After the bodyguards let her pass, Wendy hurried to Todd’s side.
Todd watched coldly as she approached him. When she reached his side, he turned on his heels and left without another word.
"Todd..." Wendy chased after him, apologizing, "I’m sorry, Todd, I didn’t want to go to the washroom with him. I was afraid he would harm you."
"So what you an is, I am not a match for him and need a woman to protect ?"
Todd was furious. "Corrine, is that what you’ve always thought of ? That I am a weak, useless man? You’ve completely disgraced !"
"I did not think that! That’s not what I an." Chasing after Todd, Wendy reached out for his arm. "Todd, forgive , please! It’s my fault. I disgraced you. I will not do it again!"
Todd pushed Wendy away from himself.
The force from that shove sent Wendy tottering on her high heels and ended up with her on the ground after losing her balance.
Clent suddenly appeared beside her, his hand stretched out in an offer to help her up.
Wendy did not dare accept Clent’s help.
Todd continued with his act. "You’ve already found another man, haven’t you?
Corrine, you’ve long wanted to leave , right?"
"I did not, I really did not!" Wendy picked herself up from the ground, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Clent couldn’t stand watching a beauty like Wendy get bullied in front of his eyes and he couldn’t stand seeing her cry.
"Are you a man or not?" Clent asked Todd, disdain evident in his voice and eyes.
"It’s fine if you can’t protect your woman, how can you bla her for trying to protect you? If you were stronger, would she need to protect you? Why are you throwing a tantrum at her now? I haven’t changed my mind. If you don’t want her, I would very much like to have her!"
Turning to Wendy, Clent asked again, "I’ll ask you one more ti, want to leave him and co with instead?"
"I..." Wendy chewed on her lip and glanced fugitively at Todd.
"Corrine, don’t you dare leave with him!" Todd gritted out through clenched teeth.
The next instant, Todd reached out and grabbed Wendy’s hand, pulling her to him.
He shouted, "Get over here!"
Wendy ended up being roughly pulled away from Clent and behind Todd.
Todd stared vehently at Clent and challenged, "Even if I discard her, you can’t have her!"
"You, discard her? Ha-ha..." Clent laughed and said nothing more.
However, there was murder in his eyes as he looked at Todd.
Holding on tight to Wendy’s hand, Todd pulled her after him. As he headed for their car, he scolded, "You better know your place. Even if I don’t want you, you can’t hook up with another man!"
As he watched them leave, Clent’s face lost its smile.
Wendy and Todd drove off the mont they got into the car.
After they had gone a distance, Todd checked the rear-mirror and made sure there was no sign of Clent coming after them before heaving a sigh of relief. He asked Wendy, "Are you okay? Did he do anything to you in the washroom?"
Wendy shook her head. "No. There was a lot of human traffic in the washroom. All I did was clean his shirt at the vanity counter. He doesn’t seem like a man who would force himself on a woman."
"Regardless, you must be very careful. You will need to interact with him again."
Todd’s voice was laden with worry for Wendy’s safety.
...
"I think you’re in even more danger than I am now," sighed Wendy. "When we were leaving earlier, Clent looked at you as if he wanted to kill you. He has underworld connections and if he really has thoughts of killing you, you have to be really careful."
"There were so many witnesses to our altercation today. Even if he has underworld connections, there were many other influential people at the banquet earlier," analyzed Todd, "so he probably would not try anything too obvious in the near future. I don’t think we have to worry about that now."
"It’s still better to be careful. After all, we do not know him well, who knows what he might do?" Wendy turned sideways to look at Todd. "Are you ok? It must have been really painful when Clent threw you onto the ground earlier."
"It was," grimaced Todd. "It took a while for the unsteadiness to go away after I got up. It’s much better now though, it doesn’t hurt much anymore."
Worried, Wendy comnted, "We’d better get you checked out at a hospital."
"It’s okay, I’m sure there aren’t any broken bones. Look at , I’m perfectly fine."
Todd chuckled, trying his best to reassure Wendy. "We better talk about Clent.
Did you find out anything after interacting with him?"
