Chapter 2
During so many years Aaron had spent in the entertainment industry, it wasn't the first time he had been bumped into by a beautiful woman on purpose. Because of that, Aaron had thought Yolanda must be trying to leave her phone number for him by doing so.
But unexpectedly, she was just reminding him of the poisoned drink.
He put away this note without being noticed by others, turned around, and smiled faintly at Sally. "It's my pleasure." Then he drank the wine in one gulp.
Sally gave a meaningful smile. "Thanks, Mr. Jensen. Then I'll drink it." Pressing her lips against the brim, she downed the glass of wine flirtatiously.
As Yolanda watched this scene in the dark, she was so shocked, thinking, "Is he an idiot? Why did he drink the wine? Or is my note too implicit to be understood by him even when I've reminded him of the poisoned drink? If that is the case, how can such a stupid man be the president of Azel Group?"
Phoebe was so confused. "What's going on? What did you do just now?"
Just as Phoebe finished speaking, Yolanda saw Sally and Aaron leave, somewhat drunk.
It seemed that Sally's trick worked.
Yolanda sighed, shaking her head, "Anyway, I've tried my best." But her words just made Phoebe even more confused.
"Just wait and see. There's going to be a bombshell in the entertainment industry soon."
Hearing that, Phoebe said without much thought, "Are you going to marry James Hilton?"
Yolanda rolled her eyes at her. "Are you crazy? Do you think I'm so desperate to get married?"
Phoebe chuckled, "Aren't you always getting along well with each other?"
Yolanda had just dated James for less than a year. As an actor, James became a hit because of a drama he played a role in this year. But since James spent most of the time filming in other cities, the two of them could only keep in contact with each other on the phone to maintain their long-distance relationship.
"That doesn't mean we're getting married. I'm only twenty-two and too young to marry." Yolanda stopped talking about this and put on her coat. "Let's go for some food."
Phoebe also stood up and said casually, "I'm not stirring things up. But you'd better keep an eye on James since he's so popular now."
"Will that work?" Yolanda raised her eyebrows and pointed at several men who raised their glasses in greeting, saying, "More importantly, it seems that I'm the one who is more popular."
Hearing that, Phoebe smiled and kept nodding. "You're right. My worries are unnecessary." Then the two of them left in advance before the concert was over.
Just as they entered the elevator, the doors of another elevator parted. Aaron walked out of it, followed by a man.
Although no stains could be seen on his sleeves, Aaron still wiped them with tissues slowly as if to get rid of some unpleasant smell.
"Is everything ready?" Aaron asked.
"Yes, Mr. Jensen." His subordinate took out his phone and showed Aaron a real-time video.
Aaron glanced down at the man and the woman hugging each other tightly in the video.
A while later, he dropped the tissues, saying, "Don't go too far."
"Alright."
Aaron just wanted to teach such disobedient people a lesson to let them know what price they would pay for their bold moves.
After returning to the terrace, Aaron could finally spare the time to look for that figure. But unfortunately, he found no woman in a black velvet dress after looking around the venue. Even the special fragrance of rosewood could no longer be smelt in the air.
Once again, Aaron took out that note and looked at the words on it.
He opened his mouth slightly and called the one responsible for the concert over. "I need a list of all the guests invited for tonight's concert."
After eating some food with Phoebe, Yolanda went back home to take a shower, take care of her skin, and do some yoga.
At eleven at night, her phone rang. Even without checking it, Yolanda knew it must be a phone call from James since James's daily greetings three times a day were never absent despite the long distance between the two of them. Such greetings were even more punctual than Yolanda's monthly periods, which was not an exaggerated saying.
"Honey, according to the weather forecast, it will be cold tomorrow in Darlington. Remember to dress for the cold weather in case you catch a cold."
Yolanda thought, "What a considerate boyfriend!" She even thought James was more careful than a girl like her. Sitting cross-legged on the yoga mat, she asked, "Are you still filming in Hiero? It should be below zero, right?"
