Chapter 289 William and Thalia Started Fighting
The next day, while Thalia was still sleeping, William woke her up with a phone call.
Half asleep, Thalia crawled out of bed to find her phone.
As soon as she answered, an unhappy voice came from the other end, "Where are you?"
"At the Smith Villa."
William was silent for a moment without saying anything. Thalia instantly became alert, knowing William must be plotting something bad again. She wiped her face and leaned against the bed. "I came back on the same flight as Gregory last night. I was afraid he'd find out I live at Mistwood Hill, so I just went to my mom's place."
While patiently explaining, she glanced at the time - it was only six-thirty. She hadn't gone to sleep until almost four in the morning.
William's mood improved slightly because of Thalia's explanation, like a ruffled cat being smoothed down. "Should I come pick you up?"
"Don't..." Realizing something was off, Thalia cleared her throat and continued. "I only went to sleep at four. What time is it now? I'm going to die from exhaustion."
William didn't respond. Thalia heard the sound of a lighter on his end.
Figuring he had lit a cigarette, Thalia touched her nose and called out carefully, "William?"
"Scared now?"
"What do I have to be scared of? I didn't do anything to betray you."
"Zephyrine is throwing a party. If you want to watch, come find me yourself." After William finished speaking, he hung up. When Thalia heard this, the little bit of sleepiness she had left instantly vanished.
She quickly got up and got ready, afraid of missing the good show.
When William came down from the helicopter and reached his top-floor office, he happened to see Thalia pushing the door open.
The moment the man saw her, a slight smile appeared on his lips.
Sure enough, the best way to hunt isn't to chase, but to throw down something she likes to eat, and she'll naturally come to you.
He knew it - as long as he didn't mention the time, Thalia would show up right away.
"What are you doing? Aren't we going to find Zephyrine?"
"It's still morning."
Thalia had a vague feeling something was wrong. "When does her thing start?"
"Tonight."
She knew it - this man was deeply calculating. "And you didn't tell me?"
William pressed the intercom to order coffee. "You didn't ask."
Thalia complained, "Bullying me like this, don't you feel bad?"
"Did I dump you?"
"What are you doing? Let go." Thalia struggled.
William reached out and locked her tightly in his arms, hugging her so hard it hurt. Thalia's eyes filled with tears, her eyes reddening.
The man's gaze at Thalia was like an elder scolding a disobedient junior. "Thalia, don't let me hear those words again."
It was an order, not a discussion.
Thalia suddenly realized that William was like a wild rose growing by the roadside. At first glance, beautiful and alluring, making you want to take him home. But after bringing him home and planting him in the soil, she would discover he was growing thorns one by one, and these things weren't there when she first picked him.
To put it in realistic terms, this is called showing one's true nature.
Men are good at pretending.
William knew what Thalia liked, so he disguised himself as that, seduced her, coaxed her, and appropriately possessed her.
But all of this would slowly reveal itself after getting what he wanted, exposing his true nature.
Thalia suddenly realized she seemed to have been tricked. At some point in her interactions with William, she had already learned to read his moods and humor him. This would never have happened before.
She steadied herself. "William, do you think you can change my habits of over twenty years just by spending a few months with me?"
"Do you think that's possible?"
"Not possible?" The man's tone was matter-of-fact.
"Not possible. I won't change for anyone. If you've got the guts, kill me."
In the early morning, the office atmosphere was heavy. William was provoked by Thalia's words. He slowly nodded, pulled open a drawer and took out a small knife.
He pressed her palm down on the desk, turned his wrist, and a gleaming fruit knife fell toward it.
When Thalia saw this scene, she couldn't catch her breath.
Looking at William with suppressed resentment and hatred, her eyes reddened like a bullied little rabbit, pitifully.
Brian came in carrying coffee and happened to see this scene. Startled, his hand shook and the cup of coffee smashed onto the floor.
He couldn't react for a long moment.
The knife landed precisely between Thalia's fingertips. She gasped heavily, looking down at the knife, then angrily pulled her hand away and slapped William across the face.
The crisp sound brought Brian back to his senses.
Before he could clean up, he scrambled out of the office, not forgetting to close the door as he ran all the way to Angelina's office to get backup.
"Ms. Jolie, they're fighting."
"As long as it's not my parents fighting, it's not a big deal. Speak slowly." Angelina said.
"Mr. Brown and Mrs. Brown are fighting."
"Holy shit!" This was a bigger deal than her parents fighting. Angelina dropped her work and practically scrambled toward William's office.
Just as she pushed open the door, Thalia's second slap was about to land, but William caught it.
"Thalia, if I've made changes for you, why can't you make changes for me?"
"Did I ask you to? William, stop blaming me for things that have nothing to do with me. As long as your changes weren't something I personally demanded, weren't something I personally said, then they have nothing to do with me. If you did it willingly, what right do you have to demand anything from me?"
Angelina wanted to break up the fight, but when she heard Thalia's argument, she immediately stopped.
"On one hand, you tell me that if what I give you is the same as what I give others, you don't want it."
"On the other hand, you use the same tactics on other men that you use on me. Thalia, are you really that cheap?"
"Stop talking nonsense." Thalia snapped.
William controlled his emotions, appearing calm on the surface, but still not letting go of Thalia's hand. "I'm talking nonsense?"
The man took out his phone, opened Facebook, and held it in front of her.
On the screen was footage from the show where they went up the mountain at midnight to pick mushrooms, with her hiding behind Gregory, looking scared.
She choked up, knowing she felt a bit guilty, but still wouldn't back down. "It's just a show."
Thud. William threw his phone on the desk and leaned toward Thalia. "If I did this with another woman, what would you do?"
"You'd want to kill me and feed my body to the wolves, wouldn't you?"