Chapter 6 An Ordinary Woman
"Then please love her well." Ryan turned around indifferently.
Pursing his lips, Kevin stood there and watched Ryan walk away. Anne was in the crook of his arm. When Ryan disappeared from view, Kevin impatiently threw her to the ground. "Headache?" he said the word emotionlessly, with doubt in his eyes.
The last moment, she was on cloud nine as Kevin claimed that she was his woman in front of Ryan. Now he sent her to the rock bottom. She came to her senses then, as she felt off balance, and then the cold hard ground.
She replied simply, "No."
"I hope you are not lying." Kevin turned and left her lying there, his coldness on full display. "You still have to take care of Cherry tomorrow. Don't pretend to be sick."
Anne's heart suddenly ached, 'Pretend to be sick?' Why should she do something like that? She was Anne, not some urchin. She wouldn't scheme like that. 'Kevin, why do you have the same dirty thoughts as Cherry?' she thought inside.
"We'll see how I feel tomorrow," she said coldly. And with that, she stalked off.
When she reached the door of the box, she lost her balance again. Fortunately, Emily happened to find her there, and keep her from falling again.
Standing in the corridor, Kevin saw what was going on. He felt like his heart had been pricked by countless needles. It didn't hurt, but it was certainly uncomfortable.
Irritated, he took out his phone and made a call. After the phone was connected, he shouted at the person on the other end, "Come take Mrs. Anne home."
Emily suggested Anne call Sam Feng to check on her, but Anne nixed the idea.
Her face looked even worse than that when she was in the club, so she insisted on taking a hot shower and catching some Z's instead.
Her temples throbbed painfully. After taking a hot bath, she lay on the bed, but found no relief at all.
She recalled what Kevin had said and done to her today. Her heart felt like it had been stabbed by a needle. She closed her eyes tightly and bundled herself up in the quilt.
There was still a long way to go. She couldn't be weak or fragile. Not now. She didn't want to give up yet.
In the empty room, her ears were particularly sensitive to sound. The sound of her phone told her there was a WeChat message waiting.
She didn't move, but WeChat's insistent tones rang again, twice in quick succession.
After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and got out of bed. The phone was on the table three meters away from her bed.
Standing at the table, Anne opened the WeChat interface. There were three messages from Ryan.
"Have you gone to bed?"
"You're unhappy with him."
"Anne, what do you want?"
Instead of replying, she turned off her phone and lay back on the bed.
What did she want? Maybe it was a little extravagant, but she would not give up.
After a good night's rest, Anne felt better. She decided to leave for work.
Cherry woke up early today, "Kev, is my dress okay?" She wore a red cheongsam and gently turned her waist in front of Kevin.
With her waist bent like that, she was absolutely ravishing in the cheongsam that clung to her hourglass figure.
Kevin put away the phone in his hand and squinted his eyes affectionately. "It's so beautiful that Grandpa will feel like he's ten years younger when he meets you!"
"On second thought, no comments from the peanut gallery. We'd better check on Grandpa's birthday gift. If anything goes wrong, I can't show my face in front of Grandpa again." "You decide," Kevin whispered hoarsely, knowing he couldn't continue the joke.
In the large conference room, Anne sat at head of the big round table, an intense expression on her face. The conference room took on a depressing pallor. She looked livid.
"Redo this plan. I need it on my desk before twelve o'clock today." With a grim face, she pushed the plan aside.
The department manager was surprised and dissatisfied. He bit back a retort and fumed in his seat. After a few seconds, he replied reluctantly, "I see."
Things were already tense, but Anne had made them worse. She was in a foul mood, and she wanted to let everyone know. Some of them had complaints already, but they said nothing. Instead, they pulled on their neckties impatiently.
She ignored the fact that everyone seemed to be annoyed, and continued the meeting. "Manager Zhang, tell me your plan."
Manager Zhang stood up gingerly and walked towards the projector.
Anne's mobile phone on the table lit up, notifying her of a new WeChat message.
She hadn't planned to read it yet, but Manager Zhang's introduction was too boring. She was impatient so she decided to be rude and check her phone anyway.
She opened the WeChat page and saw the name "Kevin". Her heart skipped a beat.
