Chapter 8
Chapter 8
With a loud slap that reverberated across this office, Catherine slapped Anderson, which did not vent all of her anger, “Payback? How can you put Isabella’s child and Sophia and Lincoln side by side?”
By mentioning Isabella’s child with her children, she felt an immense humiliation to Sophia and Lincoln. Anderson licked the corner of his mouth as a bloody taste started to spread in his mouth.
“Catherine, don’t you think that I am thinking too highly of you?” Anderson reached out and strangled her, “In my eyes, you aren’t even qualified to help her wear her shoes.”
“Oh.” Catherine let out a disdainful snort, her gaze a steely sharp one, “If you think I can’t even help to wear her shoes, what are you doing now? Are you slapping yourself across your own face? Why are you taking away the children given birth by me?”
“We are not qualified to be honoured by you, so I hope you can let our family reunite, Mr. Clark.” She was not only beautiful, but her words were sharp and witty. Every single word that came out of her mouth dealt a major blow to him and make him bleed.
Anderson pinned her on the door and stared at her with an frosty gaze, “The reason I’m not doing anything to you is because I am thinking for the children’s sake. Don’t try to provoke me, you can’t afford to bear the repercussions.”
With her throat getting squeezed by him, Catherine said with difficulty, “What… do you… want from me so that the children can come back to me?”
Anderson was feeling annoyed because the little ones were looking for their mother at home, and in his company this woman was looking for her children. As their father, he was a nemesis to them, and the more he thought about it the more his face loses its warmth.
‘There will be a business banquet at night. You will come with me to attend.” Anderson suddenly invited her, but the moment he spoke those words, he regretted them. How could Catherine qualify to be his
partner?
Catherine was thrown off by his sudden invitation. After revealing self-deprecating smile, a sudden surge of sadness came from within her heart. She had been in love with this man for many years, but all the time she was like a rat scurrying around in the dark, never to see the light of day. He hated her so much so he never brought her along to any public occasions.
Now she no longer loved this man, but he invited her to accompany him to attend a banquet. Everything was so ridiculous. Anderson couldn’t stand seeing Catherine’s spiteful and stubborn and headstrong expression. He spoke coldly, “Although you disgust me, but at least in this circle, your face is still acknowledged by some. Coincidentally you can be of some use.” Catherine who was quick on the uptake immediately understood the underlying meaning of his words.
As if struck by lightning, she was stunned without being able to move for a few seconds. Her heart then started to ache, which slowly permeated to all parts of her body through the coursing of her blood.” Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.
She imagined that she would cease to feel anything after a few years, but she found that her heart still ache after all those time. She forced a smile on her face while she called out gently, “Anderson.”
Her voice was low and mellow, and in an instant Anderson thought that time had turned back to a few years ago when she was calling for him to have dinner. He subconsciously answered back, “What’s the matter?”
“Time doesn’t make you more cultured; instead it makes you look even more shameless.” Catherine replied with sarcasm.
Anderson’s face immediately darkened, and his depthless gaze was giving out a murderous aura. He jerked Catherine’s chin upwards and threatened, “Why, you don’t want to go? You can do that, but the children…”
“Pl go” As long as she could get back her children. A pair of gorgeous eyes burning with hatred was locked with another pair which was cold as ice.
The atmosphere around them was stretched thinly, as if a fight would break out at any moment. Suddenly, under such a tense ambience, Anderson’s phone rang.
Anderson let go of Catherine and took out his phone, “Hello grandma.”
“Andy, Sophia keeps on crying, shouting that she wants her mother. Do you think you can let Catherine come over to calm her down?”
Since his grandmother was already old, her ear was failing day by day. Fearing that the other party couldn’t hear her well, her voice was ramped up a lot, which was heard by Catherine on the side. Upon knowing that Sophia who was always cheerful was crying now, Catherine’s eyes became reddened.
Anderson listened to the wailing sound in the phone while shifting his gaze to a teary-eyed Catherine, he hurled the phone to Catherine with much annoyance. “Hello, Ma’am Clark. Can you pass the phone to Sophia?” Catherine implored nervously.