"I didn’t find out anything new, but he is very interested in ." Wendy continued, her tone serious, "He did not do anything improper to when we were in the washroom cleaning up the stain on his shirt. According to him, he does not like to force his way with won."
He gave a business card and told I should call him if I regret my decision to stay with you. I did not take it though. n like him will start to lose interest if I accept his business card.
Doesn’t he go drinking at bars often?
We had planned to arrange a chance eting with him at his favourite bar but after what happened at the banquet, he will probably take the initiative to investigate now.
Here’s what we will do.
I will visit the bar he frequents tomorrow. After our big fight today, on top of what happened with HG, it would be natural for to feel very troubled. A man has the best chance of getting to a woman when she is troubled.
Clent will very likely approach if he sees , alone, drinking at a bar.
I won’t have to arrange a chance eting with him after that. He will probably find opportunities to et instead.
From there, we’ll just continue with our plan."
"You have to be careful. If you don’t manage to get anything out of him, don’t force it." Todd reminded, "Your safety is paramount in this."
"Don’t worry, I know my limits," said Wendy as she nodded.
After a few more minutes, Wendy said, "Let off at the junction up ahead."
"But we’re not at your ho yet," Todd asked, not understanding why Wendy had asked to be let off.
"Since we are putting on an act, we have to go all the way. Who knows? Clent might have already sent soone to investigate ." Wendy theorised, "It’ll look more like we had a fight if you make get out of the car before I reach my apartnt."
Wendy had put a lot of thought into making their act realistic.
Todd glanced at the surroundings and noticed there wasn’t a single cab in sight. He worried that Wendy would have trouble hailing a cab ho.
"How about I drop you sowhere where there are more cabs?" asked Todd "No..." Wendy pursed her lips and said firmly, "For all you know, if you leave by the roadside, Clent might co to pick up personally."
"But that will an you will have to face him alone," worried Todd.
...
"Isn’t that sothing that is bound to happen?" Wendy smiled. She reassured Todd, "Besides, didn’t you arrange for people to guard in secret? Our aim is to get close to Clent, it doesn’t make sense if we do not give him an opportunity to get near to ."
"But it’s really too dangerous for you..." Todd continued driving, his expression full of worry. "We better stick to the original plan and et him at the bar."
"Today’s results were better than our expectations. I feel we should strike while the iron is hot." Wendy said, "Trust , I will be fine. I just need to bring out his protectiveness and interest in . Other than that, we will follow the plan."
Todd knew he wouldn’t be able to change Wendy’s mind once she had decided.
With a sigh, he slowed down.
He had observed the traffic on the road and there seed to be more cars in this area, aning it was relatively safer than sowhere more remote.
He gradually ca to a stop and turned to look at Wendy, "Be careful."
Wendy nodded before reaching for the door handle.
Just then, Todd reached out and grabbed her arm. She thought he had changed his mind and was trying to stop her. "Don’t worry, I will be extra careful," repeated Wendy.
"I’m not trying to stop you. I know you have already made up your mind," said Todd, "It’s just that, it would look more realistic if I dragged you out of the car rather than you getting off by yourself."
Understanding his line of thought, Wendy nodded.
Todd then got out of the car and went around the front of it to the passenger seat.
He reached out and opened the door.
"Get out!" Todd pulled Wendy roughly out of the car.
He had not actually put any force into his actions, it was all an act.
Wendy fell onto the ground after getting out of the car, as if she had been thrown out of it. She even reached out to grab hold of Todd’s hand.
rcilessly, Todd kicked her away with one foot.
He then returned to the car and drove off.
Wendy watched the car disappear into the distance before slowly picking herself up off the ground.
As she was standing up, the heel of one of her shoes broke. She decided to simply take both sides off and hold them instead.
At this ti, Clent’s underling was giving his boss a call.
"Boss, Corrine had been thrown out of the car by Todd. She’s walking along the road now. She’s barefoot and seems to be struggling along. I think she might have injured her leg."
As Wendy had expected, Clent had set a man on their car.
