Chapter 86 Receiving a Phone Call
Miles’ phone was placed on the table. At this moment, he was in a meeting with his subordinates, so it was rather abrupt when his phone rang. When he picked it up, he was surprised to see that it was Stella calling.
“Have you reached Hollowcrest City safely?” Stella’s impatient voice came.
Miles didn’t respond for a long time, so Stella’s urgent ‘hellos’ kept coming from the other end as she became more and more impatient.
“Are you worried about me?” Miles finally asked.
Stella was dumbfounded by what he just said. After a moment, she said, “Good to know you’re okay!” Then, she hung up the phone, her heart beating fast.
When all the subordinates in the office heard the line, ‘Are you worried about me’, from their president, they got excited and curious. The president had just broken up with Stella, so they were surprised that he had found someone new so soon. But after all, he was rich, so he probably didn’t lack women.
Miles did not care about their curiosity because he had just noticed Kevin’s expression at the end of the conference table—it was very odd and very unlike the expression of someone engaged in technology. As soon as the meeting was over, Miles called his secretary in. Then, he requested the secretary to find out the conversation between Kevin and his daughter from Kevin’s hospital ward within a week because there must be something wrong with Kevin.
The secretary looked confused. “President, we have never done anything illegal, have we?”
Miles suddenly lifted his head. “Even if it’s not illegal, it may go against morality. Don’t tell me I’ve never assigned you anything of that sort.”
The secretary left with an attitude of ‘if it doesn’t work out, so be it.’
Today, Matthew took Zachariah to Stella’s store. Both of them came to Murdough last night during a storm, and when they arrived, Zachariah had long fallen asleep. When Matthew saw that Stella’s goods had arrived at the store intact, he was relieved, and he then went off to find a hotel to stay at.
Yesterday’s scene was like a storm. Matthew pretended to not see anything and did not tell Stella that he saw her get into Miles’ car last night.
This was the first time Zachariah saw Stella’s store, so it naturally was very novel to him. He asked many questions in a very curious manner, while Stella smiled and answered all of them one by one. Then, Zachariah made sure his father wasn’t looking before carefully showing Stella a photo.
Stella frowned slightly. “Huh? Why do you have a picture of me?”
“We moved to a new house, and I found it in a corner.”
Stella was quite puzzled, and she only vaguely remembered that this was her ID photo. As she rarely took photos—let alone ones that were subsequently printed—she naturally remembered every single photo she had taken. However, this photo was placed in the villa in Hollowcrest City, so how did it end up in the hands of Zachariah? Just now Zachariah said that he found it at home. Could it be that…
“Where do you live now?”
“On Century Road. It’s a small villa that my father bought, and we just moved in.”
Stella stroked Zachariah’s head. “Good boy.” It turned out that her villa was bought by Matthew, but even if he bought it, why didn’t he tell her? It was like he wanted to do a good deed anonymously.
Matthew was inspecting the clothing layout in Stella’s store, which was important, because a new and refreshing layout would increase the customer’s desire to buy the clothes. Stella walked up next to Matthew and said, “I don’t know if your decision to buy my house has anything to do with what I said to you the other day, but I think it did influence your decision one way or another. Thank you, anyway.”
Matthew glanced at Zachariah. He knew that the kid had told Stella, but he didn’t intend to hide it either. After all, this was something that Stella would find out sooner or later.
“I happened to need a house near the international school, and you happened to sell it, so I bought it. There’s no need to thank me.”
Even though he said so, Stella was still very grateful to him, because if she had known at that time that he was the buyer, she would have certainly given him a price that was a lot cheaper. She understood Matthew’s intentions very well, and she knew that he had the level of generosity and thoughtfulness that other men did not have.
However, Stella secretly remembered this favor in her heart. After all, Matthew had resolved her urgent need to sell the house; otherwise, she might not have been able to sell it even if she waited another month in Hollowcrest City. To her, time was of the essence now.
Matthew only came for his regular rounds today, so he left after seeing that Stella’s store was doing a good job.
Coincidentally, the two had just left when Yulia and Xavier came to Murdough. They were in the foreign trade, so it was normal for them to conduct inter-city business trips. But as Yulia heard that Stella had opened a store, she naturally wanted to come and check out the new store. Besides, she did not stay at a hotel but in Stella’s home—she even slept with her in a bed.
In the evening, Stella was making a cup of orange juice for Yulia, and because she was chatting with the latter, she accidentally cut her hand on the juicer. Flustered, Yulia hurried to find a band-aid to wrap Stella’s hand, but Stella just rinsed her hand under the faucet and said, “I’m not that pampered.”
