Free Web NovelChapter 458: He Deserved It
Rosa knew that there was more to Timothy than what he cared to show to others around him.
But she did not know the specifics of what he had been involved in. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
After the incident, Timothy had holed up in his office.
And she exaggerated when she had told Todd that Timothy had not eaten or drunk for days.
Actually, he would only eat something at intervals of a day or two.
Despite her many attempts to dissuade him from shutting out the world, he had adamantly not uttered a single word.
Although she knew that Timothy had been keeping something major from her, Rosa did not know what it was. All she knew was that it was something sinister.
Since he had persistently refused to talk to her, she could do nothing other than to stay by his side.
After all, they had been married for more than two decades and she truly loved him.
Thus, regardless of what he had been involved in, she still cared about him and his well-being.
Despite knowing that Todd and Timothy might have fallen out also, she had still tried to call Todd for help.
As expected, there was no point in her making the call anyway because there was not much Todd could do either.
"I know," Rosa replied.
Sighing, she sounded calmer as she uttered, "In any case, both you and Wendy go way back with Timothy, so please stop by to see him if you can."
Truth be told, Rosa had run out of ideas.
To date, she had still not managed to locate Jill, so there was really no one she could turn to.
Timothy’s beloved prot.s had turned out to be the masterminds behind HG’s demise.
Right now, he was so fragile that he was on the verge of collapsing himself.
"Sure," Todd replied.
Listening in on their conversation, Wendy had not said a word.
In fact, she really did not know what to say.
Rosa was innocent.
Although Timothy was guilty, there was nothing he could do to stir things up since HG had already crashed.
Wendy felt a twinge of remorse because Timothy was, after all, her mentor.
After Rosa had hung up, Wendy suggested to Todd, "Why don’t you look in on them?
I can’t go now, but I will do so once I’m discharged. Let’s just focus on our personal relationship."
"Yes, Mr. Lewis, why don’t you go now?" Michel seized the opportunity to kick Todd out, adding, "Since your mentor’s wife has made a personal request, you should accede to it."
Glancing at Michael, Todd said nothing. freeweɓnøvel.com
Then, looking at Wendy, he said, "I’ll stop by to see you later."
Wendy nodded.
"Let me see you out," Michael offered, hastily stepping forward to follow Todd as the latter began to walk out of the room.
Obviously, Michael’s real intention was not merely a polite gesture of seeing a guest out.
Once they were out of the room, Michael caught up with Todd. Eyes flashing angrily, he said curtly, "Todd, I warned you yesterday."
"What are you talking about?" Todd replied a little defiantly, looking as though he had no idea what Michael meant.
"Stop putting on an act," Michael said through gritted teeth, his hands tightly clenched.
If he had not been trying hard to control his emotions, Michael would have punched Todd in the face.
"Mr. Lucas, I have no idea what you are referring to. Can you please elaborate?"
Todd replied, tilting his head tauntingly at him.
Grimacing, Michael said, "Why have you changed so much? You were never like this in the past."
Todd burst out laughing. "Mr. Lucas, do you know me? In your mind, what kind of person was I in the past?"
In the past, Todd had been a man of integrity, full of compassion.
He loved Wendy and had therefore respected her wishes.
But now, Todd had changed into someone that Michael did not recognize.
...
"Has it been a year since we first met?" Todd asked. "And how many times during this one year did we actually interact with each other?
"Mr. Lucas, do you judge a person simply by the few times that you’ve interacted with him?"
Michael was shocked hearing Todd’s words.
Todd had indeed changed.
In the past, he would never have uttered words like that.
Then again, Todd was right that they were in fact not close.
Perhaps it was not that Todd had changed but that he, Michael, had not really known him.
"I don’t care what kind of a person you are. Neither do I care if you’ve changed or has always been like this. But I’m warning you again..." Michael moved closer to him and hit the wall behind him violently with a clenched fist.
"If you dare mention Clement again, don’t blame me for anything that I will do to you!"
"Don’t mention what about Clement?" Todd taunted, adding, "What are you referring to, Mr. Lucas? There are lots of issues concerning Clement."
"Todd!" Unable to hold back any longer, Michael raised his voice.
It appeared that Todd knew which buttons to push to incur his wrath.
"Mr. Lucas, you’d better not raise your voice. Corinne is in the room. She might hear you." Todd smiled wryly.
Casually, Todd straightened his tie and added, "I’ll be off then. Call me if you need anything. After all, I’m more familiar with Rheinsville City than you are."
That said, Todd turned and walked away.
After having taken two steps forward, Todd paused and, without turning around, said, "I was just kidding with you earlier. Don’t worry, I am just as concerned about Corinne as you are. I, too, will not want her to get hurt."
