Kaylee flicked her cigarette, shedding the cherry. "You're such a level-headed woman, Miss Huo. You deserve to be a CEO."
"Thank you for the compliment, my sister-in-law. I just believe in Sheffield," Evelyn smirked.
"You trust him that much? Love him that much?"
Evelyn looked her in the eye and admitted, "Yeah!"
Kaylee blew out a mouthful of smoke in a sensual manner. "Sheffield's a lucky guy. He charmed a beautiful woman like you. But don't mind me. You know many women are head over heels for him. You're just one of them. Men are greedy. You should keep an eye on him."
Evelyn stood there, her eyes devoid of any emotion. "You may be right. But I'm pretty sure Sheffield's not like that. Thanks for the warning, though."
Her tone was flat, but she was naturally noble and aggressive. It shone through her words, and Kaylee was intimidated.
That was really annoying!
"You're welcome. Let's go. I'll guide you in." Kaylee randomly threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stepped on it to put it out, then walked into the Tang family's house.
Evelyn glanced at the cigarette butt on the ground. With a frown, she turned to Felix and stretched out her hand. "Hand me a tissue," she requested.
Felix pulled out a tissue from his pocket and handed it to her. Evelyn bent over and picked up the cigarette butt from the ground, tissue wrapped around it.
Kaylee walking ahead felt that Evelyn wasn't following her. When she turned her head, she saw that the CEO was bending over to pick up the cigarette butt. She smiled, "Looks like you're a germophobe too, just like Sheffield."
Without answering her question, Evelyn wrapped the cigarette end in the tissue. She found no wastebaskets anywhere nearby, so she handed it to Felix and said, "Throw this away."
"Yes, Miss Huo!"
Then, Evelyn turned to the woman opening the door, and shook her head. "I'm not a clean freak. I don't want this cigarette butt to affect the way people see the family."
'You're so good at pretending, ' Kaylee thought scornfully. Nonetheless, she just smiled and said nothing.
Peterson hadn't gone to bed yet. He was still burning the midnight oil in his study.
Sheffield was AWOL, so naturally he had to take charge of the company again.
As soon as Kaylee knocked on the door of the study, she heard Peterson through the door. "Come in!" he said.
She pushed open the door. Instead of entering the room, she just leaned against the door frame. "Dad, the eldest daughter of the Huo family is here to see you," she told Peterson.
He raised his head and saw Evelyn standing at the door. Without hesitation, he put down his pen and greeted her warmly, "Hi, Evelyn, please come in."
With his permission given, Evelyn thanked Kaylee before walking in.
"Kaylee, could you brew up a pot of my best tea and bring it here?" Peterson asked his daughter-in-law, and then bade Evelyn to sit on the couch.
"Okay, Dad," Kaylee promised lazily and left the study.
Left alone with Peterson, Evelyn got straight to the point. "Uncle Peterson, Sorry to disturb you. I'm just wondering about Sheffield."
"You don't have to be so formal with me, Evelyn. This will be your home sooner or later. You can come here any time you want. But about Sheffield…" Peterson was really worried about his kid. He continued, "He vanished, and I can't find him. I've taken control of the company for now, but I don't want anyone to know he's gone. So we have to fly under the radar and find him."
Evelyn understood. The company would be in turmoil if the public knew that the head honcho went missing.
Soon, Kaylee came in with two cups of tea. She half-squatted down to put them in front of the pair.
Evelyn thanked her politely.
Kaylee rose to her feet, looked at the woman elegantly picking up the cup of tea, and said, "I've heard Miss Huo is bad luck for boyfriends. So, Miss Huo, what do you think happened to Sheffield?"
"Kaylee!" Peterson warned.
Evelyn put down the tea cup and looked Kaylee in the eye. "I'm one step ahead of you. My dad has sent people to look for him too."
Not afraid of the old man's warning, Kaylee stared at Evelyn and provoked again, "Since you know you'll jinx your boyfriend, why did you get with Sheffield?"
Peterson stood up from his seat and scolded, "Kaylee, go to your room! You're not helping!"
Evelyn consoled the old man with a smile, "It's okay, Uncle." She had heard that too many times, and it just rolled right off her back. She looked at Kaylee again and said, "I don't believe in luck. It's just someone playing tricks behind my back!"
"Even if there is someone playing tricks on you, Sheffield is in danger because of you!"
"Yes! I'm responsible for this. Ms. Lou, I get it. You're worried about Sheffield. After all, you are his sister-in-law. But… I'm not going to sit here and take that from someone like you!" Evelyn retorted.
'Like me?' Kaylee continued to question her in an ironic tone, "You called me 'Sister-in-law' a moment ago. But now, you call me 'Ms. Lou.' Why? Losing your patience?"
"Because I don't like your tone." Evelyn could turn a blind eye to Kaylee's lies, but she didn't like being insulted like that in front of Sheffield's father.
Peterson's face darkened. He shouted again, "Kaylee, go to your room! You're being insufferable!"
This time, Kaylee snorted coldly, turned and left the study.
Silence befell the study. "I'm sorry, Evelyn," he apologized.
Evelyn smiled, "Uncle Peterson, you don't need to apologize. I don't care about that. All I care about is Sheffield."
"Okay, let's get down to business."
Half an hour later, Evelyn and Felix left the Tang family's residence together.
Sheffield had been gone for three days. Gwyn was also in a bad mood. She hadn't seen him in a while, so she became more withdrawn.
When Evelyn came back home that night, Gwyn didn't even call her Mom. It seemed like the little girl was angry at her.
For the past three days, Evelyn kept dialing Sheffield's number, but his phone was still off.
She had driven her car and searched everywhere in the city, but couldn't find any trace of him.
On Day 5, before going to bed, Evelyn got a call from an unknown number. The person on the other end spoke in some dialect that was hard to understand. "Are you Evleen Kuo?"
"Um… Excuse me? Who's that?"
"Ev… Evleen… Evelyn." The man tried hard to sound her name out.
"Yes, this is her. And who are you?"
"I am…"
In the middle of the night, Evelyn left the manor with a group of bodyguards.
Carlos wanted to go with Evelyn, but she refused. "Dad, please stay here and take care of Gwyn. Gwyn and Mom need you. I have a small army of bodyguards. I'll be fine."
"Okay. Keep in touch," Carlos nodded resignedly.
"I will."
They drove along the expressway all night. It wasn't until daybreak that Evelyn saw the sign for "Van City."
