Chapter 114: Refusing Other Men
"Do you need any help?"
Rachel felt so flattered. With a smile, she refused decisively, "No, thanks, Mr. Reed. I have several friends who are helping me now. I can't trouble others."
"Are you sure? Ms. Lewis, I still need your help in the future. You don't need to be so polite to me. Besides, although others have helped you, I can't stand by and do nothing." The man slightly smiled. Rachel wondered how she could refuse him.
Her expression changed a bit. Fortunately, he was not in presence, so she didn't need to hide her expression. She couldn't handle such enthusiastic kindness at all.
She smiled quickly and then said calmly, "Mr. Reed, you don't need to. These are just some trifles. If I bother you with them, I can't explain to Mr. Lopez shortly."
It was quite difficult to figure out what was on Ogden's mind.
Realizing that she refused him decisively, the man on the other end of the line didn't insist. He said in an obviously disappointed tone, "All right. Then I won't send my men over there. Ms. Lewis, when you're back to your work, I'll ask my subordinate to contact you. Currently, I'm still in City N. If you need any help, you can directly reach me at this number."
Rachel felt relieved. She immediately thanked him, "Thank you so much, Mr. Reed. I'll keep it in my mind."
"OK. I won't disturb you any longer. Don't forget to have a good rest," Ogden said slowly on the other end of the line.
After finishing his words, he hung up the phone. He raised his head, a trace of mockery appearing on his handsome face. Then he asked the secretary standing opposite in a flat tone, "Is Kenneth Shawn still in the hospital?"
"He was there yesterday. Not sure if he's there now," the secretary answered respectfully.
Behind the desk, the man pinched the cuffs of his suit. There was a hint of languid leisurely in his calm and indifferent expression. "He was willing to dump his company just for a woman."
The secretary smiled slightly. "Then we could carry our original plan, couldn't we?"
"Don't rush." Mr. Reed shook his head, his black eyes deep and unpredictable. He said slowly, "This woman... doesn't seem to be as brainless as we thought at the beginning. I wonder if she has sensed something or someone has told her something."
She could choose to divorce when there was no other way out. She was brave but devoid of a plan, even mindlessly and stubborn. It would cost him a lot of effort to gain her heart.
"Did you show her too much excessive attention so that she sensed something wrong?" The secretary looked at him carefully with a weird expression.
Upon hearing it, Ogden was taken aback. With his slender fingers rubbing his chin, he squinted. "Too much excessive attention? Did I? Isn't she divorced and available now? She's in such a hard time now, and I don't think she would refuse other men to chase her, wouldn't she?"
The secretary kept silent.
If a woman didn't like the man, no matter what the man did to chase her, she would feel annoyed.
However, the secretary didn't have the guts to speak it out. As a man like Mr. Reed, seldom woman would refuse him.
The secretary looked down and thought for a moment. Then she said, "Perhaps... Miss Lewis has too many things to care about in her family now, so recently she's not in a good mood. If you kept reminding her about you, I'm afraid you might get the opposite effect to what you wish." Ogden fell into the silence.
Staring at her, he sat motionlessly. The secretary wondered if he was looking at her or thinking about her suggestions. After a while, he said thoughtfully, "In that case, does she also like playing the cat and mouse trick?"
The secretary was stunned. Then she put on a wry smile and said, "Mr. Shaw is still with her. If Miss Lewis truly has such a thought, she should do that on the man who's closest to her, shouldn't she?"
Both Mr. Shawn and Mr. Reed were wealthy and powerful. If that Miss Lewis was indeed a vain creature, she wouldn't have chosen to divorce back then. Everyone knew that Mr. Shawn always kept a low profile in the business circle. He didn't have any scandals. Hence, it shouldn't be because of his mistress that they had divorced.
Ogden became expressionless and quieted down. Then he changed the subject. "Let's forget about her first. He's not in the company. Anything new from Dragon Age?"
The secretary also returned to calm and professional. She recalled a moment and started to report, "He's been back in City N for almost a week. There were a lot of troubles that happened in his company. I heard that he has been absent from meetings, so a lot of cooperated companies were complaining about that. They couldn't get in touch with him. Some of his business partners went to his company for explanations." "Have you contacted the branch in City J?"
The secretary nodded. "I've contacted them long ago. They had already taken an action. Soon there would be a result."
Ogden's deep eyes suddenly squinted. Staring at her, he said decisively in a cold tone, "I don't need them to get the result pretty soon. I want them to do it as soon as possible. If they spent several days but couldn't reach the effect from a single phone call from Kenneth Shawn, why should I keep raising them?"
The secretary's expression changed. She nodded in a hurry and said in fear, "I got it. I'll urge them right now."
...
In the hospital, the surgery was still going on. In the corridor of the building opposite to the surgery room, in front of which Rachel was standing, Kenneth was standing and gazing over at her.
They were waiting, and so was he.
Since Osmond was with them, Kenneth didn't want to annoy her at this moment. Hence, he just stood afar, staring at her. He was in light gray street clothes, which made him more handsome and charming. However, his aloof expression stopped the girls passing by from approaching.
With both hands in the pockets, he stared at the opposite calmly. He looked like a painting from afar, seemingly out of space of the environment.
Suddenly, his phone in the pocket started vibrating. In fact, it had been vibrating for a long time, but he just ignored it.
More than ten seconds passed, and he still stood motionlessly without any intention to answer it. A mother and a daughter passed by. The little girl tugged his shirt in confusion and said in a soft voice, "Excuse me, Mister. Your phone is vibrating."
The girl's mother was so scared that she paled. Pulling back her daughter, she immediately apologized, "I'm sorry. I'm terribly sorry... My kid is not sensible." "Nothing." Kenneth looked down at her and curled up his lips. Then he pulled out the cell phone to check the caller ID, frowning gradually. "Hello?"
"Mr. Shaw, thank God! You finally answered the call. Something happened in the company." He heard Charlie's anxious voice from the other end of the line.
The man still looked calm but frowning more deeply. He asked in a deep voice, "Don't you tell me you don't know what to do without me over there. What happened?"
Charlie tried to calm himself down and said, "You've canceled too many meetings nowadays, so the clients are quite unsatisfied. They said if they can't meet you in person, they'll call off the partnership with us."
After a short pause, he continued to report gingerly, "Three of them have signed the contract with Wintop just now."
Kenneth's ever-expressionless face finally changed a little as if it was covered with a layer of frost. He asked in an arctic cold tone, "Are you sure it was Wintop Inc.?"
It was a venture capital firm under F&R Group, located in City J. Although Wintop was one of the competitors in the same industry, they never step into each other's business before.
"Yes, I'm quite certain. Their movements are abnormally quick. When we got the news and called to confirm, those three companies have already signed contracts with them, leaving us no chance to convince them back." Upon hearing it, Kenneth suddenly squinted, lost in deep thought.
It was obvious that Wintop had noticed something and got prepared ahead of time, waiting for the chance. It acted so quickly that Dragon Age had no reason to question them at all.
It also reminded him of a person.
His eyes lit up. After a while, without any expression in his tone, Kenneth ordered flatly, "Forget about those three clients. Arrange a video conference for me in ten minutes."
Before Charlie could reply, Kenneth had already hung up the phone. With a glance at the opposite, he turned around and strode away.0000☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