Seeing as Henson didn’t speak up, Wendy spoke up on his behalf instead. “He had some spicy food in the afternoon. The REALLY spicy kind,” she said nervously.
Donald the Butler gasped, “Wait, Master Henson can’t handle spi-”
“It’s fine, no need to kick up such a fuss,” Henson interrupted before he could finish. “What should I do about this, Doc?” he asked while turning back to the family doctor.
“I’ve already prescribed you some fluids to help alleviate the pain, Master Henson,” the doctor said.
“Alright,” Henson replied.
She felt a wave of guilt wash over her while she sat at the side. She only wanted to get back at him, but didn’t expect it to turn out like this. Now, she was the one who harmed him.
He turned to look at her guilty face once the doctor finished strapping him to an IV bag.
“All of you can take your leave first. Miss Evans alone should suffice at this time,” he then ordered to everyone in the room.
She continued staring at him in silence as everyone slowly left the room. She felt awful.
“Will there be a next time?” he asked calmly.
She shook her head profusely at that. “I really didn’t think you’d turn out this way after having spicy food. I promise never to get back at you ever again,” she muttered.
He then lifted a finger to poke the space between her eyebrows. “Now, now, no one’s blaming you for anything, so no need to be upset about it anymore. It’s not like you forced me to eat it too. It was me who wanted to act all cool in front of you,” he said.
Teary-eyed, she lifted a hand to slap him on the shoulder. “Despicable. Why’d you front that you could handle your spice in front of me when you actually couldn’t? Is this all a joke to you?” she huffed.
“It is,” he said with a devilish grin.
“Despicable. You’d better stop laughing,” she replied. She never intended to hurt anyone in her life, so it felt worse to unintentionally hurt someone who’d treated her so well like that.
“Fine, fine, I’ll stop. Please don’t be mad at me anymore. I feel totally fine right now,” he assured her as he clasped both her hands tightly. “You don’t have to worry about a thing, alright?”
She then stared at him while biting her lip. “Does it still hurt?” she asked with a sigh after a long pause.
“It still hurts, but I can manage it,” he replied as
he then pulled her into his arms.
She was scared that her pressing down on him would make him uncomfortable so she tried getting up, but he refused to budge an inch. “What if we just lie like this and chat for a bit?” he asked.
She stopped wriggling and merely obliged.
When the alarm clock sounded the next day, she jolted out of her sleep to
see him sleeping peacefully beside her.
She then placed a finger beneath his nostrils to check his breathing. It felt pretty steady to her.
Just as she was about to retract her hand, he grabbed it with his eyes still closed. “Fret not, I am still alive,” he announced.
She frowned. That was the least of her concerns.
“How do you feel? Better?” she asked, concerned.
He opened his eyes and said, “I already felt fine last night, which was how I managed to get some shut eye,”
“Did YOU sleep well though? If not, I can help you arrange for a leave of absence,” he offered as he sat up on the bed.
“Nah, I have to go to work today. I have a few things I need to take care of,” she replied.
“And here I thought I could ask you to lie in bed with me longer. I guess it can’t be helped then. Let’s head downstairs for breakfast,” he huffed,
then hopped out of bed and finished his morning routine as if nothing had happened last night.
A twinge of concern arose in her. “He couldn’t be faking it, right?” she thought.
The family doctor came over to check on him once more after they’ve finished their breakfast. After reassuring her that everything was fine and dandy, she went to campus worry-free.
However, little did she know that something huge had happened on campus in her absence over the weekend.
By now, everyone on campus already knew of the incident where Henson rejected Avril’s confession harshly.
This caused her to come under fire by the masses as she was the campus belle, while the person who allegedly exposed her was pinpointed to Wendy, who was also the last person to receive the news.
Wendy was seated in her office as she scrolled through the myriad of forum posts on the campus website. She felt a bit speechless.
Even if they were baseless accusations, they should at least back it up with evidence.
It all started from one forum post, and since the people who saw the post used their own reasoning to jump to conclusions, the hive mind was convinced that the original poster must be telling the truth.
The original post read, “Although there is reason to suspect all four assistant professors in the Business Management Department, Miss Evan’s definitely the most suspicious among them. Since she was the last campus belle, she should’ve been able to understand how Avril felt now.
“Pretty people always have a better shot than us common folk. This was probably why when Miss Evans laid eyes on Master Henson, she must’ve had the urge to take him for herself too. So, when she saw Avril confessing to him, she was so blinded with jealousy that she resorted to sabotaging her with the intent of ruining her reputation,”
Hundreds of people had already expressed their dissatisfaction towards her beneath the post. One said, “Miss Evans might look docile and sweet on the outside, but is actually pretty scheming on the inside. Otherwise, why would she choose to date the previous president’s son out of everyone else? It’s so obvious from the way she chooses her boyfriends that she’s the ambitious type,”
Linda had made her a cup of coffee and placed it on her table. “You shouldn’t think too deeply into it. You know how people like to butt their heads into other people’s businesses especially when it’s an ‘in’ thing to do so,” she said while patting her shoulder in consolation.
Wendy shook her head and gave a laugh. “I’m more intrigued by the original poster who managed to scrutnise me up to that extent and even managed to rally so many like-minded people to their side. Do people these days feel like they can just say whatever they want and think that they can get away with it?” she asked.
“No need to look into it so deeply, Miss Evans. It’s not a big deal anyways. It’ll blow over eventually,” Carmen coaxed.
Wendy pouted in response. But her silence would mean that she’d have to take the fall for hurting someone when she clearly didn’t.
Why should she?
“But I didn’t do any of the things they’ve accused me of! People can suspect me all they want, but this guy in particular is clearly trying to use the power of the masses to go after me and I won’t stand for this slander,” Wendy huffed.
“Well, what do you have in mind?” Linda asked.
“This is the campus forum, so it shouldn’t be too hard to dig out the identity of the original poster, so long as I’m willing to try,”
“But don’t people comment anonymously these days?” Carmen said.
“I can check their IP,” Wendy replied.
“But that’d be such a hassle though. Wouldn’t it be faster if the four of us just clear our names online? After all, people suspect us too since we were all there at the time,” Cael chipped in.
“I’ll write up a post under my real name first then,” Linda said with a nod.
Carmen and
Cael
also agreed to the plan started drafting a post respectively.
Wendy merely sat in front of her computer, not moving an inch.
It was the first time she felt that she was down bad on her luck.
Couldn’t she spend a nice weekend to herself without people accusing her of such deeds?
At this moment, Henson’s phone rang while he was in the middle of a meeting in the Charles Group’s conference room.
Upon seeing that Howell had called, he swiftly declined the call,
which prompted him to send a text instead. Henson then peeked at the text while listening to one of his employees give a report at the side.
“Your wife, Sister Wendy, is being bullied on campus right now,” it read.
This caused him to get up and leave the conference room in an instant,
making everyone in the room look at each other in confusion. None of them dared to say anything.