Chapter 769
However…
Thorne had other pressing matters to attend to.
After they finished eating, he had his driver take Vesta and Raleigh back, while he headed out on his own.
In the backseat of the car, Raleigh turned to Vesta. “Is Charlene still giving you a hard time?”
They had chatted briefly during the Al tech conference a few days prior, but it had been too crowded for any private conversations.
This was the perfect opportunity.
Vesta’s gaze darkened slightly at the question. “Outside of anything involving PrimeStar Technologies, she doesn’t have the power to mess with me.”
Hearing her response, Raleigh assumed Vesta simply despised Charlene’s methods. He figured that despite Charlene achieving some level of success through underhanded tactics, she would still be absolute nothing without PrimeStar Technologies and Stewart Ferguson backing her up.
Vesta clearly didn’t view Charlene as a real threat.
But Raleigh’s heart sank.
If Vesta was dismissing Charlene so easily, it meant… she was completely oblivious to the affair between Charlene and Thorne.
She had vastly underestimated Charlene’s sheer shamelessness, never suspecting that the woman would sink her claws into Thorne.
Noticing his hesitation, Vesta looked confused. “What’s wrong?”
Raleigh paused, his throat tight, before finally finding his voice. “It’s nothing. I just… seeing how smug she’s been lately makes me realize she’s probably far more despicable than we thought. I’m just worried she might try to hurt you in other ways.”
Back at The Henderson Group.
During the afternoon coffee break, both the in-house engineers and the visiting staff from EchoWave flocked to Charlene’s desk, eager to listen as she explained a complex problem.
Raleigh refused to join them.
As the break wrapped up, the EchoWave team returned to their desks, singing Charlene’s praises.
“We barely even explained the issue,
and Ms. Ross instantly pinpointed
the bottleneck. No wonder she’s dating a genius like Mr. Ferguson!
She’s credible! I’ve never ever?
anyone that sharp. It really puts things into perspective.” .net
“Seriously Mr. Ferguson and Ms. Ross are the ultimate power couple!” One of them turned to Raleigh, who was staring silently at his monitor Raleigh, it’s a real shame you didn’t come over to listen!”
“Yeah, you missed out!”
A flash of disdain crossed Raleigh’s eyes. Seeing his colleagues completely blinded by Charlene’s act filled him with resentment. He gripped his motse so tightly his knuckles turned white, but he
ultimately kept his mouth shut.
Cóntent
…
After a grueling few days of work, Charlene finally crashed at home on Friday night. The very next morning, Jasmine called, begging her to take her out for the day. Charlene hesitated. “Is your dad busy?”
“Dad is coming with us, obviously,” Jasmine replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Before Charlene could protest, the little girl continued, “But Dad has some stuff to do this afternoon. He’ll have to leave right after lunch.”
Hearing that, Charlene figured Thorne didn’t actually want to have lunch with her either, but had reluctantly agreed to appease Jasmine.
With that in mind, she sighed. “Alright, I understand.”
“Great! Dad and I will come pick you up right now.”
Just as Jasmine was about to happily hang up, Charlene interjected. “You don’t
need to do that, Minnie. Mom will just drive herself.”
Since she put it that way, Jasmine didn’t push it. “Okay then.”