Chapter 274 Riling Matthew Up
It was true that what Veronica said at the hospital had been hurtful, but she started to reevaluate her relationship with Matthew after he cut off all her business ties at Encounters which even led Julius Atelier to call off the endorsement deal.
As it turned out, her business’ success pivoted on her amicable relationship with Matthew, and it took one sour turn to reveal to her just how fragile such a dynamic was. She had been painfully reminded of how powerful he was, so much so that he could flip her life around with just a snap of his fingers. She could be soaring high in the sky one day and be brought crashing down the next.
He was a man who could manipulate her life and death like they were components of a Rubik’s cube in his hand. He was dangerous—deadly even. Veronica would need nerves of steel if she insisted on staying friends with him, let alone date him.
Nonetheless, she was still Elizabeth’s god-granddaughter. Matthew wasn’t her only pillar of support, and she knew she could always turn to Elizabeth for help in desperate times. This was the reason why no one in Bloomstead dared touch her even though they knew about her fallout with Matthew.
Presently, Matthew cast Veronica a sideways glance when she did not respond, then frowned in exasperation. Just then, his phone rang, and he fished out his phone with one hand while keeping the other on the wheel. When he saw Ruka’s name flashing on the screen, he set the phone aside instead of picking it up.
On the other end, Ruka had been waiting for Matthew in the hotel lounge, but he never showed up. She didn’t know that he had already left the resort with Veronica.
“The number you have dialed, can’t be reached…” She tried calling him again and again, but none of the phone calls got through.
Back in the car, Veronica was listening to the ringtone of the third phone call drone on and on. She glanced at the number on the screen, then at Matthew, who was unbothered and seemingly intended on leaving Ruka hanging. For some reason, she wanted to wince at this man in disgust. He had told her how much she liked her a mere months ago, but he was now hooking up with another woman in the blink of an eye.
Veronica silently thanked the heavens that she had not been gullible enough to fall for his sugar-coated lies, because in some alternate universe, she could be in Ruka’s position right now. Whew, dodged a silver bullet there, she thought.
At last, Matthew’s patience ran out, and he was evidently annoyed as he picked up the ringing phone. “What?” he snapped icily. There was a pause, then he continued, “Yes, she has an emergency back home, and I’m dropping her off right now. See if you can hitch a ride with Uncle Conrad. Yeah, okay, bye.”
Veronica had no idea what Ruka had said on the other line, but Matthew’s tone was so frigid that he could turn someone to ice, and that was how she knew he was a heartless jerk.
Suddenly, she felt a rush of sympathy for Tiffany and Ruka. Both of them are so head over heels for the bastard that they’ve become masochists.
Marriage d’Amour was playing in the car. The piano ballad was an old arrangement, but Veronica had a soft spot for it. She closed her eyes and let the music wash over her, imagining the emotions packed into each note. It was therapeutic, and it didn’t take long for her to feel better.
The rest of the world had only just begun to melt away when something abruptly fell onto her torso. She opened her eyes in mild alarm and looked down to see a throw had been tossed over her.
“It’s cold outside. Take care so that you don’t catch a chill,” Matthew said with forced patience, tipping his head to one side to indicate that he was talking to her.
She relished the warmth that came with the throw, nestling further back into her seat in bliss. The heater had been turned on, but it did little to keep out the cold.
Just as she was pulling the throw closer to herself, she caught the faint fragrance that lingered on it. It smelled like Ruka.
At once, she bundled up the throw, hurled it into the backseat, and stated, “I don’t need this, thank you. I’m not cold at all.”
She was not fussy by any means, but that didn’t mean she wanted to use someone else’s stuff.
“The throw is new,” Matthew pointed out like he had read her mind. Then again, she had made her aversion to using the throw very obvious.
She rolled her eyes at him and countered sardonically, “Is it now? Then why’s your girlfriend’s scent all over it? I don’t need it anyway, so just continue to keep her warm with it.”
A grim expression dawned upon his face as he said, “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“It doesn’t matter if she’s your girlfriend or not, because it has nothing to do with me.” She held her phone and checked the time while continuing nonchalantly, “Drop me off at Encounters and I’ll pay you twice the normal fare.”
She had a navigation software on her phone that could come up with an estimated fare if she just keyed in the pick-up and drop-off points. She was determined to pay him every cent of it and more. As things were, she refused to owe him favors.
Matthew’s blood boiled when he heard the pointed tone of her voice, but he tried to keep his anger under wraps as he said, “It’s snowing now. We can’t take the highway, and there are plenty of trucks and vans using the underpass. It isn’t safe.”
“That—is none of your concern,” she said while shooting him a baleful look.
Pretentious scumbag! You cut off my business ties right after I said all those things at the hospital, and you wrecked the only endorsement deal I ever had. You even had the audacity to get someone to look into me! She knew about all the things he had done behind her back, and she was disgusted by how he could be so heartless by pretending to worry about her like she was some charity case.
She resisted the urge to snort as she found all this particularly ironic.
There were only two reasons why Matthew had stooped so low, the first one being he was trying to make her bow to him, and the second was that he saw her as a pet that he rewarded and punished as he liked. He was making life difficult for her on purpose.
Right after she snapped at him, however, Matthew slammed on the brakes, and the car rolled about a dozen meters ahead before it skidded to a stop in the middle of the road.
He turned and gazed at her with his ominous, obsidian gaze, and she thought she could see a snow storm brewing in the pitch-black depths of his eyes. She shuddered as a chill ran down her spine.
“Do you think you can do whatever you want just because you’re Grandma’s god-granddaughter now?” he hissed. At that point, Veronica had pushed his buttons. Curse this woman, he thought, seething with rage. He hated how he couldn’t do anything about her blatant provocation.
“Yes, I do,” Veronica said matter-of-factly. Her delicate, oval face lit up with a faint smile that did not reach her eyes. She looked like she was mocking him, but she could care less about whether or not she had offended him. Frankly, she found it easier to agree with him than to retort against him, and the effect was just as, if not, more satisfying.
Matthew’s rage peaked at the sight of her defiance. He reached out his hand and grabbed the scarf around her neck, then pulled her close to him as he growled, “Veronica…”
“What?” She was smirking even though she was merely inches away from him. She stared into his eyes and asked, “Are you angry, Matt? Are you going to punch or silence me by having me killed, hmm? Or are you going to cut my lifeline?”
There was a hard edge to his jaw as he gritted his teeth, and his face darkened considerably. She could hear his knuckles cracking when his fist clenched tighter onto the knitted fabric of her scarf. He was obviously holding back.
Veronica went on to stroke his fury. “What are you getting all worked up for? I mean, you can’t help resorting to those ways, because that’s just who you are. In fact, I should probably thank you for sparing me from your wrath, or I’d end up like Tiffany.”
A smile curled on her lips, and her face dimpled. She was so beautiful and enigmatic at that moment that anyone would have been bewitched by her, but Matthew was so belligerent that his jaw was clenched and the veins on the back of his hands were visible. He wanted nothing more than to teach her a hard lesson!
