Free Web NovelChapter 598: Expected Punishment
"This is your room." After dinner, Christian showed Wendy her room on the first floor.
"This room is north-south facing and the window looks out into the back garden. It’s nice and quiet, very suitable for you."
Wendy checked out the room and gave a slight nod.
Indeed, this was a nicer room, and the decor was in a style that she liked.
She did not know if it was coincidental or if Christian had arranged for the room to be done up in this style.
In any case, she was not about to ask him.
"If there’s nothing else, I’d like to rest now," she said, meaning that he should leave.
However, Christian did not do as she wished. Instead, he walked to a chair and sat down.
He then used the tea-making utensils on the table and began brewing tea.
Not knowing what his intentions were, Wendy stood where she was. Scowling, she asked, "Is there anything else that you need, Mr. Lucas?"
"You do realize that you are now my prisoner, don’t you? I would suggest that you face up to the reality of your situation now," Christian said.
Looking up at her, he patted the seat beside him. "Come and have tea with me."
Frowning, Wendy stood rooted to where she was.
Raising his brows, Christian sounded cold and threatening as he continued, "I know that you have a fiery temper. But I’m sure you know that I too am not to be under-estimated.
"So, before I am provoked beyond my limit and do harm to you, I suggest that you tone down the animosity.
"Otherwise, there’s no telling what I might do to you."
After some hesitation, Wendy decided to walk over to him.
However, she did not take the seat that he had offered, preferring instead to sit across the table from him.
She watched in silence as he went about brewing the tea.
Actually, she had nothing to say to Christian.
Having brewed the tea, Christian poured Wendy a cup and passed it to her. "Try it."
"Will you leave this room once I’ve drunk the tea?" she asked him curtly, not picking up the teacup.
Christian stared straight into her eyes and what he saw in them were rejection and hatred.
Well, no surprises there.
After a pause, he nodded.
In the next instant, Wendy picked up the teacup and drank all the tea in it.
Fortunately, although the tea was boiling hot, there was not a lot of it because it was a small teacup.
Otherwise, Wendy’s throat would have been badly scalded.
Christian’s eyes flashed menacingly when he saw what she had done.
Was she so eager to see him gone?
Despite knowing the answer to his own question, Christian nonetheless felt a surge of emotion inside.
Finger by finger, his hands, hidden in his sleeves, clenched into tight fists.
Inhaling sharply, he closed his eyes before opening them again.
Suppressing his anger, he smiled and asked, "Well?"
"Very nice," Wendy replied glibly.
Truth be told, she did not give a hoot as to whether the tea was fragrant, or if it tasted good.
All she wanted was for Christian to leave her alone as soon as possible.
Christian was, of course, aware that Wendy was just humoring him.
In the next instant, a scowling Christian got to his feet silently and strode out of the room.
On her part, Wendy was a tad surprised that Christian had left the room without making a fuss.
She assumed that Christian had an ulterior motive in personally showing her to her room and even using the tea as an excuse to remain in her room.
That was why Wendy had felt a sense of foreboding, and wanted him out of her room quickly.
After all, she was now his prisoner and he did harbor ill intentions toward her.
She was very much aware of what someone like Christian was capable of.
If he gave in to his obsession and decided to do anything to her, she would not be able to defend herself.
...
After Christian left the room, Wendy stepped forward immediately and locked the door.
She did so as quickly as she could, for fear of him changing his mind and coming back into her room.
When he heard the door shut behind him, Christian turned around and, not unexpectedly, found that the door was shut tight.
He found himself uncontrollably clenching his hands again.
On a closer look, one could even see the pulsating veins on the back of his clenched hands.
Back in her room, Wendy heaved a sigh of relief.
But then, she did not feel totally safe.
She searched around the room, probing every nook and cranny, as though she was looking for something in particular.
She continued searching for more than thirty minutes, stopping only when she could not find anything unusual.
She feared that Christian might have installed surveillance cameras or bugging devices in the room.
It was already past 10 pm.
Wendy was exhausted from the long day she’d had.
It was past ten in the morning when they arrived in Rheinsville City. Then, she had spent the entire day fretting over Zen, the stress of it all taking a toll on her entire being.
Fortunately, Zen did not seem to be badly hurt and would recover after a few days of bed rest.
In the next instant, Wendy decompressed and slumped onto the sofa.
She closed her eyes and grabbed at her head, trying to recall all that had happened during the past two days.
Never in her wildest dreams did she expect Christian to plant someone who looked exactly like her by Michael’s side.
That person was practically her replica. Even Michael would not be able to tell, at least not initially, that she was a fake.
As for her, she was still trying to work out why Christian had done that. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
She would not worry too much if the reason was purely to replace her. However, it would be devastating if this fake Wendy intended to do harm to Michael or the kids.
Right now, all Wendy could hope for was the safety of Michael and the kids.
On her side, she could at least tell that Christian was her enemy.
