Upon seeing the current situation, Heather felt that she had nothing else to talk to Leon about anymore. Looking at him in disappointment, she said, “I think I need to calm down.”
The plans that she formulated in her mind were completely disrupted. She had lost all interest in them and she only wanted to leave this place as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, he had no idea how he had antagonized her. She suddenly became rather frightening, making him fearful to continue speaking for the fear that she might suddenly slap him.
“Heather, did I say something wrong just now?” he asked remorsefully, thinking that he must have annoyed her because of what he had said earlier.
“I think I’m going to reconsider our collaboration plan.” Heather did not seem like she was joking at all. Looking at how serious she was in her eyes, Leon became even more worried. Even up until now, he could not figure out what had gone wrong here.
When she rose to leave, he pulled her. “Heather, did I anger you? Where are you going?” At such a crucial juncture, she can’t leave!
“Leo, it’s only now that I found out that I’ve never really known you at all,” she answered angrily. She was so disappointed in him at this moment. After so many years, I haven’t understood him at all. I don’t even know who he really is.
Leon innocently looked at her. Did I go overboard with my words earlier? He tried to remember what had exactly happened. Did I do something wrong? In that instant, he felt wronged.
“Heather, did you misunderstand something? I don’t have any intentions to trick you, I just…” Toward the end of his sentence, he looked quite troubled as he thought that no matter what he said at this moment, it would just be excuses to her ears.
“Leon, let me calm down first.” Heather did not want to listen to any explanations from him at this moment. The more he tried to explain, the angrier she became. She suddenly understood how it would feel to be betrayed by her best friend.
She remembered Myra, who was still in the ringleader’s hands at this moment. Back then, Myra was also mad at her. Thinking about it now, she would not give the other person a good time if she had also suffered the same treatment.
Heather was annoyed by her own behavior, so this time around, she hoped that during their mission to save Myra, Myra would not be hurt at all. If possible, she would much rather be the one who got kidnapped.
“Heather, we don’t have much time left. You must help me this time around.” Leon was frowning so hard that his eyebrows had almost connected with each other. He was worried that she might suddenly leave him alone. If that happened, his life would be ruined.
“Leon, do you know how selfish you are? Throughout my entire life, I hate it the most when people exploit my feelings to lay traps on me. You have reached my bottom line. How can I even forgive you?” Heather yelled. After all, she was unable to pretend as if nothing had happened.
He regretted that he told her the truth this early as he accidentally blurted his true thoughts out. How can I forget that Heather is one who would be convinced by gentleness? She doesn’t like being forced. “I’m really sorry, Heather. Something must have happened to me. I shouldn’t disbelieve our relationship,” he apologized with a tone that sounded like he blamed himself for using her feelings to trap her in this situation. Now, it has become worse than before.
She looked at him with a cold smile. Even though Leon knows that he’s wrong, he is not remorseful at all! Through his eyes, she could tell what he had been thinking. In the past, she would never doubt him. It was only until now that she understood how trust could simply disintegrate in a second.
“Since you chose not to trust me from the beginning, you don’t have to do that right now.” Heather’s cold tone made Leon rather uncomfortable. This time around, he knew he was in hot soup.
“I can’t even stand staying with you for another second. Don’t stop me now. You will only make me hate you even more.” Now that she made herself clear, he did not dare to stop her anymore. Instead, he merely smiled at her helplessly.
As he saw Heather leaving the room, the usually playful Leon finally understood something—there are some things in life that ought to be taken seriously. Now that he chose another method, he only understood that he encountered a life crisis in that instant.
Heather has left. Perhaps she won’t even appear at the family party the day after tomorrow. Leon had learned how to lie since young and he had done so numerous times once he was a grown up to the point that he could have almost fooled himself.
A huge price would be needed to be paid for telling lies. In the past, he did not know about that, but he finally understood the impact now. He had no idea what he should do next, so he only gave a bitter smile.
After leaving his mansion, Heather felt that she was a failure. What a terrible life! I felt as though I’ve sunken into an even deeper mud as time goes by.
Life is such a weird circle. I betrayed my closest friend and now Leon has lied to me. At this moment, it was the first time she felt so helpless.
However, she could not tell Matthias about this because there were many plans she had that would hurt him. Yesterday night was her final time depending on him. She knew that she had no right to care about her own romance at this moment. All she could do was to protect the Langston Family, yet she forgot to protect herself.
As the car sped away on the highway, Heather seemed as though she was having a race with herself. With the wind blowing next to her ears, her mind seemed to buzz. She did not want to return to the Langston Family, but she did not want to go anywhere else at all.
However, in the midst of her panic, the ringleader called again, which caused her spirit to sink to its lowest point. As the ringleader voice rang from the phone dominantly, the wind outside the car lowered her listening skills. She merely listened to him in a daze.
“I will do as you say,” she replied in a docile manner as she suppressed the urge within her, even though she did not clearly hear him.
She vaguely understood that he had requested her to look for Tony at the Hart Group today. For the past few days, as the ringleader had not revealed himself, she initially thought that the matter could be delayed for a few more days, so she had to grit her teeth and face it.
