Robert repeatedly scrutinized the man standing in front of him; he tried hard to glean some clues from Blake’s expression. He claims to have the family’s interest at heart, but it’s quite obvious that he’s using this opportunity to coerce Heather. There was no way on earth that he would agree to Blake’s suggestion of sacrificing Heather for the sake of the company. As he frowned, he gradually sat down while he maintained his gaze on Blake.
At this point, the duo silently stared at each other. After some time, Robert mentioned with a distant tone, “There is no need for our family to resort to such a desperate measure of sacrificing a family member’s future for the sake of the company’s interest.” He had previously seen for himself Blake’s tactics. Sadly, Blake remained steadfast in his ways of using these underhanded measures to plot against others.
Both of them refused to give in to the other. Blake insisted on progressing with his plan under the guise of maintaining the family’s interest. On the other hand, it was obvious that Robert would never allow Blake to use Heather as a pawn.
Meanwhile, Heather escorted Myra to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, Myra suddenly recovered, but she insisted that Myra undergo a body check to ensure that everything was alright with her pregnancy.
As Heather scurried around the hospital, Myra looked on. She was at a loss for words at the moment, but there was a smile on her face. Life was much better with great friends like Heather, making Myra realize that it was much better to have one or two genuine friends than to have multiple casual acquaintances.
“Dr. Ryans, is it necessary for her to undergo a cranial CT scan?” Heather focused her eyes on the specialist sitting across the room from her.
“Yes, it is. Otherwise, it would be quite hard to diagnose the problem.” She looked at Myra as she responded to the question.
“She’s pregnant!” Heather stood protectively in front of Myra and retorted. “She can’t possibly undergo a cranial CT scan!” What’s wrong with this specialist? She doesn’t even consider the actual circumstances before giving a suggestion!
“That’s right. It’s not possible to choose this option right now. It would be a better idea to run further diagnostic tests after she has given birth,” Dr. Ryans responded with a wary look on her face as she looked at Heather whose current expression resembled a tiger about to pounce on her prey.
Before Heather could say anything, Myra interjected. With a polite smile, she responded, “Sure, it’s fine for now then.” She knew that there was no point in making things difficult for the specialist. Besides, the results from all her other tests returned normal, so it seemed that everything was fine overall.
After the consultation, both of them left the hospital and they felt quite hungry after the ordeal. Furthermore, they hadn’t eaten much during lunch. Heather turned to Myra and said, “Let’s go, I’ll treat you to a nice meal!” It’s not good to starve a pregnant lady. Besides, there’s also a baby who needs nutrients there, so I shouldn’t deprive him of that!
Myra glanced at her watch and noticed that it was quite late. After giving some thought, she asked, “What do you want for lunch?” Gosh, we spent so much time at the hospital because Heather insisted on me getting a full body check.
“Let’s discuss this in the car.” Heather opened the car door and at the same time, she tried to think of a nearby restaurant to head to.
As soon as Myra entered the car, she received a phone call from Tony. Naturally, he was quite worried because she had gone out in the morning to the Langston Residence, but she hadn’t arrived home.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be back for dinner,” she mentioned to him. I don’t know what he’s worried about. She smiled in contentment after ending the call. Evidently, she was elated about it despite her lament.
“I’m quite envious of seeing you two being so affectionate with each other,” Heather said while staring at Myra seated next to her.
“That’s how you’ll feel once you meet the right person.” The smile on Myra’s face was indeed a source of envy.
Heather gripped tightly on the steering wheel and looked forward with a resigned smile. “It’s easy to fall in love with someone, but the hard part is to maintain the relationship. Most of the time, people fall in love with someone who doesn’t share the same feelings as them. There are also instances of people who get together because of their love for each other, but break up from each other due to all sorts of reasons.” She had always harbored a pessimistic view on relationship matters.
“That’s quite true! Life isn’t always a bed of roses and there are a lot of possibilities in life to experience. We would never know for sure what would happen until we actually experience life.” Myra was affected by Heather’s pessimism and lamented about it too. The hardest thing to achieve is an ordinary life, devoid of any ups and downs and without any accidents.
“Stop overthinking! You have to eat healthily during your pregnancy as well as maintain a positive outlook in life; otherwise…” You could become depressed, Heather thought as she trailed off. Despite it being a joke, she couldn’t bear to subject Myra to that possibility too. She sincerely hoped that Myra could gain all the happiness that she didn’t quite possess.
“Otherwise, what?” Myra laughingly questioned. How can someone stop speaking just like that?
“Otherwise, you might not deliver to a cute and chubby child. After all, babies look cuter when they are chubby.” Heather gave a cunning smile, just like how she was in her younger days.
“No way! If the baby’s too big in size, it could become a complicated birth,” Myra reminded as she scrunched up her nose. Every time she hung out with Heather, she felt like they returned in time and everything was just like before. In the past, they were merely kids, but now she was about to give birth and become a parent. Time really had flown past. She had yearned to get older as soon as possible when she was young, but now, she would rather time slowly tick as she had a lot of things yet to be done.
There would be an outcome within the next few days in regards to the issue with Stark Group. As soon as Myra realized that, she sighed in relief. Heather’s done so much for me this time! She decided that she would plan a relaxing trip with Tony once the issues with Stark Group had been settled. It’s definitely time for a break! We have been living under pressure for such a long time. Come to think of it, this has been such a difficult year full of ups and downs.
As Myra was lost in her thoughts, Heather parked the car at the entrance of a tiny restaurant and she opened the car door with a smile. She lifted her head and glanced at the restaurant before turning toward Myra, who was by her side. Then, the two of them looked at each other and exchanged a knowing smile.
“Oh! This restaurant’s still here after such a long time. That’s quite surprising!” Myra used to enjoy having her meals here with Heather, making them regular customers. However, she had hardly visited ever since Heather left the country.
“Haha! That’s because the food here is delicious! Obviously, they don’t lack customers despite their location!”
Both of them entered the shop one after another and chose a table by the windowsill. The menu was quite similar to what they were accustomed to before. There were a couple of new dishes that were added while some of the dishes from the old menu were gone. They ordered the meal in a hurry as they were starving and couldn’t wait to enjoy a hot, piping meal. Most of their favorite dishes were still on the menu, so it didn’t take them long to decide. Besides that, they tried one of the new dishes on the menu to find out whether the restaurant had improved after all these years.
After ordering their food, they waited patiently for it. Heather spent her time occasionally glancing at Myra and looking outside the window as well. They were quite comfortable with each other despite not speaking a word since there was a comfortable rapport between them. Moreover, both of them were lost in their own thoughts.
Heather decided that she would not continue thinking about Matthias this time. She had made up her mind to cast all the rumors aside for now and enjoy herself as she reminisced about old times.
Meanwhile, Matthias was currently in Robert’s study. After teaching Blake a lesson, Robert had slightly mellowed and he was no longer as upset as before. Matthias politely and courteously took a seat opposite Robert in the room.
“Matthias Locke.” Robert looked at him and called out his name.
”Old Master Langston.” Matthias nodded and smiled. “What do you wish to discuss with me, sir?” Evidently, he was not welcomed here; he had waited for so long, yet he was not even served a single cup of tea.
“Could you tell me what’s going on between you and Heather?” Robert stared into Matthias’ attractive pair of almond-shaped eyes. Matthias was blessed with a pair of seductive-looking eyes, but no one had realized the emotions behind his cold interior.
“Gosh, sir. You must be mistaken! Frankly speaking, the speculations by the press are utter nonsense! I wouldn’t dare to hide anything from you, sir.” It was quite obvious that Matthias was trying hard to get into Robert’s good books. After all, Robert was still the head of the family.
“Oh, is that so?” Robert slightly toned down in response to Matthias’ polite attitude.
“The newspapers are usually full of speculation. My meeting with Miss Langston was mainly to discuss the collaboration between our two families. We had a great time talking to each other, so we got carried away. That resulted in the meeting going longer than expected. Moreover, we had a few drinks, so…” Matthias felt quite shy to continue his words.
“Why didn’t you send Heather back home after that, though?” Robert wasn’t one who could be easily fooled. If he can’t give me a plausible explanation, then I will just assume that he had ill intentions against Heather.
Matthias sheepishly looked at him and answered, “Miss Langston can hold her liquor quite well. However, I couldn’t and I wasn’t conscious at that point, so my driver sent us directly to my place.” His slightly abashed look was perfectly portrayed. I’ll continue acting like a shy little youngster today.
“So, did anything happen between the two of you?” Robert fixed his piercing eyes on Matthias. It looks like he’s not prepared to tell me the exact details. Oh well, I am considered one of his elders, so I guess I shouldn’t be too intrusive!
“Nothing happened that night. The next morning, perhaps Miss Langston misunderstood the situation and we had a disagreement then. Right when that happened, everything was coincidentally caught on camera by members of the press lying in wait outside my house. Sir, I’m sure you know how they move about. They are always trying to find some sensational news to publish. As such, those photos were specifically taken from well-placed angles and are merely their tactics to pull the wool over the public’s eyes,” Matthias explained patiently to Robert. In fact, he was keen to show the world that he and Heather were possibly in an intimate relationship. However, he didn’t dare to publicly announce that yet because he knew that it would offend a lot of people.
Meanwhile, Robert looked at him with a doubtful look. “Are you sure nothing happened?”
In response to Robert’s interrogation, Matthias revealed a bashful smile. “Well, how should I put this? Naturally, it would be hard to contain ourselves from just hugging and kissing each other. Then again, I’m not that brazen to go any further than that. I was completely wasted and couldn’t even stand upright, so what else could I do?”
All of a sudden, he felt like a rapist being interrogated by the police. He then regretted his rash decision that night; his action of landing himself under the limelight would quite likely be a problem in the future.
Upon hearing Matthias mention the words ‘hug’ and ‘kiss’, Robert lost his composure and lamented in his heart, I was right; he has the flighty personality of a player! He has to take responsibility toward Heather for his actions! He can’t just brush it off by saying that they couldn’t contain themselves! Even if Heather’s fine with this, I’m not!
“Just hugging and kissing each other?! You seem to be taking this quite lightly! Is this how things are with you youngsters nowadays?” He shot a dirty look at Matthias.
Matthias had intended to make the situation sound more realistic, so he thought it would be a good idea to admit that they had hugged and kissed. He didn’t realize the extent of Robert’s protectiveness toward Heather as the latter couldn’t seem to accept such behavior at all. It was at that moment when Matthias glanced at him with slight trepidation.
He felt guilty in front of Robert and he lost his imposing manner while facing the latter. He’s been in the corporate world for more than thirty years after all, so it’s quite normal that I’m not comparable to him. He came up with that excuse in his mind.
After a short pause, Matthias replied, “I know it’s my fault for my lack of self-control. Frankly speaking, my feelings toward Miss Langston are…” He couldn’t quite bring himself to admit that he liked Heather.
“Are what?” Robert asked with a stern voice. He suddenly felt that Matthias was too wishy-washy and behaved more like a sissy.
“I like Miss Langston, but it’s one-sided on my part so I don’t dare to harbor any hopes. This incident with the press has caused a rift between Miss Langston and me to the point where I have no idea how to express my feelings toward her. I know I’m not good enough for her, but I like her very much and that’s something I can’t control,” Matthias expressed with a forlorn look. He had already gotten information that Robert was always steadfastly loyal in his relationship. As such, Matthias took advantage of this knowledge and tried to portray himself as Heather’s unrequited pursuer. He was quite confident that he could win Robert’s favor this way.
