Chapter 150 I Don't Want to See You!
Mabel's reaction was so obvious that the atmosphere in the hospital room froze for a moment.
Robert still didn't understand what was going on and cheerfully greeted, "Amelia, your friend is here. Why don't you introduce us?"
"Mom?" Cecilia reached back and held Mabel's ice-cold hand, feeling the slight trembling, and felt helpless inside.
Cecilia could probably guess what Mabel was thinking.
"This is my boss. I mentioned it to you before—I found a new job." Cecilia emphasized the word "boss."
Boss?
Hearing this, Mabel suddenly snapped back to reality. As if burned, she let go of Cecilia's hand and frantically wiped her hands on her apron.
"Look at me, I was just so happy I forgot myself." As Mabel spoke, she fumbled around trying to pour water for Stefan.
"Mrs. Martinez, please don't trouble yourself." Stefan stepped forward and stopped Mabel at just the right moment, handing over the nutritional supplements with an elegant and appropriate manner. "My name is Stefan Hensley. I heard Mr. Martinez is recovering well, so I came specially to visit."
Mabel stood there holding the thermos, stunned. Her eyes, full of life experience, swept back and forth suspiciously between Stefan in front of her and Amelia.
These days, bosses are this nice?
Personally bringing expensive gifts and accompanying an employee to the hospital to visit her father? And looking like a TV star on top of that?
The previous one, Rufus, was also very handsome, claiming to be "pursuing Amelia," but Amelia's expression looked like she'd seen a ghost.
This time with Stefan, Amelia seemed calm, but Mabel, as her mother, still felt uneasy.
Since when did Amelia have such "charm," attracting all these people who clearly weren't from the same social class?
"Mr. Hensley, you're too kind. Please sit down, please sit down!" Mabel came to her senses and quickly offered him a seat.
Stefan smoothly sat down in a nearby chair and naturally started chatting with Robert.
Stefan was an excellent conversationalist. From international affairs to health tips, he could always find topics that interested Robert. With just a few words, Stefan warmed up the atmosphere again, as if this wasn't his first visit but rather he was a junior they'd known for years.
Cecilia watched this scene with mixed feelings.
She left the room to find the attending physician, Dr. Lon, to ask about details of Robert's recovery.
Mabel took this opportunity to quietly move closer to Stefan and lowered her voice: "Mr. Hensley, can I ask you something?"
Stefan paused his conversation with Robert, turned his head, and gave Mabel a gentle, harmless smile: "Mrs. Martinez, go ahead."
"Are you really my daughter Amelia's boss?" Mabel still wasn't convinced.
"Absolutely genuine." Stefan nodded, his smile unchanged.
Mabel hesitated, but still asked her biggest doubt: "Are you this nice to all your employees as a boss? Coming to the hospital yourself?"
Stefan's eyes curved with a smile as he seriously told Mabel: "Mrs. Martinez, you don't know the full story. Amelia is now our company's chief designer. Her father is sick, so naturally I, as her boss, need to show more concern. Otherwise, if she's too worried to work, our company would suffer a huge loss."
Stefan's explanation was reasonable and logical. It elevated Cecilia's value while making his visit seem perfectly natural.
After hearing this, Mabel nodded with some lingering doubt.
This reason did sound much more reasonable than Rufus's talk of "love at first sight" and "sincere pursuit."
Mabel's worried heart finally relaxed a bit.
"I see." Mabel breathed a sigh of relief, then couldn't help but mutter, "That's what I thought. Amelia is just an ordinary girl, how could she..."
Before Mabel could finish, Cecilia had already returned.
"Mom, what are you talking about with Mr. Hensley?"
Mabel's heart was racing with anxiety.
She had a belly full of questions to ask her daughter, but how could she speak freely in front of Stefan?
What if she said something inappropriate and embarrassed Amelia in front of Stefan?
No, she had to find a chance to talk to Amelia alone.
