My Darling, My Dearest

Chapter 26

Michael clenched his teeth in anger and asked, "Rachel, how could you be so ungrateful? Did Jack know you would be taken away by them? Did he want someone to threaten him with you?

It seems that we were wrong to come here. Or maybe I should blame you for coming to the bar and causing trouble for Jack. Oh, by the way, I think this matter has something to do with Eric. Last time, Jack taught a lesson to the guys who bullied Celine, and one of them is Hiram's brother. Isn't Eric his friend? Why didn't you get mad at him?"

Rachel gasped as if a basin of cold water had been poured over her head. A few moments ago when she was with Hiram, a mixture of panic, disgust, and irritation had swirled inside her, but she had suppressed those emotions. She hadn't dared to vent them on Hiram in case he retaliated violently. But after coming out, she had vented them on Michael in a disrespectful way.

Moreover, Rachel had felt a confusing mix of joy and hatred the moment she had seen Jack. And when Michael had said that Jack would revenge her, those emotions had turned into extreme embarrassment instead. She didn't want to be treated like Jack's woman because she knew that she wasn't.

Suddenly, the fact that Jack had bruised and beaten up Eric for Celine came rushing back to her. Remembering this, Rachel couldn't help but sneer at Jack in her mind. She couldn't believe that Jack would take revenge on Hiram just like he had done to Eric.

Ever since being publicly humiliated by Jack, she had stayed away from his affairs. However, today, he had more or less come to her rescue, assaulting her pride.

Rachel was filled with contempt at the thought of being on par with Celine. Unable to take these feelings out on Hiram, or Jack for that matter, she had said such harsh words to Michael instead.

'What is the relationship between me and Jack?' she wondered.

Anyway, Michael was right. She had no reason or right to be angry at Jack. All he did was show his care for her, but she repaid him with words equivalent to a slap in the face.

Now that she had somewhat calmed down, Rachel felt ashamed and annoyed at herself. She closed her eyes and apologized to Michael, "I'm sorry. What I said was too much. Thank you for coming."

Michael snorted. He wasn't going to turn around and be nice to Rachel again just because she had realized her mistake. "I don't need your apology. And it's none of my business. After all, you're Jack's wife," he said coldly.

Feeling embarrassed, Rachel pursed her lips stiffly and apologized again, "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I didn't control myself just now. Please forgive

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me.

Michael turned his head to look downstairs ■3

without saying anything, but he thought to himself, 'This woman has some conscience after all.1

Standing opposite Michael, Rachel wanted to leave, but she felt like it would be a bad move if she did. He hadn't responded to her, which meant he still hadn't forgiven her. If she turned around and left now, he would think that her apology hadn't been sincere.

At that moment, she was luckily saved by the bell as her phone rang. She took it out from her pocket and found that she was getting a call from Lea. Internally heaving a sigh of relief, she turned around and took a few steps away to answer the phone.

Michael shifted his gaze to her back and heard Rachel coolly answering the phone in a clear voice.

"I'm upstairs, on the second floor.

Well...I'm with a friend.

Don't bother. I'll be right down." Upon hearing this, Michael frowned.

It seemed that Rachel had come to this bar with some friends.

So why had she ended up being taken to Hiram's room alone?

After hanging up the phone, Rachel turned around and saw Michael leaning against the handrail with his eyebrows raised. "You came here with friends?" he asked.

Rachel nodded. "They're downstairs." Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

"Then why were you upstairs alone?" ■3

"I went to the bathroom and was kidnapped when I came out." Rachel didn't want to stay here any longer, so she added, "I really want to thank you for helping me out. Otherwise...I would have had a really hard time. Anyway, I'm leaving now."

When she turned around to go downstairs, she suddenly heard Michael shout, "Hey, Rachel, Jack is actually a good man. Don't think so ill of him."

Rachel stopped in her tracks and shot Michael a strange look.

Jack was a good man? Anyway, it was none of her business. She had never thought very ill of Jack, nor had she had a good impression of him.

After having fun on the dance floor, Lea and Eric found that Rachel wasn't in her seat. They didn't know that Rachel had gone upstairs and been put through hell for about twenty minutes.

If Jack hadn't considered Rachel important to him, Hiram wouldn't have spared her today.

When Lea couldn't find Rachel, she called her number and talked to her. After a while, Rachel returned. Lea and Eric both didn't notice that there was something wrong with her expression.

"Why did you go upstairs?" Lea asked.

