Chapter 166 - 165: A Familiar Stranger
On the way back, Anna Yates was still gossiping nonstop. "I asked around! The guy who was carried away earlier was Ron Warren. And his head, his face—I don’t know how it happened, but he was covered in blood!"
Anna Yates gloated as she shared her latest intel, speculating about what could have possibly happened to Ron Warren to leave him in such a sorry state.
Joanna Kennedy had little interest, remarking casually, "Maybe he slipped and hit his head."
"HAHAHA, Jo, you’re hilarious." Anna Yates howled with laughter. "Why not just say someone beat him up?"
Joanna Kennedy: "..."
Joanna Kennedy gave her a look that was hard to put into words. "I wouldn’t dare say that."
This only made Anna Yates laugh harder.
Joanna Kennedy, however, couldn’t share the cheer. She let out a soft sigh. ’Should I tell Simon Lockwood?’
’We finally got a chance to go on a trip, and I don’t want to make Simon Lockwood upset.’
’But if I don’t tell him, and this gets out tomorrow morning, he’ll see the surveillance footage of what Ron Warren did to me. He’d be even angrier then. He might even be scared off by how ’violent’ I looked.’
The invisible scales in her mind tipped back and forth between "maintaining her image" and "confessing to get it over with." Joanna Kennedy lowered her head, frustrated, and let Anna Yates pull her along.
Joanna Kennedy only snapped out of her inner turmoil when the thumping music and the chatter of men and women reached her ears.
’At some point, Anna Yates had actually dragged her into a bar.’
’There’s a bar at the resort?!’
Anna Yates pushed Joanna Kennedy down onto a sofa. Joanna covered her ears, which were starting to ache from the pounding music. "Anna, weren’t we heading back? It’s almost nine o’clock."
A hint of barely perceptible anxiety laced her voice.
Anna Yates, who was in the middle of opening a bottle of wine, winked teasingly. "What’s the matter? Did your dear Simon Lockwood give you a curfew?"
Joanna Kennedy: "..."
’A curfew was out of the question.’
Joanna Kennedy jumped to his defense. "Simon Lockwood doesn’t manage me like that. He’s very open-minded."
Anna Yates was speechless.
’She’d never heard of a girlfriend describing her boyfriend as "open-minded." Isn’t that how you describe your parents?’
Anna Yates couldn’t be bothered to correct her, so she asked pointedly, "Then why are you in such a hurry to get back?"
"I—I’m tired. I want to rest," Joanna Kennedy insisted, and as if afraid Anna Yates wouldn’t believe her, she added, "Besides, it’s too loud in here. It’s giving me a headache."
The girl furrowed her brows and covered her ears, looking as though she genuinely disliked this kind of environment.
Anna Yates sighed. ’Simon Lockwood really is like the head of a household,’ she thought. ’He’s spoiled Joanna into such a goody-two-shoes.’
’She felt a strange mix of feelings, and surprisingly, a hint of envy was among them.’
"Alright, fine. You wait here for a minute. I’ll go have them pack up the wine, and then we’ll leave," Anna Yates said.
Joanna Kennedy nodded. "Okay, but be quick."
"I know, I know~"
After Anna Yates left, Joanna Kennedy sat on the sofa alone. Glancing around, her eyes landed on Sean Grant, dancing in the middle of the dance floor in a pair of loud, floral-print shorts.
Joanna Kennedy: "..."
Joanna Kennedy immediately whipped her head away to avoid being seen by Sean Grant, even using a hand to shield her face. The gesture was both comical and inexplicably cute.
Not far away, a man holding a wine glass took in the entire scene.
"Brother, which beauty has caught your eye?" the girl in a little cocktail dress beside him teased.
Liam Valentine pulled his gaze away and said faintly, "What do you think?"
"I don’t know." Vicky pouted, her gaze sweeping past the sofa, her pretty face a mask of pure innocence.
