Ex husband's Plea for Forgiveness novel Chapter 96

"You’ve gone through a pretty good fight, Mr. Gu." William beamed with pride at Jonas. "Now people scurry to their seats when they see even your shadow approaching."

Jonas gave him a brief but grateful smile. He had been so busy with the affairs of the company especially the acquisition case, and he had never taken a proper rest. He was exhausted, and it showed on his face.

"Thank you for your hard work this time around as well," he said to William. "It’s my treat tonight; go ahead and choose whatever restaurant you like." His voice had grown hoarse, and he rubbed his throat uncomfortably before taking large gulps of water.

"Understood, Mr. Gu. We’ll make sure to find an excellent place to express your gratitude. By the way, Mr. Gu, may we bring any family member with us?" It was not an unprecedented request; William had always been thoughtful of the employees that were assigned to the CEO office.

Besides, after working for Jonas for so many years, he knew that despite the strict and rigid demeanor of his boss, Jonas was always generous to the employees.

"That’s all right. Just add it to the overall tab, I’ll take care of the total expense."

That made the secretary pause. "Won’t you be joining us, Mr. Gu?"

As it was supposed to be celebratory dinner, he had, of course, assumed, that the boss was coming.

Jonas shook his head. He had been living in the company for a long time. He missed Melinda very much.

It was only one of the myriad emotions he had been finding himself caught up in recently. Only one of the new feelings that he had never encountered before in his life.

"Very well, Mr. Gu." William took care of the rest of the minor paperwork as Jonas rushed back home to his wife.

Meanwhile, Yulia’s sanctions still weren’t lifted, and she remained grounded at home. Although, thankfully, she was no longer confined to her own room, and could now freely walk around the mansion.

This was one such occasion when the young woman decided to take a stroll around the grounds, her cat in her arms. It was autumn now, and there was a biting chill in the air.

Yulia wore an expensive looking vest over a light dress, looking every bit as upper-level socialite. She headed towards Melinda’s villa.

Due to her miscarriage in the past, Melinda had grown overly sensitive to the cold, and would usually fall ill in colder weather. These days she kept inside and wore thick layers of clothing, her regular walks in the yard abandoned.

It was just as well, because she had also been busy recently. Her new book had been completed, and she had been absorbed in the last phase of editing. She also had to make negotiations with the publishers and the periodical office.

She had already received a tiny bout of fame with her first book, but the recent controversy with Emily made people pay more attention to her. Needless to say, she had gained more fans, especially from within the city. Hence, her editor was quick to draw up plans to hold a book launch event for her. And they wanted to brand her as a well-known author.

"Melinda, are you busy?" Yulia barged into her sister-in-law’s villa with her cat.

Melinda was on a video call with her editor, discussing the book launch event. She quickly said her goodbye and ended the call.

"What’s up?" She gave the younger woman a tight smile. Lately, Yulia would drop in by her villa at the most random times for the most random reasons.

Melinda couldn’t tell if she actually cared for her in particular, maybe her husband’s sister was only bored of her confinement. But the fact that Yulia kept on showing up brought her much discomfort and always sent Melinda on edge.

"I don’t understand why you stay cooped up in your villa," Yulia drawled as she glanced around the room, her right hand stroking the cat in her arms. "The weather is rather nice today. Why don’t we go take a little walk outside?"

The truth was that Yulia was dying to get out of the mansion. Already she had lost track of the days, unsure about how long she had been grounded.

She knew that if there was anyone whose influence could grant her even just a brief escape, it was Melinda. If she were to run out of there with her sister-in-law, her grandfather would no doubt allow it without much thought.

"No, thanks. I have a lot of things to do. Why don’t you just go ahead and have some fun on your own."

"Melinda," Yulia said a little sharply. She struggled to soften her tone. "Melinda, you must know I’m still grounded." Melinda paused at that. Perhaps the younger woman only meant outside at the yard? It had completely slipped Yulia mind that she was still being punished.

She felt a little guilty at her apparently insensitive words. She smiled again, this time a little more warmly. "Well, we have everything we could possibly want in this mansion. If there’s anything else you wanted, I’m sure you can order someone and it would be brought to you immediately. Uh, you can have fun with your little kitten as well."

Melinda winced at her own words. Well, there was nothing to be done about it, anyway; she didn’t know what else to say.

She turned back to her desk, feeling embarrassed for herself, and so did not notice the resentment that flashed in her guest’s eyes.

Yulia was pissed. She didn’t expect that she would be rebuffed so easily, even after lowering her pride and coming here to find some help.

"Well. It seems like you are very busy indeed, so I won’t bother you any longer." In her frustration, Yulia’s fingers dug a little deeper as she stroked her cat, and the poor animal screamed in protest and flew out of her arms.

It leapt in the air towards Melinda, and its claws were visibly out. The cat landed on her with a hiss, leaving long scratch marks on her sweater before scrambling onto her desk.

Melinda quickly jumped out of her seat and out of the way as the cat whipped a hurricane among her files, throwing her things into the floor.

As Momo heard the commotion, its ears perked up and it opened its eyes. It stalked the other cat, hissing and growling at it with unmistakable aggression.

"Momo," Melinda called warily. Her fat cat turned to her, and Yulia's black kitten took that opportunity to flee the room.

Across the paper-strewn floor, Yulia was also eyeing Momo with caution. It was then that Jonas came into the scene.

As he noted the messy desk and floor, his gaze quickly flew to his wife. Upon seeing her torn sweater, he rushed over to her, thinking she might be injured.

He grabbed her arm and made a whole show of inspecting her body where the claw marks were, asking repeatedly if she was in pain. It took him a while, under much of his wife’s protest for him, to calm down.

"It seems like Momo does a poor job of keeping watch over you," Jonas grumbled, and the cat in question gave him a look as if daring him into a showdown.

"Jonas," Yulia spoke up, her face growing pale at the prospect of incurring her brother’s temper.

"It was my cat, it’s still young and quite playful. I apologize." Her words, however, fell on deaf ears.

"Don’t bully Momo," Melinda scolded her husband. "Never mind all that. Did you finally finish the business matters that kept you busy recently?"