Rachel didn't answer this question. Instead, she said, "Lea, I'm not feeling well. Let's go home."

Finally, a hint of worry appeared on Eric's face. He walked over to Rachel and touched her forehead to check the temperature. "What's wrong, Rachel?"

Rachel tilted her head to avoid him. "I'm not

sick." ■3

'Rachel doesn't like it here. Well, even though I haven't had much fun yet, I can come here whenever I want. I'm on vacation anyway. There's no hurry, ' Lea thought to herself considerately.

Seeing that Rachel was about to leave, she leaned over and grabbed her jacket from the couch. Then, she put it on and zipped it close. "Okay, let's

^ ^ ii

go.

The three of them had just stepped out of the bar when Rachel's phone rang again. This time, she was getting a call from Jack.

Rachel hadn't saved his phone number in her contact list, but she had received several calls from him in the past few days, so she was familiar with it.

After hesitating for a while, she finally answered the phone. "Hello."

Jack said something, but there was so much noise on his end of the line that Rachel couldn't hear him clearly. "Huh?"

"Where are you? I have something to tell you," Jack repeated.

"I'm outside the bar."

"Okay, wait a minute."

After hanging up the phone, Rachel raised her hand to touch her forehead in disbelief. She couldn't understand why she had become a lot more involved in her relationship with Jack recently.

"Who is it? A friend?" asked Lea.

Rachel glanced at Eric and said, "It was Jack. He asked me to wait for him here." ■3

Eric's face turned pale in fright. "H-he's here too?" he stuttered.

"Yes." Rachel patted his back and added, "Don't worry. He's not here to cause you any trouble."

Eric looked as if there was something stuck in his throat, nearly choking him to death. Jack was the last person he wanted to see right now.

He was both afraid of and hated his brother-in-law.

As for Lea, she thought the name Jack sounded very familiar. Who was this man?

Suddenly, she raised her head in shock and blurted out, "Jack Fu! Your husband!" Her voice was so loud that it attracted the attention of a few passersby. Rachel reached out and covered Lea's mouth with her hand.

"Yes, but keep it down!

Don't yell!"

"What kind of husband is he?" Eric mumbled scornfully.

"What's wrong? Why are you guys suddenly in touch?" Lea asked curiously.

Too many things had happened in recent days, so Rachel said, "I'll tell you about it later. It's not convenient to talk about it now."

'Things seem to be tricky,' Lea thought, but on the outside, she just nodded to Rachel.

In fact, she didn't have a good impression of Rachel's legal husband at all. She had known Rachel for almost ten years, but it was only when she had ■3

seen Rachel on TV attending a charity event with the president of MK Group that she found out that Rachel had been married!

Naturally, she was furious that Rachel had been hiding such a big thing from her.

In the end, Rachel had no choice but to tell Lea the whole story. Rachel had lost her parents when she was a kid. Then she lived with the Fu family and didn't move out until she was 18 years old.

She had married Jack to pay off some favors and because it was one of the last wishes of Jack's grandfather.

But ever since then, the relationship between Rachel and Jack had been purely legal. They hadn't even fulfilled their marital responsibilities to each other. After having a private discussion, they had decided that if either of them found a lover in the future, they could ask for a divorce.

However, Jonathan seemed to have guessed their thoughts and told them that he would not allow them to get a divorce.

When Lea had found out about this, she wanted to rush to the Fu family's house right away to argue with Jonathan, but Rachel stopped her.

After that, she had just passively listened to Rachel's stories without trying to interfere in her marriage. The best she could do was to give Rachel some advice on it.

Recently, though, after joining another airline company, she had become very busy and hadn't had the chance to catch up with Rachel much. In her eyes, although Rachel was married, she was no ■3

different from a single woman.

In fact, if Rachel hadn't mentioned Jack, Lea wouldn't even have remembered his existence. But today, to her surprise, things seemed to have changed.

Rachel, Eric, and Lea waited at the entrance of the bar for a while. A few minutes later, Jack walked out, followed by Michael. As soon as Jack stepped out, he looked around and found Rachel at a glance.

Meanwhile, Eric's face darkened at the sight of Jack and the other man, who had also been there on the day when Jack had tried to cut his hand off.

Gripped by fear, Eric unconsciously took a step back.

There was nothing more embarrassing and awkward for him than this moment. 'My enemy is my brother-in-law, and I don't dare to do anything to him," he thought bitterly.