Free Web NovelChapter 555: Michael’s Way of Loving Her
When Clement and Christian had discussed their partnership, Christian had made a request. They had agreed on Clement lending Christian a billion dollars as a personal loan to help Christian tide over a difficult period. After that, they would work together in Lake City.
Once they started making money, Christian would then return him one and a half billion.
"A billion is not enough," said Christian. He could tell that Mr. Zavier was disappointed in him. The second installment required three billion. If Christian only paid a billion, Mr. Zavier would never accept it. And if Michael were to jump in then and try to grab the project, Christian might very well lose the contract to Michael.
"But where can I get so much money in such a short time?" Clement said. "And my money isn’t from legal sources. You know that better than anyone else.
"If it were for someone else, that’s fine. But before I can hand the money to you, I’d have to channel it to a legitimate source or you would be exposed once the project team launches an investigation.
"This would have been resolved easily if HG were still around. But now that it’s gone, we don’t have a legitimate front for money laundering. A small company won’t be able to handle such a large sum of money."
Christian had already thought of all these problems. But he was out of options. He had to get that money within the next five days. He would think about the problem of the money’s origin later.
"Just give me as much as you can within the next five days," said Christian. "If you want my help to take over Zeilheim City, I cannot fail. If I were to fail, would you be able to find another partner to gain access to Zeilheim City?"
"Of course I can do it. As long as you’re not afraid, I have nothing to fear. I’m not in Lake City so it doesn’t matter even if they were to trace it to me," said Clement. "But since we are business partners, we should still keep clear accounting records. I’ll be giving you more money, so my share of..."
"Seventy, thirty." Christian closed his eyes to keep his anger in check. "I’ll give you seventy percent."
Christian found himself in a sticky situation. On one end, he had Mr. Zavier pressing him for money. On the other end, he had Clement taking advantage of the situation to earn a greater profit.
But none of that mattered. Christian was not interested in Lake City. He only wanted to make sure that the project at hand went smoothly. Once he survived this crisis, he will stop. As for what would happen to Zeilheim City, it was none of his business.
It was meaningless to him.
After ending the call, it took every ounce of Christian’s self-control not to smash his phone. Then Christian called for his assistant, who came into his office almost instantly.
"Have you dealt with the bad press?" Christian asked as he gave his assistant a cold stare.
His assistant quickly lowered his head, not daring to look Christian in the eye.
Because he was afraid, his voice trembled, "No... not yet..." freёwebnovel.com
"Useless fool!" Christian could no longer hold back his anger. He picked up a cup from his desk and threw it at his assistant.
"Mr... Mr. Lucas... the press conference was initiated by you. And Michael Lucas has someone monitoring the news closely. The moment we remove an article, he will immediately get someone to put it back up. And anyway, everyone has already seen the news. Even if we removed everything, everyone already knows. So... there’s really nothing I can do about it," his assistant explained in resignation.
Christian’s power and status in Lake City were only one notch below Michael. Even Christian would not have been able to settle this matter so easily, let alone his assistant.
"I don’t care what it takes. You must get rid of all the news articles and stop them from going viral," Christian barked. "If you can’t get the job done, get out of here!"
...
In contrast to the anxious and irritable Christian, Michael was currently cuddling his wife in bed, getting ready to sleep. Suddenly, his cellphone lit up. A new message had come in. It was from Mr. York.
The message had only one sentence: Everything is going according to your plan.
Michael smiled when he read the message. Wendy was in Michael’s arms so she read the message too. She smiled and said, "Congratulations, Mr. Lucas, Everything is going smoothly."
Michael kissed Wendy on her forehead, saying. "It’s getting late. You should be sleeping. It’s been a tiring day for you."
They had attended Christian’s press conference early in the morning, and then they had spent the rest of the day with Mrs. Lucas.
"I’m not tired," Wendy said. She was still very excited by the day’s events. She was still relishing the excitement from all that had happened.
"It’s already past eleven o’clock. Even if you aren’t sleepy you should close your eyes." Michael put down his cellphone and reached over to put his arms around Wendy. "Or would you like me to sing you a song?"
At his suggestion to sing a song, Wendy was shocked and quickly said, "I don’t think you should. If you sang the national anthem again, I won’t be able to fall asleep at all."
"I’ve learned a new song that’s like a lullaby," Michael said, his face beaming with pride. "I’ll sing it to you and you’ll fall asleep instantly."
Wendy had asked Michael to sing her a song to sleep previously, but he only knew the national anthem. Since then, Michael had gone online to learn new songs. Now was a good chance to put into practice what he had learned.