Laughing, Yulia said casually, “Any woman whom Miles had had sex with is definitely pampered and valuable. There’s a woman in Hollowcrest City who looks very sensual like you. Previously, it seemed that she and Miles had a one-night stand, and when the woman left, she was taken by another rich man. With that, her worth naturally became much higher.”
Stella was still washing her hands slowly. One-night stand! Well, I did have a one-night stand with Miles as well.
In the past, she had never hoped to be his only one, and now, she did not dare to have such thoughts either. However, she still felt a raw ache in her heart. She didn’t know if what Yulia said was true or not, but even if it was not, Miles was still able to make her feel hurt.
Yulia seemed to come to her senses all of a sudden and said in a panic, “Look at what I’m saying! I’m always too candid for my own good.”
“It’s okay! It’s all in the past!” Stella smiled kindly.
“Stella, did I say something wrong?” Yulia seemed to be asking for Stella’s forgiveness, as if she had really done something wrong.
“No. It’s fine.” Stella forced another smile.
“Oh, by the way, Stella, let’s go to the movies together tomorrow. Our meeting tomorrow will end at 3.00PM. Besides, you’re the boss, so your time is flexible. It should be no problem, right?” As if apologizing to Stella for what happened just now, Yulia took the initiative to ask Stella out for a movie together.
Stella nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
Stella did not work today. Instead, she went shopping all morning and bought Zachariah a very expensive set of Lego toys which cost more than 3,000. Furthermore, she bought Matthew a razor. Stella did not know what to give to men, as Matthew certainly would not wear clothes she bought him. Besides, she did not know his size, and since he was in the clothing business, he must be particularly picky about the style of clothes. Previously, she had no idea and thought that his style was especially simple, but after selling men’s clothing, she finally realized that Matthew’s clothes were minimalistic but not simple at all. From the design of the buttons to the style of the collar, everything was quite extensively researched. Perhaps only rich people would have the luxury of cultivating such tastes from childhood.
As for Miles’ clothes, those were even more expensive. It was only after Stella was involved in this industry that she realized how luxurious and exclusive Miles’ clothes were. Even a shirt of his cost tens of thousands.
Originally, Stella did not intend to buy gifts for the father and son duo so urgently. After all, it was such a big favor that she had to slowly repay them, but because Yulia happened to be going back to Hollowcrest City and could pass the gifts along, Stella decided to hurriedly buy something.
Yulia’s flight was in the evening. Previously, Matthew had said that he wanted to check out a particular men’s clothing brand, but there was no store of this brand in Hollowcrest City, so he asked Stella to help him check it out. Hence, Stella bought him a piece of the clothing this time to let him take it back and study it. After all, Yulia would need to bring it back.
After placing the things inside the store, she hurriedly went to the cinema, but Yulia was not there. Instead, it was Xavier who showed up, thereby making Stella feel rather taken aback. Actually, Xavier had come to Murdough this time and had a meal with Stella. Now, he felt awkward to see the latter because Miles had teased him previously.
Xavier knew that Stella felt awkward about it too, so he took the initiative to explain that Yulia was not finished with the meeting yet, but the tickets had been bought, so she told him to come. Stella thought about it and did not say anything.
Afterward, she went into the cinema but kept feeling something was wrong, as if she was being used. Hence, she did not pay attention to the film and excused herself halfway through the movie, claiming that she had a headache. Later, she got up and left to go back to the store and wait for Yulia.
Yulia was already back there and sitting in her office fiddling with her phone. “Aren’t you in a meeting?” Stella asked.
The gifts for the Xenon father and son were already put in a very large bag properly. In fact, she had marked which gifts were for the boy and which gifts were for Matthew.
“I think you’d better write on the outside, ‘For the Xenon Family’. I have a lot of stuff, so these might get mixed up,” Yulia said.
Hearing that, Stella thought to herself that Yulia was right, so she marked the bag.
At 5.00PM, Stella invited Yulia and Xavier to have dinner and bid them farewell.
In Miles’ office, the secretary handed the audio file to Miles. Miles only heard two sentences in the file—“Dad will not let President Grant have a girlfriend, and even if he had one, Dad would definitely break them up. He’ll make him wait for our Lily, and our Lily will definitely get better soon.”
As Miles listened, he inexplicably felt creeped out inside. Is this father crazy? Whether or not I have a girlfriend has nothing to do with him! Besides, is the matter that Stella once complained to me also fake?
After all, Miles felt that with Stella’s character, she would rarely complain to others. It was only when the two were far away that he really understood this woman. Before, he only understood her body and all its curves. He had indulged in its fragrance, which made him unable to control his feelings.
At 4 in the afternoon, Yulia called Matthew, who was still at Miles’ company. He did not tell Miles about his visit to Murdough, as he knew that it would be troublesome because Miles had suspected something was up between him and Stella. However, he did not expect Yulia to call him. How strange.
