Chapter 10
Julian headed to his office as soon as he arrived at their company’s building.
As he ran, Julian called out Stella’s name. When he opened the door to his office, Julian could see that some documents were scattered on the floor. There was no one in the room.
He kicked Stella’s desk in frustration. A bottle of eye drops toppled and fell to the floor.
“As expected, the eye drop solution was on her desk. She still cares about my eyes. She’s just feeling upset at the moment,” he thought.
Julian’s vision improved considerably after he applied a few drops of the solution to his eyes. He wiped off the tears that had formed naturally from the corners of his eyes. Then, he turned on Stella’s computer to try and look for clues about her whereabouts.
However, Julian froze the moment the computer was turned on. The homepage was completely empty. It appeared someone had formatted the computer. There was not a single file saved on the computer.
“What’s the meaning of this? Does she not want to work here anymore?” Julian pondered.
Suddenly, Julian recalled what he had said in front of everyone on the rooftop.
“I’d like to ask everyone here to be my witness. It was all Stella’s doing! Her termination is effective immediately. Chapman Group will never hire her again!”
The words that he said not too long ago returned like a boomerang and pierced his heart. Julian started trembling uncontrollably.
“Stella, have you always been this headstrong? You formatted the computer and disappeared just because I said I was firing you?” He thought. Julian could not understand why Stella had meekly accepted all of his requests whenever they were in bed during the past three years.
He checked the hall, the Chapman residence, and the office, but Stella was not at any of these places. Julian could not reach her on the phone either. He wondered where else she could have gone to…
“Right! The hotel!” Julian concluded inwardly.
Stella stayed at one of his friends‘ hotels the night she left the Chapman residence. That was how Julian had managed to find out where she was and gotten the access card to enter the room and sleep with her that night.
Once again, Julian hurried off. He got into his car and stepped on the gas pedal as he headed for the hotel where Stella was staying.
Whilst he stood outside the door of her hotel room, Julian was not just holding the access card. He also had a black card in his hand. It was a supplementary card of Julian’s credit card with no maximum credit limit.
As long as Stella agreed to conceive his child and stay by his side, Julian would give her the card as a gift.
|–
His head was telling him that he had lost his mind. Julian was doting so much on someone who was a plaything when he would never marry her.
Julian could not explain it either. He just wanted to treat Stella well and make it up to her with everything he had.
With a beep, the door opened. Julian, who was feeling nervous at first, sank into despair almost instantly.
2
There was no sign of Stella in the room. It was obvious the staff in charge of room service had been in this empty room. The room was clean and tidy as if no one had stayed in there previously.
With a dark expression on his face, Julian went downstairs and walked up to a receptionist. “Where’s the customer staying in room 808? Where did she go?”
The receptionist lady was rather taken aback by Julian’s threatening presence. She explained timidly, “That customer checked out this morning. She left her luggage with us temporarily. A while ago, she came to retrieve her belongings and left afterward.”
When he heard that Stella had checked out, Julian quickly asked, “Where did she head off to?”
With a lost look on her face, the receptionist shook her head and answered nervously, “She hailed a cab and left. So, I’m not sure either.” “You useless fool!
The receptionist nearly burst into tears when Julian suddenly yelled at her angrily.
On the other hand, Julian was feeling more and more anxious and agitated after all of his search efforts so far had proven unsuccessful. He could not help but wonder where Stella was right now.
Julian remembered something just then and immediately phoned Peter. As soon as the line got through, he said hurriedly, “Don’t fire Stella! I only said those things on the rooftop in the heat of the moment.”
Stella might have chosen to leave because she was upset about being asked to carry his and Ariana’s child, and the fact that she had lost the only way to repay her debt after being fired. If that were the case, Julian simply needed to resolve these issues to get Stella to come back to him.
Meanwhile, Peter paused briefly and began hesitantly, “Mr. Chapman, Ms. Atkinson has already resigned from her position, though.”
Chapter 10
2/2
Julian felt as though something heavy had just struck him on the head. There was an unpleasant ringing in his ears.
He tried to suppress his unease and muttered through gritted teeth, “What nonsense are you talking about? As I said, I only said what I said on the rooftop in the heat of the moment. How could I possibly not know that she was planning to resign?”
Peter’s heart missed a beat as he listened to Julian’s angry words.
He hurriedly explained, “Ms. Atkinson submitted her resignation letter that had your signature on it last week, and I proceeded with the relevant procedures accordingly. We’ve finished processing her resignation today. Ms. Atkinson has resigned from her position, Mr. Chapman.” Peter swiftly sent Julian the scanned copy of Stella’s resignation letter since he worried that Julian might not believe his words.
Julian opened the file and checked carefully. His fingers were trembling slightly. He could sense a dull throbbing pain in his eyes again. Stella had actually resigned and left him.
