Chapter 17
When Ethan heard me mention kneeling, his face changed instantly. "Who knows how you won? You want me to kneel? No way."
I was shocked by his shamelessness, but I also knew it was impossible to make Ethan willingly kneel and apologize.
Just as I was about to let it go, Michael shot a look at his assistant.
The assistant quickly understood what he meant and forced Ethan down to the ground.
Ethan was angry about Michael's actions, but he was held down firmly and couldn't break free, so he could only curse loudly. "Michael, what the hell are you doing? I'm going to kill you."
Michael didn't care and spoke matter-of-factly. "You heard the bet just now. My fiancée won, so I'm just helping you follow through."
After saying that, Michael's assistant pushed Ethan's head down even further.
After forcing Ethan to apologize, Michael's people finally let him go.
This time Ethan had really lost face in public.
As Ethan left, he kept cursing under his breath. I couldn't help but laugh at the scene.
After Ethan left, Michael gave another look to his people. I didn't understand exactly what it meant.
But I saw Michael's people quickly follow after Ethan.
It wasn't until later that I heard the news that Ethan had been beaten up and hospitalized.
But none of that mattered anymore.
I had no interest in caring about other people's gossip.
My life was back on track, going between home and the office every day.
And Annie was still steadily working on winning over John.
Just as I finished a company meeting, my assistant Tom suddenly came to report. "Ms. Smith, Ms. Taylor is here to see you again. She's waiting for you in the reception room."
Since Annie was assigned to seduce John, Tom had been working with me.
I hadn't had time to tell him about Susan yet.
Hearing that Susan had arrived, I couldn't help but frown and gave a firm instruction, "From now on, she's not allowed into the Smith Group without my permission."
With that, I headed to the reception room.
As soon as Susan saw me arrive, there was some urgency in her voice. She grabbed me and asked anxiously, "Nancy, I heard Michael beat John so badly at the Smith Group entrance that he was hospitalized. Is that true?"
I calmly pulled my hand away from Susan's grip and answered flatly, "It's true."
After getting my confirmation, Susan looked somewhat surprised, then gave fake advice with hidden implications. "Nancy, Michael is too scary. I suspect he might have violent tendencies. If you're with him, he might hit you someday too. You should break up with him."
Hearing her words, I immediately understood she was here to drive a wedge between us.
Seeing how anxious she looked, I directly defended Michael. "John deserved it."
Susan clearly didn't expect me to protect Michael at a time like this. Her expression almost cracked for a moment. "Nancy, don't be confused. If he can hit John, he can hit you in the future. You have to believe me."
Seeing she wasn't going to give up, I deliberately turned the tables on her. "Susan, I never noticed you and John were so close before. Why are you so worried now that he got beaten up?"
Seeing that I was suspicious, Susan quickly explained, worried I'd catch on. "I just paid attention because I saw you cared about John. What relationship could I have with him? Don't overthink it."
Susan's acting was really poor, but I still played along with her. "Susan, you don't need to worry about these things anymore."
Susan looked at me and couldn't help frowning, but still said what was on her mind. "I feel like you've changed somehow. Didn't you used to care a lot about John? Why don't you care about him at all now?"
I forced a fake smile and didn't answer her question.
Seeing I didn't respond, Susan just assumed I was still mad at John. "By the way Nancy, why is that secretary of yours also at the hospital? Does she have something going on with John?"
Susan actively brought up the topic, testing me about Annie's situation.
I put on a confused look and asked back, "What do you mean? Are you talking about Annie?"
Seeing my blank expression, Susan decided to lay it all out. "You don't know? I saw her feeding John. They looked pretty close. You should be careful."
I continued playing dumb. "I don't know. I can't control what Annie does."
Only then did Susan finally catch the deeper meaning in my words and quickly asked, "What do you mean by that?"
I sighed and pretended to explain, "Annie has already been fired by me. I don't know when she got involved with John either."
After this explanation, Susan visibly became anxious, though she tried not to show too much in front of me. "Nancy, I just remembered I have something to do. I won't bother you anymore."
With that, Susan grabbed her bag and left in a hurry.
I knew in my heart she was rushing to the hospital to check on John's situation.
Given the current situation, Susan was more worried than me about John's heart turning to someone else.
After seeing Susan off, I felt relieved.
I got up and walked to my office. Just then, my phone on the desk rang.
Seeing it was Michael calling, I immediately answered.
Michael's deep, pleasant voice came through the receiver. "Nancy, there's a family dinner at the Johnson Mansion today. Are you available?"
As he said this, I could feel Michael's anticipation and nervousness even through the screen.
I looked at my afternoon work schedule and didn't answer right away.
Perhaps because of my silence, Michael quickly added, "Nancy, I don't want to pressure you. If you don't want to, you can say no."
A sense of disappointment came through.
I didn't want to disappoint Michael. After closing the folder on my desk, I agreed directly. "It's fine, I'm free. Come pick me up tonight."
After I agreed, Michael's tone immediately brightened. "Nancy, wait for me tonight. We'll go home together."
After making plans with Michael, I immediately arranged for Tom to prepare gifts.
This was my first time going to his house as Michael's fiancée. I couldn't go empty-handed.
When we arrived at the Johnson Mansion that evening, I realized I'd been too nervous about this family dinner.
As soon as I entered the Johnson Mansion, Michael's parents surrounded me on both sides, showering me with care.
I didn't even have time to take out the gifts before being led into the living room.
Before long, I had several jade bracelets on my hands.
Michael's parents were so good to me that even dinner was made according to my preferences.
Compared to my treatment, Michael seemed like an outsider.
After all, since Michael walked through the door, his parents hadn't really looked at him properly, treating him like he was invisible the whole time.