Vicky was the eldest daughter of the Valentine Family from Marinus. A law graduate from a university in Aethelburg, she had entered the entertainment industry a year ago under the stage name Valentine.
"You can head back on your own later." Liam Valentine set down his glass, stood up, and started walking toward the sofa.
Vicky stared at the full, untouched glass of liquid and curled her lip. ’He can’t even drink, but he still insists on pouring a glass,’ she griped internally. ’Such a poser.’
Over on the sofa, Joanna Kennedy looked up and saw a man standing right in front of her.
"Miss Kennedy, what a coincidence," Liam Valentine said with a polite smile.
His voice was very pleasant to the ear. Unlike the forced gentleness of Charles Jennings, Liam Valentine possessed a natural grace, like a cool breeze under a bright moon, that seemed to emanate from his very being.
For some reason she couldn’t quite explain, Joanna Kennedy found it difficult to be wary of him. "President Valentine, what brings you here?"
’Wasn’t this the President Valentine who was always pestering Simon Lockwood about business?’ she recalled.
"I just finished discussing a partnership proposal with Mr. Lockwood and thought I’d come out and relax a bit," Liam Valentine said with a smile, answering her unspoken question. "I didn’t expect to run into you, Miss Kennedy. Had I known, I would have invited Mr. Lockwood to come along."
"Ah, haha..." Joanna Kennedy let out a couple of awkward laughs.
Seeing her laugh, Liam Valentine smiled as well.
Under the shifting lights of the bar, the man’s features were rather plain, but his aura was so exceptional that it completely overshadowed his looks, making one subconsciously assume he must possess a remarkably handsome face.
Joanna Kennedy was momentarily dazed by his smile. When she snapped out of it, her heart skipped a beat, and she frowned slightly.
"Is something wrong?" As if not noticing her momentary lapse, Liam Valentine saw her frown and asked with concern, "Did I say something I shouldn’t have?"
Though the man’s voice was quiet, Joanna found she could hear it with perfect clarity amid the noisy surroundings. She quickly waved her hands in denial. "No, not at all. It’s just the loud music."
The man made a few more polite remarks.
Just then, Anna Yates returned. Liam Valentine tactfully took his leave. "Well, I won’t keep you from your friend, Miss Kennedy."
He spoke with his head slightly bowed, revealing long eyelashes. Joanna Kennedy felt her focus drift again as that strange sense of familiarity nearly broke through to the surface of her mind.
By the time she came to her senses, all she could see was his tall figure receding into the distance.
On the way back to the villa, Joanna Kennedy’s brow was slightly furrowed, as if she were pondering some difficult question. She didn’t even hear Anna Yates calling her name.
"Jo," Anna Yates said, nudging her.
Joanna Kennedy snapped out of it. "Huh? What’s wrong?"
Anna Yates didn’t speak, just motioned for her to look ahead.
Joanna Kennedy lifted her gaze and, a moment later, froze.
...
In the deepening night, on the endless stretch of beach, waves rolled rhythmically onto the shore. A man stood there, tall and elegant in a simple white shirt and black pants, a black jacket draped over his arm.
There was no telling how long he had been waiting. The sea breeze swept his short black hair back, making his handsome, aristocratic face seem all the more dazzling in the darkness.
Joanna Kennedy could hear Anna Yates talking but couldn’t make out the words. By the time her brain processed it, Anna Yates had already walked off.
Simon Lockwood drew closer, his brow instantly knitting together. His tone was tight. "Didn’t I tell you to grab a jacket? Why didn’t you?"
Joanna Kennedy didn’t say a word, just lifted her small, pale face and stared at him blankly.
Another gust of wind blew in from the sea. With a stern expression, Simon Lockwood put the jacket on her, then carefully pulled the zipper all the way to the top. His movements were far from gentle.
Her fingers gently squeezed his, and only then did his expression soften slightly. The next second, he heard Joanna Kennedy’s weak voice. "The zipper... it’s caught in my hair..."
Simon Lockwood: "..."