“No, it’s okay!” Louis had already responded in the affirmative, but Winnie lifted a hand and stopped him from putting it into action.
“Uh… Mr. Xavier, Mrs. Fairchild…” Louis alternated his gaze between his employer and the latter’s wife, feeling very much conflicted.
Seeing that, Winnie instructed straight away, “Do as I said.”
“Hmm?” Xavier gave her a meaningful look, sensing that his status as the CEO was under threat.
Winnie stared back at him. “Do you have a problem with that? We’re now discussing my matters. I can keep my nose out of the affairs of Fairchild Corporation, but I want to be the master of my own affairs.”
For a moment, Xavier was left without a rebuttal.
He pondered for a while before asserting, “But you’re my woman.”
“So what? You’re also my man,” Winnie riposted.
Frowning, Xavier uttered the most misogynistic remark—”When someone picks on my woman, she doesn’t need to retaliate personally. As my woman, the only thing she needs to do is to keep herself young and beautiful, serving me when I have need of her—”
Good Lord! What nonsense is he spouting? Winnie clapped her hand over his mouth.
Don’t tell me, he wanted to say that his woman only needed to serve him well in bed!
“Shut up. Let me repeat it—I’ll handle this matter myself. You’re not allowed to interfere before I request that you lend me a hand, or else!” Winnie hissed through gritted teeth.
“Or else what?” Tugging off the hand covering his mouth, Xavier dipped his head and leaned close to her with a devilish chuckle. In a deep voice, he whispered teasingly into her ear, “Hmm, Dumbo?”
At once, embarrassment inundated Winnie that the man was acting so intimately with her in public.
She inhaled deeply before shoving his head away. “Or else I’ll dump you!”
Xavier promptly bristled. “You wouldn’t dare!”
“Just you wait and see! I’m serious. At that time, I’ll leave you to fend for yourself. Regardless of whether you’re dull-witted or mad, I won’t bother about you anymore!” Winnie didn’t give him any leeway.
She wasn’t joking, and Xavier evidently realized that as well.
Unbidden, mystification swamped him. Is this still the Dumbo of mine who is weak and cries at the drop of a hat?
Never had he seen her so imposing before.
He stood rooted to the spot for a long moment, sensing the blank spot in his mind growing in epic proportions.
It was as though a part of his life, or perhaps more accurately speaking, his memories, were missing.
He tried his utmost best to fill that void, but his irritation grew the more he attempted to do so. It felt as though every single drop of blood in his body was on the verge of bursting out of his veins, tearing him asunder.
Noticing that his eyes had gone red-rimmed for no apparent reason, Winnie immediately took his arm.
“Are you okay? Are you not feeling well again?”
Xavier massaged his temples. “I’m fine. But Dumbo, you must promise me that you’ll never again utter such words!”
Upon glimpsing his increasingly reddening eyes, Winnie hastily nodded with a frown.
“Say something! Don’t just nod.”
“Okay, I promise that I’ll never again say I won’t bother about you anymore,” Winnie vowed in exasperation. “As for Nate, there’s no hurry. I’ll tell you all about it when you’re feeling better.”
Having completed her task, the manager of the PR department instantly left the CEO’s office with her subordinates.
Winnie glanced at the shut door of the lounge, her gaze darkening a shade.
“Mrs. Fairchild, let me tell you about the flow of the press conference later in detail.” There wasn’t much time left, so Louis had to make all the arrangements.
“Sure!” Winnie sat down on the couch opposite from the man. “Go ahead. I’m listening.”
While saying that, she started multitasking. As she listened to Louis, she took out her phone and searched for news related to Nate.
The celebrities in the entertainment industry were all gathered on Twitter, and Nate was no exception.
When she tapped open Twitter and searched for “Nate,” the results that popped out first weren’t his official account but trending headlines related to him in the form of hashtags.
The first one read: Nate Fraser’s unphotoshopped pictures are amazing.
The next went along the lines of: Nate Fraser has made it on the trending list again.
The subsequent one followed: Nate Fraser’s stellar airport photos.
Winnie wasn’t the least bit interested in the man’s looks. She had seen his photos previously, and he was indeed pretty handsome, coolly confident.
But compared to his cousin, Xavier, he was still lagging far behind quite a ways.
Thus, she skipped the first two results and tapped on the final one because the word “airport” in it snagged her full attention.
Sure enough, after she had scrolled through almost a hundred photos, she finally found an intriguing one.
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