Chapter 144 Mind Your Manners
Rebecca wholeheartedly agreed with Winona's sentiment, ready to make a few more pointed comments but held back due to Matthew's presence. It didn't seem right to mock someone's brother to his face. Instead, she handed over a package to Winona. "My mom got this for you on her trip—it's perishable, so she wanted me to bring it to you right away."
"Please thank your mom for me."
"Oh, and that vase from before, how's it coming along? My employer is pushing for it; they're going abroad and wondering if they can get it sooner."
Winona nodded, "It's all taken care of. I'll head back and fetch it for you now."
The sale of the vase had been arranged by Rebecca, and she would oversee its delivery.
Rebecca Davis was on the verge of saying that she had her own keys and could fetch anything she needed herself. But seeing Winona Sullivan's eagerness to leave, she swallowed her words.
Rebecca wasn't truly intending to retrieve anything; it was clear she wanted to shake off Zachary Bailey.
With a sly chuckle, Matthew Watson surmised her intent, "Go ahead and take care of your business. I’ll keep an eye on Zachary for a bit."
Zachary was in fine health and hardly needed babysitting.
Still, Winona Sullivan thought better of voicing that out loud. Someone to supervise was a good idea, or else Zachary might cook up some mischief.
"Thanks, I'll be back soon," she said, feeling obligated to express her gratitude. Under the guise of Mrs. Bailey and the one responsible for stirring up the situation, she owed Matthew, who despite his friendship with Zachary, was under no obligation to attend to him.
Matthew responded with an offhand smile, "No worries, take your time."
The moment Zachary Bailey stepped out of the elevator, he caught sight of the two, sharing a laugh in the living room. It had been ages since Winona Sullivan had flashed such a radiant smile in his direction. All he could recall was her sneers or scoffs at him.
In the hospital room, her indifferent attitude made him wish those barbs could puncture his skin. Yet here she was, beaming at the one she had loved in the past.
His gaze was so intense that Matthew sensed it immediately, turning to see a scowling Zachary striding toward them.
"Zachary, you—"
Before Matthew could finish, Zachary barreled past him, pulling Winona into his embrace.
She barely had time to react, mostly because Zachary had crossed from the elevator to them in the blink of an eye.
Her nose slammed into his stern chest, a pain sharp enough to almost bring tears to her eyes.
While she had no idea how Zachary's nose felt after yesterday's collision, right now, all she felt was a sour ache.
Matthew's brow furrowed at the rough gesture, clearly seeing the pain written across Winona's face.
Instinctively, he reached out to pull her away from Zachary, but his hand was swiftly pressed down in warning.
Zachary stood rigid, his face set in an outright iciness. His gaze was so cold it seemed to bore mercilessly into one's very bones.
Having known the man for so many years, Matthew Watson wasn’t unfamiliar with witnessing his bouts of rage. Yet, he found himself taken aback for the first time seeing Zachary Bailey's eyes brimming with a fierce possessiveness. "Hold your horses, Matthew Watson. Technically, she’s still my wife," Zachary declared, a sharp edge to his voice.
Caught off guard for just a heartbeat, Matthew could only watch as Zachary swiftly escorted Winona Sullivan away from him.
Despite the elevator being crowded to the point of discomfort, Zachary's commanding presence made people instinctively give him space. Winona, sheltered in his embrace, was oblivious to the crush of bodies around her.
Despite her reluctance, Winona knew better than to cause a scene in front of an audience—she would save the confrontation for a more private setting.
No sooner had they exited the elevator than she wrenched herself free from Zachary’s grasp and strode towards the hospital room with swift determination…
Downstairs, Matthew watched their retreating figures, his usually warm and smiling eyes clouding over with a trace of melancholy. He pressed his lips together, making no move to follow.
Rebecca Davis sighed heavily beside him. She'd wanted to intervene when Zachary had led Winona away—his aura screamed danger, and who knew what he might do in a fit of anger? The recent slew of news stories on domestic violence she'd been inadvertently exposed to on the internet didn’t help ease her concerns.
"If Winona had married you instead, she might've been happy now," Rebecca mused.
Whether they would have been happy or not was questionable—after all, both men seemed to be disinterested in Winona in that regard. Given Matthew's gentle and easy-going nature, it was unlikely he would ever stoop to dragging someone through a never-ending divorce.
Matthew remained silent, as he was not someone to open up easily, particularly to those he wasn't well acquainted with.
He was about to excuse himself when Rebecca impulsively added, "Why didn’t you meet her that night she went looking for you at the bar? Remember?"
Puzzled, Matthew echoed, "What?"
A flicker of surprise crossed Rebecca’s face. "She was looking for you at the bar. That was three years ago... She had talked to you about marriage that morning, but when you didn’t respond, she couldn’t wait. She found out you were at the Night Club and went there to get your answer."
Back then, Winona was a socialite on the brink of bankruptcy, weighed down by a mountain of debt. Going to Night Club, she didn’t even have the means to enter the private rooms and had to linger in the main hall.
Matthew Watson shook his head, "She never came to me."
Back then, he'd considered Winona Sullivan a sister—not exactly close, but if she had really sought him out that night...
He tried to imagine what he might have chosen to do. Even now, he couldn't predict what his younger self's decision would have been.
Rebecca Davis was visibly irritated. "That's impossible. She sent me a video from the nightclub that night. She had ordered a bottle and said she needed a little liquid courage to see you. She even slipped the waiter a hundred bucks to run an errand for her."
A hundred dollars was a trifle, but for Winona Sullivan, who was so poor at the time that she was dodging debts left and right, it was a fortune.
In moments like this, Rebecca didn't care about sparing her friend's dignity; she just wanted to strip away the guy's hypocritical facade.
"We would all understand if you turned her down—that was no small sum. But to deny she ever went to you, isn't that a bit cowardly?"
Matthew frowned. Rebecca didn't seem to be lying, but the Night Club was upscale, and waitstaff salaries were high, competitive with corporate America's office jobs. Why would a waiter consider a meager hundred bucks worth doing such a deed?
That night... wasn't she with Zachary? Was there some kind of misunderstanding?
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