Chapter 116
After munching on snacks for over half an hour, I was finally stuffed.
“Hey, if you’re not too busy, could you give me a lift to the hotel?” I was so full that I didn’t feel like walking or hailing a cab
Since Neil was still hanging around, I decided to swallow my pride and ask.
Neil didn’t respond, he just turned and headed towards his car.
I quickly followed suit
At the hotel, I thanked Neil and then hurried back to my room.
Linda and I had separate rooms. I wasn’t sure if she was sleeping, so I sent her a message to let her know I was back.
Linda replied. “Alright”
Then I took a shower and started looking up pregnancy tips on my bed. I had decided to keep the baby and raise him on my own.
This was my first child, and I didn’t want to give him up. Even though I could provide him a good life, he would still lack a father’s love.
The next morning. I was awakened by the alarm clock. After quickly getting dressed and putting on light makeup, I met up with Linda. She was driving and I was sitting in the passenger seat, heading towards G City.
The drive took about eight or nine hours. By the time we arrived, it was around four in the afternoon.
My partners had already made contact. They had booked a hotel and planned to host a welcome dinner for me and Linda to discuss our future collaboration.
“Tm beat, let’s rest up a bit before heading out for dinner,” I said to Linda while lying on my bed in our twin room.
“Sounds good, I could use a break too” Linda responded, stretching out on the other bed.
She was around the same age as me, not from Caladonia, but after completing her university studies in her country, she went abroad to work.
The funniest thing was that she had also studied in Rosemont. So when I attended Stella Wallace’s wedding, she was essentially returning to her old stomping ground. She even went to pay homage to a friend.
Linda said. The only reason I got a job at President Finch’s company was because I studied in Rosemont. He’s very patriotic and misses his hometown, so he offered me a job. And I’ve been here ever since.”
The President Finch she was talking about was my Harold.
“No wonder Mr. Finch asked you to come with me, you know this place well!” I said, lying in bed with my eyes closed.
“Yeah, but I haven’t been back home in a while. Irene, you’re related to Mr. Finch, right?” Linda asked, “You two seem pretty close.”
I didn’t hide anything, “Yes, he’s my brother.”
Linda laughed, “And I said, you two share the same surname and look alike, you must be siblings. Are you single?”
No one at the company knew about my situation back home, except for Orlando Finch.
Naturally, Linda didn’t know about my divorce either.
“Well, I guess you could say I’m single,” I tried to change the subject, “What about you? You seem single too.”
“I’m a non–marriageable person, Linda replied.
“You’re so good, I’m sure there are plenty of men chasing after you Why don’t you consider getting married?” I couldn’t help but open my eyes and turn to look at Linda on the other bed, “Did you have a bad experience with love?”
Linda was silent for a moment, when she spoke again, there was a hint of anger in her voice, “Men are unreliable. What’s the point of saying ‘I love you? They can change their minds at any time, they can even choose to love other women while they claim to love you”
This reminded me of Neil, and I was left speechless.
Our conversation ended there, Linda seemed to have remembered something unpleasant and turned over, not speaking anymore. I closed my eyes again and fell into a deep sleep.
By nighttime, I was awoken by Linda’s urging. Yawning, I got up and hurried off to the hotel arranged by our partners.
The liaison sent by our partners was a friendly man in his forties named Ferris. He was accompanied by a few younger employees, seemingly there to learn
I wasn’t bothered about this, my attention was on Ferris, who had ordered a table full of seafood.
The moment the first dish of garlic stir–fried tiger prawns was served, I felt disgusted. Just the smell made my stomach churn.
Next came seafood sashimi, seafood salad, seafood stew Each dish made me feel worse
Finally, I excused myself to the restroom in the middle of the conversation. Since I hadn’t eaten much, I couldn’t even throw up.
When I came out of the restroom, I felt dizzy and my legs were weak.
I leaned against the wall and slowly made my way back to the private room, when suddenly I heard someone behind me call my name, “Irene?”
I turned around, and it was Russel
He quickly walked over and held me up. “Have you been drinking?”
“No, just a stomach discomfort,” I replied.
“Weren’t you just checked out? Do you have a stomach problem? Why haven’t you treated 17” Russel asked sternly.
I shook my head, “It’s nothing serious, just gastritis. Sometimes it makes me nauseous. What are you doing here?”
Russel told me he had come here with a few senior professors from the hospital for a three–day medical exchange. Today was the first day. During our conversation, we reached the door of the private room, “Alright, I’m here for work with my colleague. Thank you”
“Go in,” Russel let go of my arm..
As I opened the door to enter in private room, Linda, who was sitting opposite the door, glanced at the entrance and her face changed.
I instinctively looked back and saw Russel looking at Linda with an indescribable expression.
Did they know each other? I immediately had doubts.
Judging by their expressions, not only did they know each other, it seemed like they had some unpleasant history.
I let go of the door and it closed, blocking their line of sight
Next, I obviously felt that Linda was a little distracted, and I had to handle most of the details. Because we could not reach a consensus on some issues, the contract was not signed after the dinner. “Ms. Finch and Ms. Linda, let’s talk about this separately once we get back home. I reckon our two
companies would make a perfect match, and there’s a whole lot of sincerity on both sides. Hopefully, we can work out some small issues together.” Ferris said, before we parted ways.
“Alright, Mr. Ferris, cheers for the hospitality tonight.” I responded.
After parting, Linda and I headed back to our hotel for some shut–eye. On the way back, she seemed to have a lot on her mind.
I could tell she wanted to ask me something, but she had been hesitating.
Finally, back in the hotel room, fresh out of the shower, Linda couldn’t hold back anymore. “Irene, do you know Russel?” she asked.
“Yeah, what’s up? Do you know him too?” I sat down, throwing the question back at her.
“Are you two tight?” Linda asked again.
“We’re just regular friends.” A suspicion began to creep into my mind. Had Linda and Russel had a thing before?
But as far as I knew, Russel had never had a girlfriend. Even with Karina Aaron, she got together with Neil just as Russel started to have feelings for her.
Seeing the look on Linda’s face, I got a bad feeling. “Linda, why are you asking about this? Is there… something going on between you two?”