James grunted and told Yolanda that it snowed recently in the city where he filmed and the scenery was great.
"Take good care of yourself. I'll finish filming in about a week. At that time, I'll go back to Darlington to see you."
It should have been good news, but Yolanda was suddenly lost as she was about to picture what it would be like to see him again with a smile.
The reason why she failed was mainly that she couldn't remember what James was like all of a sudden.
Yolanda was so shocked and hurried to hang up the phone. She said, "Alright. See you then."
Then she took out her iPad, picked a drama starring James to watch, and tried to bring back her memories of him.
When she realized she couldn't even remember her boyfriend's appearance due to the long separation, Yolanda didn't know whether to laugh or cry for an instant.
But considering James was going to be back in a week, she thought it was time to get the gift for him.
When Yolanda went on a trip to Capital half a year ago, the biggest flagship store of Alaimo's in Eurica happened to open up there, and even the designer showed up in the store. As a VIP of this brand, Yolanda ordered customized black onyx cuff-links as a gift for her boyfriend.
Now James was coming back when the cuff links were ready, which was just a destined coincidence. So Yolanda immediately booked a plane ticket to fly to Capital tomorrow.
But what she never expected was that she came across Aaron in first class on the flight to Capital the next day. Aaron seemed rather energetic. Probably because the medicine did take little time to be metabolized, it seemed that he had never had crazy sex last night.
Although she had been very careful to keep her face out of his sight last night when she left Aaron that note, Yolanda still lowered her head lest she would get into trouble once she was recognized.
But her worries proved to be unnecessary since Aaron didn't even care who sat behind or beside him after taking his seat in the front.
Aaron and his team almost occupied all the seats in first class. After the plane took off, Yolanda just sat at the back, listening to their discussion about work.
Yolanda didn't care what they were talking about and just stole a glance at Aaron from time to time, wondering what exactly happened last night.
She thought she could have had a peaceful flight before the plane landed safely, but someone suddenly mentioned James halfway through the flight.
Yolanda was slightly stunned and couldn't help but sit up.
"James has been popular over the past half a year. His team also intends to work with our company to further his acting career by signing a contract with us for his following resources."
"Do you mean James Hilton who starred in Attire? He seems to have won the award of Best New Actor recently and is indeed popular now."
"Now is a good time to sign him. I can be responsible for negotiating about the offer with him."
Although they were talking about James, Yolanda was so glad to hear that as if they were also praising her for her great discernment.
She couldn't help but give a proud smile at the back while they were talking in low voices in the front.
But soon someone's words discouraged her. It was Aaron who suddenly spoke slowly after being silent for most of the time.
He said casually, "He's so ordinary and has nothing special. Just wait and see."
Yolanda was left speechless.
After the three-hour flight, the plane finally arrived in Capital safely.
Because of Aaron's comments, Yolanda had a grudge against Aaron and stepped out of the cabin first without staying any longer after the plane landed safely.
A few minutes later, Aaron walked outside with his coat on his arm and suddenly stopped beside the back row. Once again, he smelt that familiar fragrance. But the smell was so faint that it dissipated soon.
Someone behind him asked carefully, "Mr. Jensen, what's wrong?"
Somehow, Aaron found himself extremely addicted to the special scent of rosewood. The fragrance was so mysterious and fascinating that he couldn't help having an illusion of smelling it once again in this cabin.
Trying to keep a clear mind, Aaron shook his head. "Nothing. Let's go."
Yolanda hadn't intended to spend one night in Capital. But unexpectedly, she received a message from the airline upon arrival and was told tonight's flight to Darlington was canceled because of bad weather.
It happened that there was a new five-star hotel opening up in Capital recently, so Yolanda headed straight for the hotel to check in first before going to Alaimo's to get the cuff links.
But when she checked in at the front desk, she had a problem that she couldn't pay by credit card. After checking the card several times, the receptionist finally said with regret, "Miss, can you pay in another way? There seems to be something wrong with this card."
