“It’s fortunate that you brought her here so soon. Based on her current condition, it seems like she’s having an asthma attack after a serious case of allergies. You guys are her parents, and you know about her allergies, so why didn’t you guys watch out? She must have accidentally had some,” the doctor said.
Justin’s face darkened as he glanced at Rachel. “Come out for a while.” Rachel didn’t know what was going on. Justin tugged her toward the stairway once they walked out of the emergency room. He shoved her against the wall angrily. “What did you do?”
“Ow!” Rachel cried out as she felt a sharp pain shooting through her back. “What are you talking about?” she cried as she tried to hold back her cries.
“Didn’t you hear what the doctor said earlier? You fed Charlotte some honey, didn’t you?” he asked.
“I didn’t.”
“Why would Charlotte become like this after just taking a bite out of the cookie otherwise? Do you know that it’s life-threatening for her even to have a little bit of honey? Honey triggers her asthma instantly!” he cried.
The cookies? Rachel was stunned for a moment. “That’s impossible. I didn’t put any honey in the cookies,” she muttered. Could there have been something in the ingredients of the baking materials that contained honey?
Justin was even more furious when he saw the doubtful look on her face. “Did you think that criticizing the way I teach my daughter would make you a qualified mother? You don’t care about your daughter at all; you’re just putting on a fake show of being a loving mother.”
“I’m sorry. I really didn’t know that those cookies.”
“That’s enough!” Justin raised his voice as he howled at her. “I’m warning you now, Rachel. I don’t want you anywhere near Charlotte from now on.”
Bang! The sound of the door closing echoed in the stairway, and Rachel felt her ears ringing. The look in Justin’s eyes before he left made him seem like he was ready to kill someone. Rachel had no doubt that he might have murdered her if something actually happened to Charlotte,
Her phone had already been vibrating in her pocket for a while before she reacted to it. “Hello? Something came up here; I’m in the hospital. It’s nothing. I’ll tell you about it when I get back.”
After she got off the call, Rachel returned to the emergency room and peeked at Charlotte through the curtains for a while. The young girl was lying on the bed, and she looked much better after she received an IV drip. Rachel only left after she heard the doctor telling Justin that Charlotte’s condition was stable.
Jolly appeared with a mask on her face once Rachel got home. “What’s going on? Didn’t you say that you were going to Justin’s house for dinner? I thought you were planning to bake cookies with Charlotte before checking the passcode on the safebox. How did you guys end up in the hospital?”
“Charlotte ingested some honey by accident, and it triggered her asthma attack because she’s allergic to it,” Rachel explained.
“Ah? How did it happen? How is she now?” Jolly asked.
“Fortunately, we were quick to respond, so her condition is stable now. She should be fine soon,” Rachel said. She still felt rather uneasy and worried as she explained the situation.
Jolly heaved a sigh of relief. “That’s good. As long as she’s fine.”
“There’s something odd about it, though,” Rachel uttered.
“Ah?” Jolly was surprised. “What is it?”
“I’m not sure for now. I might need your help with something, Jolly.” Rachel’s pupils shrank as she spoke. “I think someone got rather impatient to have plotted such a fishy incident. I’m afraid she might make things worse if I don’t do anything about it.”
The next day, Rachel went to the office as usual. There was a meeting in the morning at Burton Group’s headquarters, and the management team of the headquarters had to take part in the meeting. Although Rachel was only the sales director of Burton Pharmaceuticals, there weren’t any formal managers in Burton Pharmaceuticals as it was considered a franchise of the company that was managed by Justin himself. In other words, Rachel’s role in the company was equivalent to that of the CEO of a company.
Her position wasn’t too far below Justin’s. When it was her turn to give an update on her work, she briefly explained the recent condition of the company. “There aren’t many issues with the pharmaceutical side of things. We’ll be welcoming our foreign clients this afternoon. If the partnership works out, then our international markets will be a little more stable.”
Justin was the one who questioned her. “Have you chosen who to greet the foreign clients?”
Rachel froze for a moment. Justin had responded with a simple ‘okay’ when the other people gave their reports. “What? Have you not planned it out?” Justin’s tone was sharp and cold. “It’s 9.30AM now, and you have less than three hours until lunchtime. Why haven’t you chosen the person in charge for this?”
Rachel frowned. “I’ll send Lisa to do it.” Lisa was her secretary.
“Lisa? It seems like you don’t really care about this international partnership. Do you think your skills with the international market are too good for you to handle a tiny project like this?” he asked.
“That’s not what I meant. I just thought that Lisa has the ability to close this deal,” Rachel explained.
“It’s fine,” Justin uttered flatly. “I think you should handle the welcome meeting this afternoon, Chris.”
Rachel froze for a moment. All of the people in the meeting room exchanged glances upon hearing his
that the foreign clients they were dealing with that day were just minor projects that didn’t matter much to them. It wasn’t important enough for Rachel to meet up with them personally, let alone for her to go and welcome them.
“Do you not want to do it?” Justin asked.
Rachel knitted her well-trimmed eyebrows in response to Justin’s cold glare.
“No. I’ll do it,” she replied.
“Great. The meeting’s over, then.” Everyone in the meeting room scattered off after he uttered his words-Rachel was the only one who stayed back. She stepped forward to stop Justin before he left. “I might have been too sensitive, President Burton. However, why do I feel like your guidance during the meeting earlier sounded a little like you were taking revenge against me for personal matters?”
“Do we have any personal matters between us?” he asked in return.
“No, I guess not. I don’t think it’s like you to jump to conclusions before clarifying the situation. However, this rule doesn’t seem to apply to me-you really haven’t changed at all in the past five years.”
Justin frowned at Rachel’s words as he couldn’t understand what she meant. “What are you talking about?” he asked.
“I’ll give you an explanation for Charlotte’s allergy incident. You should prepare yourself to apologize to me.” Rachel left the meeting after finishing her words. Her 5-inch heels made a clear, clicking sound against the floorboard, and she walked with elegance and confidence as if she weren’t affected by what happened at the meeting at all.
Justin straightened his tie a little. She’s just faking it!
That evening, Justin went to spend time with Charlotte at the hospital. Amber was there as well. “Look what I brought you, Charlotte. I made some of your favorite porridge.”
Charlotte felt moody the moment she saw Amber, but she didn’t have the energy to go against Amber as she wasn’t fully recovered yet. The young girl simply rolled her eyes lazily. “I don’t like porridge at all.”
Amber didn’t lose her temper at Charlotte. “You look so weak. You must have suffered a lot,” she said.
Justin took the bowl of porridge from Amber before he began to blow on a spoonful of porridge. “Come on, be a good girl and have some of this.” He moved the spoon closer to Charlotte’s lips.
Charlotte turned away from him. “I don’t want it,” she said weakly.
“Charlotte,” Justin uttered.
“Forget it, Justin. We shouldn’t force her to eat it if she doesn’t want to. The porridge is still hot, anyway. I’ll feed her later once it gets cooler,” Amber offered.
“I don’t want you to feed me anything,” Charlotte hissed at Amber. “Daddy, I want Mommy to be here. Where is she?”
“She’s busy with work, so she won’t be able to visit you for a while,” Justin replied in a rather cold tone, He felt furious whenever someone spoke of Rachel. Charlotte wouldn’t have been in the hospital if it weren’t for her.
