My Darling, My Dearest

Chapter 177

Rachel maintained a calm and composed demeanor, even though deep down in her heart, she was all ears when it came to Lea's opinions in many aspects.

As such, before making a decision, it was almost imperative for Rachel to consider Lea's advice.

Although Jack had no idea about this whatsoever, he was quick enough to notice that Lea was obviously someone very important to Rachel.

Immediately, he knew that he would have to do something to weaken Lea's place in Rachel's heart. He would have to come up with something to keep Lea away to diminish her presence in Rachel's personal life.

While they were having some drinks, Lea suddenly sneezed so violently she almost fell off the chair. She sniffled and blew her nose on a handkerchief she produced from her pocket. "I wonder which bastard is cursing me."

Rachel said, "It's actually quite chilly in here and perhaps you're just having trouble adjusting to the weather."

"I think someone is cursing me."

"Oh my God! No one is cursing you!" Lea sneezed again, almost immediately after Rachel uttered the last word of her sentence.

Despite knowing what happened between Lea and Henry, Rachel still couldn't calm her restless heart. Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Moreover, she felt horrible because the burden of keeping such a big secret from Lea was starting to weigh down on her.

Lost in her own thoughts, Rachel didn't hear Lea when she said, "A friend of mine will be joining us for dinner."

"Okay," Rachel responded perfunctorily, in a halfhearted manner.

They had been sitting silently for a while before a waiter walked up to their table with the menu in his hands.

When Lea refused, gesturing at the waiter with her hand, Rachel looked at her with a stunned expression and asked, "What are we waiting for?"

One would have imagined that Lea would choose some place other than a fancy French restaurant. After all, she was a frequent traveler to France.

Most importantly, she always said that she was bored of all the French cuisine.

Then what were they doing here?

The puzzled expression on Rachel's face was too obvious. Lea leaned over the table in front of Rachel and whispered, "My friend picked this place. If you want to get something else, we can find another restaurant."

Lea wasn't particularly interested in French cuisine anyway. Just as Rachel was about to ask

Lea about her friend,

she saw Lea's eyes light up as she waved at someone with a big smile on her face.

Taken by curiosity, Rachel turned around and saw a man in a tight-fitted shirt walking towards them.

The man had a tall stature with a handsome and calm face. When he stopped at their table, Lea asked him to sit down.

He looked at both women and sincerely said, "Sorry for being late."

For some reason, Lea couldn't stop smiling. "No, we were early. There's no need to apologize."

He courteously nodded his head at Rachel.

After greeting Rachel, the man pulled out the empty chair next to Rachel and sat down.

"This is my friend, Rachel Shen. And this is my schoolmate, William Su," said Lea, politely introducing them to each other.

Rachel responded with a smile and said, "It's very nice to meet you."

Right after William sat down, the waiter came to their table and handed them the menu. In truth, Rachel had no idea that William was going to join them for dinner.

Meanwhile, a pair of watchful eyes in the dark observed the three unsuspecting people enjoying their dinner and secretly took photos.

Before long, Jack received a photo on his cell phone.

As the full image loaded up on his phone screen, the person who sent it to him, simple wrote, "No suspicious tracking media."

Jack responded quickly and asked the person to continue, but if there were any journalists tracking, the man had strict orders to destroy the photos.

"Yes, sir!"

Jack returned to the screen on his desk and continued his work. After tapping on the keyboard for a while, he stopped.

He picked up his phone and tapped on the photo again to enlarge it. Suddenly, a guileful smile appeared on his lips.

He tapped on the phone screen with his fingers and forwarded it to someone else.

The photo was sent with a message, "I heard that Lea is leaving tomorrow?"

Although the three of them sat fairly close to each other, Rachel could hardly be seen from that shooting angle as she was overshadowed by the tall man.

In the end, only Lea and the tall man were clearly visible in the photograph that was taken, smiling at each other and chatting happily.

Jack sighed, fifteen minutes had passed and still there was still no word from Henry. He asked his man to take another photo and sent it to Henry again.

Jack was eagerly waiting for Henry's response. Although he couldn't get the satisfaction he had

been hoping for, Jack was sure that his prey had taken the bait.

After another fifteen minutes had passed without even a single word from Henry, Jack posted the third photo.

