In other words, he was quite busy; then, something came up at home, and now he was incredibly busy. He didn’t sleep one wink all night, and now he was working under intense stress and fatigue.
Leila rushed to the hospital to visit her father. Mabel began to sigh and occasionally turned away to wipe tears from her face.
“Mom!” Leila ran up to hug her. “I’m sorry, I’m so useless!”
“Why would Vincent do this?”
“It wasn’t him, Mom!” Leila said softly and sorrowfully, “This time, it wasn’t him!”
Mabel was stunned and suddenly became speechless!
In the afternoon, Vincent received the divorce papers which Leila asked the lawyer to deliver.
“Mr. White, Mrs. White has already signed; please sign as well!”
Vincent was taken aback for a second. He took the papers and scrawled quickly on it. The lawyer looked down at the papers and was stunned. In huge letters was the words – Not in a million years!
“Mr. White, I’m just Miss Hunter’s attorney; please cooperate!”
“Get out!” Vincent’s chilling tone voiced his incredible discontent at the moment.
“It’s my job; please cooperate!”
Vincent glared at him, then picked up his phone. “Clara, fetch someone to kick this man out!”
“Yes, President!”
In a mere minutes, some security guards appeared in Vincent’s office and carried the lawyer out.
“President White, you can’t do this; I’m a lawyer!”
Vincent leaned back in his chair. Leila was quite decisive; it’d only been a day and she has already lawyered up. Was she this eager to leave him?
Leila got the call from the lawyer, who stated Vincent wouldn’t sign the papers. Leila felt incredibly helpless.
“”He won’t sign?”
“Mrs. White, Mr. White’s way too dominating; he had men carry me out. He signed, but what he signed was ‘Never in a million years’. I think he’s still quite caught up on you. Are you sure you want to get a divorce?”
“We’ll put this on hold for a while,” Leila said, “I’ll contact you!”
She hung up, then continued to call Macey. It was as though she had vanished, there wasn’t a trace of her anywhere.
Over at the White Group.
“President, Miss Russell is looking for you!” Clara said over the speakerphone.
“No!”
“But she’s already here; didn’t the President instructed before that Miss Russell could come and go as she pleased? She’s coming up now, just right before your door.” Clara’s voice became smaller and smaller.
Vincent scratched his head; it was true, he did give these instructions.
Pippa was here to see him, but this only made him more frustrated, “Send her away!”
“Miss Russell-” As Clara’s voice trailed off, the doors to his office were pushed open, and Pippa stood right at the entrance.
“Vince, I’m sorry!” Pippa’s eyes were filled with tears as she pitifully stood at the entrance, looking at Vincent’s direction. When she saw the wounds on his face, she immediately rushed over to him. “Vince, you’re hurt? How did you get hurt?”
She didn’t attend last night’s banquet, so she didn’t know that he got hurt.
As she neared him, Vincent slid back in his huge armchair, then he took another step back to completely avoid her touch. “Stop, don’t come near me! If you’ve got something to say then say it! Then be off on your way!”
Before, he always thought she was feeble and soft-hearted, someone who he could confide in. But lately, he only saw her as a burden.
“Vince-” Pippa stared on in disbelief as Vincent evaded her, “I’m truly sorry, I didn’t mean to be so stubborn. I can’t help it, I hope you can understand!”
“Oh, I understand; you can leave now!” Vincent said promptly, and continued to look at his documents.
“Vince, I know the company’s in peril; let me help you!” Pippa continued.
“No need!” He didn’t want any further ties to Pippa. He said in a low, raspy voice. On his face, there was no hint of the tenderness from before when he spoke to her. Instead, his face was cold and distant.
“If you need cash flow, ask Mom; she’ll wire it to you!” Pippa sniffled and wiped tears from her eyes. “I just want to help you!”
“I said, no need!” Vincent repeated. “You can leave now! Clara, get some guards, escort Miss Russell out! From now on, don’t let any irrelevant personnel in!”
“Vince, let me come to the White Group to help you out. I can do it, and I won’t be so stubborn anymore.” Pippa said quickly.
Clara called for security. It was the second time that day she had someone thrown out of Vincent’s office. As Pippa continued to shout, Vincent furrowed his eyebrows, but his mind was set.
Suddenly Leila’s call came in, which startled Vincent. His stern expression immediately softened, and he picked up the call with shaky hands, “Leila?”
“Sign, Mr. White!” Leila sighed, “Give me a break, and also give yourself a break!”
These words were like knives carving on his heart. The phone in his hand suddenly felt incredibly heavy. His throat suddenly felt parched and dry. In a single moment, he was like a lion that was defeated in combat and who had lost his all his territory and pride. “No! Never!”
“Why do you have to act like this?” Leila asked, then hung up.
Late in the night, Vincent was speeding along the streets. His car was like an arrow that zoomed by in the night.
