Chapter 68
Chapter 68
Everyone's gaze immediately landed on her while some of those in charge of the meeting had already headed over with some tissues to help clean up the mess.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"Look at this! All of our materials are soiled now."
"Tomas, grab five fresh copies of the meeting materials."
The spilled beverage continued to drip from the table to the ground, forcing all the executives at the first row to stand up. As a result, the scene quickly became chaotic.
When an anxious Rachel tried to grab more tissue papers from another helper to clean the table, she was stopped by Sandy. "Rachel, you can head back now. You're not needed here anymore."
"You can't just let her off without getting her to apologize for causing the meeting to end up like this, can you? The library is really generous to allow someone with professional qualities such as hers to continue working here, huh? Is there even a need for an expansion at this rate?"
Although Tina's voice wasn't loud, her cold voice still echoed in the huge meeting room.
Rachel's expression immediately changed before Sandy quickly came to her rescue. "Miss Burton, this is really a misunderstanding. She's not doing it on purpose by not apologizing."
"Can't you let her speak for herself? Does she need others to help her explain herself?"
Sandy frowned. "Miss Burton, that's because-"
Not wanting to cause any dilemma for Sandy, Rachel interrupted with a sign gesture. I'm sorry. I didn't do it on purpose.
"This..." The planning department's vice executive looked stunned. "She is..."
At this moment, everyone gave Rachel strange looks. Although it wasn't her first time being stared at like this, it didn't make her feel any better.
Sympathy as well as ill-intentioned looks were both humiliating for her.
"You can't speak?" Tina gave her a side-eye before she intentionally added, "It's my bad, then. Since everyone is raising awareness to be nicer to the disabled, my apologies to you." "Rachel, is it?" Tina continued her acting and glanced at Rachel's work permit. "I'm sorry. You won't blame me for this, won't you?"
At this moment, a bitter smile appeared on Rachel's face. It's fine.
"It's just a misunderstanding." Sandy came to her rescue again.
After giving the crowd an apologetic nod, Rachel decided to turn and leave with clenched fists.
"Hang on" Tina called out. "Miss Patterson, since we need to understand more about the library's historical and cultural background, you should allow her to be in charge of providing us with guidance."
A stunned Rachel gave Tina a shocked look before Sandy explained, "Miss Burton, Rachel has never been in charge of any foreign exchange work. Moreover, as you can see, she's not really suitable for this job."
"Is that so? From what I see, she's quite suitable for it. Besides, since she has been working at the library for a long time, she should know her workplace's historical background well, am I right?"
"Of course! No one else is better than Rachel in terms of how familiar she is with the library. She even won first place in the library's historical quiz last year."
Another woman's voice rang out behind Sandy and it immediately attracted everyone's attention.
Rachel felt her heart clenching up at that moment as her ears rang from that woman's sharp voice. Then, she turned around to see Adelyn staring at her with a hostile look.
Sandy still wanted to defend Rachel, but the library manager shot Sandy a warning look. "Sure. Since this is someone whom Miss Burton has handpicked herself, it would be easier to communicate with each other in the future."
As Burton Group was the main donor of the library's reparation and expansion, even the executives of the planning department had to listen to Tina. Even though it was obvious that Tina was targeting Rachel, they didn't want to offend Burton Group because of an employee.
"Well, I'm looking forward to working together with you." Tina looked at Rachel with a cold glint in her eyes, causing Rachel to quiver a little.
When the meeting had finally ended, Rachel started to pack her stuff to leave the office.
Her intuition told her that Tina was up to no good after Tina selected her to be in charge of docking.
"Rachel!"
Rachel stopped in her tracks after one of her colleagues called out for her.
As she turned around, she saw Olivia, who was in the same department as her, running toward her with two more colleagues. Do you guys need anything? "Rachel, have you forgotten that you were supposed to bring us to meet your husband after work?"
Rachel was stunned as she had completely forgotten about this.
Since I got off work late today, he won't be coming anymore, so I'm taking the subway home.
This was the excuse that she prepared beforehand.
"Huh? Why didn't you tell us about it earlier? We even waited for you for such a long time."
"Exactly! We wouldn't have wasted our time if you had told us earlier."
I'm sorry.
Suddenly, the sound of a car honking interrupted the others from complaining. Rachel looked up to see a stationary black business car at the side of the road. "Miss Hudson." Frankie alighted from the front passenger seat before waving at her.
She was stunned.
Justin actually is here? I already texted him to tell him that he didn't have to, though. "Rachel, is that your husband?"
"Didn't you say that he's not coming?"
I didn't know that he would be coming.
"That's great. Let us meet him then!"
As she forced a smile, Rachel felt her throat becoming bitter.
I'll ask whether he wants to see you guys.
She initially wanted to prevaricate them, but she was left with no choice at this moment.
"Miss Hudson." Frankie quickly moved forward as he wanted to open the car door for her.
Hold on. Don't open the car door yet.
Rachel motioned at the driver.
"What's wrong?" Justin's voice rang out next to her ear.
Rachel hesitated for a while before she asked cautiously, Those are my colleagues and they said that they want to meet you.
He frowned.
I'm sorry. You can just act like I never said it.
Then, she continued, Please wait for me for a bit, I'll get down and explain to them.
However, Justin reached out to grab her hand before she could get down from the car.
The moment Rachel felt his cold hand on her palm, she trembled before looking up in confusion.
However, he wasn't looking at her. Instead, he rolled the car window down.
"Are those your colleagues?" His deep voice echoed through the car.
As it was already evening, the scar on Justin's forehead made him look fierce under the streetlights, which caused Olivia and the other colleagues to shudder when they saw him. All of them looked like they had seen a ghost and none of them dared to move forward.
Rachel suddenly felt embarrassed and angry. Without waiting for Justin to say anything, she reached over him and pressed on the window button to roll the window up.
Let's go.
Upon noticing Rachel's gesture, Frankie gave Justin a hesitant look before Justin slightly nodded.
As the car drove toward the city, the view of the library slowly disappeared behind their backs.
When he observed that Rachel wasn't in a good mood, Justin asked, "What's wrong?"
However, she remained quiet for a long while.
I'm sorry. I didn't expect my colleagues to react like that.
"Are you angry on my behalf? It's not a bad thing to bring people fear."
As she paused for a moment, her confused gaze met Justin's dark gaze. He had a calm look that looked way more mature than someone of his age.
Why?
"If you are feared, others won't try to provoke you and that will save you from a lot of trouble."
Rachel was taken aback as she looked at Justin. With the progress of medical technology and the Burton Family's financial resources, the scar on his face could be removed as long as he was willing to undergo the process.
So... What you're saying is that you left the scar on purpose?
Justin then gave her a look and didn't deny her words.
The car became quiet for a moment before Rachel summoned her courage and asked, Where did you get this scar?
Upon seeing her hand signals, the man's gaze darkened. "Do you want to know?"
Rachel was shocked.