She had sent him an audio message in which she said, “Thank you for the lunch today. I love it.”
For a while, there was no reply. Just as Myra thought Sebastian was ignoring her, he sent an audio message, sounding gruff as he said pointedly, “What are you thanking me for? I’m not the one who asked the kitchen to make lunch for you. You should thank Tony’s grandma for this; it has nothing to do with me whatsoever.”
It was almost as if Sebastian couldn’t wait to deny all insinuations that he had anything to do with Myra’s lunchbox.
Nonetheless, warmth surged through Myra as she smiled at his message, and she said nothing more after that.
While she dug into her lunch, Tony was speaking to her on the phone.
“I just got off the phone with Mr. Engelhard,” he said down the line. Upon hearing that, she couldn’t help the contented smile on her face as his deep and husky voice filled her ears.
She took another bite of food from the lunchbox Sebastian had sent over and hummed in response before asking, “He didn’t even give me a call. What did the both of you talk about?”
In all honesty, Myra didn’t even think that they were that close to begin with.
Upon hearing her grumble, Tony chuckled in a low voice and answered, “We talked about business for a bit.”
“Oh.” She sounded sullen and skeptical.
Tony smirked. Truth was, he hadn’t been surprised when Conan called today. The latter must have had quite a shock when he heard rumors of Tony’s engagement to Myra. After all, Tony had promised the older man that he would fulfil the three conditions prior to asking for Myra’s hand in marriage.
“Naturally, we talked about the pre-marital conditions that must be met,” Tony elaborated lightly and at the thought of his conversation with Conan earlier that day, he smiled.
Myra stiffened at this and blood rushed to her face.
She also found herself drawing comparisons. Where Sean had disliked Conan, Tony was the complete opposite and while she was happy that he seemed to be on such good terms with the old man, she found herself getting just the tiniest bit jealous at their friendship. To add insult to injury, Conan had stopped going to her with all his anecdotes and problems, and had instead turned to Tony.
“And what conditions might those be?” she asked as she raised a quizzical brow, though the person on the other end could not see the cynical expression on her face.
Tony laughed softly before he murmured in a gentle voice, “Well, for starters, you would have to be pregnant with my child.”
When Myra heard this, she could imagine him standing next to her and caressing her belly. The flush on her face deepened into a near-crimson shade as she grumbled, “Don’t try to be funny, Tony. Why would Mr. Engelhard be discussing something like this with you?”
“If you don’t believe me, you can always give him a call and ask if we talked about it,” Tony suggested cheekily.
She could feel her face burning up and she thanked the heavens that he couldn’t see how sheepish she looked right now. In the end, she scoffed and said nothing else.
“I can’t tell if you’re mad or if you’re reluctant to carry my child,” he teased wickedly. He was doing this on purpose now that his urge to father a child was stronger than before. It turned out that there was some truth and reason to what Lyla had said.
Perhaps what weighed on his mind more than anything else was Sean’s recent erratic behavior. He must have figured out something and now that he was pestering Myra, it would only be a matter of time before he pursued her once more. While Tony was confident that Myra would stay by his side forever, he was also agitated that another man had set his sights on her. With that in mind, Tony was sure that a child was the best buffer.
With a child in tow, he could easily deal a harsh blow on all the other men who had their eyes on Myra. All he would have to do was say, “We have to go back and feed the baby.”
Life would be idyllic with a child and he found that he didn’t mind it at all. Tony’s eyes crinkled slightly in amusement as he pondered on this.
Myra, on the other hand, knew that he had the tendency to be blatant. There was no one else as thick-skinned as he was, and she knew how shameless and roguish he could be when they were together. With that in mind, she sighed in resignation and said, “I’ve finished my lunch. I have to get back to work, so I’ll hang up now.”
Knowing that she was easily embarrassed, he stopped teasing her. “I’ll pick you up after work.”
She hummed in response and she could feel her face heating up. Just as he was about to hang up, she quickly blew him a kiss that was followed by a ‘mwah’ sound, and ended the call right after that.
