After Heather exchanged her thoughts with Tony, she rushed off to her next location. Actually, she didn’t have to do so because it wasn’t time for Paige’s lunch break yet.
Nevertheless, Heather was keen to meet Paige. In the end, she tasted some desserts at a cafe next to Paige’s office while she waited for Paige. Heather was a big fan of desserts and she would always find that her spirit would be tremendously lifted after the fact, no matter how she felt at that moment.
Heather had already informed Paige about her location and she requested for the latter to drop by as soon as she was on lunch break. It was because Heather didn’t want to enter Paige’s workplace.
There was plenty of time before their agreed meeting time, so Heather had ordered a lot of desserts. Since it was rather rare for her to have much spare time, she planned to chill and savor the sweet desserts.
Word was that sweets could improve one’s mood. It would be great if happiness was that easily achieved since she felt that happiness was a distant matter for her. She wished that she could be happier most of the time, but the end result always seemed to be contrary to what she had hoped for.
It took Heather a long time before she replied to Matthias’ message. Most of the time, she didn’t understand why he had so much patience with her. In the eyes of a businessperson, time and patience were always driven by gains. She didn’t know what he could gain from her but he seemed to be enjoying the process.
There was a strong fragrance in the air, which left Heather feeling quite content. However, she remained lost as to what to say to Matthias.
In the past, she had ulterior motives for getting closer to him, but everything seemed to have disappeared now. Meanwhile, the waiting time had been indefinitely prolonged and she felt like she had been waiting for almost a decade.
Paige finally strolled in after a long time. At this moment, Heather took a sip of her cup of drink; in fact, she didn’t like the taste of it and wanted a cup of coffee.
When Paige saw the plates of desserts in front of Heather, she was aghast. Heather had ordered heaps, but merely taken a bite out of most of them. As soon as Heather saw Paige, she lifted her head and responded, “Oh, you’re here. I’ve ordered you some dessert. Try them to see which one suits your taste.”
Page had already noticed the platters of dessert in front of her, but she wasn’t a big fan of sweets. Upon seeing so many desserts at once, she felt her appetite wane. “I’m not a fan of desserts,” she frankly replied.
“Then, just try some of it.” Heather had intended to share the delectable dishes with someone, but she never expected this to be the outcome.
At this moment, Paige was in a dilemma. Heather’s done a great job of ordering all my least favorite food.
Meanwhile, Heather looked at Paige’s expression and asked in helplessness, “Is there anything that you would like to order?” Then, she nudged the menu to the front of Paige.
“I’ve eaten and I’m not hungry.” Paige intended to get straight into things with Heather. Usually, Heather wasn’t one to waste time, so she felt that Heather’s recent behavior was strange.
It had been quite some time since Paige last met Heather and she sensed that Heather became distant. Heather’s personality had changed and it was different from who she was before. Furthermore, there was also a change in her demeanor and her makeup style.
Heather’s makeup and attire are usually flawless whenever she’s out in the public, but her style is quite casual and simple today. Her demeanor seems softer than usual. She always had a look of rejection, but now, she looks easily approachable. Paige had a grim feeling about this. In fact, she had preferred her leader to be outstanding, so she wasn’t keen on this change in Heather because the latter’s previous personality was much more suitable in setting up and controlling a company.
“I feel like I haven’t paid much attention to the company, so I came over to talk to you about it. I just wanted to ask, are we able to proceed with the agreed opening date of our company?” Heather had handed everything over to the Saffords, but she’d expressed her query today with the intention to pacify everyone. After all, seeing that Heather had been in the limelight lately, the Saffords were rather worried that the opening day of their company would be affected.
As soon as Paige heard Heather’s words, she felt slightly appeased. She hasn’t been actively keeping in contact with me for such a long time that I was worried she no longer cares about the starting of our company.
“Of course we can.” Paige’s face significantly brightened. Frankly, she bore a slight grievance against Heather and it was at that moment when all of her unhappy feelings dissipated. Heather had noticed Paige’s awkwardness, but she understood that it was quite normal for Paige to be upset. It was much better for Paige to express it than to suppress her feelings and secretly resent Heather.
“I know I’ve been quite lax about the company, so I understand that you must be quite resentful about it.” Heather’s soft tone was quite different from before.
Meanwhile, Paige felt slightly embarrassed by Heather’s words. She’d already expressed her displeasure, so there was no need to keep harping on the same thing.
“No, I am sure you won’t give up on our start-up. I trust that you’re not an irresponsible person.” Paige revealed a slight smile as her mood was instantaneously lifted.
However, upon hearing Paige’s words, Heather was ridden with guilt. At the current moment, she harbored the intention to run away and she realized that she was becoming more irresponsible. Furthermore, she’d forgotten all the aspirations and dreams she had from before. She realized that her current ambition was no longer to conquer the corporate world and reap its gains. Moreover, she no longer wanted to aim for the vast international market.
All these were no longer important in Heather’s mind because she had found something else much more important. Although it hadn’t been long ago that she had drastically changed from the inside and on the outside, she was no longer the same as before.
“The situation in Bradfort City right now is extremely complicated and the risk of starting a new business is quite unpredictable.” Heather suddenly directed the topic toward the overall external environment.
Paige nodded her head in response. “Yes. Even our company, which is quite a well-known international brand, has been taken over too.” This came as a huge blow to her.
Although the takeover had mainly involved the Chinese counterpart, she felt that this was something beyond her expectations. There was such a drastic change in the corporate world in this time and day, so anything perceived to be impossible could basically happen in the next instance.
“Who’s your new boss?” Heather pretended to ask with an innocent expression inadvertently. In actual fact, she had intended to talk to Paige about the latter’s workplace. So, it was lovely that Paige had initiated the topic.
