Chapter 116 The Death of Him
Julia knew that Miles would definitely not agree to her going to Murdough, but she was her own woman and he couldn’t stop her from going where she wanted to go.
When Stella’s cell phone was charged to thirty percent, she received a call from Janice, saying that she still had one more session to go for her treatment. Back then when she was in Hollowcrest, she could retrieve the medicine herself, but Dr. Thane wanted to have her medicine delivered to her now that she wasn’t there, so he instructed Janice to get her address.
Dr. Thane was the gynecologist responsible for Stella’s prescription. The last time she visited a traditional doctor was to treat her colds and shivers. At that time, she wasn’t experiencing any abdominal pain yet.
Just as she was about to answer her, the nurse called out, “Time for Stella Johansson to have a change of azithromycin!”
Lifting her gaze, Stella saw that the drip above her head was finished. Thankfully, the nurse had realized it and informed the other nurse at the nurse station who was responsible for changing her medication.
“What happened to you, Stella?” Janice asked. Then, Stella told her about her cervicitis.
“Then you should take good care of yourself and use this opportunity to get everything treated. The selfish guy who wanted you to have the abortion really deserves death for causing you so much ailments!” Janice said angrily.
Just the mention of Zane made Stella so angry that she didn’t want to continue with this topic anymore. Hence, she told Janice that she would send the address to her later and would pay for the delivery fees before thanking her.
“There’s no need to be so courteous with me. I’m an old acquaintance of President Grant’s mother. You’re just embarrassing me if you pay for the delivery fees over such a small package.”
“Adele?” Surprised, Stella instinctively felt a little disgusted. As Adele wasn’t a nice person, when she thought about her friends, a phrase popped into her mind—birds of a feather flock together.
After a long while, Janice said, “No!”
Then, she hung up, leaving Stella dumbfounded. Isn’t Adele Miles’ mother? It really seems like it’s not her, judging from what Janice meant, but it also feels like she doesn’t want to speak about this issue either, she thought, feeling confused.
The next day, Stella returned to her shop after the drip, her face still rather pale. What she didn’t know was that Janice had already told Miles about her hospitalization.
When she returned to her shop, she saw Miles waiting there with his hands in his pockets. Startled, she didn’t know how she should face him.
However, he was the one who asked a question first. “Is she here yet?”
“Who?”
“That girl from your family, Julia,” he answered, sounding angry at the mention of this name.
“No,” she replied curtly, puzzled and not understanding why he was asking her this.
As she was standing next to the water dispenser, she decided to get him a glass of water as the host, but she was very distracted because she kept wondering about which stage Miles and Julia had already progressed to. Hence, she only realized the cup was full when it almost overflowed. Hurriedly, she brought it to the table and served it to him.
With his eyes fixed on her, he asked, “You just serve me the drink without checking the temperature?”
Yet to be able to regain herself, Stella then realized that the drink felt rather hot against her hand, so it must have been scalding. Picking up the glass again, she threw some away and added in some cool water.
The whole time, he was watching her sharply, then he glanced at the cool water on the table. Now that there were only the two of them in her office, it was rather quiet. Since it was already September, the heat wasn’t that unbearable anymore, even though it was still somewhat warm, and Stella had adjusted the air-conditioning to a suitable temperature, making it comfortable in the room.
“Aren’t you going to try it to see if it’s hot?” he asked.
What does he mean? she wondered, baffled. Can’t he try it out himself? He’s already a grown man!
However, since he was a guest, she could do as per his request. Grabbing another glass, she poured out some water from his glass and tested the water. “It’s good; just nice as a drink!”
“The water temperature has already dropped a lot by just pouring it from one glass to another. This method is not accurate!” he commented as he watched her every move.
Frowning, she’s asked, “What do you mean?”
“Why don’t you just taste the water in my glass? It’s not like you’ve never drank from my glass before!” he said, annoyed.
Startled, Stella then remembered that she accidentally drank from his glass the last time, but she didn’t do that on purpose. Furthermore, hadn’t they broken up already?
However, she could only heed his order and took a sip from his glass before saying, “Okay, you can drink it now!”
Then, Miles slowly reached out and took the glass from her. While he was drinking nonchalantly, he asked, “What happened? Were you hospitalized again?”
We’re two people living in different cities, but why does he know everything that is happening with me? she asked herself suspiciously. Is this really a coincidence? Or does he really have many informants? Also, what did he mean by drinking from the glass that I already drank from?
They didn’t seem like people who had broken up.
After keeping her silence for a while, she finally said, “It was acute cervicitis, a sequela from the abortion last time.”
As she lowered her head and started playing with her own fingers, he snorted, and she wondered who he was snorting at.