But for Michael, his enemy was right by his side, but he could not tell.
Wendy could only pray and hope that Michael would soon realize that the woman beside him was a fake.
She had no phone with her and was not at all familiar with her surroundings.
Besides, Christian’s men were standing guard over her.
There was no way she could even send a message out, much less escape from this place.
She resolved to bide her time and wait for an opportunity to get out of here.
...
Christian’s room was right next to Wendy’s.
Needless to say, this was intentional.
He wanted to be as close to Wendy as possible, despite her rejection of him.
After washing up, Christian prepared to sit down and get some work done.
He had just opened up his laptop when his phone rang.
It was from the organization.
Without any hesitation, he accepted the call.
"I know all about what happened over the past few days. Come to the base tomorrow morning at 9," a man in his fifties, maybe sixties, ordered from the other end.
Sounding resolved and cold, Christian said, "Sure."
Having said that, Christian was about to end the call.
However, the man at the other end continued speaking, "You do realize what you will be up against, right?"
"Yeah, I know," Christian replied, an icy chill emanating from his half-closed eyes.
Of course, he knew what was awaiting him at the base. He was the one who had established the rules.
When he first laid down the rules, he had not expected them to apply to him one day.
He thought he heard a sigh from the caller at the other end of the line.
The sigh was followed by silence, after which the call was ended.
Christian put the phone to one side and stared instinctively at the wall in front of him.
Wendy was in the room behind that wall.
He had never imagined that he would one day land in a situation like this, all because of a woman.
...
Christian was up early the next morning.
He washed and dressed for the upcoming visit to the organization’s base, bringing only his driver and not too many men with him.
Aware of what was going to happen to him at the base, he knew that he would not be able to drive and would need his driver to send him home.
He arrived at the base with only a few minutes to spare before the scheduled 9 am meeting.
The base was located in a secluded area deep within a forest.
Alighting from the car, he lowered his head to check his appearance before striding into the building, ready to face what was coming.
To Christian, this place felt unfamiliar, even though this was obviously not the first time he had been here.
This was not an ostentatious building; nor was it a high-rise.
It was built that way so as not to attract unwanted attention.
His last visit here had been five, maybe six, years ago. Compared to the last time he was here, the place looked a tad time-worn.
The two bodyguards standing guard at the door bowed and gestured for him to go through into the building.
Entering the building, he noticed the man seated at the head of the table.
That was the man he had spoken to on the phone the night before.
There were a few men seated around him, and Clement was one of them.
The interior was dimly lit, complementing the tense atmosphere in the room.
Seeing Christian, the man at the head of the table stood up, supported by his cane, and walked slowly toward him, one step at a time.
Despite being only in his fifties, he had a full head of grey hair. On closer look, he seemed to be limping on one leg.
"Alberto..," Christian greeted him, lowering his head deferentially.
Christian was barely fifteen years old when he was forced to come to Rheinsville City. At that time, he was very young, na’ve, and without any friends to call his own.
In those days, Zeilheim City was still a fledgling economy and not as strong as it was now, and foreign students were not looked upon favorably.
That was why even his classmates at school bullied him. freewebnøvel.com
In fact, some of the students even considered bullying the foreign students an honorable task.
On one occasion, Christian was beaten up so badly that he had called Lily and Anthony for help.
Anthony, claiming work pressure, had no time to deal with his problem.
However, the truth of the matter was that, at that time, he was still financially reliant on his wife Winnie and did not dare stick his neck out to help Christian.
Neither did he dare bring Christian home so all he did was pay lip service to Christian’s call for help.
As for Lily, she simply persuaded him to endure the bullying and focus on his education in Rheinsville City.
She had hoped that he would hone his skills and return home to secure a future for them both.
As it turned out, both his parents did not really care for him at all.
His schoolmates soon found out that although he had called home for help, his family had not come forward to help him. With this assurance, they intensified the bullying.
During that period, Christian was subjected to beatings almost on a daily basis. And there was absolutely nothing he could do to fight back or defend himself.
As time went on, he no longer called home for help because he knew that no one would help him even if he did.
He had no one on his side and it would be a while before he could go back to Lake City.
On one occasion when the beating became especially vicious, he suddenly thought of giving up and dying with his bullies.
While he was being beaten, he pulled out a fruit knife that he had hidden in his clothes and plunged it violently into the stomach of the leader of the pack of bullies.
No one had expected him to fight back.
At that time, holding a bloodied knife in his hand, a crazed Christian stood over the schoolmate who was writhing in pain on the ground and felt the immeasurable joy of revenge.
He knew exactly the consequences that he would have to face for doing what he did, but he was just sick of being bullied every day.
He was past caring whether they would deport him to his home country, throw him into a facility for young offenders, or even if they executed him. From his perspective, it was all worth it.
And that was the very first time that Christian had stabbed anyone.
Although he was still shaking, he wasted no time stabbing the schoolmate a second time!