"Five o'clock tonight at the old house. I warn you again. Don't be late," the message read.
She felt a stream of pain spreading through her heart and sneered at the same time. What else could her husband do except call her and threaten her over WeChat?
She put down her phone heavily and took it out on Manager Zhang. "What in the hell were you thinking? That won't work at all! Redo it and send it to my mailbox before twelve o'clock!"
Manager Zhang's failure made other managers even more nervous. They began to think to themselves, 'Is Mrs. Anne in a bad mood today? So she vented her anger on us? She thought everyone's plan was wrong. Maybe she's the one who's wrong?'
When the meeting was over, they walked slowly behind Anne. Several bold managers gossiped about her, "The tigress is so angry today. Didn't Mr. Kevin go home last night?"
"Are you kidding me? I don't even know he ever goes home."
"Oh, then no wonder she's in a bad mood all the time. No guy around..." The more they talked, the more evil their words became. Emily was walking behind them and couldn't stand it anymore.
She screamed, "Mr. Kevin!"
The voice startled the ones who were gossiping. They immediately shut up.
They turned around carefully and found that Kevin was not behind them. They breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time, they took it out on Emily. "Listen to you!"
"Yes, listen to her. Something you should do more often." While they lectured Emily, Anne rounded the corner.
Hearing her cold voice, the managers were too frightened to continue. They turned to Anne and put on fake smiles. "It's a team-building exercise. One person gets harangued to see how much they can take. Emi's in the hotseat. Mrs. Anne, I can see you're busy. We'll leave you to it."
They left in sorrow.
As soon as they were all gone, Emily ran to Anne and comforted her carefully, "Anne, these people..."
"I know." All of a sudden, Anne felt weary. She knew what Emily might want to say to help her feel better.
But the chicken soup for her soul couldn't fill the gap in her heart. It was a fact that Kevin didn't love her. No matter how much Emily talked, it was useless.
She was kind of snippy today, but not because of Kevin. In the past, she would still have struck down those plans, but she'd probably be nicer about it.
So what was happening to her now? She always felt tired and wanted to sleep. Or was it because of her headache yesterday?
"Get me a cup of hot ginger tea." Anne forced herself to pick up her spirits and walked towards her office.
Seeing her pretending to be strong, Emily really felt sorry for her.
Anne shook her head. The business proposals of every department were submitted before twelve o'clock, but she was still dissatisfied. She fought back her anger and asked them to do it again. All the department heads were cursing her.
She had been working till half past three in the afternoon. Emily knocked on the door and said, "Anne, you asked me to tell you when it was time."
Raising her head from a pile of folders, Anne took a few seconds to remember that she was going to the old house of the Fu Family.
"I see. Go ahead and finish up here." She stood up, her hands on the edge of the table, and her eyelids reflected her fatigue.
She wore a black tight skirt and a white vest. The edge of the vest was decorated with black handmade patterns. The two pieces together made Anne look mature and reserved.
She guessed that Cherry might wear light colored clothing today. In case that her outfit clashed with that of Cherry, Anne had gotten rid of most of her clothes of lighter colors. Her wardrobe consisted mostly of darks.
Cherry, a lady of note, would never wear dark clothes.
Before leaving, Anne sent a message to Kevin on WeChat. "I'm on my way to the old house. I'll be there before five."
Half an hour later, Kevin still hadn't replied to her message. Until her car was stopped outside the door by the guard, Kevin wasn't picking up his phone either.
"Sorry, your name is not on the list. We can't let you in," the guard said to Anne politely.
Anne was so angry that she felt stuffy in her chest. She was Kevin's wife. Why wouldn't they let her in?
Since the guard didn't know her, she had to hold back her anger and ask the driver to drive forward.
The cars behind were about to enter the old house, and kept honking impatiently.
At this time, the door of a car opened. A gentleman in a dark blue British suit and a light blue shirt emerged from the car.
He made a gesture to Anne's driver, telling him to wait nearby.
He walked quickly to the guard. The guard politely bowed to him and said, "Mr. Feng."
Sam frowned slightly, and a strong heroic spirit was flashed in his eyes. The formal suit made him look not just handsome, but extraordinary. With his striking features, he commanded respect.