Paige shot an inexplicable look at Heather before her own expression turned wary. Perhaps it was because she never expected Heather to suddenly be interested in this topic.
“You should know.” Paige no longer minced her words lately. Heather wasn’t the only one who had gone through a drastic change over this period of time.
“The Moriartys.” Heather didn’t want to beat around the bush either, so she decided to be honest.
Paige nodded her head. “This came as quite a surprise and even Dad thought it was quite strange too.” Upon recalling Josiah’s words, she had some slight concerns.
Bradfort City had undergone a change and it was different from before, leaving Paige with the feeling that she somehow could no longer keep up with its pace. It was quite hard to actually predict the future progress of the place.
“Bradfort City is no longer the city we recognize. Perhaps we need to reconfigure our thought process and our company strategy might need to be changed.” Heather furrowed her brows. Perhaps we need to surrender our previous plan and come up with a new one.
Upon hearing that, Paige remained silent. She was currently at a loss for how to respond to Heather as she knew she probably didn’t have as much insider information as Heather. When Paige looked into Heather’s wise eyes, she couldn’t help but feel something amiss.
“So, do we need to change the company’s marketplace orientation?” Paige probed since it was rather difficult to accept that their previous plans needed to be overhauled.
“It would be much better to make changes to the company’s orientation now than to wait and realize the issue further down the track,” Heather casually mentioned, but she managed to convince Paige and quell the latter’s doubts.
This was the exact appeal of a leader. Heather had planned to continue probing for the information that she was interested in from Page, but it seemed that the latter didn’t have much time to continue the conversation.
“I need to head back to work now. There are a lot of things that I need to deal with,” Paige answered with an awkward expression because she hadn’t spoken much to Heather yet, but she needed to leave soon and felt that it was quite impolite to do.
Nonetheless, Paige couldn’t come up with a better solution. After all, her company had just underwent a restructuring process, so there were a lot of things that she had to deal with. Upon realizing that, she felt an oncoming headache.
“You should head back then. As for the specificities, let’s talk about them in detail when you’re free.” Although Heather had a lot of questions that she was keen to seek answers for, she didn’t want to delay Paige’s precious time any further.
“Okay, for the day after tomorrow, I’ll be free for half the day. Would you be free as well?” Their company’s opening day was around the corner and Paige was keen to discuss the details associated with the actual day.
“Sure, let’s meet at Safford House the day after tomorrow then,” Heather agreed. Both of them were rather honest with each other, so they easily decided there and then about the meeting time.
After she made arrangements with Paige, Heather finally had to face her third and most frustrating tasks. She was honestly rather reluctant to meet Leon, what more to say initiate reconciliation with him.
However, come to think of it, Leon seemed to be keeping his cool, which was quite unlike his usual personality; in the past, he would have been spinning in circles in his attempt to try and locate her. He wouldn’t be quietly keeping to himself.
Since their incident, he hadn’t sent Heather a single text, which left her wondering, Don’t tell me that Leon has decided to give up?! Meanwhile, she recalled the words that she had previously said and felt quite mortified to take the initiative to seek him out. As she pondered about the situation, she couldn’t help but lament about it.
Maybe it was because Leon was on Heather’s mind that her wish was quickly granted. He had actually taken the initiative to ring her. As she looked at the caller ID on her cell phone, she felt quite surreal. Since when am I so blessed?! This is such a wish come true! She pondered for a short while before she answered the call.
Soon, his voice rang out from the phone. “Heather, do you plan to stop helping me?” He went straight to the point. He had considered the situation for quite some time and planned to try his luck once more.
Leon couldn’t even bear to think about his dire predicament if Heather didn’t show up for the party tomorrow. It’s not that simple trying to handle Grandfather. He reckoned that he would be forcefully escorted back this time, especially when the old man had an unwavering stance.
“I’m willing to help you, but that doesn’t mean I forgive you,” Heather coldly replied. Whatever it was, she refused to forgive him. This was more than just her ego speaking but in fact…
“As long as you agree to help me, we can talk things through.” Her answer was completely out of his expectations.
Heather has finally agreed to help me! Well, I can’t rush into things so I’ll take things one step at a time and slowly try to convince her to forgive me. “Can I come over to see you right now?” Leon hurriedly asked his next question. There were a lot of things that they had to complete together, so there wasn’t much time left to waste.
“I’ll pop over to yours shortly.” Heather thought that his mansion was a better location for a discussion since there was more privacy to meet there than outside.
“I’m not there right now. If you prefer to talk there, then I can head back right now.” He couldn’t possibly be there all the time and right now, he was dealing with some personal matters outside.
“It’s alright. Where are you? I’ll share my location with you. Why don’t you share yours too?” She wondered, Don’t tell me he’s sitting at the next table and he purposely rang me after identifying the perfect timing?!
“Sure.”
After they hung up the phone, both of them shared their live location with each other via text messaging. She was surprised to note that Leon was quite a distance away from her. Looks like he hasn’t been tracking me.
Heather had truly misunderstood him this time. Then, she stopped sharing her location and both of them agreed to meet at a middle point for their discussion.
In fact, Leon had some unfinished tasks on hand, but since meeting up with Heather was a current priority, he glanced at the young man on the ground and left the place after some hesitation.
At that moment, he felt slightly apprehensive. He wasn’t sure about the force he had exerted earlier on the young man, so he wondered whether to call for an ambulance for that person.
Leon had disagreed with someone earlier and out of impulse, he came to blows with that person. The said person was now on the ground in a state of unconsciousness, causing Leon to be in a huge dilemma.