Mabel made up her mind, and her eyes lit up with an idea.
She put on an enthusiastic smile and interrupted Stefan and Robert's conversation: "Mr. Hensley, thank you so much for coming to see us. You're so busy with work, and we feel bad keeping you here chatting with us. Why don't you go take care of your business? We have Amelia here with us."
Stefan, being so clever, immediately understood what Mabel meant—she had family matters to discuss privately with her daughter Amelia and didn't want him, an "outsider," present.
He didn't feel offended at all. Instead, he stood up graciously and went along with her words: "Mrs. Martinez, you're right. I do have a meeting. I won't disturb you any longer."
Stefan turned to Cecilia and said in a voice only she could hear: "I'll wait for you downstairs."
"Okay, Mr. Hensley, let me see you out." Cecilia quickly stood up.
"No need to see me out, stay here." Stefan waved his hand, politely said goodbye to Robert and Mabel, and then left the room by himself.
Watching Stefan's figure disappear at the elevator, Mabel let out a heavy sigh of relief.
She returned to the room, immediately closed the door, then pulled Cecilia to a corner and asked in a low voice: "Okay, your boss is gone. Now you can tell me the truth! What about Mr. Chapman? What's really going on between you two? You can't be playing games with two men at once! I'm telling you, we need to be decent people. If word gets out about this kind of thing, it'll ruin your reputation!"
Cecilia didn't know whether to laugh or cry at Mabel's vivid imagination.
"Mom, where is your mind going? Mr. Hensley and I have a purely professional boss-employee relationship. He really was just passing by today."
Cecilia paused, her tone becoming firm, "As for Rufus, I've told you before—nothing can happen between us. I will absolutely not agree to be with him."
Just as she finished speaking, the hospital room door was suddenly pushed open from outside.
Rufus's tall figure appeared in the doorway, his entire face dark with anger.
After their unpleasant parting that night, he had quickly calmed down and decided to talk to Amelia again.
To do this, Rufus thought of Robert and Mabel.
As long as he built a good relationship with Robert and Mabel, it would be easy to get a chance to see Amelia alone.
But Rufus never expected to walk in just in time to hear her firm statement: "I will absolutely not agree to be with him"!
The atmosphere in the room instantly dropped to freezing.
Rufus's gaze swept past everyone, cold and sharp, landing hard on Amelia, his eyes churning with fury and resentment at being rejected.
"Use me and then try to run?"
He slammed the health products down on the table with a dull thud.
"Amelia, you've got it all figured out, don't you."
His deliberately raised voice made this accusation sound especially harsh in the small hospital room. Robert and Mabel's faces instantly drained of color as they looked uncertainly between Amelia and the suddenly aggressive Rufus.
Cecilia's temples throbbed.
The scene she least wanted to see had happened anyway.
She couldn't let Robert and Mabel get dragged into her conflict with Rufus, and she couldn't let them worry and fear for her sake.
"Come outside with me!" Cecilia said through gritted teeth, stepped forward, grabbed Rufus's arm, and forcibly dragged him out of the room.
Rufus's body stiffened, but surprisingly he didn't resist, letting her pull him along.
The two walked one after the other to a corner at the end of the hallway.
Cecilia flung his hand away, suppressing her anger, and stared at him coldly: "Rufus, what do you mean by this? Why did you deliberately say those things in front of my parents?"
"What? Afraid they'll worry about you?" Rufus sneered, moved closer, and trapped her between the wall and himself. "Or are you afraid they'll discover your dirty little secret of climbing the social ladder?"
He leaned down, his sinister eyes full of mockery and possessiveness.
"Your father's surgery fees, the expert team—which of those didn't I provide?"
"Now that his illness is cured, you can't wait to find a new target to latch onto and kick me aside?"
"We settled everything long ago!" Cecilia trembled with anger at his twisted logic. "I don't want to see you! Get out of here right now!"