Michael was confused by Todd’s serious tone.
So which was the real Todd, this one now or the one who had said those things earlier?
He was only kidding earlier?
Was that his ’just kidding’ persona?
Michael fumed as he watched Todd walking away.
What exactly was Todd playing at?
Michael watched until Todd had disappeared from his line of sight before turning to enter the room.
When she saw Michael entering the room, Wendy looked a little concerned as she asked, "What’s with the tension between you and Todd?"
"Oh, nothing," Michael responded flatly.
Smiling to cover up his emotions, he added, "What tension could we have between us?"
"Didn’t you use to get along very well in the past?" Wendy asked.
Continuing, she said, "Even if you were not buddies, you were never at each other’s throats every time you met.
"But this time, you were obviously at odds with each other."
"You’re reading too much into it," Michael said as she walked over to her and sat beside her on the bed.
Taking her hand in his, he said tenderly, "I was just a little mad at him for helping you to keep me in the dark about this plan of yours.
"If only he had informed me beforehand about your plan, I could have brought some men to Rheinsville City earlier and prevented what had happened afterward.
"Even thinking about what had happened scares me now, sending chills down my spine."
What Michael said seemed a reasonable explanation.
But, obviously, Wendy had her doubts.
"Stop dwelling on it and focus on getting well. Once you’re well enough, we will return to Lake City. The kids are waiting eagerly for you," Michael said, squeezing her hand a little tighter, giving her warmth and calming her down. .
Wendy nodded. Then she looked around the room, trying to locate her phone as she changed the subject, "Have you seen my phone?"
Michael got up and began to help her find her phone.
...
Noting that Wendy’s phone was on the table, Michael passed it to her asking, "What do you want with it?"
"I want to call Jill," Wendy replied.
Sighing, she continued, "Both Timothy and Rosa are not in a good place, I want Jill to come back and be with them.
"I had originally thought that it would be better if Jill knew nothing about any of this.
But now, it looks like we cannot keep it from her if we tried."
Although Wendy managed to get through to Jill’s number, she found that the phone had been switched off.
In fact, that was what she had expected.
She assumed that Jill was either still in lockdown training or performing at some event.
Otherwise, with the news of HG Enterprise’s collapse splashed all over the news, there was no way she could not have known about it.
If she knew, she would definitely have come home instantly.
"No answer?" Michael asked when he saw Wendy putting down her phone.
Wendy nodded. After some thought, she texted Jill instead.
The text message was short and on point: [Call when you get this.] Having sent the text message, Wendy put the phone down by her side and sighed.
Although that call from Rosa had not been for her, Wendy had listened in on the entire conversation and was saddened by it.
The fact was that Timothy had a hidden agenda for getting close to her and mentoring her into a full-fledged designer.
In spite of everything, Timothy had indeed done his best to train and develop her through the years.
Wendy’s relationship with Timothy was both conflicted and complicated.
Theirs was a relationship that could not be described simply by either gratitude or hatred.
"Should I ask Isabel for help?" Michael offered.
"Weren’t they working on the same show recently? I’m not sure if the show has completed its run. If it hasn’t, there is a good chance that they’ll still be in the same team."
Michael was not sure about Isabel’s whereabouts or plans either.
After all, Isabel was extremely busy with appearances in dramas, variety shows, and endorsements. She traveled extensively across the country to fulfill her engagements and was seldom home.
However, Michael did recall Mr. York informing him that Isabel and Jill were appearing on the same program.
Jill was a newbie on the show while Isabel was an instructor on the program.
Isabel had loved to sing since she was a young child, and having spent several years in the entertainment circle, she had built up a good reputation.
Although Michael was not sure about anything concerning Isabel, he did know that his sister had won many awards.
"Yes, why not?" Wendy replied. "I’m quite sure Rosa would have tried to contact Jill but had failed. That was why she had resorted to asking Todd to check in on Mr.
Woods despite knowing that Todd had played a part in HG’s demise.
"Mr. Woods will not want to see either Todd or myself. And since Rosa cannot get through to him, we can only get Jill to come back and talk to him."
"Okay," Michael simply replied. Taking out his phone, he placed a call to Isabel.
He waited a long time for the call to be accepted.
At the other end of the line, Isabel was ranting about being woken up in the middle of the night.
Sounding irritated, she said," Bro! What is this? Either you never call at all or you pick some unearthly hour to call! Do you even care if I get to sleep?"
It was midday in Rheinsville City but the middle of the night in Lake City, The time difference was something that had slipped Michael’s mind.
"I need a favor," Michael casually said.
