Since Josiah had already mentioned it, Heather knew there was no point to insist and nodded her head instead. “Thanks for the invitation, Mr. Safford. You’re too kind!” She was quite keen to show her amiability, so she naturally didn’t reject his invitation for lunch. Besides, it had been quite some time since she last tasted a home-cooked meal prepared by an elder. Ever since she was a young child, her parents had never cooked a single meal for her.
Right after he left the living room, Paige, who was seated next to Heather, fidgeted nervously. She looked as if she had something to say, which piqued Heather’s curiosity.
Compared to her father, Paige was much more impulsive. She was the typical business executive; although being frank was a good quality, it was more important to be cryptic when dealing with business affairs. As such, it was evident that she could only succeed in the role of being Heather’s deputy.
Even more so, Paige was not as independent as Leon. From the looks of it, she had a lot more room to improve on. Nevertheless, Heather’s main intention today was to entice Josiah to join the team. Of course, in order to entice him, Paige was definitely the critical point.
“Heather, my dad still has his concerns,” Paige mentioned with hesitance on her face.
Heather pondered, I’m sure there’s a story behind this. I must coax this out of Paige.
“That’s fine, I understand,” she answered with an air of nonchalance. She was quite sure that with Paige by her side, it wouldn’t take long for Josiah to agree to join the team.
“In the past, our family corporation had faced bankruptcy due to one of his mistakes. This came as a huge blow to him and he still blames himself for that, even up till now. That’s why he’s indecisive about re-entering the corporate world. He’s just afraid that he’ll ruin things.” Paige frankly revealed his concerns to Heather as she no longer regarded the latter as a stranger.
As soon as Heather heard that, she looked at Paige solemnly and replied with a regretful tone, “I didn’t expect that he had such an unfortunate past. It’s my fault for being too eager to achieve my goal.” Heather didn’t mind returning to persuade him as she had plenty of patience to deal with him.
Originally, she was quite desperate to start the company as soon as possible, but now that everything had come together all at once, she had made up her mind to slow down. She was no longer anxious to gain the Staffords’ support. As long as they didn’t reject her outrightly, she was quite happy to take her time and pursue them slowly.
Surprised by Heather’s easy-going attitude, Paige responded with a smile, “Don’t worry, I’ll definitely convince Dad to join us!” Evidently, Paige wanted to grab this opportunity. She thought of the shares offered by Heather and could practically see their chance of rebuilding their family corporation.
Although Paige currently held a job as a business executive with an annual salary that ran in the millions, she was well aware that the sum was peanuts compared to the annual income of a company and corporation.
“There’s no rush for that. Take your time. I think it’s better if he’s in a relaxed state. My only wish is for everyone to gladly join my team.” Heather made her point clear and she didn’t want to force people to join her since she was only after those who were willing.
During lunch at the Staffords, Josiah maintained his courteous attitude. He chatted with her about all of his interesting experiences and had plenty to share. He was quite knowledgeable too. Both of them had enjoyed their conversation very much. He even felt that she was more in sync with him than Paige was and the former managed to win his favor with her antics. She had always been skillful at winning the hearts of others with her subtle nuances in fact well-practiced on her part.
The three of them enjoyed their time chatting with each other. The taste of the food wasn’t their priority as they enjoyed the company more than anything else. Heather felt quite moved upon seeing the heartfelt affection Josiah and Paige had for each other.
She compared that to what she had experienced since young—she never had an amicable relationship with Stephen since young and because she was unable to defend herself when she was younger, she became his punching bag. As soon as she was old enough to stand up for herself, she became quite rebellious and her relationship with him soured then. As for Camille, she had always disregarded everything. No one realized how much Heather yearned to have an actual home.
After lunch, Heather left the Staffords’ house reluctantly. She turned to Paige and said, “Is it alright for me to come over tomorrow and keep Mr. Stafford company?” Heather knew it was not practical to take up any more of Paige’s working hours. Besides, she enjoyed chatting with Josiah, so visiting him as a younger generation should be acceptable.
“You’re most welcome here. Dad’s always complaining that he’s so bored of being home by himself all day long that he’s becoming senile as a result,” Paige jokingly remarked.
“There’s no need to send me off. I’ll be on my way now,” Heather replied as she looked at Paige.
It seems that Paige is the ambitious one in the family. Josiah seems quite content with what he currently possesses. I guess I can’t convince him to join the team even by increasing the number of shares for them. It’s all dependent on Paige now. I guess everything is dependent on Paige’s skills and Josiah’s affections for her. Heather was full of confidence at that moment because she always believed that things would be successful for those who prepared in advance.
Everyone had always assumed that she was extremely lucky, but no one saw the efforts she put in behind their backs. She was always well-prepared in everything she did and that was why she enjoyed success in most of her ventures.
She glanced at her cell phone and thought that it was still fairly early. Then, she dialed Matthias’ phone number.
He was at work when he received Heather’s phone call. Although he was slightly puzzled, he immediately answered the phone call.
“I’ll be there shortly to get my car.” On the phone, her voice sounded quite carefree and she seemed to be in good spirits.
“Sure, where should we meet?” Without mincing his words, he went straight to the point and asked for a place to meet..
“How about meeting at the car yard?” she suggested after suddenly recalling that location.
As soon as Heather arrived, Matthias was already patiently waiting there. It was the first time he had seen her drive such an expensive-looking car. He had always assumed that she had a preference for smaller-sized cars. He walked over to her and greeted while she revealed a polite smile in response.
Unbeknownst to them, in the shadows, there were multiple pairs of eyes focused on them both because they had been tailed by reporters after yesterday’s accident. Obviously, Matthias and Heather had never thought that their news had remained unpublished because the reporters were lying in wait to compile more to the story.
The next morning, as soon as they read the newspapers, they were both shocked beyond words. Immediately, she jumped to the conclusion that he had alerted the reporters beforehand. She had originally changed her views toward him, but now she couldn’t control the burst of anger she felt.
Right after she saw the news, she immediately dialed his number. “Matthias Locke, what do you mean by all this?!” she yelled without any restraint because she was trembling with rage and angered beyond words.
At that point, Matthias hadn’t seen the newspaper because he was busy dealing with work. When he realized about the story from Heather, he picked up the newspaper to take a look and was completely shocked too. How on earth was he able to fake a traffic accident?!
Besides, what was the point of all these speculations? It would be best if all the nonsense could be ceased. A frustrated Matthias glanced at the newspaper in his hands. Next, he realized that this was not only in print, but it was also reported on the local television news.
At this point, he knew he should avoid her by all means. On the other hand, she was just about to leave the house and became quite upset as a result.
However, as it was a critical time for Heather and she didn’t want to renege on her words, she had no choice but to head out. She was just one of Bradfort City’s socialites and she wasn’t a popular star, so the reporters didn’t cross the line much and kept their distance behind her.
Along the way, she had realized that she was being tailed. In helplessness, she decided she shouldn’t cause trouble for the Staffords. As such, she gave Paige a call and briefly explained what was going on. Then, she requested for Paige to convey her apologies to Josiah for not being able to visit for the time being. She didn’t want to lead the reporters to them as that would complicate things for everyone.
Since she had seen the news earlier as well, Paige was quite understanding of the situation. It was quite a surprise for her to see that Heather was speculated to be in a relationship with Matthias. Heather’s company was recently in the midst of a collaboration with the Locke Group and the impression she had of him was that he was a two-sided person.
Paige thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that it wasn’t possible for Heather to fall for someone like him. Paige felt that everything was exaggerated on the news and couldn’t help but feel worried for Heather. She had hoped that Heather’s incident would not affect their collaboration.
Heather was quite disappointed that she had to cancel her plans. However, she didn’t want to head home just yet. Everyone at home seemed to be looking at her with strange looks on their faces and she became quite enraged as she recalled the situation. Without even realizing it, she had driven all the way to the Locke Group. She looked at the building in front of her and couldn’t seem to control the rage in her. In fact, she was quite tempted to rush inside and teach Matthias a lesson.
All of a sudden, her cell phone rang and she saw it was him on the line. After hesitating for quite some time, she decided to answer the call. Although his voice rang out from her phone, she merely responded coldly to his words as he frantically explained himself.
“The press is getting more emboldened. I swear, I must sue The Apple Gazette to show them I mean business!” Heather had previously decided to let The Apple Gazette off the hook, but today’s incident reminded her of their past transgressions and she directed her anger toward them once again.
Meanwhile, Matthias was momentarily at a loss for words. Then, he commented, “If you’re really affected about this, you should go ahead and sue them. I’ll be your witness in court.” He tried his best to placate her at the expense of The Apple Gazette.
Her way of handling the matter could be useful to serve as a warning to the other news agencies. On top of that, he didn’t wish for the rumors to become widespread all over town too. After all, he wasn’t sure whether the elders in the Locke Family would take action if things progressed out of hand. He wasn’t ready to offend them as he wasn’t fully capable just yet.
He was well aware that his previous actions were not quite appropriate and he hadn’t properly thought things through. Unfortunately, his rash decision had implicated himself this time. Undeniably, the power of the press shouldn’t be underestimated as they were totally uncontrollable. The reporters would resort to any tactic just to capture any eye-catching news.
After taking quite some time to placate Heather, Matthias then continued to finish off his work. It was at that moment that he heard someone from downstairs mentioning that there was a lady known as Miss Langston here to see him.
That came as a surprise because he didn’t expect Heather to personally turn up. Without any delay, he instructed his personal assistant to immediately invite her inside the office. It was also quite fortunate that Nikolai wasn’t here today.
I don’t want Nikolai and Heather to bump into each other! As soon as Matthias recalled Nikolai’s love-struck expression, he felt a sense of insecurity. Nikolai reminded him of his younger self and he clearly knew that someone with such a personality generally had an almost perverse sense of attachment toward their love interest.
If Nikolai continued being deeply attached to Heather, there could be repercussions in the future. Obviously, Nikolai wasn’t her type and Matthias didn’t wish to see him go down the wrong path.
She angrily made her way into the room and strode up to Matthias before standing in front of him. He could practically feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand as soon as he noticed her glare. From his investigations, he knew that she was quite particular about her image. It seemed that the series of incidents were very upsetting to her to the extent that she would probably lose her life than to experience this.
“You’ve disrupted all my plans.” Without any warning, Heather directed theoe words at him. I was supposed to visit the Safford House today and win Mr. Safford’s favor to persuade him to join our team. My plan’s gone out of the window now. Besides, the news that was published was definitely going to affect her effort in persuading the Staffords. That was because both Josiah and Paige looked quite prim and proper, so they would most likely find such rumors quite revolting. In a way, it was going to affect Heather’s image in their minds.
Upon realizing all the possibilities, Heather couldn’t control her simmering fury. Blake keeps finding fault with me! Now, I have another one of his trashy friends here creating all sorts of mess for me! Great! Blake and Matthias’ joint efforts had ruined everything for her.
