Mr. Wilson was a worldly person. He could tell straight away that he should not offend this group of people, so he immediately brought the list he had prepared beforehand without any protest and smiled. "Gentlemen, would you like to take a seat in one of our rooms first? I will go call all my staff here for you to check…"
Alan nodded slightly in agreement, and with a glance, signaled the bodyguards behind him, and all of them went into one of the nearby rooms.
Mr. Wilson gathered all his staff, and they stood in a few lines in the space in the front of the room.
Alan got up from the sofa and inspected every one of them closely. After going through all of them he could not find anybody who fit the description and asked Mr. Wilson again, "Are you sure that everyone is present?"
"I am sure. This is everyone," Mr. Wilson solemnly assured him.
The very next moment, they heard a creak as the cleaning lady, holding a bucket in one hand and a rag in the other, pushed the door open.
When she saw all the men in black suits standing in front of the group, she was shocked and quickly wiped the tables while saying, "I am merely here to clean the place. Don't mind me. Please, go on. Go on."
Mr. Wilson quickly explained to Alan, "This cleaning lady is not considered one of our full-time staff, so I forgot…"
Alan's sharp eyes saw the cleaner lady's cap from the mirror. He felt that it looked familiar and walked over to her.
From a closer distance, he was even more certain that the woman in the video had worn this cap with a heart-shaped design printed on it.
Next, he looked at her figure. This cleaning lady was already in her forties, but maybe because she was physically active, she was very slender. Without looking at her face, she could easily pass off for a young girl in her teens or twenties.
"You, take her away!" Alan instructed the group of bodyguards behind him, and at the same time, lit a candle for his big boss in his heart.
Alan would not have liked such an older woman. For a man of Mr. Muller's high status, that would have been impossible. Usually, so many young women threw themselves at Mr. Muller, but he did not want any of them. In the end, his innocence had been taken away by such an old woman…
…
Wynonna had left the karaoke lounge and was on her way back to the Muller's house when she received a notification for a job interview.
A cosmetic brand was hiring a counter clerk, and the location was at the Starlight Department Store, Pennvale's busiest department store. The pay was quite good. She could get 50 dollars a day for just six hours.
Wynonna knew her limits. She was only a third-year college student and was not qualified for much. Getting such a job interview was already a rare opportunity for her, so she immediately diverted her route to the Starlight Department Store.
At the department store's reception room, a uniformed worker came and waved her over. "Are you Ms. Sinclair? Please come with me. Our boss would like to interview you personally."
"Alright, thank you." Wynonna thanked her politely and followed her to a cubicle's door.
The staff opened the door for her, and she thanked her again. She walked in slowly and said, "Good afternoon, I am here for the interview…"
Her words got stuck in her throat before she could finish her sentence.
Because the man she saw seated on the sofa wearing a light blue suit, with a thin fringe falling slightly over his face, a pair of deep-set eyes locked in on her eyes through that fringe, looked like a leopard who had seen its prey.
....
"Louis Young…why is it you again?" Wynonna turned around to leave, but the man behind her was quicker. He moved forward swiftly, took her by the wrist, and held her against the door.
"I heard that you have married the Muller's third son to ward off his bad luck?" She felt the man's cold breath next to her ear as he spoke to her in a low and husky voice. "So, you would rather be with a vegetable than with me?"
"So, what's wrong with a vegetable?" Wynonna looked up at him with cold eyes, and her red lips curled into a mocking smile. "At least a vegetable will not betray me."
When he heard the word 'betray,' Louis lowered his black jade-like eyes. "It seems like the Muller family isn't treating you well. Otherwise, you wouldn't need to go out and earn money."
"No matter how well they treat me, I still want to earn my own living," Wynonna smile widened a little more. "And I have to thank you for teaching me this precious lesson. A woman must still depend on herself, or else once she gets dumped, she will lose everything…"
"Ok, since you want to earn money, you just need to make me happy, and this job is yours." Louis looked at her rose-red lips. He swallowed a few times and subconsciously moved closer to her.
He did not know what he was doing. In the past, she'd been the one who clung to him daily, but he never went beyond kissing her forehead and cheeks.
"Let go of me!" Wynonna bit his shoulder hard and pushed him away. She tilted her chin up to mock him. "What are you trying to do? Did you realize only after I had left that you were in love with me? Are you regretful, so you want to save our relationship? Let me make this clear: stop dreaming!"
Louis took a step back, a storm brewing deep within his seemingly calm eyes as he subconsciously clenched his fists on either side of his body.
