Substitute Her to Love You (Charlotte and Patrick)

Chapter 278

When Shelton was taking a shower, I hurried back to my room to put on my clothes.

I lost a lot of weight recently and my face was a little pale because of my coma. In order not to worry Ned, I put on a little makeup and applied a layer of pink blusher, which made me look much better.

When I opened the door, Shelton also came out.

He was wearing a pure white bathrobe. Its neckline was wide open to the waist, revealing his tight pectoral muscles.

Seeing him like this, I couldn't help but blush. I lowered my head slightly and said, "I'm ready. I'll wait for you in the living room."

"All right."

His voice came into my ears with a faint smile.

It wasn't until he entered the bedroom that I reached the living room.

Sitting on the sofa, I picked up the little doll next to me, which was a cute kitten. Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

It had a big head.

Such a thing didn't match Shelton at all.

I held the little kitten and pinched it for a while. Then I heard a chuckle beside me. I turned around and found that Shelton had been standing beside me, looking at me and curling his lips into a faint smile.

"I'll buy more later if you like it," Shelton said.

I quickly placed the doll to one side and shook my head. "No need. You're ready, aren't you? Let's go," I said when I saw that he had gotten changed.

"Okay." He reached out his hand to me and put his palm upward.

I was stunned for a moment before understanding what he was trying to do. I hesitated for a while before putting my hand into his.

It was almost six o'clock. When we went out, there was a traffic jam on the road outside. It was not a long journey, but it took us more than an hour.

We arrived at Ned's house.

As soon as we entered, we saw a housekeeper and a servant standing in the living room. Ned was sitting alone on a wide sofa, reading a newspaper.

Perhaps it was because the room was too big that he looked lonely when he sat there.

"Mr. Ned." I called him as I walked inside.

Ned looked up at me and said with a smile, "Well, you'd better call me grandpa. It sounds weird to hear you call me Mr. Ned."

"Grandpa Cowell." I corrected myself.

Grandpa should be the most appropriate address given our ages.

Because we arrived here late, the meal was already ready. Ned invited us to sit at the table.

After what happened last time, Ned wouldn't allow me to drink anymore.

They didn't drink either.

The dinner tonight was more like a casual meal.

The only thing was that the atmosphere was rather oppressive.

When I was eating, I clearly felt that Ned was not in a good mood, and his attitude toward Shelton was not as good as before.

In the second half of the meal, everyone was full, so no one had the intention of continue eating.

Ned stood up and said to Shelton, "Shelton, have you finished eating? Come with me. I want to have a word with you."

"Okay." Shelton was not surprised by Ned's words at all. He stood up and did not forget to say to me before leaving, "Wait for me downstairs for a while. I'll be right here." "Hmm."

I nodded.

I didn't know why I kept feeling that something was about to happen.

They left. I was not in the mood to eat alone, so I put down my chopsticks and sat down on the sofa.

On the tea table was the newspaper Ned had just read.

I picked it up casually, and at a glance, I saw a piece of news which read: The Empire is shaking— the ten billion investment of Towering High Group may be cast to the winds.

Stunned, I held the newspaper and read it carefully.

It said that as an investment company, Towering High Group invested in tens of thousands of projects. In recent years, the largest project that it invested in was one related to Al. This project had achieved initial success in the first half of the year, and the product display received good feedback.

However, a few days ago, the building where the research project was located was suddenly set on fire. Although there were no casualties, all the information was mysteriously missing when related personnel went to check it.

Therefore, the stock price of Towering High Group had hit the limit down for three consecutive days.

"How could this be?"

I murmured.

No wonder Patrick would look like that on that day.

For a while, I was anxious about him. Now that he had suffered such a heavy loss, he must be under great pressure.

Losing so much money, even Towering High would be greatly undermined.

I suddenly wanted to know how was he going.

However, I was not in the right place to concern about him.

I took out my mobile phone and searched for recent news about Towering High on the Internet like crazy.

This event caused quite a stir, and Towering High Group was a well-known company in City Y and even in the whole country. All the attention was paid to this event this time.

I sat there, browsing the posts on Weibo one by one.

Almost every financial website was paying close attention to the movements of Towering High.

They didn't miss the investigation of this case, either.

For the moment, the whole case could be determined to be man- made. As for the disappearance of the data, someone had already set up a program on the server.

However, the server needed multiple passwords, which meant that there must be a mole.

The police were now helping Patrick investigate this matter.

I held my cell phone with my heart in my throat. Patrick was all over my mind.

After hesitating for a long while, I began to edit a message.

Nonetheless, perhaps because of our special relationship, no matter how I edited the message, I wasn't satisfied with the content.

In the end, only four words were left: Are you all right?

When I was hesitating whether to send it or not, I heard someone going downstairs.

I locked my phone's screen right away.

Looking up, I saw Shelton and Ned going downstairs. At that moment, Ned's expression had softened considerably.

Ned walked to my side and said, "Janetta, I've just discussed the date of your marriage with Shelton. He said that there's no need to rush, so I want you to get engaged first. After all, I'm already old. I'll feel rest assured if you guys get engaged early."

"Engage?"

I didn't expect Ned to call Shelton to talk about this.

I found it reasonable after some thought. After all, Shelton was no longer young. Ned was about 80 years old. At this age, he would surely make some plans for the younger generation.

Shelton looked at me and asked me in a common tone, "Isn't it too sudden? Or we'd better wait for a moment."

"It's just an engagement, not a wedding. What's so sudden about it? What's more, Miss Nolan is no longer young." It seemed as though Ned was afraid that I would refuse, so he tried to persuade me. "I'm an experienced hand. Work is neverending, but relationship can't afford any delay."

"That's right."

I only approved of Ned's words.

Nevertheless, he seemed to think that I had agreed. He kept nodding and said, "I've already found someone to select a good date, which is January 20 next year. If you don't have any objections, I'll inform my men and have them prepare to book a hotel."

I froze.

January 20.

There were less than three months left.