Chapter 70
At his words, my mind raced—how did he know about that?
Soon, we arrived at Peakville Estate. I helped Nick out of the car, and it took a while before someone answered the door—a senior member of staff, by the looks of him.
When he saw Nick’s state, the man exclaimed, “Oh, Nick, why are you so drunk? Thank you for bringing him home.”
I smiled politely, leaving Nick in his care, and turned to leave. I was tempted to walk back home, but Peakville Estate was vast, and every villa had its own compound. It would take me ages to walk back to our villa, so I decided to drive Nick’s car home instead.
It was already midnight when I pulled into our driveway. Since I had an early flight tomorrow, I parked the car downstairs, then went inside to wash up before bed.
But as I was about to step into the house, I spotted Ashton standing outside, a flickering cigarette between his fingers.
Frowning, I wondered why he was suddenly smoking outside. As soon as he saw me, he stubbed out his cigarette and glared. “Where have you been?”
“I had dinner with a friend,” I replied, brushing past him and heading inside.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me into his arms, the heavy scent of cigarette smoke burning my lungs. “Ashton!” I protested.
“Who did you have dinner with?” His voice was low, but his words carried an edge. “Did you drink wine, even though you’re pregnant?”
I knew the alcohol smell came from Nick, not me, but I still felt a pang of discomfort. I shoved him away. “I didn’t drink any wine!”
All I wanted was to get some sleep, but Ashton wouldn’t let it go. He dragged me toward the Maybach parked outside. “This is a limited edition model. Scarlett, you’ve found your next target, huh?”
What the hell? I nearly cursed, shoving him aside as my anger flared. His dejected expression only made me more irritated.
“Ashton, stop looking at me with that narrow mindset! I’m not like you, who has a line of backups waiting around!” I snapped, spinning on my heels and heading to the bedroom.
Once I locked the door, I washed up quickly and climbed into bed, the exhaustion of the day quickly taking over.
I fell into a deep sleep, only to be rudely awakened by my phone ringing incessantly. Still groggy, I stared blankly at the ceiling as the phone rang again. Just as I was about to answer, the call ended.
I wanted nothing more than to sleep, but suddenly, I remembered I had a business trip to prepare for. I shot up in bed, the sleepiness vanishing.
“What’s wrong?” a hoarse voice beside me asked.
I turned to see Ashton, already drifting back to sleep with his arm around my waist. How did he—didn’t I lock the door?
Oh, right. He must have prepared a spare key after kicking the door open that time.
I gently pried his arm off and grabbed my phone. It had stopped ringing, but Ashton must have turned it off after being disturbed by the calls.
I switched the phone on, and as if on cue, another call came in. I answered, my voice still thick with sleep, “Hello?”
“Ms. Stovall, our flight is at 5 a.m. Shouldn’t you be prepared to go to the airport by now?” Nick’s voice crackled through the line.
Frowning, I asked, “You’re coming on the business trip with me?”
Stacey had mentioned that a representative from Harrison Credit would accompany me, but she hadn’t said who it was.
“Mm. Get ready and pick me up. You drove my car away last night!” Nick replied, his voice surprisingly awake.
I glanced at the clock—it was only 4 a.m. I couldn’t help but admire Nick’s professionalism. How could he wake up so early after being so drunk a few hours ago?
I hung up, quickly packed, and left with my luggage.
When I arrived at Nick’s place, he was yawning sleepily, his hair a messy nest. He stumbled toward me, saying, “I’ll drive.”
There was no way I was letting him drive. “I’ll drive,” I said firmly.
Since Peakville Estate was near the airport and the roads were clear, we arrived in less than half an hour.
We were lucky—the queue at security was short. We got our boarding passes quickly and boarded the plane. Once we were settled, Nick grabbed a blanket and promptly fell asleep.
It was a three-hour flight from J City to A City, and I managed to catch some sleep as well.
When I woke up, Nick was already refreshed, looking more awake than I felt. “We’ll head to the branch office to work first,” he said, “Then, we’ll go back to the hotel to rest.”
His words sounded strange coming from him, but I didn’t think much of it. I followed him off the plane in a daze. A car from the branch office was already waiting to pick us up, and we arrived shortly thereafter.
The branch office, as expected, operated in much the same way as Fuller Corporation. The president of the branch, Howard Wrangler, greeted us briefly before we met with the Finance Department and other relevant teams.
Nick received the necessary documents, and we wrapped up the visit, leaving the branch office soon after.