Then, she reached up to touch her face and found that her skin was hot to the touch.
She cringed at herself. For heavens’ sake, Myra Stark, you’re turning into a complete bimbo!
Meanwhile, on the other end of the line, Tony broke into a grin at the sound of her kiss, the frustration that he had felt since that morning fading away into nothing.
…
When Eve arrived at the Stark Group, she was informed that Myra was unavailable to meet her.
Tilly had been the one to relay the front desk’s message to Myra, and the latter had looked impassive when she heard it. She now regarded Eve with contempt and disinterest, and she wanted nothing to do with the woman.
“Tell the front desk that I’m in a meeting right now.”
Upon hearing this, Tilly nodded and hurried out of the office.
After the front desk relayed the message to Eve, the woman’s face grew grim and she snapped, “Give her another call and tell her that there’s something important I’d like to discuss. If she refuses to meet me, then I’ll just keep waiting here until she does!”
The receptionists swallowed, feeling caught between a rock and a hard place.
Judging from what Tilly had said, it was clear that Myra had no intention of meeting this woman. However, seeing as Eve was the matriarch of the Chase Family, they didn’t want to risk offending her, either. As such, they gave Tilly another call, though it was to no avail.
Having been turned down the second time, Eve grew thunderous. She scoffed icily as she marched toward the nearby reception lounge; she sat there waiting, her back stiff and ramrod straight.
As she waited, her phone rang incessantly with incoming calls but she did not pick up any of them. Instead, she merely glanced at the numbers flashing on her screen and left her phone ringing in her bag.
Meanwhile, Myra had a meeting at the nearby Newark Group in the afternoon. She had only just made her way downstairs when she was suddenly accosted by a woman who had dashed out of nowhere. Then, the latter lifted her hand and brought it down to slap Myra across the face.
Fortunately, Myra reacted in time and she held the woman by the wrist in a vise-like grip.
A dark look passed over her face as she appraised the woman in front of her. Then, she flung Eve away from her as she said icily, “A bit inappropriate for you to attack me here in the Stark Group, don’t you think, Madam Chase?”
“How shameless can you be, Myra? Haven’t you already weaseled your way into the Hart Family? Why are you still clinging onto my son?”
Eve was at her boiling point after waiting in the lounge for close to three hours, and seeing Myra only brought to mind Sean’s recent behavior. At this moment, she wanted nothing more than to slap the living daylights out of the girl.
She had once thought that Myra was a gentle and sensible woman but as it turned out, she had been wrong. She’s still clinging onto and taking advantage of my son even after their divorce! A heavy warning is the only way to ward off a woman like her!
“I’m warning you—you’d better stay away from my son!” Eve thundered as she eyed Myra with disgust. “You were the one who said you wanted nothing to do with us after the divorce, and yet here you are pining after my son. Does the Hart Family know about what you’re doing?”
Myra’s face grew stormy as the other woman chastised her. She had refused to meet with Eve, but it was clear that the latter didn’t take no for an answer and had been waiting in the building to attack her at first sight.
“You must be joking, Madam Chase. When have I ever pined after your son? I don’t know what tricks you and Lyla are pulling here, but I’m afraid I don’t have the time for them,” Myra retorted coldly.
It wasn’t too long ago when Lyla had approached her and accused her of pining after Sean in spite of the divorce. Do both these women really think I’m that much of a pushover?
Annoyed, Myra threw a pointed look at the security guards who stood by the side and barked, “Don’t let her in the next time you see her.”
The guards exchanged a nervous look before they hurriedly nodded.
A menacing gleam flashed in Eve’s eyes as she saw this and she spat, “So this is what you’re truly like, Myra—selfish and arrogant. I promise you I won’t be so civil anymore if you keep pestering my son!”
Upon hearing this, Myra let out a mocking laugh. “You should tell your son to stop pestering me on the phone. He and I are nothing more than strangers, so he should stop trying so hard to pretend otherwise.”