Wondering if she had heard wrong, Isabel was suddenly wide awake as she asked, "What did you just say? Did you just say that you need a favor from me? Did I hear you right?"
"Yes, you heard me right," Michel responded. "Do you know Jill Woods?"
"Of course, I do. We’re in the same program."
"Can you get her to call your sister-in-law?" Michael instructed.
"She’s one of the contestants. According to the rules, she must participate in the lockdown training and is not allowed to have any contact with the outside world," Isabel pointed out.
"Of course, I know that she’s in lockdown training. Why else would I be asking you for help?’ Michael replied, sounding exasperated.
He continued, "So tell me, can you or can you not help?"
"Sure, of course, I will help. Since you’ve asked, I will definitely help," Isabel immediately replied.
....
Like Wendy, he also treasured the relationship that he had built with Timothy. He was grateful for the guidance that his mentor had given him.
Compared to Wendy, Todd was even more guilty about his part in HG’s collapse.
After all, Timothy had a hidden agenda when he first approached Wendy.
And that meant that, from the beginning, their relationship had already been muddied by ulterior motives.
Whereas for Todd, his relationship with Timothy had been one that was purely mentor and mentee, right from the start.
Back then, if Todd had not refused to join their inner circle, he would not have left HG.
And, most probably, he would have been named the heir apparent to take over at the helm by now.
Alas, he could only rationalize the falling out to their differing core values that, on his part, prevented him from being in cahoots with them.
Looking back, Timothy had consistently been truly good to Todd without any agenda.
And that was why, in the beginning, Todd had been very reluctant to help Wendy in her scheme.
He was very sad and sorry that HG, and Timothy, had both collapsed.
Truth be told, he had wanted to go to Timothy and apologize, but he could not muster up the courage to do so.
Since Rosa had called and pleaded with him, he was left with no choice but to make that dreaded visit.
When he arrived at HG, he found a large crowd of reporters and creditors milling at the gate.
When the reporters spotted him, they rushed towards him.
"Mr. Lewis, what is your objective for coming here now? Are you planning to give Timothy Woods a helping hand or to jeer at him?"
"Mr. Lewis, what is your involvement in bringing HG down to the state that they are in now?"
"What about your relationship with Corinne? Have you really split up?"
"What kind of support did you give Corinne to help her bring down HG?"
...
Todd was snowed under by the barrage of questions that the reporters bombarded him with.
Desperately fighting his way through the sea of reporters surrounding him, Todd shielded his face, saying, "Sorry! I’m not here to give interviews. Can you guys please let me through?!"
He might as well have spoken into thin air because the reporters were not about to miss out on this golden opportunity to get a story.
Getting irritated, Todd would dearly have loved to yell at them. However, he held his temper to avoid ranting in front of a public audience like this.
Keeping his temper in check, he inched his way through the crowd.
It took him a long time, but he eventually managed to get past the sea of people.
Once he had gotten past them, he quickly ran towards the lobby of the building.
He ran past the bodyguards stationed at the entrance to the lobby and heaved a huge sigh of relief.
The cacophony of sounds from the reporters out front followed him into the lobby.
Todd stepped into the elevator and took a long, deep breath.
He tidied his ruffled clothes and checked his appearance in the mirrored wall before walking out of the elevator.
He was almost at the door to Timothy’s office when he heard Rosa saying, "Timothy, can you please eat a little something? Your body will give way if you keep beating it up like this.
"We could always stand back up and build another HG. With your capability, I am confident that you’d be able to establish another company as good as HG.
"I will always be by your side, even if you have lost everything and been abandoned by everyone.
"At our age, it might be a good excuse for us to retire, no?"
Unfortunately, Rosa’s words seemed to have fallen on deaf ears because Timothy did not show any signs of acknowledgment.
For Timothy, HG represented a lifetime of blood, sweat, and tears.
There was no way he could simply let it all go and walk away without emotion.
Todd entered the office to find a pale-faced Timothy looking depressed and in a disheveled state. He seemed to have aged overnight, with his hair looking grayer than ever.
Within a short span of just a few days, he seemed to have aged ten years.
Todd’s hands clenched into tight fists as he faced Timothy.
As he walked towards Timothy, Todd kept his head low and uttered, a tad remorsefully, "Mr. Woods... " After a very long while, he finally managed to say, "I’m sorry... " Upon hearing Todd’s voice, Timothy looked up slowly and glanced at him.
Suddenly, he burst out laughing.
Then, from the table beside him, he picked up the glass of warm water that Rosa had just poured for him.
And threw it directly at Todd, who did not evade the sudden missile.
Because he deserved it.
