Chapter 152: I’m Taking You Home despite Our Disagreement
"Whoa, you have an amazing tolerance for alcohol, Miss Taylor!"
Having seen how great her tolerance for alcohol was, those people became more excited and had her drink one bottle after another.
Fortunately, this body of hers had a high tolerance to alcohol. Though having drunk three bottles of wine, she only felt faintly nauseous.
However, the red wine had strong after-effects. Finally, after half an hour or so, Yvonne found herself unable to drink any more.
But these people apparently wanted her to drink more.
"Yvonne, girls like you always strike me as admirable. You’re direct and straightforward!"
"You can’t handle hard liquor, and that’s why we’ve replaced it with red wine! Am I right, guys?"
"Yeah, that’s right! Give Yvonne a refill! Hurry!"
Yvonne felt that she must not drink any more wine.
There was no telling what might happen if she drank another glass.
"Guys, I’m a bit drunk. How about we grab a bite of the food first?"
"Hey," someone promptly said disapprovingly, "how could you say you’re drunk at the dinner table in the presence of all the bosses? You should apologize and drink a glass as punishment right away!"
Right at that moment, someone shot out a hand and snatched the glass of red wine from Yvonne.
Finn Levin had come to Oriental Hotel with his father Jeremy Levin for a business dinner.
Yvonne, a junior member, was sitting in the seat nearest to the door of the private room.
When the waiter had opened the door to leave, Finn had happened to walk by and glimpse the drunken Yvonne out of the corner of his eye.
"If it comes to Mr. Taylor’s knowledge that you guys tried to get his daughter drunk, you might not be able to keep your pathetic companies, let alone release albums."
Finn was wearing a silver suit today, emanating a brisk air typical of the intellectual elite instead of his usual scholarly air.
Though only in his twenties, he had a quite imposing aura about him.
Soon someone recognized him.
"I heard that Jeremy Levin’s dining in this place. Are you by any chance..." The Levin
family was no less famous than the Taylor family in Hiltonan.
Though not as wealthy as the Leinster family, it had always been quite influential.
Faces of the heavy-jowled and potbellied men at the dining table instantly went ashen.
The Levins and the Taylors had always been on good terms with each other. Was this Yvonne girl by any chance...
Frank Taylor’s daughter?
Beneath the astonished gaze of the others present, Finn Levin calmly supported Yvonne who was a little unsteady on her feet.
"How are you feeling? Do you need me to take you to the hospital?"
"No." Yvonne shook her head. "He... Help me to the bathroom."
"Okay."
In the corridor, Zachary arrived just in time to see the backs of Yvonne and Finn almost overlapping each other.
Yvonne, staggering for the alcohol, was clinging on to Finn for support when walking, which was why Zachary saw her upper body leaning against Finn.
And the place they were heading for was... the bathroom?!
Zachary recalled what he and Yvonne had done in a bathroom of Fairmont Hotel the other day - the kisses, the intimacies. His face instantaneously darkened.
Under no circumstances would he ever allow her to go into a bathroom with another man!
Zachary promptly strode up to them and roughly jerked Yvonne’s hand from Finn’s hold.
Yvonne was startled. She looked at the sullen-faced Zachary who dressed entirely in black, totally baffled as to why he was here.
"W... why are you here?"
"You didn’t answer my calls,"
Zachary said, raising his eyes to look at the man behind her.
"Mr. Leinster," Finn smiled courteously.
But Zachary ignored him, looking maddeningly patronizing. Then he lowered his head to ask Yvonne, "You’ve been with him all this time?"
There was growing tension in the air.
...
Yvonne did a double take.
"It’s not what you think!"
This man, in this life, was a neurotic, one that Yvonne could not afford to anger.
"It wasn’t Finn that I drank with. He extricated me from the situation..."
Face cold, Zachary said, "You’re coming home with me right now."
"But first I need to use the bathroom." Yvonne struggled.
Zachary’s face was taut.
Yvonne went inside, leaving the two men standing outside.
"What are you still standing here for, Mr. Levin?"
Finn Levin lifted his eyebrows. "As far as I know, Yvonne hasn’t got married yet, and she’s only 18. As a young man in her father’s good graces, I feel obliged to drive her home personally."
Zachary sneered, "I thought you and Yvonne had a lot in common, seeing as how you two are about the same age."
"What do you mean, Mr. Leinster?"
"The Leinsters and the Taylors have been on friendly terms for generations, and the whole city knows that Yvonne detests her stepmother and stepsister, that they quarrel every time they meet, and yet you wanna send her back to the place she hates the most?"
...
Yvonne walked out of the bathroom to find that there was only one man left in the corridor.
"Where’s Finn?"
"He’s gone back," Zachary replied.
"I see."
A trifle drunk, Yvonne didn’t think much about it.
"Sorry. I got a little drunk."
"Was it Ralph Cobb who invited you here?"
"Yes... well, not exactly. He didn’t know things would come to this. And he’s not here."
"You don’t have to sing that song anymore, and neither do you have to cooperate with Ralf Cobb any longer."
The tone in Zachary’s voice brooked no argument. Yvonne looked at him, somewhat stunned.
"Why?"
"You think I’d be happy to see you get soused to the eyeballs by a bunch of heavy-jowled and pot-bellied lechers?"
Yvonne, "..."
"I promise it won’t happen again. But Ralph specially wrote this song for me, and it’s special for me. I have to sing it."
