Chapter 26
Nina was caught off guard by his question. She opened her mouth to explain, then shot back without holding back: "None of your business. Since I'm here today anyway, I've looked at the floor plan. Now I'm doing a site inspection to see how your company should be designed. Don't worry, I'll give you the perfect design plan tomorrow."
Jasper blocked our way. He looked at us in confusion: "Emily, do you know Emma?"
Before I could speak, Nina's hot temper flared up first: "Don't mention that name. You don't deserve to."
He was helpless with Nina, but still blocked my path: "You haven't answered me yet. The records show you've been living abroad all this time. How is it such a coincidence that you bought the venue the Brown Group was renting? And how did you get to know Nina so quickly? No wonder Sophia said you had ulterior motives. Emma wants to use you to get revenge on us, right?"
Nina pulled me behind her, taking a protective stance: "I'm her designer. It's just that much of a coincidence. If you're so afraid of Emma's revenge, does that mean you know you've done a lot of things wrong to her? Since you know that, you should be on your knees repenting, not standing here yelling at her."
Jasper anxiously explained, "Nina, don't just listen to Emma's nonsense. Our family treated her pretty well. But what about her? She ran away from home, hooked up with other men outside, and stole thirty million dollars from the company. She's capable of all these things. We've been more than fair by not calling the police to arrest her."
I was actually a bit curious. It wasn't surprising they could find out I transferred the thirty million dollars, because I had demonstrated it to Charles back then - they just didn't care. If my running away from home was a ridiculous excuse Sophia made up, then what was this about hooking up with other men?
Before I could react, Nina had already slapped him across the face: "I've never seen a brother like you. She's out there suffering who knows what, and instead of trying to find her, you slander her. Someone like you, I hope you go bankrupt soon."
Jasper flew into a rage. Employees passing by were sneaking glances at him, making him feel embarrassed, so he could only refute even louder: "Am I wrong? She ran away on her wedding day in front of everyone, checked into a hotel with someone, messed around abroad hooking up with other men, stole money from home - what did I say wrong? Does she dare come back and confront us face to face?"
Nina got worked up before I did. One slap wasn't enough to satisfy her anger. She grabbed a chair nearby and was about to throw it at Jasper. I quickly pulled her back, took the stool from her hands, and turned to comfort her instead: "Calm down, calm down. The police are still here. It's not worth it for this."
Jasper frowned at Nina: "You've just been fooled by her. You defend her at every turn, but in the end, doesn't she contact you either?"
Nina's face had lost all trace of a smile. She glared fiercely at Jasper. I pulled her toward the inside: "Don't be angry, don't be angry. Just treat what he says like farts. Aren't you supposed to design this properly for me? Let's look around first. The space is quite big, you'll need to design it carefully."
Nina took a deep breath: "You can just take it? His mouth is full of filthy words. Someone should shove a toilet brush down his throat."
"Don't mind him, it's not worth it. Let's look at the space first."
We didn't notice that Jasper was watching our backs, having stopped what he was doing.
When we came back out from inside, Jasper was already gone. The police had left long ago, too. Only a few employees were working together to move office desks. The larger items couldn't be moved, and someone who shouldn't be there was directing cleaners with tools to dismantle and remove them.
Seeing us come out, he turned and smiled: "Emily, am I a bit late?"
I really wanted to roll my eyes at him. Staying out all night was one thing, but I'd been busy for half the day, and he had only just shown up. He probably slept pretty well last night - or maybe didn't sleep at all.
"What are you doing here?" Unintentionally, my tone carried emotion.
Oscar walked over and pulled out a small paper bag from the side: "Bringing you breakfast. The housekeeper said you barely ate breakfast. You should have waited for me to come back and handle this together with you."
I ignored the bag he handed over: "I wouldn't dare trouble you. You're so busy, what if I delay your fun? I wouldn't want to do something with such impeccable sense of timing."
Nina looked at us strangely: "Oscar, how did you upset our... our Emily?"
I patted non-existent dust off my clothes, seriously helping him clarify: "He didn't upset me. I'm just saying."
Oscar pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, looking at me with a smile on his lips: "Are you angry? Won't you give me a chance to make excuses?"
I couldn't help but roll my eyes: "You can stay wherever you want; it has nothing to do with me. Saying 'make excuses' is too strong - we shouldn't be limiting each other's freedom anyway."
Nina immediately understood what I meant: "You went out looking for women?"
"No, no, no." Oscar quickly waved his hands to clarify. "I just had dinner with someone. They pulled an all-nighter, so I got a room, but I didn't call any prostitutes. With such a beautiful fiancée, how could I possibly look for women?"
"So you're saying there really was a situation?" Nina's train of thought was different from others.
I turned to give the person in charge some other instructions, not wanting to dwell on this. At the end of the day, we were just in a contractual relationship. Once both parties achieved their respective goals, we'd be at most business friends. We should still maintain proper boundaries in private. We couldn't lose sight of what's important just because of our special status.
Oscar stepped forward, tossing his suit jacket to the side: "Emily, tell me what needs to be done, and I'll help you do it."
I smiled politely: "Really, it's fine. Things are basically finished here. You drank so much yesterday, go home and rest properly."
Seeing me smile, he seemed a bit panicked: "You are angry. Even though I was drunk yesterday, I'm still very clear about what I did and didn't do. I slept straight through until now. Only after I woke up did I see the message you sent me yesterday. I tried calling you, but couldn't get through. When I saw you on the trending topics, I rushed right over. Really, smell me - there's no perfume scent on me."
"Are you getting into character too?" I smiled at him. "That message I sent was actually for them to see. Don't take it to heart."
Oscar smiled apologetically: "If you say that, it'll hurt my feelings. Emily, you need to trust me. These are small occasions, I know what I should do."
I tried hard not to care about these things, taking Nina down the stairs: "Let them clean up. Looks like it'll waste a whole day. Nina, let me treat you to a meal. We can also talk about the company design."
Nina looked back at Oscar with eyes that weren't exactly friendly: "Alright, we still need to talk about work. Mr. Lopez probably doesn't have time to eat with us, right?"
I was a bit touched. In this world, only Nina would unconditionally attack others on my behalf whenever it concerned me, never discussing right or wrong.
"I actually haven't had lunch yet either. I'd like to hear what Emily's favored designer has to say - I might be able to use it for my company in a few days." Oscar followed behind us with a grin as we walked out together.
Nina wrinkled her nose: "You? My prices are a bit steep. I'm afraid you can't afford me."
Oscar smoothly replied: "As long as Emily can afford it, I can afford it."
Nina took my hand and said proudly, "You're not the same as her. She only needs one Mexican meal. You, on the other hand, seven figures minimum. If you think that's okay, I'll have my assistant talk to you later."
"That's... a bit too much differential treatment, isn't it?" Seeing the two of us exchange smiles, Oscar said half-jokingly from behind.
A sinister gaze followed us for a long distance, but none of us noticed.