Both Leon and Vicente had their backs to the glass door, but Michelle, on the other hand, was in full view of anyone outside.
Barbie instantly recognized Michelle at first glance. She had seen a photo of her framed on Leon's desk, and she had caught glimpses of her on his phone whenever they were on video call.
Michelle was the kind of girl who could make Leon keep his phone close 24/7. She was the kind of girl who could make him call her at a fixed time every day. She was the kind of girl who could make him stay on the line for hours on end, even if no one was talking.
Even if Barbie couldn't see his face, she knew that it was Leon squatting down next to Michelle, carefully placing her feet into a pair of shoes.
Even Lyndon asked with some uncertainty, "Is that Leon?"
Barbie averted her gaze quickly and shook her head. "No."
"Okay." Lyndon was old and his grey hair was thinning. He needed to walk with a walking stick if he wasn't supported by someone else. Despite this, his eyes were still sharp and he still managed to give off a majestic aura.
Looking at her grandfather from the corner of her eye, Barbie couldn't tell whether he believed her or not.
She tried to urge him to walk forward, away from the glass door to the reception room. However, Lyndon suddenly asked, "Do you know that Leon has a girlfriend? Not the one from the Feng family."
"I know," Barbie answered frankly.
Lyndon glanced at her and asked, "Which family is she from?"
"I don't know," Barbie said calmly. "She's been protected well. I don't know what she looks like, what she sounds like, or her family background."
Lyndon just grunted indifferently. "A girlfriend and a wife are two different concepts."
"Truly." Barbie nodded respectfully.
"It's good you know that." Lyndon wore a deep set scowl at all times, which made him look old and authoritative. Barbie, on the other hand, always smiled gracefully, but that didn't overshadow her being capable and professional.
Whenever the two of them walked together at big events like this, Barbie always heard the same things over and over again. "You and your grandfather are so alike!"
"That is an order. Follow it." This was the most commonly uttered sentence from her grandfather.
She had always been proud of her upbringing.
But she had never expected that who she was to marry would be part of the countless orders she'd be forced to follow.
When she just received the news that she was going to participate in the selection of Leon's secretary, she couldn't help but feel excited. She went through great lengths to pass all the tests and felt immensely proud when she was selected in the end.
However, in her moment of success, her grandfather announced that her being Leon's secretary basically meant she was also his woman. Now, she was just his secretary, but in the future, she was to be queen of C Island.
Many people had their own faith, and for Barbie, Leon was her faith. She wasn't willing to blaspheme her faith.
In her eyes, it was disrespectful to her faith if she married Leon—especially after finding out that he had already fallen in love with someone else. Moreover, when she saw with her own eyes how much Leon liked that girl, she became more determined not to interfere with his love life.
Every relationship based on love was worthy of respect.
Just then, Vicente turned his head and happened to see Barbie standing outside by the glass door. As though she had felt his gaze on her, she turned to look at him and their eyes met.
She tried to tell him something with her eyes. Giving him a serious look, she then glanced at Michelle and Leon, indicating that the two shouldn't show up at the banquet at the same time. If her grandfather found out, he would do everything in his power to find a way to have Michelle removed from the picture.
But she wasn't close with Vicente, so she couldn't tell if the other person got her message.
Sure enough, Vicente didn't understand what Barbie was trying to say—at least, not all of it.
But she understood enough to know that she was trying to say something important, and that it had something to do with Leon and Michelle.
"Leon, I saw Barbie by the door just now. It looks like she has something important to tell you."
Leon had just finished tying the shoelaces on Michelle's new pair of white shoes. Then, he stood up and touched her cheek gently.
"How do you know she has something important to tell me?" he asked without tearing his gaze off Michelle.
"Her eyes," Vicente said seriously. "And, it has something to do with you two."
"Us?" Leon's expression hardened. Finally, he said to Vicente, "Please take Michelle to a hotel. No, she can't go to a hotel. Take her to Wynn's house."
Ever since Barbie had moved into Leon's castle, Wynn had gone back to his own house. He didn't need to be on call twenty-four hours a day.
But Wynn lived a stone's throw away from Leon's place.
From one window in his house, he could see the whole castle; from another, he could see the rise and fall of the tide.
Without asking why she had to leave, Michelle said, "I'll have to inform Cara and Selena. My phone's in Cara's handbag, and my luggage is in Selena's house. Oh, actually, I can go back to Selena's house. I don't want to bring trouble to Wynn and his family."
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