With a sigh at the other end which was followed by a period of silence, a sobbing sound with ragged breathing appeared all of a sudden.
“Good girl, Sophia is the most obedient child. Don’t cry, don’t cry.” “Mummy… Ugh… I miss you.”
“Sophia, don’t cry. Don’t be afraid, Mummy will go over to get you and Lincoln.”
While she was comforting her child, she finally hid all of her anonymity and transformed into a mild- mannered and gentle woman. She was glowing faintly at the moment, which caused Anderson to lose himself in a daze. He had forgotten the last time he had actually focused his gaze on this woman.
He had never looked at her like this ever since Isabella had come into his life.
After getting to know this woman’s true colours, all he could feel was endless disgust. From then, he stopped looking at her squarely.
When his mind wandered to Isabella’s death, Anderson shifted his gaze away from Catherine.
After ending the phone call, Catherine swiftly left the Clark Tower. She didn’t want to overstay here for even a minute. Moments after she had left, Anderson’s assistant came up with a stalk of chrysanthemum in his hand. Anderson recalled that woman’s last words before leaving, “Anderson, won’t you have nightmares every time you come to this office?”
A cruel curve appeared at the corner of Anderson’s mouth. He directly threw the chrysanthemum into the rubbish bin.
After Catherine had left the Clark Tower, and before she could return to her hotel room, she received a call fromm her editor. Immediately after she pressed to answer, a torrent of sound bombarded her ears, “Why didn’t you update your work today? Do you know that you are still on the recommended list? If you don’t update anymore, you’re going to be blacklisted by the management.”
Only then did Catherine remember that she hadn’t uploaded a new chapter of her comics. She immediately replied, “Il am in City W now, and in my draft box there is still some saved-up chapters. I will send you my password later on, please help me to upload it.”
“You’re in City W? Do you have time? Come meet me, someone is planning to buy the rights to the adaptation of your work.”
“The rights to my work?” Catherine was slightly shocked when she heard that. Her comic was doing quite well, but the story wasn’t even halfway yet, yet someone wanted to buy the rights to the comic. Catherine was really shocked because her work catered to a niche audience compared to more mainstream works.
“Yes. If you have time, let’s meet and talk. If not, we will chat on the internet.”
Catherine checked the time and found that it was only ten in the morning. It was still hours away from the banquet mentioned by Anderson, so she decided to meet her editor.
The two of them met at a café near the office buildings. Catherine needed to travel a little far to that place, so by the time she arrived, there was a girl wearing Hanfu skirt (a kind of traditional Chinese attire) sitting on their reserved seat.
“Hi, are you Lydia?” Lydia was her editor’s name. “You are October?” October was her pen name when she started drawing comics. Catherine nodded.
“You are so good-looking, so why don’t you do a fan signing event?” Lydia blurted out. Catherine had been refusing to stage a fan meeting previously and Lydia had misunderstood that it must be because she wasn’t very good-looking. Now that she had seen with her own eyes Catherine’s face, her heart had been screaming out that Catherine was too beautiful. She was almost entranced by Catherine’s beauty to the point that she decided not to be too strict with urging for her latest work, “Who knows, maybe you will attract countless fans who are after your looks.”
Catherine smiled, “That’s not the reason, but if time is allowed, we can do a fan signing event in the future.”
Since Anderson had found her, she had no reason to be afraid anymore. Her fans had been urging her to organize a fan signing event which would be advantageous to her anyway, so she found no reason to reject.
“Really?” Lydia never thought that she would be able to hear this pleasant surprise, “Then I’ll start arranging things for you. Your readers will be ecstatic.”
“We can talk about this later on.” Catherine ordered a coffee for herself, “I reckon that I won’t have time lately.” She needed to make sure she could get back her children.
Lydia patted her own head and began, “Right, I have forgotten what I am here for because of your beauty. I am here to discuss with you about the rights to your work. The buyer is offering a hefty sum, but with a catch. It’s up to you whether you can accept or not.”