Although Baron thought so too, he knew that he had to be polite to Howard.
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Wu."
"You're welcome."
Howard was about to say something else, but was interrupted before he could speak once more.
"Everything is fine here, now. You don't need to worry about it any further."
Howard's face froze, and he suddenly looked awkward when he laughed.
But Baron simply could not conceal the mark of impatience on his face. He glanced at Jack who stood
beside him. "I can handle my girlfriend's problem. No need for other people to get involved with it," he
said with a smug expression.
Embarrassment was written all over Howard's face. Jack, however, remained unaffected and said
something to Howard.
Howard then nodded. Jack didn't say another word, turned around and left them.
Baron never expected that Celine would be so bold to do what she did while he was in the ward.
She dragged Jack to the balcony where they were alone and had a good chat with him. She went there
with him on purpose to make herself look pitiful in front of him.
She was not doing anything sneaky or tricky when Rachel saw them together.
She told Jack the story of her experiences after she left Ninwell City.
She intentionally left out the details of everything that happened to her during those days. Instead, she
focused on the parts where she suffered while living in another city.
She admitted to feeling embarrassed that she had no choice but to date Baron so that she could have
protection, support and safety.
But she understood that if she only told Jack how much she regretted to leave him,
all she'd get from Jack after her story would be disdain and a cold look.
Thus, Celine's approach was to imply that the reason why she experienced so much difficulty in her life
in another city was because she was separated from Jack and the Fu family had something to do with
it.
She even went so far as to set aside her attitude and begged for Jack's mercy. She acted like she
hoped that Jack would be affected by her pleas so that he'd let her go and call off the people who were
making her life miserable.
When Jack heard her story, he thought that she implied that the people who came and made trouble for
her and made her life difficult were sent to her by the Fu family.
Celine knew that Jack was a gentleman, even though their relationship ended up that way.
Jack was not the kind of man who would deliberately make things difficult for a woman just to vent out
his anger or frustration.
Thus, Celine was looking forward to Jack's favorable response.
Jack lowered his head and spoke to her in a low, deep and beguiling voice.
Celine took this chance and leaned against him. This was the situation that they were in when Rachel
arrived.
From the corner of the corridor, Celine watched as his tall imposing figure walking away. Her face
suddenly sank in frustration along with her heart.
She squinted her eyes and the flicker of an idea flashed through her eyes. One edge of her lips slightly
curled upward and formed an odd smile.
During the past three days when Rachel became so restless, Jack had always been there with her.
Jack went home very late when he had an argument with Rachel in the hospital.
It was because he was uneasy with the thought of seeing Rachel still angry or unhappy with him.
It was already three in the morning when Jack finally got home. She was used to having a small lamp
in the living room while she waited for him, but when he got back home that late evening, all that he
could see was darkness.
When the darkness greeted him in the living room, he was stunned and sad.
He felt a sting in his heart. He thought that Rachel was already asleep in the bedroom.
He quietly entered the bedroom and silently approached the bed.
It was so dark inside the bedroom. Jack didn't want to suddenly appear in front of Rachel without
warning in the middle of the night and possibly scare her.
So he hesitated getting on the bed that night. After hesitating for a moment, he turned around to leave.
When he finally reached the door of the bedroom, he felt that something was very wrong. If Rachel was
there sleeping in the bed, why was it so quiet that even her breathing could not be heard?
Did he unintentionally wake her up when Jack entered the room?
He hesitated for a while because he didn't want to disturb Rachel's sleep. "Rachel?" he called out
gently to her.
There was no response from Rachel.
He called out to her once more, but there was still no answer from Rachel. He paused for a moment
and remained silent.
"I'm turning on the light," he said in a soft voice.
A moment later, a soft comfortable light filled the entire bedroom.
Jack then turned around and stared at the empty bed.
The bed was neatly arranged. It was exactly how it looked when they left it that morning.
Rachel was nowhere in the bedroom and from how the bed looked, she was never there that evening.
Jack immediately panicked and searched all of the rooms of the house one by one. It was like he lost
the most important treasure that he had.
After he checked the other rooms, he went to the bathroom to check.
Rachel never came back to the house from the hospital. This was the only conclusion that Jack had
based on what he saw in the house.
An idea suddenly struck him. He hurriedly opened the closet where all of Rachel's clothes were. He
breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that her clothes were still there.
Since all of Rachel's clothes were still in the closet, he was convinced that she never ran away.
However, this new information did not give him any relief, but made him feel even more anxious.
He had no idea where Rachel would go.
He immediately took out his phone to call her, but her phone was already out of power.
He clenched his phone in his hand and started to wonder about the places that she could go.