The corners of Clent’s mouth turned up in a smile as he listened to his subordinate’s report. He said, "Give the address."
After he finished the call, Clent hung up and put his cell phone away. Grabbing a server who was walking past, he instructed, "Tell the host that I am making a move first. I will treat him to a al so other day."
The server nodded.
Clent then left the banquet.
His car soon arrived at Wendy’s location.
Wendy had been walking along the road for a while and tried to flag a couple of cabs but they all ignored her.
This was a no-stop zone and cabs mostly would not stop at such zones as they would incur a fine.
Clent’s car rolled up slowly beside Wendy.
The windows were slowly wound down and Clent stuck his head out. "Hi, Beautiful. What a coincidence, we et again."
Wendy put on a surprised look when she saw Clent. "Oh, it’s you. Why are you here?"
"I’m on my way ho." Clent stopped his car. He asked, "What about you? Didn’t you leave with your boyfriend? How did you end up here alone? Where is your boyfriend?"
"He...He had sothing to attend to." Wendy defended Todd.
Clent’s interest in her seed to have been further piqued by her reply.
She’s obviously hurt, and yet she was still defending her boyfriend.
...
"What is so important and urgent that he has to leave you by the road like this?"
Clent’s eyes swept over her and landed at her bare feet.
Wendy realised he was looking at her feet and drew them back, embarrassed.
She was not wearing any shoes and had been walking for quite a while. Her feet had inevitable gotten quite dirty.
She covered her embarrassnt with a little laugh.
"Where do you stay?" Clent asked.
"I..." Wendy bit her lip and looked down. Sowhat cagily, she said, "Just up ahead. It’s not far."
"Why so defensive? Are you afraid I will abduct you?" Clent took heed of Wendy’s wariness towards him and laughed louder. "You’re just a little slip of a thing! If I wanted to do anything to you, you wouldn’t be standing there still!"
Clent was not exaggerating when he said that. He was involved in the underworld and was probably fully capable of many unspeakable things.
"Aren’t you going ho? You should be on your way." Wendy said, "I will get ho soon."
With that Wendy clutched her shoes tighter and hurried away.
She wasn’t really going to leave, of course.
After a few steps, she started hobbling, and she slowed down.
Clent looked at her bedraggled state and imdiately drove the car up to her, stopped and got off.
He went to Wendy and physically blocked her way. "I already told you, if I wanted to do anything to you, you would not be able to resist."
"I..." Wendy looked up at Clent, then lowered her head again bashfully.
She chewed on her lip and kept quiet.
In Clent’s eyes, Wendy’s current state and expression were sin-inducing. He found her irresistibly attractive.
However, they were in the middle of the street, and Wendy had a boyfriend. Clent could only wait. He was patient. He would make her leave Todd and co to him willingly.
A woman who ca to him of her own accord was different from one who was forced.
"Get in the car, I’ll send you ho." Clent remained in front of Wendy, He had no intention of giving in and letting her leave.
"Wendy shook her head firmly and said fearfully, "We only just t for the first ti today. There is no need for you to send ho. Besides, if my boyfriend found out, he would be furious."
"Ha-ha..." Clent laughed uproariously at Wendy’s words. "You’re a kind one.
Your boyfriend abandoned you in the middle of nowhere and you’re still worried about him getting angry?"
"He... He did not abandon ," Wendy replied helplessly, "He just had sothing urgent to attend to and will be back for soon."
As if afraid that Clent would not believe her, Wendy blinked at him innocently, and reiterated, "He will co back for ."
Clent’s eyes lit up with inflad interest at the woman he thought was pure and innocent.
She wouldn’t let him send her ho?
All the more he wanted to do it!
"You think he will co back for you after leaving you here?" Clent asked. "Co with . I promise I will send you ho safely. Don’t worry, I am not a bad person."
"Thank you for your kind offer, but I really don’t need a ride ho." Wendy rejected him again.
"I have never been so patient with a woman in my life. However, I hope you understand that there is a limit to my patience." Clent said as he walked to the passenger door and opened it, inviting Wendy to get in.
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