Chapter 44
Right after his briefing with Shawn, Ben went back to the finance office on the eighth floor.
Vanessa was still waiting for him, sitting quietly with a hot cup of coffee in her hand.
Ben noticed her from a distance.
In fact, Ben was a typical weathercock at work. He not only did his job well, but also was very good at reading the boss's face.
When he sensed Shawn's personal antipathy toward Bianca, he immediately fired Bianca.
And from what happened today, Ben already realized that something unhappy happened between Shawn and Vanessa.
Although he wasn't sure what exactly happened, he liked Vanessa's serious and responsible attitude during the work, so he still received her interview politely.
Of course, the interview this time was more serious, and neither of them ever said anything beside the point. As a result, Vanessa could only focus on the interview and had no time to think about anything else.
The interview lasted for almost three hours, and Vanessa seemed to have been caught up in this serious atmosphere.
Therefore, when she left Mondred Company, she seemed quite the same as usual.
Even when she sat in a taxi, she didn't take a break and immediately put on her headphones to listen to the recording of the interview.
Emily suddenly called her at that time.
"Are you disconnected from the Internet?" Emily said in a relaxed tone. She just got off work. "Or you've blacklisted me? I sent you a message the day before yesterday, and you still haven't replied."
Vanessa paused for a moment and then said, "Sorry! I forgot that!"
"Alright! I accepted your explanation. But how about the message this morning? You didn't reply either. Am I still your friend?"
Vanessa looked out the window and fell silent.
Although they didn't meet each other, Emily still keenly noticed that Vanessa was unhappy. She immediately became serious and asked with concern, "What's going on? Are you too busy lately?"
However, it had been a long time since Shawn knew everything, and Vanessa had suppressed her feelings for so many days that she had already lost her desire to tell.
She just told Emily everything briefly and calmly, but for her, Vanessa felt like she again went through the terrible emotions of these days.
Especially when she talked about what had happened several hours earlier, Vanessa even paused several times, as if she suddenly lost the ability to organize words and didn't know how to explain the whole thing to Emily.
The thought of Shawn's cold eyes when they met again made her throat tighten.
After hearing what Vanessa said, Emily sighed.
"How could this be... Why didn't you tell me that early? Well... I don't know what to do either. I know you're very sad now, but it already happened, and..."
"Yeah, you're right! It already happened," Vanessa said in a husky voice, "He's such a proud man, born brilliant. He must hate me very much now!"
Emily really didn't know what to say now, and she could just comfort Vanessa, "Maybe it's not as bad as you think."
"You know what, he doesn't even let his niece work in the same company as me. He really doesn't want to hear anything about me."
Emily said, "Don't be too sad. Maybe things will be better if you have a talk with him."
"We don't talk anymore." Vanessa stared out the window and forced herself out of the deep depression. "When I think of the way he ignored me today, I just... I just feel so sad..."
Emily fell into silence.
She now realized why Vanessa was so sad.
Vanessa fell in love with Shawn, and she loved Shawn so much.
But now, Emily couldn't let Vanessa know that since Shawn already disliked her.
If Vanessa was aware that she was disliked by the man she loved so deeply, it would break her heart.
"Come on! It's not a big deal! Anyway, you just wanted to make Jackson and Bianca unhappy and you made it! They are definitely suffering now!" Emily said, "Just forget it! You just go home right now, take a shower, and eat some food while watching a variety show. Then, you will feel better after you have a good sleep."
"Alright!" Vanessa nodded and then hung up, but she didn't go home. Instead, she got off the taxi before the office building.
She didn't want to stay at home alone. The loneliness would make her feel more stifling, and she had experienced that these days.
...
Although it was the weekend, many people in the company were still working overtime.
Therefore, they didn't feel surprised when they saw Vanessa.
Several girls were gathered around the table enjoying the dessert. Vanessa calmly took a piece of cake and then went back to her desk.
She turned on her computer, and as soon as the internet was connected, she received an email.
Looking at the name of the email's sender, Vanessa froze.
This might be the only good news for her recently.
Vanessa had been contacting a financial scientist in Bostabaca since last year.
He had written three world-renowned classic financial books and was highly respected in the financial world. Besides, he was a tenured professor at a famous university.
Therefore, it was so hard to get a chance to interview him.
During half of the year, Vanessa sent him 17 emails in total, hoping to have a chance to interview him.
By the time she sent the seventeenth email last month, Vanessa even had no hope that he would reply to the email.
Unexpectedly, Vanessa got his reply.
Vanessa was so happy that she could hardly even believe that. She silently read the email over and over again.
In the end, she replied to the email with excitement.
Then, she stared at the computer screen and again felt empty in her heart after the great joy.
Vanessa had always believed that she was a persevering person. In school, she insisted on her morning reading every day, and at work, she kept striving for her opportunities with perseverance.
When she met Shawn, no matter how cold he was, Vanessa always kept chasing after him and never thought of giving up.
However, she just felt there was nothing she could do to fix their relationship at this time.
Maybe it was because of the coldness in Shawn's eyes or his behavior of blacklisting her.
It was getting dark, and Vanessa finally moved the cursor, clicked the mouse, and typed Shawn's email address.
She thought of sending him a message, but her phone number might be blacklisted too.
Therefore, Vanessa spent more than an hour writing Shawn an email.
