Chapter 25: Chapter 25: Escape

Victor Morgan was in a meeting at the Morgan Group when he received a message from Jessie Sterling.

Victor Morgan couldn’t help but frown when his phone chimed with a notification.

The executives seated below him were all startled. Everyone knew that their young master—or rather, their proper, powerful boss—disliked it when people slacked off and handled personal messages during meetings.

But now, after confirming their own phones were on silent, the executives couldn’t help but turn their gazes toward the young man standing at the front.

When Victor Morgan realized the sound had come from his own phone, he glanced down at it. “My apologies, I’ll just be a moment.”

After saying this, Victor took his phone and stepped to the side.

His movements appeared unhurried and as composed as ever, but the executives seated below were now getting a little restless.

“Is President Morgan… making a call?”

That clearly wasn’t the sound of a phone call, just a regular message notification.

“That’s President Morgan’s personal phone, isn’t it? Most people can’t reach him on it. Could something have happened?”

Just then, President Blackwood—the executive in charge of the Morgan Group’s new industrial robotics division for the past few years, and whose family had ties to the Morgans for two generations—chimed in cheerfully, “What could possibly happen?”

President Blackwood and Mr. Morgan were old friends. The marriage alliance between the Morgan Group and the Sterling family of Southaven was hardly a secret, and President Blackwood was happy to see it happen. The union of the two families would undoubtedly bring long-term benefits to the company.

“Our President Morgan is almost thirty. Can’t we allow a young lady to be in his life? Now that he has a fiancée, he’s surely thinking about her. I heard that yesterday, the young lady from the Sterling family of Southaven arrived here in Aethelburg.”

With President Blackwood’s explanation, understanding dawned on the surrounding executives.

So the future lady boss had arrived in Aethelburg. Of course their President Morgan had to entertain her properly.

After all, they were all senior figures in the company. They were well aware of what a workaholic their President Morgan had been all these years.

While it was certainly a good thing for the group to have such a motivated leader, President Morgan was far too unconcerned with his own personal life, having gone so long without a significant other. They all knew that a leader’s image in the eyes of the public and their partners was equally important. A single leader was far less likely to give an impression of reliability and stability than a married one.

Victor Morgan was, in fact, calling Jessie Sterling.

The message Jessie had just sent was concise.

[Jessie Sterling: I’m heading back to Southaven first. You don’t need to pick me up from the courtyard house for lunch. Thanks for your hospitality these past two days.]

Just from reading that message, Victor could sense a distant formality.

A strange feeling flickered through him, but it was too faint for him to grasp at that moment.

However, that didn’t stop him from thinking that Jessie might be unhappy.

Identify the problem, solve the problem. That was always his principle for handling matters, with no delay.

So, Victor Morgan dialed her number directly.

“Hello?” When Jessie Sterling answered Victor Morgan’s call, she felt a little guilty. “Victor?” She was also a bit surprised.

“Why are you leaving so suddenly? Were you unhappy staying at the house?” Victor asked with a frown. Jessie had been perfectly fine when he left last night, and there had been no mention of her leaving Aethelburg.

Jessie couldn’t possibly tell him the real reason. “No, it’s not that I was unhappy, and it’s not that sudden. I originally came to see if the new house needed anything added or changed. I think everything at the courtyard house is great and nothing needs to be altered, so I decided to head back.”

Victor’s intuition told him that wasn’t the most important reason, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out why else Jessie would leave.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to look around Aethelburg?” he asked.

Jessie mumbled, “It’s too hot.”

She couldn’t stand the midsummer sun.

Even back in Southaven, she rarely went out during the summer.

Going sightseeing under the scorching sun was something she would never do.

Hearing her delicate complaint, Victor could almost picture Jessie’s little pout of disdain. The corners of his lips couldn’t help but curve slightly upward.

“Where are you now?” Victor asked.

Even if she was going back, he wanted to talk things over with Jessie in person. Or, at the very least, he could personally drive her to the airport after lunch.

Unfortunately, Jessie didn’t want to see him at all right now.

Now, whenever Jessie thought of Victor’s face, her mind couldn’t help but flash to Lynn Jennings’s raunchy teasing. How could she possibly dare to wait for him to come find her?

“I’m already on my way to the airport,” Jessie said quickly. “The housekeeper arranged for a driver, so don’t worry.”

Victor: “…”

After ending the call, Victor quickly returned to his seat and resumed the meeting.

He looked no different than before, and he continued to handle matters with his usual efficiency, clean and decisive.

But the executives below had a vague feeling that after the phone call, an oppressive aura seemed to surround their President Morgan.

He didn’t show it on his face, but the atmosphere in the conference room seemed to have grown much more stifling.

The executive giving the report had to summon every ounce of their focus to get through the rest of the meeting.

When Jessie arrived at the airport, she sent a message to Lynn Jennings.

In truth, even without Lynn’s morning barrage of “lewd messages,” she wouldn’t have been able to stay in Aethelburg for much longer anyway.

At two in the afternoon, Jessie Sterling appeared at the Southaven airport.

Lynn Jennings was already there in the underground parking garage, waiting in her flashy Ferrari.

When she spotted Jessie, Lynn clicked her tongue. “Tsk. What are you doing back so soon?”

Jessie shot her an irritated glare. “And you have the nerve to ask me?”

“Huh?” Lynn, completely unaware of the crucial role she had played in Jessie’s early return to Southaven, looked baffled. “Am I supposed to know?”

Jessie: “…”

But they had been as thick as thieves since childhood. From Jessie’s silence, a thought suddenly struck Lynn. Her eyes widened. “Don’t tell me you ran away because of the messages I sent you this morning. You’re too scared to face Victor Morgan now, aren’t you?”

Jessie gave her a complicated look, neither confirming nor denying it.

But that reaction was enough for Lynn to confirm the truth. The next moment, she burst out laughing.

Hearing the sound of her laughter, Jessie’s eyes widened as she protested, “Lynn Jennings, how dare you laugh? This is all your fault!”

If it weren’t for Lynn’s messages, she never would have obsessed over why Victor had been so cold to her last night. Before seeing those texts, she had actually thought Victor was a pretty decent guy.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep