Stand By Me Darling
Chapter 216: Fool Me Twice

Chapter 216: Fool Me Twice

"Jordan, Jordy..." Arthur shook his head and put his hands inside his trouser pockets. His eyes unwaveringly looked at Jordan and he didn’t even look at the woman weeping pitifully. "You should have listened to me and took a cab. And now.. ?"

His steady voice, smooth and yet menacing made Jordan shudder. He tried to speak,but his voice didn’t come out as if he had cotton stuffed up in his throat. His chest felt heavy and he couldn’t breath properly and he gasped and the cold air rushed in his lungs hurting his chest more. His brain stopped functioning; the tip of his fingers felt tingly like it got dipped in acid and that stingy feeling passed throughout his body, making him tremble. He felt like someone had yanked his soul out of his body, leaving only a husk of himself.

She did it again!

The whole parking echoed the pitiful sniffles of the woman shaking with her shoulders scrunched and with her hands covering her face, she was softly mumbling amd pleading.

Who would side with me in this situation? No one did the previous time. My life almost got ruined back then.

Right! It didn’t go south back then. It was Arthur who interfered, making the Principal investigate properly using his influence as the President’s son, and helped prove my innocence. There were no cameras back then where it happened and it was the President who gave pressure to conduct a proper investigation when the Principal was just going to suspend him from school, right when the final exams were a month away.

When no one else believed me, it was Arthur who decided to give me a chance.

That warm memory, warmed him up. His eyes that went cloudy, focused himself to see Arthur and his ears that were ringing out of stress perked up. Arthur was looking to his back. That’s where his car usually get parked.

There came the sound of footsteps and Jordan realised where he is standing. This particular parking space is reserved for the executives of Northern Star and their Assistants. Everywhere in this parking lot is covered with cameras. In fact every parking lot of the office is covered with cameras without any blind spots. Jerome is not someone who is stingy with money and after a woman who worked here got robbed in the parking lot, Jerome installed a lot of cameras for security purposes.

How did I forget that?

Arthur’s chauffeur passed Jordan and Jordan looked at Arthur giving a slight nod to the chauffeur.

He’s telling him to collect the security videos. Ha!

Jordan could understand what Arthur’s nod meant and he felt relieved. Even though he was relieved, he felt his palms getting cold. He went through an excruciatingly painful situation right now.

"Are you okay to drive?" Arthur’s voice sounded authoritative, but as someone who spent most of his day beside him, Jordan could feel the care in that question.

Sophia who didn’t know what to do, felt weird. Arthur seemed to be uncaring towards her, but she felt like he had believed her. She silently smirked.

They always do!

"Yes," he said and his dry throat made him cough.

"Go straight home. Report to work only after I call you," Arthur said and this time it was an order; an unbreakable command.

"Yes, sir"

Jordan said and turned to leave. But then he couldn’t let Sophia go.

"Shame on me," he said gritting his teeth at her and she cowered and hid behind Arthur.

She actually fooled him twice using the same method! And he was not prepared.

Aren’t I the fool?

As he placed his hands on the steering wheel, he could see Arthur saying something to Sophia and she with a smile followed Arthur to his car.

What is he going to do to her?

Jordan wondered. But then his memory was not that of a goldfish’s and he very well remembered what she did just moments ago.

Whatever it is, she is well-deserved!

He started his engine and left the parking lot without even turning back. He felt ashamed of himself as he could feel in corner of his heart; a very deep and dark corner of his heart that wished Sophia won’t get hurt too much.

---

Talia could sense the weird atmosphere around them. After taking their seats, Talia could bet she felt Marcella shuddering out of fright.

"Princess Talia," Archibald after staring at Marcella for five seconds, turned his gaze at Talia. Watching his intense stare getting to a polite smile, Talia was impressed.

Who’d have thought that delinquent could pull this expression? People grow up and they change as they do. Isn’t it amazing?

"I am grateful for what you did for our Wallace Pharmaceuticals. If you didn’t talk to President Carter for our company, we wouldn’t have been able to have the medicines on time," he added.

"You’re giving me too much credit, Mr. Wallace. President Carter is not someone to let other governments or a Princess influence his decisions and neither am I someone who finds pleasure influencing other governments," Talia spoke, her tone smooth and polite as always.

"Just Archibald or Archie is fine, actually," Wallace pretended he didn’t hear the rest of her words. Of course he understood he cannot talk about it.

She cannot reveal her dealing with President Carter which would greatly affect the relationship between the countries. It could be considered illegal. And still, she didn’t blatantly deny it either. She has more to say.

Hmm... Smart! This little one who always hid behind Cyrus has grown up to be exceptionally smart and charming.

"Okay, Archibald," Talia’s lips curled slightly in a polite, friendly way. That deep blue eyes looking at her held admiration as she could see. " Well... President Carter is a wise businessman. He must have heard about the new project by Northern Star and knew my grandfather would put a halt to it if he didn’t help Esteria during an epidemic...Or there could be other reasons. Who knows the mind of a ruler?" Talia shrugged with a smile as if she didn’t actually care. "Anyway I’m really glad the epidemic is brought under control without much loves lost and without wasting a large amount of taxpayer funds. Lord Wallace is benevolent as always."

"You flatter us. No one can even come closer to Lord Brunton in benevolence, Princess Talia," Archibald chuckled.

She is too smart. She knew his father would feel owed to her for what she did and so she actually expressed that his gratitude should be towards Brunton and Northern Star and not towards her. Everyone knows there are many against Northern Star now and she actually is aligning support for Northern Star. And... All that without implicating anyone and being neutral.

Wow! Just wow!

They engaged in small talks for a while and Marcella who was stiff as a log, relaxed by the gentle environment around her.

"I brought your bag. You left without packing anything for yourself. Aren’t you here for attending the conference?" Archibald asked Marcella and his eyes lit up with a little teasing smile a complete contrast to the smile he had when he talked with Talia.

"You did?" Marcella’s eyes brightened. She actually wanted to take a shower and change her clothes, but she didn’t bring anything with her. Thinking about going shopping in an unknown city gave her anxiety. The people were giving her weird stares as she walked here. She didn’t want to get out. She was touched by Archibald’s thoughtfulness.

"Yeah, I booked a room for you too. Here, the room card... Crawley Hotel. It is near your conference venue too. Did you bring your cards at least?" he asked and his forehead wrinkled as he was worried. But seeing her nod, his face relaxed.

So things are like this!

Talia could see these two are not that unfamiliar with each other. They seemed to be on friendly terms.

Exactly opposite to what Jordan said!

But still, she did overreact and ran here without even thinking straight.what is that about?