Yvonne thought the song special for her because she had sung this song in the real world before.
But Zachary misunderstood her.
"The answer is still no."
Yvonne, also short-tempered, had been putting up with him for days, and now she was on the verge of losing her cool.
She made a vain attempt to restrain her anger and then lost her temper with him.
"The answer is still no? Why? Have I been unfaithful to you or committed any heinous crimes? Ralph and I are just friends, very good friends! I must honor the promise I’ve made him!"
She was indeed drunk, which was why she dared to stand up to Zachary in this incarnation.
In this life, Zachary had become very cruel and bloodthirsty because of Yvonne’s infidelity. By this time, he had frantically attacked and bankrupted several companies already. He was literally a domineering and peremptory president.
Not until Yvonne made those remarks did she feel a pang of mixed fear and regret, but it was too late to apologize.
"I doubt any of those companies would dare contract you to sing that song without my permission!"
At that remark, Yvonne’s fear and regret was replaced by rage and she threw caution to the wind.
"Bring it on! Ralph will sure as hell contract me! And I’ll become a superstar!" Zachary and Yvonne began to give each other the silent treatment.
The next morning, after waking up, Yvonne recalled her argument with Zachary yesterday and bitterly regretted it.
She thought, "Am I soft in the head?"
Why had she tested him when she knew very well that Zachary, in this life, was a man not to be messed with?!
Just then, her phone alarm went off.
Crap!
Yvonne, having recalled that she had a recording session this morning, hurriedly went out.
During the car ride, Yvonne kept having this feeling that she had forgotten something. She thought, "What was it that Zachary said last night? I can’t remember it. Whatever. I should just go sing the song!"
...
The recording studio.
Yvonne arrived to find Ralph standing inside.
As she had got drunk and gone to bed late last night, her face was faintly swollen.
Having noticed it, Ralph felt rather guilty. "I’m sorry. Something came up yesterday and I had to leave to handle it. I didn’t know they were that kind of people. I’ll never cooperate with that record company again."
Though aware that Ralph would not do anything against her interests, Yvonne was still astonished to hear him say that he would not cooperate with the company again.
"Are you... sure about that?"
"I couldn’t be any surer. You can’t seriously still want a partnership with people like them after what they’ve done to you, can you?"
Yvonne found his words heart-warming.
"Get ready and go in. Fortunately, it’s a recording session we’re doing today, and you don’t have to show your face, or else it’d be such a shame to see you on the screen like this. Go and give it your best shot!"
"Okay!"
Meanwhile, in a conference room, Zachary’s face instantly darkened as he came to know that Yvonne had gone out for the recording.
Last night, he made it very clear that he didn’t want her in show business!
But his warning had gone in one ear and out the other!
She had claimed that she loved him, but she was being petulant again after only a couple of days.
Sitting on the other side, Mr. King noticed that the president, whose mood had improved somewhat in the last few days, seemed to be on the verge of losing his temper again. He could tell at a glance that the spoiled Taylor girl had done something to anger the president.
"Mr. Leinster, about the banquet this afternoon..."
"Call it off."
Originally, he had wanted to bring Yvonne to attend an event, but now that she had gone out, he dropped the idea.
"Ur, tonight’s meeting..."
"Hold it as usual. I’ll be staying in the company for the next few days."
At night.
Yvonne was in the recording studio the whole day, too busy to even check her cellphone. When she finally found the time to take a look at it, her battery ran out, and she was unable to contact Zachary.
It was a little late when she got home. She had thought that Zachary had returned, but there was no sign of him in the house.
"He’s still not back?" Yvonne asked the maid.
"Mr. Leinster said he’d be staying in the company for the next few days."
Yvonne’s heart sank.
She promptly called Zachary.
It was a few moments before her call was answered.
"Hello?"
"Zachary? You’re not coming home tonight?" Yvonne asked, sounding somewhat urgent.
Zachary had never spent the night elsewhere in his last incarnation or this one, which was why she had to call him and ask him why he was not coming back.
"No."
"Something came up in the company?"
"Yeah." Zachary’s attitude was rather apathetic.
Yvonne perceived the apathy in his tone. "Did I... piss you off?"
"No."
He actually said no?
Then the answer was sure as hell yes.
"Do you... have a minute?"
"I don’t think so. I’m in the middle of a meeting."
"Okay then..."
Yvonne was rather depressed. She made the first move, but he gave her the cold shoulder.
She must have pissed him off. She had felt that she’d forgotten something when going out this morning.
She hung up the phone, took a shower, changed into her pajamas and lay down on the bed, but the thoughts whirling around in her mind kept her from sleep.
Ever since she had married Zachary, she had been used to sleeping beside him.
Today, his unexpected absence from the bed made her feel that the bedroom was so large and so empty that she couldn’t sleep, no matter how hard she tried.
She thought, "No. I need to get him back home."
After that thought crossed her mind, Yvonne got out of bed, changed clothes in haste, went out and drove off.
The Leinster Group.
After the meeting, Zachary sat down behind his desk.
The financial center of Hiltonan was very busy at night. The sumptuously decorated president’s office was not comfy at all. On the contrary, it made him feel lonesome.
With the help of her memories of what she’d experienced when being Mrs. Leinster, Yvonne found the president’s office with great ease.
But little did she know that in a moment, she would see something beyond her wildest imagination.