"Did you not feel any shame sending these… these nude pictures of yours to your brother in-law? What were you trying to achieve? You think you could seduce him with this? I can"t tell you how ashamed I am of you. I am just grateful that Yimei didn"t see these on Zhu Cheng"s phone," his harsh words were beginning to sound surreal to Sam. She didn"t know how had all of this happened. Before coming to China, Sam had known that Zhu Cheng would be a formidable enemy but she had never expected that he would reduce her to such a sorry state with his first move itself. it looked like nothing had changed in the past six years.
Looking at her downturned face, her father stood up, collected his phone and said, "I want you to come home in the evening. You will sign the shares over to Yimei, saying that you just wanted to experience the taste of corporate life and now you want to return them to the rightful owner. You will also sign an undertaking saying that you will be disa.s.sociating yourself from the Li family and will not be returning to China ever again."
Sam looked at her father"s countenance. She understood that the evidence provided by Zhu Cheng was d.a.m.ning, but not once, not even for an iota of a second had he bothered to consider or ask her whether she was guilty or not. He had shown those pictures to a stranger to check for their authenticity. What about violating her privacy? He had pa.s.sed the harshest of judgement without even giving her an opportunity to say anything in her defence. She didn"t react to his ultimatum. She didn"t even realise when he left the room and went away.
Samantha had no idea about how much time had pa.s.sed by when Wei came and knocked at her door. Lifting her head from the table, she looked at him with vacant eyes.
Wei was on the verge of berating her for not picking up his call or responding to his message when he caught a glimpse of her face. She looked like as if a truck had rammed into her. Coming away from the door, he closed the distance between them swiftly.
"What is wrong? Are you unwell?" he asked her urgently.
When she didn"t reply, he came towards her side of the desk and kneeled in front of her. Her eyes had a blank expression in them.
He took her by the hand to make her get up, only to realise that they were icy cold. She looked like she was in a shock.
"Sam, let"s go get a cup of coffee. C"mmon," with that, he literally lifted her up from the shoulders.
Dragging her along the entire way, he ignored the looks which people were giving them. Not just her hands, her entire body was frozen like a block of ice. He was getting more and more worried by the second.
Somewhere in her head, Sam knew that she needed to respond to his query but she couldn"t get her tongue to unglue from the top of her mouth. Wei made her sit in his car at the office"s porch and drove away. Finding a relatively tucked away corner in the coffee shop, he sat next to her and nearly force fed her the hot liquid. She had not uttered a single word during the entire time.
As the scalding liquid touched her lips, she was jolted into reaction.
Pus.h.i.+ng his hand away, she looked at him in hurt.
"It"s hot," she mumbled.
"And finally she speaks. Unless you want me to force the entire coffee down your throat at this temperature, you better start talking. What has happened?" he threatened her.
Sam"s eyes teared up. She didn"t know what to tell him, she didn"t even know whether to tell him. But he was looking at her with such kind eyes that she couldn"t help but bawl her heart out on his shoulder.
During her crying bout, she was dimly aware of the warm imprint of his hand on her back, running up and down in comfort. At some point, he had gathered her in his arms and now she lay exhausted with her head on his wet s.h.i.+rt. Suddenly acquiring a belated sense of propriety, she made an attempt to move away from there.
But his words held her back, "Stay, don"t move. You will find that it"s easier to talk to the wall in front of you."
Sam"s face coloured with embarra.s.sment. Logic was returning to her slowly but surely. By now, she was 100% sure that Zhu Cheng had orchestrated this game but she had no clue as to how had he managed to get such irrefutable pieces of evidence.
Drawing strength from his touch, she began to tell him the story from the start and didn"t stop up until she reached this morning"s event.