Chapter 22
"I looked up some local cuisine online. There's one that looks really delicious, but it's a bit far, and if we go late, we'll have to wait in line."
Over the past few years, the people Fiona had been around were either cunning, scheming or decadent. It had been many years since she had seen someone as down-to-earth and carefree as Harold. For a moment, Fiona saw a glimpse of her past self before the dramatic changes in her life. It made her heart feel warm.
"Okay. Since I'm treating you to a meal, you get to choose where we’re going.” Fiona patiently nodded, as if coaxing a child.
Harold's excitement was palpable, so Fiona grabbed her bag and left the place with him.
Autumn in New Port, with yellow leaves filling the streets and alleyways, created a charming sight. Fiona sat in the passenger seat, lazily listening to Harold's excited introduction of the sights along the way. He had seemed to have made a lot of preparations prior to this trip. Fiona responded with indifference, not showing much enthusiasm but in Harold's eyes, her found her laziness endearing.
"After this intersection, the roads will start to be jammed," Harold said as he saw a parking spot by the roadside and slowly parked the car. "Fiona, shall we get out and walk for a bit?"
"Okay," Fiona mumbled from inside the car, feeling a bit uncomfortable.
She constantly felt nauseous. Opening the car door, she took in a breath of autumn air which was slightly chilled and fortunately, her nauseating feeling instantly vanished. Her baby seemed to be looking out for her.
Apart from feeling a bit nauseous when she felt emotional, most of the times, she was fine.
Harold walked quickly to Fiona's side and they walked in the direction of the restaurant side by side. Unbeknownst to them, there was always someone following them from a distance away behind.
Harold had made a reservation at the restaurant in advance. Once they arrived, they waited for a table and then went inside.
This local restaurant mainly served beef and lamb dishes. It was quite hot inside, and Fiona didn't have much of an appetite so she didn't eat much. On the other hand, to Harold's delight, he ate heartily and without care.
They ended their lunch on a pleasant note and then the two of them walked back to their car. In between, Fiona received two work-related phone calls. The second call was absurd; the person on the other end was a general manager from one of Solomon's subsidiaries, and they said, “Ms. Fiona, we can’t reach Mr. Solomon…”
Fiona interrupted coldly, "I'm sorry, please contact the CEO’s office directly. I am no longer Mr. Solomon's secretary."
The person on the line hesitated and apologized before hanging up.
Harold couldn’t help but looked at Fiona and said, "Fiona, a very strange woman said a lot of bad things about you to me the other day at the pier,"
Fiona glanced at him then back ahead. The autumn wind swept up a clump of fallen leaves from the ground.
"What did she say?" she asked.
"Forget it, it doesn't matter," Harold wanted to give himself a slap. Why did it matter that she talked about Darwin over the phone. Why did he have to be so nosy?
"You want to ask about my relationship with Darwin, right?"
Harold was taken aback. Flustered, he tried to explain, "Fiona, I..."
Regardless, prying into someone's privacy was not appropriate.
"I did work for Darwin for five years," Fiona said, looking at Harold.
Harold froze for a moment and Fiona wasn't surprised at all. She wasn't some naive and innocent teenage girl. Was Harold sticking around her just to be friends? Of course not. On top of the fact that she was pregnant, she had no intention of pursuing any romantic relationships at all now.
The world of the wealthy was as deep as the ocean. In the five years she spent with Darwin, she had witnessed too many tragedies. She had no interest in going to such a treacherous place to make a living in the future.
"I've had my meal, and it's time to go home." She gave Harold a way out. After speaking, Fiona was about to step forward when Harold grabbed her arm. Taken aback, she glanced sideways at him.
"Let the past stay in the past," Harold said seriously. "What I want is the future."
Fiona was startled and quickly pulled her arm back.
"Harold, be sensible. We’re not suitable for each other.”
"Why aren't we? I think we're a good match!" Harold stubbornly replied.
Fiona sighed helplessly. "I'm older than you, and there are plenty of people in your circle who know about my relationship with Darwin..."
"I don't mind!" Harold insisted.
"I do!" Fiona became more serious. "Harold, don't you know that you won't have control over your future marriage?"
Harold froze. "I was with Darwin back then because I had no choice. Now that he's getting married, I will back off. Do you know many people are laughing at me? I've had enough of this kind of thing! Experiencing it once is more than enough, and I don’t want to go through it a second time.”
"I won't be like him..." Harold hastily replied.
At that moment, Fiona suddenly looked ahead, furrowing her brows. "Is that your car?"
Harold followed her gaze and furrowed his brows as well as they hurriedly approached the vehicle. The silver SUV has its windows shattered and several dents on its exterior.
"Who did this?"
Harold had never encountered such a situation before. Fiona, however, saw a piece of A4 paper with red letters on the shattered windshield. She walked over with a cold expression and took it down.
“Ms. Fiona, this is a small surprise as a sign of respect. I hope you have a great time with your boyfriend in New Port. Don’t interfere too much, for those pursuing wealth will perish.”
“A death threat?” Harold’s face darkened.
“Yes, it seems to be for me. I’m sorry for getting you involved,” Fiona said somewhat helplessly. “I’ll take responsibility for the damages done to the car.”
“You’re the victim. Why should you be responsible?” Harold became unusually serious and promised, “Don’t worry, I’ll find someone to handle this.”
“This should be due to me being here to talk about a project for Solomon. You don’t need to get yourself involved. I’ll have people from the company deal with it.”
“Darwin?” Harold blurted out. Fiona detected a hint of jealousy in his tone.
“Why would Mr. Darwin bother with such a small matter?” Fiona sighed. “Let’s call the cops first.”
As Fiona expected, the surveillance footage the cops retrieved got them nothing as the cameras on the incident route were malfunctioning. This infuriated Harold. After a series of troubles, the two returned to the hotel, and it was already almost 4 o’clock.
During the trip back to the hotel, Fiona made a phone call to Johnson and postponed the afternoon meeting until tomorrow.
Worried, Harold escorted Fiona to her room door. After giving her numerous reminders and warnings, he went straight to the hotel lobby to change his room to be nearer to hers. Just as he left, her doorbell rang again. She thought he had something else to nag about and opened the door helplessly.
"Mr. Harold, your nagging is giving me a headache…" Fiona couldn't finish her sentence because she was astonished by the person standing in front of her.
"Why did you come here?"
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
