Chapter 169 Why, Ethan Knight (1)
What else could Ethan say? So, instead of stopping Alice, he just watched her leave the room.
After she left the room and closed the door, he began contemplating. Am I not goodâlooking enough? No, it canât be; I looked pretty handsome when I checked myself in the bathroom just now. So, am I not sexy enough? No, that shouldnât be the case either. I adjusted myself in the bathroom to look my sexiest. Was I just not seductive enough, then? No way! Didnât they say that was the most seductive posture? So why did it end in failure? Why?
Meanwhile, Alice looked back after closing the door behind her. She felt that something was odd about the man tonight, but she didnât think much about it; she was so weary that all she wanted to do right now was sleep. After going back to her room, she fell at once into a deep, dreamless sleep until early morning.
On the contrary, Ethan lay awake in bed, tossing and turning all night until dawn.
The next day, Alice received a text message from Bruce shortly after she got up. Reading the romantic text message, she almost threw up in disgust. Still, she had to keep on acting. Of course, the focus of the text message was still to ask her to steal the tender document, to which she merely replied, âOKâ Despite promising to do so, she didnât do anything.
Nevertheless, she went to work at Galerprises as usual.
That night, Bruce called her right away. The moment she answered the phone, he asked in a voice dripping with tenderness, âAlice, howâs it going? Did you get your hands on the tender document?â
âNo, I didnât,â Alice replied at once. As she didnât have to pretend over the phone, her face was stony and grim at this moment.
Bruce suggested, âAlice, how about you make an appointment with Mr. Affleck for me tomorrow? I have something to discuss with him.â Now that the tender opening was just around the corner, he was really burning with anxiety.
Aliceâs eyes flickered slightly. Should I say heâs too stupid or too clever? âOkay,â she replied nonetheless. Since this guy came up with such a request, she might as well go along with it. After all, if she was going to put on a show, she had to pull out all the stops for it.
âThatâs great! Letâs make it tomorrow, then. Just make the appointment at Blue Moon Restaurant at noon tomorrow.â With clear delight in his voice, Bruce set the time and place of the appointment without caring whether it would put Alice in a tight spot.
Apparently, he did use his brains a little, for Blue Moon Restaurant was owned by him.
Consequently, Alice made an appointment with Mr. Affleck at Blue Moon Restaurant for real.
Mr. Affleck was dumbfounded. He didnât want to come at all, but Archie ordered him to come over and play along. Although he didnât know what he was supposed to play along with, he couldnât defy Archieâs orders. Therefore, he sat at the dining table, all confused.
Darting a glance at Alice, who was seated across from him, he got even more confused. What the hell is going on here? Why would Alice get me to meet with Bruce? Well, itâs reasonable for her to arrange a meeting between us. Everyone knows that she loves Bruce, after all, so perhaps she wants to do something for him. But why would Mr. Moreno agree to it?
Just when he was confused, Bruce came in. âMr. Affleck, letâs not beat around the bush. I got you here today because I want Galerprisesâ tender document on Riverwale. Just name your price, Mr. Affleck,â he said, negotiating terms explicitly right away.
Mr. Affleckâs eyes blinked rapidly. Is this getting started already? Wait, should I say yes or turn him down? Mr. Moreno didnât give me any clear instructions on this before I came! He turned to look at Alice, who slowly sipped at her tea as though she were oblivious to this. His heart clenched. So, what the hellâs going on here? Without getting any instructions, he had no choice but to act as he thought fit, saying, âSorry, but as a member of Galerprises, I have both a responsibility and an obligation to protect everything about the company. Please behave yourself, Mr. Yeager.â With that, he stood up and left instantly.
After leaving the room, he heaved a secret sigh of relief. Itâs probably okay for me to act like this, right? But what exactly does Mr. Moreno mean?
In the private room, Bruce was visibly surly, stupefied by Mr. Affleckâs outright refusal. Looking at Alice, who was slowly sipping at her tea, he managed a forced smile while suppressing the anger inside him. âAlice, seems like I have to depend on you after all,â
he said, trying to show as much tenderness as he could. âAlice, we only have three days left before the tender opening, so we canât afford to tarry. Youâve got to get hold of the tender document as soon as possible.â He got some inside information that Galerprisesâ tender document was the best, which was why he wanted to take advantage of it.
At the same time, Caleb came to Ethan after getting the news of what had happened. He reported, âMr. Knight, Young Madam Knight is having an appointment with Henry Affleck, the project manager of Galerprises-â He paused for a moment. After studying Ethanâs expression for a moment, he added, âAt the same time, sheâs also having an appointment with... Bruce Yeager.â
Ethanâs hands froze. He raised his eyes, which were gloomy. Is she really going to help Bruce Yeager? Why? What on earth is she trying to do? I donât believe she really wants to marry him. Smart as Little Fox is, thereâs no way she canât tell that Bruce is trying to use her. So, what exactly is the purpose of her playing along with Bruce like this?
He had still yet to find out what was going on with her sudden disappearance several days ago. He knew that she was hiding something from him and wouldnât tell him about it, so he had to uncover it by himself. Since it was only through the things she did that he could truly find out what was wrong, he didnât stop her from helping Bruce, nor did he even ask her about it. But now that she was helping Bruce for real, he felt really uncomfortable about it, even if he knew she might have other reasons for doing so.
His eyes narrowed slightly. Suddenly, he asked, âIs Archie Moreno personally in charge of the case?â Knowing that Alice was working at Galerprises, he looked into the company and found out that it was registered under Archieâs name. It was only recently registered, but it was doing very well.
Caleb knew who Archie was. Even though they had rarely met before, he had some understanding of the latter after the past few days of investigation.
âYes, he is,â replied Caleb immediately.
Ethanâs eyes stared ahead thoughtfully. After pondering for a moment, he replied, âNever mind.â He now understood what Archie was capable of. The case was under Archieâs charge, so what was Bruce trying to do under Archieâs very nose? The matter probably wouldnât be simple. As for Alice, he would like to see what on earth she was trying to do. Besides wanting to know what she had up her sleeve, he also wanted to understand her better through the things she did. As for whether she would get into trouble... no matter what kind of trouble she got into, he would always be there for her!