An idea came to his mind that he decided to check right away. So, he grabbed his car keys, and
immediately drove to the apartment where Rachel used to live.
When he reached the apartment, he confirmed from the guard his suspicion. He found a record that
Rachel's car came back that day.
He felt relieved when he heard the guard's report. He parked his car not far from Rachel's house.
He waited outside the door the whole evening. He hesitated and thought about it, but he ultimately
decided against calling her. He didn't know how to talk to her in that situation.
He then wondered whether he should go in and talk to her or to just wait downstairs.
Time went by, but he considered the situation for too long that dawn came before he realized it.
And Jack never slept the entire evening. He felt sleepy when a car suddenly drove slowly out. It was in
a very familiar color and build.
Jack was immediately in high alert as he straightened his body to carefully observe the car. When the
car got closer, he was able to confirm that it was indeed Rachel's.
He looked closer at the driver's side of the car, and saw her sitting inside.
Jack wanted to sound the horn of his car to call her attention, but the closer she drove by, the more he
hesitated until she had driven past and it was too late to honk his horn to get her attention.
He twisted his lips, grit his teeth and then mocked himself. "You're such a coward!" he whispered to
himself.
A few minutes after Rachel had gone, Jack left his parked car and walked towards her house.
He then opened the door of Rachel's apartment, and then walked inside. It was obvious from what he
saw inside the house that she spent some time in her apartment.
The ingredients in the kitchen were still fresh as well the fruits in the fridge.
Jack suddenly felt extremely tired. So, he went to the guest room on the second floor. He fell asleep not
long after.
He wanted to go to the master bedroom, but hesitated. He didn't have the courage to do it because he
was afraid that Rachel would see him if she suddenly came back.
He felt that trespassing into her apartment was worse than making her angry. It was like wishing for her
to peel his skin alive.
Random thoughts kept Jack awake the entire evening. He had so many things in his mind that he was
not able to sleep even a wink.
His mind kept wandering off that he wasn't sure if he really fell asleep.
Jack wasn't sure how long he was asleep when a phone call woke him up. And because his sleep was
interrupted, even though it was a very shallow sleep, he was in a bad mood.
He brought his phone in front of his eyes without getting up from the bed and stared at the screen. It
was a call from Celine.
He hesitated for a while. He expected that the lawyer already took care of everything regarding Celine.
And the victim had taken the initiative to assume all responsibilities regarding the matter. So, why was
Celine on the phone and calling him again?
He gave it some thought and decided to hang up the phone.
A short while later, she called again.
Jack hang up the phone once more. The same thing happened for a few times more. Jack kept
hanging up the phone, but Celine just kept calling back.
He thought that there might be something truly urgent and it was the reason why she was being
persistent. He then answered the call.
It was way past sunrise when he left. It had been almost an entire day since the last time that he had
some real sleep.
He freshened himself up hurriedly in Rachel's bathroom and left with a crumpled shirt.
When Rachel got back home that evening, she had no idea that someone came into her house while
she was away.
Jack went back to his car to address the problem of Celine once more.
He thought that Celine's life had changed a lot recently because of him.
And all of those changes because his father decided to take action without consulting him first.
Jack never wanted to give any woman a hard time by using his influence.
He didn't have any love for her anymore. And even though they got separated from each other, he
would never let Celine suffer anything from his family especially since she never did anything to hurt his
family.
It was true that she annoyed him a lot before, but he only threatened her so that she'd stop bothering
him, but he never intended to do anything about it.
And now, Celine had revealed tearfully how she was hurt by someone from the Fu family.
Unfortunately, before he could go to his father and ask him about Celine's story, Celine called him.
When she went back to the hotel from the hospital, she found that all her luggage had been taken out
of the room.
And the hotel staff told her that they could no longer allow her to continue to stay there.
And at almost the same time, someone called her to warn her to leave Ninwell City as soon as
possible.
These things happened before to her and Celine was sure that Jonathan was behind it.
But Jack did not think that it was his father's idea anymore. It had been several months already.
Besides, his relationship with Rachel was getting better. His father no longer had the time to concern
himself with another woman from Jack's past.
Maybe his father assigned someone to keep an eye on Celine, but his father had not updated that
person yet. And so this person was still harassing Celine and was getting her rejected in Ninwell City.
Unfortunately, everything was just a guess for Jack. He had to make sure of anything first before he
could really take any concrete action.
But he never expected that after the many things that he had to do, it wasn't until early morning that he
had the time to look for Rachel.
So he drove to Rachel's apartment daily and slept for several hours in the guest room until Rachel got
back in the evening.
And because he still had contact with Celine, it made him feel helpless about the
situation.
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