay! Nobody’s going to know what we’re talking about now!"
Wendy sighed helplessly as she looked at Jill’s eager expression. She didn’t intend to tell Jill about what happened at all.
"If you continue behaving this way, I’m going to call your dad and tell him to take you home. You Won’t be as free to do what you like anymore if that happens."
This threat never failed to work.
Jill didn’t want to go back to Rheinsville City at all. Her father would force her to study design if she did that.
She scoffed unhappily. "If you don’t want to talk, fine! How could you threaten me like that! HUMPH!" Jill turned her nose up and sauntered out of Wendy’s office.