Inside the car, Vincent’s gaze was filled with an intense look of pain. Losing someone he loved felt as though his heart was removed, and in its place was a throbbing pain he didn’t know how to ease.
The bar was filled with loud noises and flashy lights. The deep bass blasted electronic music, and people of the nightlife were fully enjoying themselves and danced.
At a corner in the bar, Vincent drank one glass after another. As far as he could recall, he had never been this out of control. But now, he felt incredibly sad and just wanted to drown himself in alcohol. But the more he drank, he worse he felt.
It felt as though a knife was jabbed into his heart, and pain constantly poured out in throbbing waves. Now he knew why loving someone felt so devastating. He was in love, deeply in love with Leila!
But she wanted to leave him!
Having had too much to drink and feeling distraught, he stepped out the bar, but it was pouring rain. He was drenched in mere seconds, but it helped him to clear his mind a bit. He would never get a divorce, never!
As the rain continued, raindrops splattered everywhere. It wasn’t until Leila was leaving the hospital did she realize that she didn’t have an umbrella.
Just as she came out, she saw a small group of people huddling together in front of the inpatient building, looking at something. She headed over out of curiosity, and saw Vincent. He was out in the pouring rain, looking defeated, without any sense of his former glory. Everyone looked on at him as though he was a madman.
Leila’s heart felt torn!
At that moment, she had the urge to go up and hug him, but she didn’t!
Pretending as though she didn’t see anything, she got out of the crowd and prepared to leave, but Vincent spotted her, “Leila, I’m here to pick you up!”
“Don’t follow me!” She shouted as Vincent came near her. From now on, she was determined to cut off all ties with him. She didn’t hesitate as she ran toward the bus stop in the pouring rain.
“Leila!” Thinking that she’d rather be drenched in the rain than let him drive her home, Vincent’s eyes became gloomy as he ran after her.
Leila picked up her pace.
“Damn it.” As he stared at Leila running in the rain, he sped up and grabbed her hand; his sorrowful eyes looked at the rain fall down her cheeks, and he asked in a low voice, “You really won’t let me take you home?”
“No.” She forcefully brushed off Vincent’s hand; she didn’t want to look at his distressed face, and she tried again to turn and leave.
He said nothing, but Vincent took huge strides and caught up to her. He grabbed her hand again, and then while she was still in surprise, he placed something into her palm. Leila looked and was shocked to see that it was an umbrella. Then he turned around and left.
Still in shock, she asked herself, he had an umbrella? Yet he was still soaking in the rain?
She looked at the umbrella in her hand again, then at Vincent’s silhouette. In the huge downpour, his back looked incredibly lonely. Her eyes began to lose focus; maybe it was the rain or something else, but her eyes were getting blurry.
At the hotel.
“Pippa, what’s wrong? You haven’t ate anything for two days?” Nora concernedly looked at the weak Pippa in bed, and held onto her hand, “Pippa, get up and eat something!”
“Mom, Vince doesn’t want me anymore. Miyamoto doesn’t want me anymore. Owen doesn’t want me anymore!” Tears began to fall down her face. Pippa began to cry aloud, “Vince doesn’t want me anymore; he’s completely spellbound by Leila and he doesn’t want me anymore.”
“Pippa, what’re you saying?” Looking at Pippa’s tear-filled face, Nora was terrified and didn’t know what to do. She quickly held onto Pippa’s trembling body, “Pippa, it’s all my fault; I shouldn’t have always wanted you to marry Vincent. It’s my fault!”
“Mom, it’s my own fault. If it wasn’t for what happened between me and Miyamoto, how could things have turned out the way they are now?” All the anger and humiliation from these past few days became tears of hatred.
“Pippa, stop!” Nora softly said and sighed, “Mom likes you, so I don’t want to see you suffer. But look at Vincent; he won’t listen to me anymore! It’s all my fault!”
“Mom, it’s not your fault, it’s because of my own uselessness!” Pippa said; tears began to stream down her face again. The centipede-like wound on her hand looked incredibly gruesome and unusual.
Nora could only continue to hug Pippa and sigh, “Pippa, you’re a good kid; you’re just too obsessive and loving, like me! But this will only make you suffer all your life!”
As she buried her face in Nora’s embrace, Pippa straightened her expression. No matter what, she’d never stop; she would do whatever it takes!
Brian’s condition became stable, but there were serious after effects. At least he was still alive. Mabel’s face was twisted with concern.
Leila didn’t show it on her face, but she felt incredibly worried as well inside.
There was still no sign of Macey; where could she have gone?
Leila hurriedly went to fetch some food for her mother. Out in the hospital lobby, someone called out to her, “Mrs White?”
Leila stopped in her tracks and it was a fat old man with a huge belly. She recognized this man; it was Carson, who was dating her sister. “It’s you?”
“Mrs White, still alive and kicking?”
Leila didn’t like this man’s tone, but she thought that he might know her sister’s whereabouts, so she stopped to ask him, “Do you know where my sister is?”