Doubtfully, Wendy agreed after she saw how confident he seemed. "Oh all right.
Sing to me."
"Hush little baby don’t say a word, Papa’s gonna buy you a mockingbird..."
Wendy had already closed her eyes but they flew open again at the sound of Michael’s singing.
While in Michael’s arms, Wendy was about to say something when she saw Michael’s head swaying back and forth, with a look of seriousness on his face, enjoying the moment.
Wendy swallowed back her words. What could she say? The lyrics were right and she could tell that he was singing "Hush Little Baby." It was such a simple song and Michael claimed to have learned it. Yet it was out of tune, even the rhythm sounded wrong.
After listening to two lines, Wendy found that she had forgotten the right way to sing the lullaby. And Michael was singing so earnestly. Wendy let Michael finish singing.
When he looked at her, she quickly shut her eyes. She pretended to have fallen asleep. This led Michael to believe that his lullaby had been effective in lulling Wendy to sleep.
He tried calling out her name softly. Wendy did not dare to respond.
Otherwise, Michael would know that she was awake and would sing again. Wendy did not want to torture her ears.
But it was a little hard to believe that she could fall asleep after just one song. So Wendy mumbled softly, pretending to be sleepy and that she did not want Michael to disturb her further.
Michael was very satisfied with Wendy’s response. However, Wendy did not expect Michael to become hooked on singing. He had thought that Wendy was sleeping and so he continued to hum softly to himself. Wendy wanted to tear her hair out. She thought of how Michael had learned the song just for her, and that helped her to resist bursting out in frustration.
This was Michael’s way of loving her.
...
The next day, Michael was already up as usual by the time Wendy woke up. He was busy with work. Wendy saw him standing at the balcony, talking into his cellphone.
"That’s right. Contact him first, around ten in the morning. Wait for his response, and then I’ll contact them myself." With that, Michael ended the call. He turned around and saw Wendy standing behind him. His gaze softened.
"You’re awake," he said, smiling. "I didn’t know you enjoy my singing so much. You fell asleep the moment I sang to you last night."
"Ahem..." Wendy coughed. She did not dare to look him in the eye. She looked down and said nothing.
Michael hugged her shoulders. "There’s no need to be embarrassed about it. There’s nothing wrong with a man singing a lullaby to his wife."
Leah was nearby and heard what Michael had said. She immediately ran over, blinked her big eyes and asked, "Daddy, did you sing a lullaby to Mommy?"
With a smug look, Michael nodded, "Mommy loves Daddy’s singing. I’ll sing for you too..." freewebnovёl.ƈom
The words were barely out of his mouth when Wendy held his hand. "Let’s have breakfast," she said, trying to change the topic.
"That’s great! Daddy, can you sing for me now? I’ve never heard Daddy sing," Leah said as she looked at him eagerly.
Michael gave a small cough to clear his throat. Wendy was afraid that he would ruin his daughter’s image of him, so she repeated herself, "Let’s have breakfast. And then you go to school. Once you’ve eaten, Zess will take you and Jake to school."
"Okay," Leah said, pouting a little. "Daddy, can you sing to me tonight?"
"Sure," Michael replied, nodding his head, full of confidence.
Leah went off for breakfast happily after getting Michael’s affirmative reply.
"What song would you like? I’ll learn it," Michael asked Wendy while walking with her to the dining table.
Wendy almost rolled her eyes at him. She decided to change the topic. "Who were you talking to earlier?"
"That was Mr. York," Michael answered truthfully. "I asked him to contact Mr. Zavier, who is in charge of the project that Christian had gotten. Now is a good chance for me to take that project away from Christian."
"Christian is involved in a huge scandal. He doesn’t have money to invest in the project either. So isn’t it easy for you to take over the project?" Wendy asked.
"I’m afraid it might not be that easy," Michael said with a sigh. "Mr. York had been trying to contact Mr. Zavier the whole of yesterday, but Mr. Zavier kept saying that he was busy with work.
"So I asked Mr. York to continue trying today. If he still cannot get hold of Mr. Zavier, then I will contact him myself. No matter what, we would need to talk face to face."
"Why is he reluctant to meet you?" Wendy frowned, not fully getting it. "With all the trouble Christian is in, shouldn’t Mr. Zavier be eager to change partners?"
"I think he is afraid that changing partners would drag him down too. Because their partnership was decided by him. If they were to drop Christian midway through the project, Mr. Zavier is bound to be affected in some way.
"He must have been willing to give Christian another chance because that would mean giving himself a chance too," Michael analyzed as he passed a bowl of oatmeal to Wendy.