With no direction to head to at the moment, the ringleader gave her a clear instruction on where to go. This is good. What’s meant to come will eventually come. I can’t avoid it anyway.
Since it was not her first time at the Hart Group, Heather quickly found the director’s office. The secretary sitting outside seemed to have changed. The new secretary looked rather b*tchy, which made Heather slightly uncomfortable. However, she forgot that she resembled the b*tchest person as she still had her makeup on her face.
After the secretary exchanged glances with her, Heather seemed to realize that something was off. Leo is not just Tony’s secretary. He is Tony’s right hand man. It’s impossible for him to fire Leo, so where is he? How could this woman qualify to replace him?
She gave Heather a polite smile. “Please wait a moment. The director is meeting some guests now. You need to wait for another 20 minutes before he’s free again.”
Even though nothing seemed wrong from the surface, Heather was unhappy with her to the point that she felt an intense dislike toward her for no apparent reason. As both women exchanged gazes, there was too much information hidden in their eyes. Meanwhile, Heather tried to remember where she had seen this woman before.
However, Heather could not recall where exactly they had met. She had always taken pride in her strong memory, but she had no idea what was going on at this moment and Heather seemed like the vague woman she met last time.
Remembering the maid that she had met at the Hart Residence last time, Heather guessed whether that person was the same as the secretary now in front of her. The connection had troubled her as she was worried that her assumption could be true.
After being stared at for a long time, the secretary finally could not take it anymore and took the initiative to ask, “Miss Langston, is there something on my face?” When Heather heard her slightly sarcastic tone, she liked the woman even less.
“No, you are beautiful,” Heather replied rather hypocritically.
The secretary merely gave a sweet smile. “Thanks for the compliment, Miss Langston. It’s my honor to be praised by you.” She looked genuine at this moment, making Heather doubt herself. Am I overthinking this?
Not wanting to be so skeptical of everything, she decided to search for a spot to sit and stopped looking at the secretary so that her thoughts would not be even messier than they already were.
Heather had not thought about what to tell Tony up until now. She did not know whether the ringleader had called Tony and she did not feel anything off at the Hart Group either. It seemed like he had hidden everything well.
Hence, she merely sat on the couch as she waited for him. 20 minutes became excruciatingly long to her, as if it was a long time. Her gaze would occasionally flicker to the secretary as she waited. Perhaps I should take the initiative to have a chat with her. Since I have some doubts, I should try to clear them instead of running away from them.
After thinking about it, Heather decided to break the ice by mentioning Leo, so she pretended to ask nonchalantly, “Is Leo inside?” I sound so stiff! She secretly despised herself in her heart.
The secretary gave her a blank look. “Leo?” It looks as though she doesn’t know him. Heather tried to search for some signs of her lying, but it was so natural that it did not seem like the woman was lying.
“Leo Clark,” Heather elaborated.
The secretary shook her head. “I’m sorry. I just started my job, so I’m not very clear with many things.”
Heather tried to gather some clues from the secretary’s face, but she did not get any. This woman is either telling the truth, or she is a damn good actress. “Alright,” she replied softly. She found it rather weird that she could not bring herself to be polite to the secretary.
The more she knew about the secretary, the more problematic things seemed. After all, the secretary was replacing Leo’s former position. She doesn’t even know a thing about the previous secretary? It sounds fishy to me.
Heather gave an understanding smile. Since they had already talked about Leo, she tried to look for other topics to chat with the secretary. “I wonder how I should address you.” She remembered that she still had not known the secretary’s name even after chatting with the secretary for quite a while.
The secretary apologized, “I’m sorry, Miss Langston. I almost forgot to introduce myself.” She looked like she liked Heather a lot, but Heather knew that it was just a pretense.
In no time, she continued speaking, “I’m Zephyr. Zephyr Ashe.” It was a simple and straightforward introduction, but it was quite a strange name to have.
In fact, it sounded more like a codename instead of an actual name. Heather quietly memorized it so that she could dig into this woman’s background the moment she returned to her place.
However, it was also highly likely that they would not be able to locate anything. She recalled the maid she met at the Hart Residence and speculated that even if they were not the same person, they had belonged to the same group.
Heather had never imagined there would be a day where she would speak to a stranger for such a long time. 20 minutes seemed like 2 hours to her and she was never talkative before this. “How long have you been working at the Hart Group?” She did not even notice that she sounded as though she was interrogating Zephyr.
Fortunately, Heather was a woman. If she were a man, Zephyr might have reported a case of workplace harassment by now.
She looked at Heather with a slightly awkward expression as she also did not expect that Heather was so bubbly and talkative. She is very different from what the rumors have said.
“It’s my third day at work today,” Zephyr replied with a smile. At this point, she had no idea how to continue the conversation with Heather any longer and she wished for Tony to be quickly done with his current meeting.
Heather’s lips could not help but twitch to form a wicked smile. As she calculated the time in her mind, she found the secretary increasingly suspicious.
