Love Contract

Chapter 18 Business Trip

Mary had spent her entire morning booking their flight and sorting the documents for their trip, all the while throwing the odd glance at William.

Fortunately, he soon hunkered down in his work and seemed to have no intention of punishing her.

"Doo doo doo..."

The phone rang. Mary saw a strange number calling and was unsure of what she should do.

'Ignore it, it could be a wrong number...' she thought to herself.

"Doo doo doo..."

The phone continued ringing. Perhaps she was wrong.

Confused, she answered the call.

"Hello, who's this?" she said courteously.

"Ha Ha, Mary, it's your dad! Or dad-in-law rather, " revealed Timothy, laughing heartily on the other end. "Am I interrupting your work?"

"Ah! Father," Mary said startled, unconsciously straightening her back. "No, no, no. Not at all. It's always good to hear from you." "That's good. Mary, will you be coming over for dinner tonight?"

"No, I won't," she replied regretfully. "William and I are going on a business trip to Shanghai this afternoon. Did he not tell you?"

"That guy doesn't tell me anything. How long will you be there?" he asked.

"About three or four days."

"Well, Mary... When you're back, why don't you take a set of wedding photos with William? You're not holding a banquet so you have to get the wedding photos at least, right?" Timothy said suggestively.

"Well... I'll talk to him and see if he has time," Mary added with cold sweats running down her cheeks.

"Okay," Timothy sighed. "You know about our family. Although I'm remarried, he's still my only son... His stepmother misses him very much as well. She heard he had been married and wanted to come see him, but she was afraid he would not like it. I just want to bring some wedding photos back to Amy... "

Mary's grip on the phone tightened as she grew more and more uncomfortable with this conversation. "Father, I... I will do my best to persuade him..."

"Well, well, well, well," said Timothy hurriedly, "I won't disturb you then. Just work hard and remember to eat."

"Of course. Goodbye, Father," Mary said nodding hard.

She hung up the phone and tiptoed to the door of the office.

"Clang! Clang! Clang"

"Come in."

... Mary stepped in slowly and said, "It's noon. Why don't you go for lunch?"

"You can go ahead. I have something to deal with." William didn't even raise his head when he spoke.

"Oh, okay," she replied biting her lip. 'Is he still angry?' she thought. "Your father just called," she finally found the courage to mumble.

"What did he say?" Still, he did not look up.

"He said... He wanted us to take wedding photos."

"Hmm?" At last, William was willing to raise his noble head. He looked at Mary quizzically and asked, "What did you tell him?"

"I said I would discuss it with you."

"I see," he said nodding. "By the way, have you booked the airplane tickets?" William asked. ... "Yes I have. The flight will take three hours and we'll arrive at Shanghai city at six o'clock in the afternoon." ...

"Okay. Go home and pack your things. I'll pick you up later."

"Okay," nodded Mary before turning and leaving. Fortunately, he had not mentioned what had happened this morning. It seemed as though he did not intend to hold her accountable...

She got home and had a quick meal before beginning to prepare for the business trip.

It was already two o'clock by the time she had everything ready. She was now waiting for William to pick her up.

Suddenly the phone rang

and she knew who it was without even looking at it.

"Hello?" she answered.

"It's me," replied William coldly, "Come out. The car is downstairs."

"Oh... Okay."

She hung up and made her way downstairs with her suitcase in tow.

The elegant, icy blue Porsche was stopped at the gate of the complex. "Mrs. Lan, you have come down so fast," Kevin said cheerfully in greeting. He then got out of the driver's seat and walked on over to her. "Here, hand me the suitcase."

"Oh, thank you." She felt a little embarrassed.

"You're welcome, Mrs. Lan." Kevin smiled and put her things in the trunk of the car. He then opened the back door graciously, "Mrs. Lan, please, step in."

"Thank you." Mary thanked him with a smile and bent to get into the car.

It was an expensive and high quality car, not only good to look at but more comfortable to sit in as well.

William had his eyes closed as he rested when Mary entered and sat next to him. He hadn't said a word or opened his eyes when she came in.

Mary did not make an effort to talk to him either as she did not wish to cause any trouble.

It was a long way to the airport and as she sat there, she couldn't help but touch things here and there in the car. It was fancy unlike most cars she had been in and she was enjoying the ride.

'It's so awesome!' she thought with excitement bubbling within her. Mary then couldn't control herself and began taking pictures with her phone. She took many selfies, posing with two fingers in a peace sign.

She was having a lot of fun, but was unaware that her every move was being watched by the CEO, Mr. Lan, William's eyes vibrated somewhat as he squinted out of the corner of them. 'This woman has ignored me since she got in the car. She didn't even try to talk to me. Now she is playing by herself?' William wondered about her as he looked on.!

'Why is she so fond of taking pictures?! She took photos at the family house and now again in the car. Why has she never taken photos of me before?'

This thought angered him. He suddenly opened his eyes and leaned close to Mary just as she was about to take the picture. He then said, in a deliberately menacing tone, "Mary, what are you doing ?"

"Ah!" Startled, Mary dropped her phone on the car floor. "When... When did you wake up? Couldn't you make some sort of sound at least? You scared me to death!"

Kevin silently wiped his sweat away, sitting in the driver's seat. Mrs. Lan's voice was really quite shocked and loud...

"I didn't want to bother you while you were having fun," William responded calmly.

"Ha ha ha..." Mary chuckled. With a wry smile, she patted around looking for her phone and said, "I did not know that Mr. Lan likes frightening people..."

"M, a, r, y!" William spelled her name out letter by letter. "How dare you?"!

"Well..." Mary trailed off, ignoring William and picking up her phone. 'Please don't be broken, ' she hoped in silence. Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

William shot a glance at her and what she was doing on her phone.

Mary scanned the photo gallery and found that all the photos were good except for one.

The last picture had two people. A sinister smile on William's face, pressed up right next to Mary's ear. And Mary, looking really silly with her mouth wide open in surprise.

'Delete it! Delete it!'

Mary thought as her finger hovered above the delete key. William then snatched the phone from her hand!

"Wow, nice photo, don't you think? It looks good enough to keep. Why do you want to delete it?" William asked, smiling like a ruffian.

"Damn it! Give it to me!" Mary threw caution to the wind; regardless of their dynamic of him as the superior and her as the subordinate, she rushed at William, grabbing and snatching for the phone. "Give it to me! Give me the phone..." After a great deal of relentless pushing, she finally got the phone back!

Delete!

Whoosh... Mary let out a deep sigh of relief. She thought she had gotten away with it when she noticed William smiling and pulling his own phone out. "I'm very sorry, Mrs. Lan, but I've already sent the photo to my mobile phone."

'What?! You... Son of bitch!' she thought but dared not say.

With her eyes wide open, Mary raised her head and sighed, "Sure enough, aged men are more cunning!"