"Summer, let me take you home." Caleb Bell stood up and helped Summer Lancaster up.
"Mhm."
"Summer, let's get dinner tomorrow."
"I've been swamped with work lately, so I'm afraid I won't have time. Some other time, maybe? My treat."
"Haha, alright." Caleb Bell smiled and patted Summer Lancaster's head.
"Summer, I heard Melody Donovan is back in the country. Has she contacted you?"
"Huh? Melody's back? That girl! She came back and didn't even tell me. I'm going to find her tomorrow." Melody Donovan was her best friend and college classmate. Back then, the two of them went to class together and joined clubs together. During college, Melody had a crush on an upperclassman who played basketball every day. She went to watch him daily but never confessed, and the boy didn't even know she existed.
Caleb Bell drove at a steady pace. The journey wasn't long, and soon they arrived at Veridian Community.
"Summer, good night!" Caleb Bell waved.
"Good night, Caleb!" The man upstairs was holding a glass of red wine, his eyes narrowed to a slit. 'Didn't she say she was going to a business dinner? Why is she with this man again?' He put down the wine and lit a cigarette.
Summer Lancaster saw the lights were on. Kenneth Yates was home!
"I'm home." Summer Lancaster was changing her shoes in the entryway when Kenneth Yates walked out. He was in casual clothes, a cigarette dangling from his lips, his hands stuffed in his pockets, and his face was dark.
"Where were you?" There was no emotion in his voice.
"A business dinner!" 'The boss is always so busy,' Summer thought. 'How could he know about something so trivial?'
"Business with who? So late? Don't tell me it was with the man who just dropped you off." Kenneth Yates extinguished his cigarette.
"Hm?" Summer Lancaster was confused.
"Stop playing dumb. I saw you. That man was the one at the Yates Group the other day. I haven't kept tabs on you for two years, and it looks like you've been living quite comfortably, Summer Lancaster." Kenneth Yates came over and grabbed Summer Lancaster's arms with both hands.
"HISS..." Summer Lancaster sucked in a sharp breath. It hurt. Kenneth Yates clearly saw the bruises on her arm.
"What happened? What happened to your arm?"
"I really was at a business dinner today." Summer Lancaster pulled her arm free from his grasp. "There was just a small incident. Gordon Graham tried to assault me, and Caleb happened to be eating at the same restaurant and saved me. That's all that happened. Don't get the wrong idea." Summer Lancaster was a little displeased. 'Is he questioning my character?'
Gordon Graham. He remembered that negotiations with Glimmer were supposed to be handled by the president's secretary, so why was Gordon Graham there? 'Damn it. If I'd known it was him, I would never have let her go. It seems I need to reconsider our partnership with Glimmer.'
"Also, I didn't get the proposal. I left halfway through. As your employee, that was a dereliction of my duty. You can punish me however you see fit." Summer Lancaster took off her jacket, revealing even more bruises on her body.
"Besides these, are you hurt anywhere else?" His gaze was no longer cold. 'What's a proposal compared to her?' Summer Lancaster didn't answer him. Kenneth Yates grew anxious, "Summer Lancaster, I'm asking you a question! Can you stop making people worry like this?"
'Is he worried about me?' Summer Lancaster was a little stunned. She mumbled, "No."
Summer Lancaster turned her back to him and went into the bedroom. Kenneth Yates followed her in. Summer Lancaster was playing on her phone.
"Come here, I'll put some ointment on for you," Kenneth Yates called to her.
"Don't trouble yourself. I can do it myself." Summer Lancaster didn't seem to appreciate the offer.
"You can reach your own back?" Kenneth Yates walked to the bedside without taking no for an answer.
"Sit still. Take off your shirt."
"Huh? What?" Summer Lancaster's face flushed instantly. 'What? He's telling me to take off my clothes? What a hooligan.'
"What 'huh'? You think I'm trying to take advantage of you? With that flat figure of yours?" Kenneth Yates scoffed. Summer Lancaster looked down. 'I may be skinny, but I'm a C-cup. Who is he to say I have a bad figure?' While she was distracted, Kenneth Yates lifted her shirt and gently applied the ointment. Summer Lancaster didn't resist. After what he'd said, it would seem childish to refuse now.
Seeing the black-and-blue marks on her body, Kenneth Yates couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache. 'This woman is always trying to act so tough. When faced with a business dinner like that, she should have just turned it down. Why does she have to make things so hard for herself?'