Chapter 3

I scrolled through her previous messages and found out the true reason Leon left the house in a hurry.

Lily was a nurse and had just admitted a man who had been wounded in a traffic accident. When the family members were sorting out the paperwork, she heard them mentioning that Leon was the man’s son-in-law.

I chuckled at the thought. It turned out the reason he left was because of Charlotte.

After that, I gathered myself mentally and went to work.

My father ran a large company. Thanks to my degree being directly related to the family business, I smoothly transitioned into the company after graduation and became the department manager within a couple of years.

As soon as I arrived at my office, my assistant brought me a document.

“Miss Rain, we need your signature on this project. All the paperwork’s complete.”

I opened it and went through it briefly. It was a joint project with Parker Corporation, but I had the impression that Parker Corporation wasn’t a good fit for that project.

“Has my father approved it?”

“No,” my assistant responded, a little taken aback. “Wasn’t it you who told me that any projects that involve Parker Corporation should be conducted with their best interest in mind?”

I certainly remember saying that at one point.

At the time, I had assumed that it was only a matter of time before I married Leon and became family, so it made sense to support each other’s business. However, now that our relationship had deteriorated, I had to reevaluate the financial situation.

“We can proceed this time around but forget about what I said last time. From now on, the priority when it comes to project selection is our company's profit.”

After a busy day of work, I was tired and starving. Thankfully, Lily had suggested grabbing dinner at the restaurant across from the office.

After we agreed on the time and place, I packed my belongings and headed downstairs.

We entered the restaurant together. Since it was dinner time, the restaurant was packed, but we managed to get the waiter to give us the only empty seat in the corner.

Just as I was about to order, I heard a familiar voice.

“Anna, what a coincidence running into you here.”

I turned in the direction of the voice and found Leon and Charlotte sitting in front of us.

Leon looked a little uncomfortable when he saw me, but he managed to come up with a convenient excuse in time, “I was just about to call you to join us, and here you are.”

Charlotte greeted me with a smile, “Anna, why don’t we sit together? There’s more than enough room!”

I noticed two new customers stepping into the restaurant, and after thinking about it briefly, I got Lily to move over to their table.

While Leon called the waiter over and asked for two extra sets of utensils, I inspected the dishes on the table. Nearly every dish contained spice.

I was very fond of spicy food, but Leon had a sensitive stomach, so I avoided cooking spicy food to accommodate his palette. In time, I stopped eating spicy food entirely. However, Charlotte, on the other hand, was very fond of spicy food.

I watched Leon take one bite after another without so much as a wince. My heart was so broken that I was completely numb to it all.

Then, Charlotte whispered something in Leon's ear, which got him to turn to me.

“I’ll be right back. Enjoy your food, girls.”

As soon as he walked away to look for the waiter, Charlotte's expression shifted. The smile on her face had disappeared.

“Annabelle, I’m sure you know that I’m going to get married to Leon very soon, yet you still cling to him. Don’t you feel embarrassed?”

She made sure to flaunt the diamond ring on her finger as she said that.

Incensed, Lily tried to get up to defend me, but I managed to hold her back just in time.

I grabbed a tissue to clean my lips before meeting Charlotte’s gaze.

“Charlotte, I don’t think stealing someone’s boyfriend is worth bragging about. Would you like me to expose you to the world?”

“You…”

Charlotte was about to say something when something suddenly caught her eye and made her pause. Then, without warning, she grabbed a cup of water on the table and splashed its contents all over herself.

I was confused as to why she had done that when I heard Leon’s voice.

“Charlotte, are you okay?”

Leon stepped forward urgently and helped pat her dry.

I observed the way his fingers stroked across her cheeks and chest from time to time in an intimate way.

Charlotte whimpered with tears in her eyes, “Leon, it was Annabelle. She’s jealous of me and…”

Lily, enraged, was about to blow up in anger at that point. I was also about to say something when the ground beneath us trembled and I could see the water in the glasses shaking.

Someone cried out, “It’s an earthquake. Run!”

I reacted quickly by taking Lily’s hand and evacuating the restaurant.

Just as we were about to make a run for it, Leon carried Charlotte in his arms and ran past me, even tackling me to the floor.

“Don’t worry, Charlotte. We’re going to be fine.”

The situation had descended into chaos. I was trampled on several times before Lily managed to pick me up on my feet, and we managed to scramble out together.

As soon as we stepped outside, I spotted Leon nearby with Charlotte wrapped tightly in his arms.

He sounded relieved. “I’m glad we managed to make it out safely…”

Then, as if he just remembered me, he glanced back at me, his eyes meeting my cold, indifferent gaze.

He averted his gaze and stated hesitantly, “Anna, everything happened so suddenly, I didn’t mean…”

Lily could not take it anymore. “Enough of that! If that quake had been worse, you could’ve killed her when you knocked her down!”

Leon pursed his lips and stayed silent. Lily was going to keep going until I shook her head to tell her to stop.

Then, I shot an icy look at Leon. “Don’t bother explaining. Charlotte must have been frightened, and isn’t her dad in the hospital too? You should be with her.”