Sitting across from him, she asked, “What are you doing in Murdough this time?”
“I have some business here, so I came to visit you as well.”
“Oh.” After that, she couldn’t say anything else even though she had so much to say. Not long after that, he left.
The next day, Stella received some information over the phone. Apparently, her father’s factory had sold fifty tons of steel bars, and it was already shipped to Venezuela. The amount they received was rather low, and it was just enough to cover the costs.
Taken aback, she didn’t know about it even though she was the legal representative of the company.
“How come you didn’t know about it?” the person who called her asked. “Aren’t you the one who gave authorization to Zane so that he could pass this matter on to Julia?”
Now, Stella was completely speechless. Even Julia was involved in this? After hanging up the call, she called Zane to ask him about what happened.
“Don’t be angry, Stella,” he began. “A couple of days ago, Julia came to me, saying that she has a batch of steel bars to be shipped to Venezuela. After thinking about it, since I have the card from the company—”
Stella was so mad that she could cry; she didn’t know that Julia had set up a building material trading company, and she wasn’t thinking so much back when she gave him the authorization. It seemed like Julia had promised him a kickback, or else their broken relationship wouldn’t have been repaired so quickly.
That was fifty tons of steel bars. Without a doubt, it could have sold for a good price domestically.
Hence, she could only accept her fate for now, but what she didn’t know was that Miles also knew about this already.
That day, it seemed like there was another event going on at Miller Corp, and Nancy had invited her. Without dressing up, Stella attended the event, and when she reached the lobby at Miller Corp, she saw the banner which read, ‘Miller Corp Lilac Manor Groundbreaking Ceremony and Reception’.
Big companies sure have lots of cocktail parties, she thought.
Unexpectedly, Miles attended the party as well, and his figure stood out like a thumb in front of her eyes.
It had slipped her mind that Miles and Miller Corp had a long-standing relationship as collaborators, so he had to attend such events.
Just as she was about to enter the venue with a glass of wine in her hand, she saw Zane.
While Miles was having a toast with a group of people, Zane seemed to be avoiding him. Despite that, it appeared as if Miles was inching closer to him.
Baffled at the situation, Stella had a gut feeling that something was going on, so she kept her distance so she could observe the situation.
It wasn’t surprising that Zane was avoiding Miles, but it left room for imagination as to why Miles was going to him.
Seeing that he could no longer hide from Miles, Zane extended his hand and greeted him humbly. From the movement of his lips, Stella reckoned that he said, “How are you, President Grant?”
Flashing a rare smile at him, Miles then said something to Zane, which made the latter’s eyes twinkle, and he started to nod and bow to him again.
This all seemed rather surprising to Stella, and she left before the party was over; maybe Miles didn’t see her at all.
Later, Zane sent her a text saying that Miles had subcontracted a small part of the project to him. Even though it was only a small part, it was enough for him to spend it for a lifetime because this was a huge project which involved a large sum.
While Zane sounded a little too gleeful, Stella frowned, unable to figure out what Miles was thinking about.
For her, his thoughts were always unfathomable.
Nevertheless, she began to follow-up on the Lilac Manor project as everything that transpired between Zane and Miles revolved around it.
There was a TV in the office of her shop, and a live report was done on this project.
That day, it was the official beginning of the project, and she paid full attention to the report.
As it was a documentary program, it wouldn’t focus on one single person. However, the image of Miles in a safety hat still flashed across the screen. He looked rather good as he spoke casually while facing the camera with his back on the construction building of Lilac Manor. Even though she couldn’t hear what he was speaking about, his high-spirited and confident manner still made her feel that she still couldn’t let go of this man in her heart.
While Miles and Edward Miller were speaking to a group in the front, what looked like a piece of cloth had fallen from a really high spot on the building in the background. With a sudden loud noise, the thing landed on the ground and created a huge cloud of dust. All of a sudden, everyone at the construction site ran toward the person who had fallen.
Stella wanted to pour herself a glass of water when it happened, and the glass slipped from her hand, falling to the floor with a loud crash.
The spot where the person fell was far from Miles, so she didn’t know who it was. But judging from the speed when the person fell, she already knew that the person must have fallen to his death, and he must have died horribly.
Suddenly, she felt her legs turn into jelly, and she flopped onto the couch. Someone was speaking into the camera, but when he heard the commotion in the background, he turned around hurriedly, and then the image was cut off.
This was a matter which concerned a person’s life, which was the last thing the crew wanted to let the public know.
Still, Stella had a feeling in her heart that she knew who was the person who had fallen—Zane.
Miles wouldn’t have given a project to Zane without any reason. Since he had done so, the price Zane had to pay for getting it was his life.
