Chapter 198 Clearing Up the Misunderstanding
"Liking you is my own business. Even if you don't like me back, you can't stop me from liking you, can you?"
Nancy's logic was strange, but she seemed completely lost in her own world.
After saying that, she gave me a challenging look. "Helena, you'd better keep a closer eye on Atlas. Otherwise, I might just take him back anytime I want."
Then she got up and walked away without looking back.
After she left, Atlas shook his head helplessly and looked at me. "Helena, don't listen to her nonsense. 'Take him back' — I'm not some object she can just grab whenever she feels like it."
"You're not an object, but you're way too popular!"
Seeing that I was still in the mood to joke around, Atlas visibly relaxed. He let out a long sigh. "I was honestly worried she might get to you. As long as you're not bothered, that's all that matters."
"I'm not bothered by her. But as your girlfriend, I do have a problem with something — what was that whole hugging thing at the airport between you two?"
Atlas looked confused when he saw how serious I was. "What hugging? I didn't hug her."
"Oh really? Because I have proof."
I took out my phone, pulled up the photos, and handed it to him. "Look — isn't that the two of you?"
Atlas took the phone and quickly swiped through it. His brow furrowed. "This is from when I got off the plane that day. It's me and Nancy."
He quickly explained, "I was walking toward the exit when she suddenly appeared out of nowhere and threw herself at me before I could react. I pushed her away right away."
Then he looked puzzled. "Where did you get this photo?"
I pointed to the number that sent it. "I have no idea who sent it. I was actually planning to ask you over dinner, but then Nancy showed up, and that kind of cleared things up for me."
Atlas pulled out his phone with a serious look and made a call. "Benjamin, I'm going to give you a phone number. Help me find out who it belongs to."
"Got it."
After Atlas read out the number, he turned to me. "No wonder you showed up out of the blue today — you came to confront me."
He looked at me apologetically. "I'm sorry. Did I make you worry?"
I shook my head. "Not really. I know you're not that kind of person. But when something like this comes up, if I don't clear it up, it'll just sit between us. So I wanted to get answers. There's not much left to ask now, but I am curious — who took that photo?"
I turned my phone over, looking at it again and again. "Whoever it is must know both of us. Maybe it's someone who's after you, or after me. Could it be Knox?"
"Hard to say. Don't worry about it — I've already got someone looking into it. We'll figure out who it is."
I nodded at Atlas's reassurance. Whoever it was, as long as there were no misunderstandings between Atlas and me, they couldn't drive a wedge between us.
After lunch, Atlas offered to drive me home. Since Quincy's office wasn't far and I hadn't seen her in a while, I told him not to bother and drove there myself.
Quincy was thrilled when she got my call.
"Helena, wait right there — I'm coming down now!"
Not long after she hung up, I spotted her stepping out into the lobby.
She grabbed my hand. "Come on, come on! It's been days since we've seen each other. Let's go upstairs and catch up properly."
Before I could say anything, she pulled me straight into the elevator.
Quincy's office was on the third floor — clean and simple, completely different from her usual loud and carefree personality.
Once we sat down, she poured me a glass of water, spread her arms wide, and looked around proudly. "So? What do you think of the place?"
I looked around. The office wasn't huge, but the floor-to-ceiling windows gave a clear view of the city center in the distance, and there were plants everywhere. Just looking at them made me feel better.
"Not bad," I said.
"Really?"
Quincy beamed. "And I've got some good news to share."
"What is it?"
"Last week, my team landed a major deal. Even the old-timers at the company started looking at me differently after that."
"That's great — you're really finding your footing there now."
Watching her reach one milestone after another made me genuinely happy for her.
"We should go out for drinks after you get off work to celebrate."
Quincy's face lit up. "Yes! Absolutely!"
She immediately shut her laptop and linked her arm through mine. "Let's go — right now."
"What?"
I glanced out the window in surprise. It was bright and sunny outside — barely past noon. It was way too early to call it quits, and who even knew if the bar was open yet.
"Isn't it a bit too early to go now?"
"What's wrong with drinking early? Nobody said you could only drink at night."
Quincy was already pulling me toward the door. The moment she opened it, someone was standing right outside with their hand raised, about to knock — and froze when they saw us.
"Are you heading out?"
It was Kenneth. Quincy's expression instantly soured. "Yeah, we're heading out. What do you want?"
Kenneth frowned and held up the documents in his hand. "Didn't you say you wanted to go after the Titan Global Enterprises advertising contract? I pulled together all the background materials you'd need."
Quincy crossed her arms, clearly annoyed. "That can wait — no need to rush."
"You're right, it can wait," Kenneth said calmly. "But your competition isn't giving you any breathing room. I heard someone's already planning to meet with Titan Global Enterprises this afternoon."
That snapped Quincy to attention. She snatched the documents from Kenneth's hands, her expression turning serious. "Helena, I can't go out with you right now. Give me a bit — let's do tonight instead."
"Sure, no problem. Go do what you need to do. I'll catch up with Kenneth in the meantime."
Quincy muttered, "Why? What's there to talk to him about?"
"Just get to work. Don't worry — we're just talking shop."
I laughed and nudged her back into her chair, then stepped out of the office with Kenneth and pulled the door shut behind us.
Out in the hallway, Kenneth smiled at me. "Come on — let's go to my office."
"Sure!"
I followed him down to his office on the fourth floor. It was noticeably bigger than Quincy's office. As I was looking around, Kenneth set a cup of coffee in front of me and said, "This office was originally meant for Quincy when she joined the company, but she turned it down."
I nodded. Kenneth's love for Quincy was obvious, but Quincy still held a grudge and couldn't bring herself to fully accept him and Edna.
It wasn't my place to judge — it was a complicated situation. But the good thing was that Quincy was doing better and better at work. I believed that one day, she'd be able to let go and accept Kenneth and Edna.
I took a sip of coffee and said, "Quincy just told me her team closed a big deal. She really does seem happier than ever."
Kenneth couldn't help but smile at that. "She did really well this time. Even Dad couldn't stop singing her praises."