The Contracted Ever After (Cordelia and Ronan) novel Chapter 118

The next day, Cordelia was hanging around outside the office for ages, hoping to clear up the tie thing with Ronan. But to her surprise, Ronan was a no-show, and her brother Adrian popped up out of the blue.

He pulled Cordelia to one side. “Here, I got you a bag. Take it.” Adrian handed her a Chanel bag.

This Chanel bag was the same as Manda's.

Cordelia usually didn't pay much attention to her own bag, let alone anyone else's. “This is for me?” Cordelia was gobsmacked.

It was rare for Adrian to gift her anything, let alone making a special trip to the office to hand it over. She figured Adrian had an ulterior motive, so she decided to accept the gift for now and wait and see. She was worried that if she refused, Adrian would come up with a new scheme which would be even harder to deal with.

When Ronan finally strolled in, he saw Adrian and Cordelia chatting, and she was holding something. He didn't give them a second glance and headed straight upstairs.

Back in her office, Cordelia sent a pic of the bag to Brooklyn, asking her to check it out. Just as Ronan was clueless about umbrellas, Cordelia was clueless about bags.

[This is Chanel, worth more than $3000 in the market. Is your brother this generous? Send me a pic of the hologram sticker, and I'll have my sister check its authenticity.] Brooklyn texted.

Brooklyn's sister ran a big clothing store and next door was a second-hand luxury shop.

More than $3000? Something smelt fishy to Cordelia. Her brother wouldn't drop that much on a bag for her. She suspected the bag might be a knock-off. He must have set a trap for her somewhere.

Cordelia's phone rang on her desk. "Come here," came Ronan's deep magnetic voice.

Hearing this, Cordelia felt a lump in her throat. For days, Ronan had been as cold as ice towards her.

Even though she knew it was risky, Cordelia felt her affection for him slowly draining away and she was powerless to stop it. She went to Ronan's office.

"How have you been these past few days?" Ronan's tone was much softer when he saw her.

"Good."

"Is your stomach still hurting?"

Cordelia blushed a bit. They were at the office, not at home. It was a bit inappropriate to ask such a question. "I'm okay," she replied.

Ronan changed the subject. "What did your brother want?"

Cordelia thought to herself, so that was why he called me here. This was just a warm-up.

Cordelia seized the moment when her colleagues weren't looking, took her bag and went out, and came back with another bag. This bag was the fake one Brooklyn bought for her, and Brooklyn took away the real one.

At noon, Cordelia ordered takeout in the office. She dared not to leave at this critical moment. She even boldly placed the bag on her office desk.

Just when most of the people in the Finance Department were back, there came a cry from Manda's side, "Where's my bag?"

"Manda, isn't your bag right there on the table?" a colleague pointed to the Chanel bag on Manda's desk.

"No... that's not what I mean. My bag is a genuine piece, bought from the boutique, cost me $3500. I took a photo of the hologram sticker..." Saying this, Manda took out her phone. The image showed the numbers on the bag's hologram sticker. And the stuff in the bag was hers, like lipsticks, tissues, etc. Nothing had changed today, so it was clear that the bag in the photo was Manda's. As long as the numbers on the hologram sticker matched, the bag was hers.

"Here's the receipt from the mall. I saved for a year to buy this bag. But now the numbers on the hologram sticker have changed. It's different from before. I had an expert check it online. This bag is a fake." With that, Manda started sobbing. After all, $3500 was a huge sum to her.

"Ah? Someone swapped her bag? Who did this?" her colleagues wondered.

Then all eyes were on the identical Chanel bag on Cordelia's desk. Cordelia usually used cheap canvas bags. But today, why did she suddenly use a Chanel?

Although she was the president's wife and not short of money, changing one's taste didn't happen overnight. Plus, there were even more quirky people among the rich.