The Devil's Good Girl
Chapter 71: The way of the world

Chapter 71: The way of the world

One weekend and for that moment, everything for Fil felt... right. For a moment, things looked great. No pain, no suffering, no anger. It was just pure bliss and peace to the point the thought of breaking up with Vincent crossed her mind.

No revenge.

Just move on and let karma do its work.

Give the burdens to heaven and free herself from the brewing sins she has to commit.

But alas, after that weekend, just when she was reconsidering her life options, life just reminded her how cold this world was. And that if she didn’t act, there would be just more people like her who would be exploited and victimized by the so-called elites.

"I came here as soon as I heard what happened." Sitting beside the hospital bed, Fil frowned deeply. "How are you holding up?"

Reclining on the private ward, Kenzo offered her a smile. His leg was covered with a cast and he had to wear a sling for his arm. Bruises on his face and a black eye on his left eye. She could vividly imagine the horrors he went through.

"It’s still office hours," he quipped. "Liv will give you an earful."

"I have to visit the site," she said. "And I told her I’ll drop by here before going there. So? What happened?"

Kenzo just shrugged.

"Ken," she called with deep concern. "Who did this to you? Was it... Marcus?"

"No." He shook his head. "Don’t worry about it, Fil. Everything is being settled now. My brother will handle it. I might annoy him every once in a while, but he’s still my brother. He won’t let this slide."

"Will he?" Fil clasped her hands on her lap, swallowing the rising tension in her throat. "What if he settles?"

Kenzo let out a short laugh. "Well, I guess that’s what’s best for everyone?"

"Ken."

"What do you want me to do, Fil?" Kenzo cocked his head to the side. "Sue them? That’s a lot of hassle for everyone. And I don’t want to burden everyone, especially not my brother. It’s just a bruise."

"Bruise? You call that just a bruise?"

"Fil." Kenzo’s expression slowly grew solemn. "Please."

Her lips quivered as her shoulders trembled in anger. She bit her lips as hard as she could, staring at him quietly.

"I’m just glad you came," he said, offering her an appreciative smile. "This will heal after a while. Good thing I already had rough designs. I left the flash drive on my desk. Just take it and skim through it. You can do that, can you?"

Fil gulped as she glanced down for a moment, rocking her head mildly. "Of course," she forced out a breath, looking up at him with a smile.

"I’ll check on it."

"You won’t kick me out of the team, will you?" he asked. "That would be a shame."

"Liv and I hadn’t even considered that. The first phase of the project will be a long planning. So, I’m sure you’ll recover once the construction starts," she reassured, earning a sigh of relief from him.

"That’s good then. I want to be a part of this project." Kenzo sighed in relief once more, clearly pleased that he wouldn’t be kicked out of the team. Although he wanted to be a part of the project, he didn’t want to burden everyone because of what happened to him.

There was a moment of silence between them before Fil asked what had been on her mind.

"Uhm. Ken?" she called. "When did it happen?"

"Hmm?"

"Don’t tell me you don’t want to say that as well?"

Kenzo didn’t answer immediately. When he did, he said; "Saturday night," with a smile.

Liar.

Fil didn’t speak another word as she nodded. She listened to his explanation. It was lie after lie.

"Vincent is cheating on me," she blurted out, putting a stop to Kenzo’s continuous prattling.

"What?" Kenzo furrowed his brows, almost rendered speechless as he couldn’t believe what he just heard.

"Vincent is cheating on me with Marianne," she repeated, watching his expression turned blank. "That is why I don’t appreciate the lies you’re feeding me. I’m sick and tired of being lied to. It just makes me feel like I don’t deserve the truth."

Her chest heaved in and out heavily, looking at him sharply. "I know you’re lying to protect me from whatever it is. You probably have a good intention, but lies are lies? It makes me sick to my stomach. Don’t make me hate you too, Ken."

"That night when you dropped us off... you came back, did you?" she continued under her breath. "When you called me that night... you were already there, isn’t that right?"

Another moment of silence dawned on them, holding each other’s gazes. After a while, Kenzo let out a short sigh.

"I didn’t want you to blame yourself," he confessed quietly. "I wasn’t thinking. With you and Elise at that party, I thought something might happen, and you’d need a ride home. I wasn’t expecting Vincent to drive you home. He’s a jerk."

Kenzo relaxed his body, huffing once more. "I should’ve called you or Elise before going in there. If only I did before and not after, this couldn’t have happened."

Kenzo continued his explanation, telling her the general details of what happened. After Kenzo gave her a call that night and heard that she was already headed home, he was about to leave as well. But coincidentally, just when he was about to go back to his car, Marcus, Anton, and Michael spotted him.

They had a confrontation that heated up pretty quickly. Before he knew it, fists were flying. Of course, Kenzo fought back. He knew how to throw his fist, after all. It wouldn’t be a problem if it was just Marcus, but Michael joined in for fun. Anton just watched, telling them to stop before they could kill Kenzo.

"But it’s not your fault," he added after telling her the truth. "It’s an honest mistake I made. I shouldn’t be there in the first place."

"You’re saying... getting beaten up is your mistake?" Fil almost laughed at how Kenzo worded his sentence. She could almost see herself in him. "I know it’s not my fault, but it isn’t yours either."

Fil took another deep breath and forced a smile. "I hope your brother doesn’t settle."

"I’m not hopeful," he said with a shallow laugh. "Arkwright Corporation. Just that alone is enough to explain why this is tricky. Even if we sue, they’ll just bribe the judge. If they can’t do that, then they’d bribe those above the judge. We don’t have time for that, especially with the Solana Project at hand."

"We can’t afford to have the smallest controversy," he added. "And I’m fine with it. It’s just how the way of the world."

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