When she sent the email, Vanessa also sent her apology to Shawn.
She should feel relieved.
But she didn't know why she even became sadder.
She took a deep breath and then stood up with her drinking cup.
Before she arrived at the drinking room, Lily suddenly appeared and bumped into her in a corner.
Vanessa lost her balance and fell to the table beside her.
The back of her hand hit the corner of the table and was grazed. Vanessa held the table and stared at the back of her hand.
Lily held Vanessa up and asked, "Are you okay?"
As soon as she finished speaking, Lily saw that tears poured down Vanessa's cheeks.
"Hey, why are you crying?"
Lily was startled. Noticing the gazes from her colleagues, Lily explained in a hurry, "I didn't mean to bump into you. It was just an accident!"
Vanessa raised her hand to wipe the tears in a vain attempt to hold back the tears.
"Vanessa, you..."
Lily didn't know what to say at this time. She was shocked by Vanessa's strange reaction. "Hey! Stop doing that!"
Then, she explained to the others, "I just bumped into her accidentally."
However, what she said didn't work.
Vanessa, at this time, squatted down and covered her face with her hands.
She was a timid coward, and she just wanted to protect herself selfishly.
She was so afraid of the hurt feeling when Shawn looked at her coldly as if she was nobody.
She didn't want to go through it again.
...
At the same time, the annual charity night of EM Finance Corporation opened in warm applause.
More than a thousand financial professionals from all over the world came to take part in the charity night. The chamber was ablaze with light.
Everyone in the room was talking and drinking while Shawn suddenly noticed a figure out of the corner of his eye.
He paused. When everyone in front of him paid attention to him, he fixed his eyes on the slender woman's back.
That woman was wearing a light blue shirt and a white skirt with her long hair hanging down her shoulders. She walked to the champagne tower with a tall glass in her hand and took a sip of the cocktails.
Finley noticed that. He followed Shawn's gaze and also saw that woman. Then he joked, "Do you like her? She is Fiona, a trader. I can introduce her to you if you want."
"No, thanks." Shawn slowly shifted his gaze from Fiona to the sitting area. Then, he said to Finley, "I'm going to talk to Theo."
As he walked to Theo, Shawn straightened his tie with a frown. He quickened his steps as if he wanted to get out of the place.
During the days he didn't meet Vanessa, Shawn could still stay calm and suppress all the emotions in his heart.
However, after he met Vanessa today, he was unable to contain his own bad feelings.
Shawn now felt so fretful after he saw a woman who looked like Vanessa.
Throughout the rest of the charity night, conflicting emotions churned inside him, and Shawn didn't know what to do.
...
In the middle of the night in the Emerald Garden.
Outside the window, lights flickered along the Lantrie Bridge.
There were several empty bottles beside Shawn, and the reek of whisky hung around him, but he was still as calm as ever.
A wind blew in through the window, and the chandeliers swayed gently. The lights were projected onto the whisky in the glass.
The lights were projected onto the whisky in the glass.
Shawn got a bit drunk, and his vision was blurred.
He took out his phone and got Vanessa out of the blacklist.
He checked their chatting records.
They didn't chat so much before, but it still cost him more than an hour to check all the chatting records.
He looked at the chatting records so carefully, as if he was looking for something.
After he checked all the messages that Vanessa had texted him before, Shawn finally realized what he was looking for.
He was trying to find the trace that Vanessa loved him.
Even if there was just one time that Vanessa showed that she really loved him, Shawn thought that he could pretend that nothing had happened.
But in the end, what he found was only lies. He felt that he was just a joke at this time.
Shawn put down his phone, but when he raised his hand, Shawn knocked down a bottle on the table.
Shawn always stayed calm and barely vent his feelings in his life after he became an adult.
But now, it seemed there was no other way to deal with his bad feelings.
He threw the bottle to the wall, and a clear loud sound echoed through the empty house.
Shawn blacklisted Vanessa again.
He looked out the window, and the sun was coming out. The calm river under the Lantrie Bridge glistened in the golden sunrise.
Suddenly, Shawn's phone rang, and he received an email. Shawn glanced at it, and his eyes changed slightly.
It was an email from Vanessa.
There was just a short passage in the email.
"I'm sorry.
I have nothing to explain, and I don't dare to get your forgiveness.
I just hope that you won't meet someone like me in the future.
Best wishes."
Shawn lost control of his emotions again.
He read the email again and again. Then, he suddenly let out a sneer.
Her cute, innocent look was just her acting for an ulterior motive.
As a journalist, this was the official tone she should have with no emotions.
He should have known that early. After all, when someone really fell in love, he would be like a fool instead of a real flirt.
Shawn thought that if he realized that early, he might not be hurt by Vanessa.
However, even so, Shawn still thought of Vanessa's wronged look in tears when she grabbed his sleeve.
Shawn didn't believe that Vanessa would also feel hurt like him, but he had already lost his mind under the alcohol.
Shawn again got Vanessa out of the blacklist and typed a line of words.
"So, have you ever been serious with me?"
He stared at Vanessa's avatar and hesitated for a long while. In the end, he sighed a breath and sent a message.
The next second, there was a message shown on the screen.
"Send a friend request to chat."
"Damn it!"
For the first time in Shawn's 27-year life, he cursed.