Chapter 33 Don’t Come Back if You’re That Great
Josh felt Alexander’s darkened gaze lingering on him the moment he finished his sentence, so he quickly swallowed the rest of his words; he then quietly ignited the car engine and wore his seatbelt. Everything is pretty obvious, anyway. Courtney made a bet with the boss—she promised to pack up and leave if she didn’t fulfil the job achievements that she had agreed to by the end of her 3-month probation. All of the interviewers witnessed this agreement.
Although the hotel’s performance has been improving ever since Courtney took over the job, she’s still far from achieving her targeted goals. It has been 2 months, and she even had to be hospitalized for a while during that period, so it seems like she might not be able to succeed.
That’s probably why Alexander put her in charge of the centennial celebration! Firstly, it gives her an additional two months to work here; also, she can take credit for all the achievements obtained as she handles the centennial celebration. But there was one thing that Josh still didn’t understand. Why is Alexander being so caring toward Courtney? Is it just because she saved Jordan?
“By the way, President Duncan, didn’t you say that Eddie’s driving skills were pretty good? Why did you fire him all of a sudden?” Josh asked.
“He talked too much,” Alexander muttered.
Josh felt his muscles tensing in fright. He no longer dared to say anything as he was pretty talkative himself.
Edward Burton, the mentor who guided Courtney in her job, quickly handed the rest of her projects and duties over to other employees once Courtney took on the project of planning the centennial celebration. She was surprised to see that he did this to allow more time for her to handle her current project.
“Courtney, there were so many people from the planning team during that meeting, yet President Duncan wasn’t interested in any of their ideas. You have to do a good job since your abilities caught his eye. It helps to improve our hotel’s reputation as well.” Edward rarely ever guided her in work, but he seemed to have changed his attitude toward her after that meeting. She was flattered. “I’ll work hard!”
The whole week after that, she spent most of her time traveling around town. As she had never planned an anniversary event in the past, she wanted to take a look at how other companies or businesses planned their events just to get an idea of what it would look like.
“May I help you, miss?” Courtney spun around to see a worker from the mall staring at her. He appeared to be polite and nice, but there was a hint of alertness in his gaze. Courtney had been snapping a large number of pictures of the mall with the phone in her hand, so he probably assumed she was some competitor within their industry, or a worker from the Bureau of Commerce. She hurriedly put her phone away before she spoke in a calm tone. “I’m just shopping. Can I know where your jewelry store is?”
The worker hesitated for a moment before he pointed in a direction. “Over there.” She thanked the worker and ignored his odd glances as she walked directly toward the jewelry store. She had expected her photographing acts to attract unwanted attention, so she already had a backup plan to deal with this matter.
The manager in the jewelry store wore her gloves before she lifted up the necklace that Courtney had passed to her. It was a silver rope chain necklace that had a clear emerald stone hanging on it, with small diamonds surrounding the stone. It was a special and stunning piece of jewelry.
“It’s from our store indeed.” The manager confirmed.
“Really? You guys were the ones that sold this?” Courtney tried her best to contain her excitement.
“This rope chain is a classic collection in our store. Also, look at this. Every piece of jewelry made in our store has a small logo of our brand here. It’s tiny, so most people don’t realize it,” the manager explained as she pointed her finger toward a part of the chain.
“Are there a lot of people that purchased this necklace in your store?” Courtney asked.
The manager shook her head as she beamed. “This is a valuable piece of emerald; it’s dated and priceless. We don’t have such designs in the store, so this client probably brought the emerald in and asked for us to customize it.”
“Can you check the details of the customer that customized it?” Courtney’s face lit up in joy.
“This was probably sold a long time ago, so it might take some time for me to find the records. But we’ll try our best to help,” the manager uttered, upon which Courtney expressed her gratitude immediately. “No worries. You can keep the necklace for now. Honestly, this is the first time I’ve seen an emerald as pretty as this after working here for so many years. There’s probably a record of it somewhere,” the manager said.
Courtney couldn’t contain the excitement that she felt even after she stepped out of the jewelry store. When she gave birth to her two children in Melrose City 5 years ago, she brought Tina home after the doctor took her other baby. After all these years, she still longed to see her other child; this necklace was the only clue that connected her to the child because she tore the necklace away from the man’s neck that night. Courtney felt chills running down her spine whenever she thought of that incident 6 years ago.
She felt the shadow of another person’s figure standing in her way just as she was recalling her past memories. “Courtney.” The person’s voice was thin and a little menacing. The look on Courtney’s face changed the moment she lifted her head up to see the person who stood before her eyes.
“It really is you. I was worried that I had gotten the wrong person.” The edge of the woman’s lips curled up into a smirk as she wrapped her arms in front of her chest. “You haven’t been home in 5 years, and you haven’t contacted anyone from home recently. We all thought you had died on the streets.”
Anna Hunter snickered. She was Courtney’s half-sister as they had the same father, and she still had the same arrogant and domineering personality even though they hadn’t met one another in years. In fact, Courtney felt that she might even be more malicious and sharper with her words than before. She quickly regained her composure and glared at her sister coldly. “You seem pretty disappointed that I didn’t die on the streets, Anna.”
“What’s there to be disappointed about? Have you been back in the country for a long while? Dad would be so heartbroken to learn that you returned without even informing your own family of it. He spent years taking care of you, yet you leave and return to the country as you please. You really think our home is just a motel, huh?” Anna didn’t play along with Courtney’s snide remarks and lectured her in a sour tone instead.
“That’s between Dad and I; it has got nothing to do with you,” Courtney muttered.
“I’m the eldest daughter of the Hunter Family, so of course it has something to do with me. Who knows what sort of people you’ve been messing around with all these years? You claimed that you traveled overseas to further your studies when you didn’t even graduate from your university here. You were just lying to Dad, weren’t you?” Anna lifted her chin and looked downward upon Courtney.
In response to her sister’s harsh words, Courtney simply clenched her fists and smirked. “Wouldn’t it be good news for you if I didn’t further my studies and messed around with other men instead? That way, you’d have one less person as your competition for the family’s inheritance; you and your mom can probably smile even in your sleep then, huh?”
“Don’t make unfounded accusations like that,” Anna hissed as her face turned pale.
“Well, you know how true my words are deep down. Anyway, it’s none of your business whether I go home or not. Since we don’t share the same mother, you should stop bossing me around as if you were actually my elder sister.
I’m not a kid anymore, so you can’t bully me even if you have your mother’s support.” Courtney’s face was stone cold as she gave the other woman a warning. Her final sentence sounded like she was criticizing her sister.
“W-Who are you criticizing now? You…” Anna’s face was as pale as a sheet.
“Good dogs don’t stand in the way of others,” Courtney mumbled before she stepped to her side and walked past her sister. She intentionally bumped her shoulder against Anna as she left. “Just you wait, Courtney. You should just never come home if you’re that great,” Anna hissed as furiously stomped her foot.
