At the mention of this, Rudy got all worked up. “Look, you’ve been amnesiac for so long. Maybe you’ll remember everything if a woman comes and jolts your senses awake.”
In reply, Justin looked at him coldly and said, “No thanks.”
His gaze was so cold that Rudy decided to shut it. “Fine, I don’t want to be bothered about it, either.”
Meanwhile, in a booth on the first floor, Jolly pushed a bottle of beer into Rachel’s hand and said loudly, “Everyone, a round of drinks for my good friend! From now on, Chris will be an official member of our drinking group!”
“A round of drinks, everyone!”
“Welcome, Chris!”
The beer foam splashed out of the bottle from the clinking of bottles, and Rachel’s face remained unchanged from chugging down a bottle of beer.
“Hey, Jolly, your friend seems to hold her liquor pretty well.”
“Of course! She’s my bestie!”
“Must you beat about the bush, Timmy? You just wanted to say she looks gorgeous, right?”
“Oh, shut it. So, is Chris single?”
Giving that guy a kick, Jolly then said, “She’s not for your taking even if she’s single. Take a good look at yourself in the mirror. Do you really think you’re good enough for Chris?”
The group laughed as they joked around, and Rachel was smiling the entire time without turning down anyone, whether they were offering a drink or a guessing game. After all, she had known Jolly for five years, and she had lost count of the times she had been to a club with her.
On the other side, the DJ was blasting the music, and Jolly bobbed her head to the beat as she sat in the booth. A place like this was her natural habitat. “I’m going to the dance floor. You guys enjoy yourselves. And take care of Chris for me.”
With that said, she picked up a bottle of beer and disappeared onto the dance floor. Amidst the lights and alcohol, the movement of the crowd made Rachel’s eyes giddy.
While she took another sip of the beer, she suddenly saw a familiar figure coming down from the second floor and walking toward the direction of the washroom. Immediately, her eyes narrowed.
Although Riverdale was not a large city, she wasn’t expecting it to be such a small place, either. Less than a day after her return, she had run into Justin twice. What a small world it was, especially for enemies.
“What’s wrong, Chris?” Jolly’s sidekick, Timothy Hertz, asked in concern.
Placing the beer on the table, she answered, “Nothing. I’m going to the washroom.”
Would you like me to come along?”
“It’s okay. I’ll be right back.”
Along the corridor on the first floor, Rachel walked away from the music and people as she followed Justin deeper and deeper inside the building until less people passed by her. Just at the corner of the corridor, she lost sight of him.
Where did he go? she wondered and scanned around.
Behind her, a man walked out of the stairwell and asked coldly, “Who sent you?”
She froze, and the man shouted, “I’m asking you a question!”
A split second before the man’s hand landed on her shoulder, Rachel turned around, grabbed his hand, and staggered toward him.
Unable to dodge in time, Justin realized that she was already in his arms the next second with her arms around his neck. With a tipsy look, she mumbled, “Where did you go? I’ve been looking for you all day…”
The scent of alcohol rushed up into his nostrils, and he knitted his brows tightly together. “Hey, let me go. You got the wrong person.”
From the corners of her eyes, Rachel saw Timothy coming over, and before Justin could push her away, she acted first and pushed him into the stairwell.
“You,”
On tiptoes, Rachel lifted her head and kissed him on the lips.
Shocked, Justin’s eyes widened in disbelief, and his first thought was to shove her aside. However, she held him tightly around his neck, and he couldn’t exert any force for a short while.
This was the first time in his life when he felt he was being taken advantage of. This woman must be crazy! he thought, giddy from the strong taste of alcohol in her mouth.
As the kiss deepened, the anger he felt evaporated without a reason, and he actually felt a sense of familiarity-the light scent of this woman, despite the smell of alcohol on her, gave him a déjà vu.
Could Rudy’s words be true? he wondered as he placed his hands on her waist naturally and kissed her deeper.
“Mmhm!” Rachel grunted when she was suddenly pulled into a tight embrace against Justin’s chest. Instantly, her body temperature rose, and she wondered if she was really confused and acting so passionately because of all the alcohol she consumed.
“Chris?” Suddenly, Timothy’s voice came from outside, and Rachel was jolted back to her senses. With all her might, she pushed Justin away and left the spot in a hurry as he groaned in pain.
In a second, she was out of sight, leaving Justin leaning against the wall after hitting the back of his head. His head was ringing with pain, and when he regained himself again, he saw that there was no one else at the stairwell except himself. Everything that happened earlier felt like a dream. What on earth just happened?
Rachel didn’t return to the booth after that. Instead, she took a cab home after sending Jolly a text.
“To Springwill Estate,” she instructed the driver.
It looks like Justin has really forgotten about me. What happened in the last five years? she wondered, and her brows furrowed together tightly when she recalled the kiss from earlier.
Even after five years had passed, she had to admit that she would still be emotionally affected and even be thrown into confusion because of this man. She hated him, but how could hate exist without love?
Three days later, the major pharmaceutical companies of Riverdale held a joint exhibition of new drugs, gathering the journalists from the biggest media in the city as well.
As the representative of the R&D team from Burton Group, Amber showed up at the exhibition dressed in a Chanel suit. Before the exhibition began, there was a red-carpet ceremony, and she stood in front of the signed poster as the journalists asked her questions about the new drug with a microphone.
“Miss Hudson, it’s said that the new pill developed by Burton Group this time has the effect of delaying nerve failure and shows great results in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Is that true?”
“We’ve done many clinical trials and the new drug has also been tested by the Food and Drug Administration,” Amber replied.
“We heard that this drug was proposed by you. Does that have anything to do with Old Mr. Burton’s physical condition?”
“Well, that can be part of the reason,” she answered with a smile. “I studied medicine, after all, and one of the driving forces for R&D comes from my consideration for my family.”
Family?
Regardless how many new drugs were on the exhibition, it couldn’t be as attention-grabbing as a piece of juicy gossip. With a keen nose for news, the journalists immediately picked up the meaning behind her words.
“Does that mean the wedding is drawing close, Miss Hudson?”
“I’ll announce it once there’s good news.”
“Will President Burton be here at the exhibition today?”
“He’ll come a little later.”
All of a sudden, the journalists were all discussing their wedding news.
In fact, this was part of Amber’s plan. The entire town knew that she had been Justin’s fiancée for five years, and she believed that with so many people urging the wedding, there was no way that Justin could just sit on it and not do anything.
At this moment, a woman’s voice echoed from the outside, saying, “Is this an exhibition for new drugs or the press conference for a wedding? Anyone walking in here ignorantly might think that the Burton Group is doing this on purpose to divert the attention from the publicity of the new drugs.”
Surprised, the journalists stopped clicking on their cameras and whispered, “Who’s that?”
“Yeah, who’s that?” Everyone was asking the same question with a hesitant look in their eyes.
Only Amber recognized the person when she saw her, and her eyes widened in shock. It’s her? She’s back?!
