Chapter 124 Best of Both Worlds?
Calista slammed the brakes. The employee from the florist who held the bouquet then noticed her. He fumbled to reach for their phone and checked a photo.
After confirming that it was the right car, he approached her.
Those who were part of the workshop were huddled at the entrance. The employee from the florist had been there since their arrival. With such a massive bouquet in hand, it was difficult to
miss.
Calista had already pulled up into the parking lot. She couldn’t just turn and leave. Doing so would only make it look like she was covering up the situation. It would solve nothing.
She could only watch as they walked up to her.
“Are you Mrs. Northwood?”
Even with her windows shut, she could hear his voice loud and clear. She fell silent. She parked her car and got out.
“Mr. Northwood has requested we deliver these flowers to you. Could you please sign this?”
The moment he finished, her colleagues descended into an uproar.
There was only a small handful of staff at the workshop. Their jobs were also monotonous. There was a wide range of ages in the group as well. All of it contributed to a lack of office politics.
But, the arrival of the bouquet awakened their need for gossip.
They had all seen yesterday’s trending topic. Even colleagues who rarely followed the news
received a link. None of them expected Calista, who usually kept a low profile, to be Madam
Northwood.
The Northwoods were a wealthy bunch sitting on top of the food chain! Who would’ve thought
they had someone with an identity like hers so close?
Calista stared at the form handed to her but made no move to accept it.
The man’s hand was trembling as the bouquet was far too big to hold with one hand. But he remained insistent on getting her to sign the slip of paper.
She quickly penned down her name just to get her coworkers to stop watching the exchange.
“Throw them out.”
The man simply placed the flowers on the hood of her car and sped off after thanking her. Was she insane? Would his store be able to stay open if he tossed out a paying customer’s flowers?
+15 BONUS
She stared at the flowers sitting atop the hood and returned to the car to avoid her coworker’s curious glances. Then, she called the perpetrator.
“What are you trying to do, Lucian?”
Lucian had just received news from the employee that the flowers had been delivered to Calista. Upon hearing her exasperation, he frowned.
“Are you not happy with them?”
“Happy? Fuck you,” she outright swore at him.
She hadn’t even gotten a chance to give him a piece of her mind after the man attempted to force
himself on her last night.
“I’ll be happy once you agree to the divorce and stop pestering me like a leech.”
There was silence on the other end. She felt as if she were punching cotton.
He picked up on her emotions and said, “You can stay unhappy for the rest of your life then.”
She gritted her teeth and spat, “Never deliver flowers to the studio again.”
Then, she added, “Don’t send them to my place either.”
“I thought you said women like these showy gestures.”
“Who the hell …?”
In her fury, she recalled when she had mentioned something of the sort.
“I was talking about Lily. She’s the one who gets off on the theatrics.”
But when she thought about a certain someone receiving a bouquet and showing it off, she couldn’t help but sneer.
“You’re such an asshole. You give the same thing to both your lover and your wife. At least change up the colors. You want the best of both worlds with that attitude. Go eat shit.”
On the other end of the line, David came in to report on his work only to see Lucian’s pleasant expression turning thunderous. He was gnashing his teeth in anger.
David couldn’t help but think he was down on his luck to find himself in the same situation over and over again.
Lucian turned to David after hearing the line going dead.
“How did the invitation for the auction end up with Lily?”
He hadn’t planned to attend and asked David to take it away. He couldn’t figure out how the
misunderstanding.
David answered, “I asked the janitor on duty that day. Someone paid her to buy the invitation. The
buyer was a man who wore a mask and a cap at the time. She wasn’t able to get a clear look at his
face.”
He tried to get a read on Lucian’s expression.
“As for whether or not Ms. Scott was the one behind it, we aren’t certain.”
He had been busy preparing for a meeting at that time and had simply thrown the invitation
away. It looked grand, but it was practically useless.
There was already a name printed on it. It wasn’t worth anything even if it were taken. Did the
perpetrator think they could enter at will? That’s why he had been negligent.
He hadn’t expected it to cause such a massive problem.
Lucian shot David an icy stare. He could see his assistant going weak in the knees and his heart
pounding out of his chest. David couldn’t help but consider getting himself a new job.
“Have her sent to the police station. Contact the company’s legal department and follow the legal
procedures,” the man said indifferently.
“If you make another mistake like that again, perhaps you aren’t suited for your current position,”
David, having escaped a disaster, heaved a sigh of relief.
“I promise there won’t be a next time, Mr. Northwood.”
“Wait.”
The startled David froze in his tracks as Lucian’s eyes darkened at the thought of what Calista had
said.
“Look into Lily’s recent affairs. See if she received flowers from anyone.”
His words were spoken with such coldness that they seemed to chill the surrounding
atmosphere. David was confused. Did Lucian like Madam Calista or did his heart lie with Lily?
His mind was clouded with thoughts but kept himself calm and business–like.
“Yes, sir.”
It seeined Calista hadn’t been exaggerating. He was nothing more than a servant by the king’s side who had to figure out what exactly his superior wanted
In the end, Calista tossed the flowers into the trash. She also took a photo and sent it to Lucian
She wasn’t doing it to provoke him. It was simply her way of telling him to stop wasting his efforts because she wasn’t going to accept his gifts.
In the time she was doing this, Yara had sent her strings of messages through text.
“The photo was uploaded by an intern at Lily’s dance troupe. She’s openly claiming that Lucian is fond of Lily. Some commenters are praising and congratulating them. Do cheating men and their mistresses have fans nowadays? What is wrong with these people?”
“Lily Scott is out here asking everyone to not cause a misunderstanding and that she and Mr. Northwood are just friends. Damn, I can sniff out a manipulative whore from a mile away.”
“Damn it. Watch me rip that mask right off her face.”
Calista sent Yara a reply to tell her not to worry about it. She was hoping for Lily to keep it up just so she could get a divorce.
Her coworkers teased her all day because of the morning flowers she received. After slogging through a day of work, she saw Lucian’s high–profile Bentley parked by the entrance of the workshop the moment she walked out.
She frowned.
“What are you doing here?”
