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As Shane watched the door of the elevator slowly close upon Natalie’s reserved and withdrawn
demeanor, the hand in his pocket gripped against itself.
She was deliberately distancing herself from me!
Even though he understood why, it did not feel good to have her treat him that way.
Inside the elevator, Joyce looked at Natalie. “Nat, has something happened? Why do I get the feeling
that you are treating Mr. Shane rather aloofly?”
Natalie’s eyes flickered as she evoked a subdued smile. “I used to work under him, but not anymore.
We’re just acquaintances now, so nothing could possibly have happened.”
“But I keep thinking that there’s some kind of awkwardness between you both. It’s almost like you are
keeping your distance from him.” Joyce said as she primped her hair.
Natalie nodded. “That’s right. He’s a man who is engaged to be married. Should I not keep my distance
from him?”
“Well...” Joyce was rendered speechless.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtShe then poked at Joyce’s face. “Enough of the gossip. You better take care of that or it might leave
behind scars.”
“What?” Joyce then fished out a pocket mirror from her bag to examine her own reflection.
She let out a blood-curdling scream when she saw the streaks of semi-dried blood left behind on her
face by Jasmine’s nails.
Natalie plugged her own ears. “What are you doing?”
Joyce was so angry that the flush from her face bled into her eyes. “That b*tch had the gall to mess up
my face. Curses!”
Natalie was bemused. “Well, you did her a number too, so consider it even. Alright, we are here. Let’s
head to the infirmary.”
“Alright.” Joyce nodded as she put her mirror away and helped Natalie out.
It was past noon after they have both tended to their respective injuries.
Joyce dropped Natalie back at the hospital before returning to the studio on her own.
When Yulia saw the state of Natalie’s leg, she was saddened unto tears. “Damn that Jasmine for doing
this to you.”
Natalie smiled as she comforted her mother. “It’s okay, Mom. It’ll be fine in a couple of days.”
According to the doctor, her injury was not that serious. She should be able to recover from her
strained ligament with a few days of rest.
As Yulia helped her daughter to her seat, she was full of self-reproach. “Now I can’t let any one of your
out of my sight. The minute I do, you’ll end up getting yourselves into all kinds of trouble.”
Natalie’s head was lowered as she felt bad. “Alright, Mom. Let’s not talk about that anymore. How’s
Connor today?”
“He’s doing well so far. Went for a walk in the morning. He just went to sleep after taking his
medication.” Her mother said as she returned with a glass of hot honey.
She received the glass and took a sip from it. Her eyes were cast tenderly upon the little child on the
hospital bed.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm
Then there was a rapping at the door of the ward.
Yulia got up to answer and shortly returned with the white-coated Stanley in tow.
He was about to greet Natalie when he noticed the bandaged cast on her right foot. The gentle smile
on his face froze. “What happened to your foot, Nat?”
“I’ve sprained it,” she replied nonchalantly.
Yulia snorted. “That was Jasmine’s doing. She wanted to take Nat out of contention for the bidding
exercise, so she greased the floor outside the restroom and caused Nat to fall. It was too much!”
“Jasmine...” Stanley repeated the name to himself. A cold glint flashed across the eye behind the
glasses before it quickly dissipated. He then asked in his usual genial tone. “What did the doctor say?”
“It’s nothing serious. I am just to avoid running and jumping,” Natalie replied as she rubbed her ankle.
Stanley nodded as he placed down the fruits that he had brought along. “Which reminds me, Nat. I
have something that I would like to discuss with you.”
“Go ahead.” Natalie looked attentively at him.
He settled himself down beside her. “It’s like this. I have a patient from overseas who has just
recovered. She invited me to her wedding but it isn’t much fun for me to go by myself, so I thought
about whether you might be interested to come with me.”
“I see. But as you understand my situation at the moment, I could hardly...”
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