After some time, he snorted. "Me, in love with you? That's ridiculous! Wynonna Sinclair, listen carefully. I, Louis Young, have never loved you. I didn't love you in the past, nor do I love you in the present, and I most certainly never will in the future! Amanda is the one I really love. I'm treating you like this because I feel that you haven't paid enough for what the Sinclair family owes me, so I want to continue to torment you like my plaything! As for Amanda, she is like a precious treasure to me. I wouldn't bear to be too violent with her."
"What…what are you saying? What does my family owe you?" Wynonna was trembling with rage, and her heart felt like it was being stabbed. "When you were my father's secretary, he thought highly of you, trusted you, and I loved you with all my heart…"
She found out later that Louis was actually the boss of Skylight Group, which was worth billions of dollars. He certainly did not need to go down to the level of a mere secretary in the Sinclair Organization.
In other words, from the beginning, he had an ulterior motive for getting close to her and Charles Sinclair. He wanted revenge.
"I forgot to tell you," he said after she questioned him. Louis said each word with a cold smile. "My parents' company went bankrupt because of your father. They were so despondent that they chose to kill themselves by jumping off a building. I became an orphan when I was only seven years old. Every day at the orphanage, I was cold and hungry, but you lived like a princess…"
And that was why whenever he saw the kind and innocent look in her eyes, he could not wait to destroy her!
Her kindness and innocence were the result of her pampered life, which had been built upon his pain and hardship…
Wynonna was too shocked to move. When she snapped out of her shock, there were already tears streaming down her face.
So the man she loved deeply bore a very huge grudge against her, and therefore, had never loved her at all. Not even for a second.
...
Suddenly, there was a series of loud knocks that could be heard from the outside of the door, and Amanda's voice rang out, "Louis, are you in there?"
Hearing her voice, Louis did not care that Wynonna was a woman, so he shoved her away from the door and opened it immediately. His cold voice carried a tinge of rare gentleness, "Mandy, what brings you here?"
"I missed you. I heard that you were here to interview a new person today, so I thought I'd drop by," Amanda said as she held Louis's arm like a spoiled child. With a look of provocative triumph in her eyes, she slyly glimpsed at Wynonna, who stood at the side. "Oh, why is Wynonna here?"
Louis hugged her waist and while rearranging her hair that had fallen down her chest, and he casually explained, "She's here for the interview."
"Oh, I see." Amanda nodded, then she pleaded to Louis in a high-pitched voice. "Wynonna is so pitiful. She has lost everything. Louis, why don't you hire her? You don't have to worry about my feelings…"
"Silly girl, you are my girlfriend. How could I not consider your feelings?" Louis raised his eyebrows and stroked her nose in a loving and doting manner. "Are you sure you wouldn't mind, even a bit?"
"Oh alright. I'll admit that I am a little jealous, but…" Amanda bit her lower lip and her eyebrows furrowed as she contemplated. Finally, she smiled sweetly at Louis and said, "But I trust you. You had told me that you love only me."
Hearing those words, Wynonna's heart felt like it was slit open by the sharpest blade, and she could almost hear her blood pumping.
Louis had once said those words to her before. Now, he was saying the same thing but while holding her cousin to embarrass her.
"Why are you still here? Are you waiting to watch this go further? I will not hire you, so forget about it." His cold and heartless voice rang out, dragging her back to this cruel reality.
As Louis said that, he started holding Amanda closer in his arms, slowly moving his head down on her…
Seeing that they were about to get physical, Wynonna closed her eyes and quickly left that suffocating place with tears streaming down her face.
No matter how much she tried to not think about it, that scene was branded into her mind and could not be erased.
She walked so fast that she kicked a potted plant when she turned the corner and fell to the ground. But she quickly stood up, wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, took a deep breath, and continued walking forward.
No matter how hard it is, life still goes on. The Sinclair family depended on her and so she could not fall.
In the office, Louis heard a thud from outside. His deep-set eyes turned cold abruptly and he pushed Amanda away immediately and coldly said, "You should leave too."
"Louis…" Amanda had wanted to go up to him, but she could feel the cold attitude emitting from him, so she could only bite her tongue and leave.
…
Wynonna went back to the Muller's house feeling dejected and could not recall when she'd changed into her pajamas nor when she'd gotten into bed.
She curled up into a ball and sobbed softly. She suddenly wished for someone to say something to comfort her.
But there was only that man in a coma in the room. How could he open his mouth to comfort her? Even though he could not speak, she could use him to dump all her emotions and vent her negative feelings.
With that in mind, Wynonna turned to Shane, who was lying next to her, and said, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to treat you as an emotional dumpster. But I met my cheating ex-boyfriend today, and I'm feeling so upset that I need someone to listen to me, so please bear with me."
The veins on Shane's forehead popped out. This little thing is really annoying, he thought. He did not want to hear about the story of her ex-boyfriend.
But he had no other choice.