Yolanda couldn't even believe it since she had just paid by card for the plane tickets. But it wasn't time for her to probe into what was wrong with this card since there was still a queue behind her. It happened that there was about 20 thousand dollars in her WhatsApp wallet. After paying for a sea-view presidential suite, she only had about three hundred dollars.
After leaving her luggage in her room, Yolanda called the bank on the way to Alaimo's. The customer manager said, "I'm sorry, Miss Walter. Your second card has been frozen temporarily."
Yolanda was so confused. "Why?"
"You can contact the main card user for details."
The owner of the main card was Yolanda's father. Since she had never lacked money, this was her only car which she could swipe at any time. So she had never had such a problem.
Then Yolanda immediately called her father, Elbert Walter. But she couldn't get through to him since the line was always busy.
At this time, the taxi arrived at the mall. Yolanda could only put it aside, wondering if her father was setting some limits on her consumption because she had spent too much money in Patra.
When Yolanda arrived at Alaimo's, the service assistant served her enthusiastically and showed her the hand-made black onyx cuff-links.
"They are so beautiful. Your boyfriend is so lucky to receive such a great gift."
The cuff links were lying in the velvet box, with the black gems being translucent, low-key, but luxurious. Such perfect links were the result of the craftsmen's delicate efforts.
What impressed Yolanda most was the letter 'j' on the back of the cuff links, which expressed her affection for James in a secret but loving way.
This was the first time Yolanda had prepared a gift for her boyfriend. She had put so much effort into whether the design or the choice of the material.
She wondered, 'Will James like it?'
Smiling, she thought, 'If he doesn't like it, I'll give it to another man!'
After thanking the service assistant, Yolanda left and was about to take the escalator to go downstairs, only to catch a glimpse of a figure not far away in front of an elevator.
It was a man who closely resembled James both in his build and his manner.
But she remembered James was still filming in Hiero and would be back a week later.
Yolanda changed her direction and walked towards the elevator to see if she was right about it. But the man had walked into the elevator before she could see his face clearly.
Yolanda found something wrong and subconsciously took out her phone to call James. But James hung up on her.
Soon, James sent her a picture of him hanging from the wire. [Honey, I'm filming, and I'll call you back later.]
Yolanda frowned and wondered if she was wrong about it.
On the way back to the hotel, Yolanda had been haunted by her weird instinct. So she checked his topics on Twitter for the first time. Finally, she found a picture of his fans saying farewell to him at Hiero's airport among his fans' posts.
It turned out that James had left Hiero the day before yesterday.
Yolanda realized that James was lying to her. As a spoilt and pampered girl, Yolanda wasn't good-tempered and hated it most when others lied to her. Instantly, she was going to call James to ask him about it. But before that, she got a phone call.
It was from her father's secretary, Victor Evans.
Somewhat surprised, Yolanda answered it. "Mr. Evans?"
Victor sounded slightly deep on the phone. "Miss Walter, where are you?"
Yolanda looked out of the window and replied absently, "I'm in another city. What's wrong?"
Victor paused for a moment before saying, "I'm going to tell you the bad news, so please remain calm after hearing it."
"I know." With the taxi approaching the hotel, Yolanda was about to ask if it was about her father setting limits on her consumption when she saw someone through the window and sat up slowly.
In front of the revolving door of the hotel, a man and a woman were getting out of a car, holding hands. Although the man was wearing a cap and a mask, Yolanda still recognized James at a glance.
The two of them were hugging intimately together in public without fear of being recognized after just appearing in the mall.
At that moment, the scene in front of her eyes was a shattering blow to Yolanda's confidence and pride. She was instantly overwhelmed by a mixture of shock, anger, and disbelief.
Yolanda even forgot to breathe, blink, or do anything out of instinct.
Victor's voice came again at this point. "Miss Walter, what do you know?"
Yolanda stared at the shameless couple and said in a daze, "I'll kill them."
Victor was suddenly nervous. "Miss Walter, calm down. Murder is illegal," he subsequently added, "You can't kill others just because the company went bankrupt."
Yolanda was instantly shocked.