On the other end, Henry finally couldn't keep his calm any long. Blinded by rage, he called Jack immediately and almost growled at the phone. "What the hell do you want from me?"

Jack couldn't help snickering like a hyena.

Before he could say anything, Henry cut him short. "Where are they? You'd better fucking tell me right now."

Jack glanced at his watch slowly to check the time. It would take Henry, at the very least, twenty minutes to get there.

Without wasting another second of Henry's time, Jack gave him the address and got off the phone.

Henry had to go there at once. No man could bear to see his significant other in the company of another man.

Jack was certain, without a doubt, that Henry would go to find them right away.

Since the woman was leaving tomorrow, he would have to act quickly and decisively, if he really wanted to fix their problem today.

Time was of the essence.

He could deal with the woman who grabbed his wife effortlessly. He was in a good mood, waiting for the good news.

Lea's friend worked for a highly innovative literary magazine.

Rachel secretly stole a glance at the man and thought, 'He doesn't look like a person who works for a literary magazine. There's something in his body language that doesn't seem to fit his profession.'

However, temperament and image couldn't only say so much about a person. The serious and silent demeanor William Su tried to portray was far from his own personality.

When given the chance, he could be very talkative and engaging if the topics were less boring.

William didn't make it sound like a big deal at the time. Instead, he told them something funny and interesting from his past interviews. But most of the time, he only spoke to Lea.

Rachel, who was a good listener, tuned in with great interest.

The eloquent man was very good at controlling the topic of conversation. He talked about the dangerous situations he encountered during his visit to a small country in Africa.

Rachel was so engrossed in the conversation that she didn't even notice when Henry had appeared.

They fell in silence as they attentively listened to William's riveting tales of journalistic glory.

Suddenly, William stopped talking as he felt an ominous presence behind his back.

As he turned around, he saw Henry with a halfsmile on his face walking towards Lea. Henry looked at each of them once and greeted them indifferently.

"What are you all so happy about?"

Rachel and Lea both had an incredulous expression on their faces as soon as they saw Henry. The smiled on Lea's face fell into a straight line and her glowing face dimmed down as though someone had drained the excitement from her soul.

"What are you doing here?" Lea asked with a tinge of coldness in her words.

The tone of Lea's voice was enough to convince Rachel that the situation could escalate at any moment, even though she eagerly hoped they wouldn't break into an argument there.

Much to everyone's surprise, Henry raised the corners of his lips and disregarded her rude remark. "Scooch over and give me a seat."

Lea frowned and said, "Who gave you the permission to sit here? Did I invite you here?"

Henry calmly said, "I'll pay the bill."

Lea turned her face away at his comment, mostly to hide the fact that she was cursing at him in her mind.

Perhaps, Henry finally figured out what kind of a person Lea was and he had no intention of giving the pleasure of victory by leaving.

Rachel found that Jack and Henry had one characteristic in common. They were all shameless!

Henry ignored Lea and remained seated next to her.

Despite her reluctance, Lea had no choice but to sit there quietly with a long face, boiling in murderous anger.

However, Henry leaned closer to her with a smile on his face as he tried to comfort her. Lea pushed his hand away without hesitation and waived at the waiter to order some food for him.

Henry forced a smile on his face and gave his order to the waiter.

William and Rachel remained silent the whole time, as they sat there dreading what the immediate future would bring. William was smart enough to guess what the man's relationship with Lea was just by looking at the couple once.

To William's surprise, however, the man looked very familiar.

The Qin family ran one of the biggest family-run businesses in the city. However, instead of joining the family trade, Henry established his own path and soon became of the biggest shot-callers in the city.

William racked his brains trying to figure out who the man was.

Rachel didn't utter a single word as she knew Lea very well. Judging by the way Lea was reacting, Rachel assumed that she didn't really want to break up with him. If Lea was indeed angry, she would have left by now instead of sitting there bickering.

In truth, Henry understood Lea better than anyone else. As such, he felt a little relieved when she didn't ask him to leave.

Then he fixed his eyes on the man sitting opposite to him.

He was clearly Lea's type: tall and good-looking.

The photographs Jack had sent him earlier popped into his mind and he felt infuriated at the idea that Lea was having a good time with another man.

Henry stared at the man in front of him and lifted his eyeglasses.