Chapter 210 - 209
Simon Lockwood returned to Aethelburg that very night. When Joanna Kennedy got back to the hotel after her shoot and didn’t see him, she was so furious she could barely breathe.
’Great, just great. So he came all this way just to mess with me, huh? He just takes off after he gets what he wants.’ Joanna Kennedy decided she wouldn’t message Simon Lockwood for two days.
She was just about to block him for those two days when she saw a few unread text messages that had been sent in the afternoon.
Housekeeper Lockwood: [Something came up at the office, so I’m heading back first. Drink the soup on the table when you get back.]
The message had been sent a little after 3 PM, when she had been filming and hadn’t had time to check her phone.
’At least he knew to tell me in advance.’ Joanna Kennedy’s anger subsided a little. Following the message’s instructions, her eyes landed on a brown thermos on the table.
When she opened it, the savory aroma of pork rib soup wafted straight into her nostrils. Even though Joanna Kennedy had just eaten, the scent was so enticing it made her swallow hard.
She could tell at a glance that it was a soup Simon Lockwood had made. It even had goji berries, red dates, and carrots inside—the very picture of a balanced, nutritious meal.
The thermos worked wonders; the soup was still hot. Without bothering to pour it into a bowl, Joanna Kennedy held the thermos directly and began to drink with great gusto. A few gulps sent a comforting warmth spreading through her stomach.
The thoughtful President Lockwood, who was also a great cook. Joanna Kennedy felt the fatigue from the long afternoon melt away, healed by the delicious food.
A certain someone, still unaware that he had narrowly escaped being blacklisted, called Jack Warren the moment he got off the plane. His voice was cold. "Look into Liam Valentine."
"The president of the Valentine Group?"
"Yes."
Simon Lockwood paused, said something else, and then hung up.
In a bar in downtown Aethelburg, Jack Warren stared at his phone screen after the call ended, his brow gradually furrowing.
A sudden, hard slap on his shoulder made him hiss. He shoved his phone into his coat pocket and snapped irritably, "Do you have some kind of misconception about your own strength?!"
Sean Grant grinned. "JJ, are you complimenting me on how strong I am?"
Before Jack Warren could start cursing, Sean blinked and said with mock sincerity, "Thanks, JJ~"
Jack Warren: "..."
The exasperation on Jack Warren’s face was completely unconcealed. Sean Grant finally acted a bit more normal, stifling his laughter to ask, "Who was calling you this late?"
’He even stepped outside to take it, and now he’s frowning.’ Sean Grant’s eyes narrowed.
Jack Warren was all too familiar with that weirdly speculative tone. He shot Sean a glance and turned away, annoyed. "Who do you think? Simon."
"Ooooh~" Hearing this, Sean Grant started snickering again as if he hadn’t just been the one with the passive-aggressive tone. He grinned. "And here I thought it was that blonde, blue-eyed beauty from Dresland~"
Jack Warren: "..." ’For crying out loud.’
Jack Warren’s frown deepened. He knew he’d been feeling like there was something he’d forgotten to tell Simon Lockwood. So this was it.
A couple of days ago, Jack Warren had been at the office dealing with the heads of other companies. With his boss out of the office, everything had been dumped on him, the assistant.
Jack Warren was swamped when his secretary came in to report a commotion in the lobby downstairs. Someone was clamoring to see Simon Lockwood, and it was a very beautiful foreign woman.
’A foreign beauty?’
Worried it might be a business partner, Jack Warren went downstairs after finishing his contract negotiations. From a distance, he saw a tall woman sitting in the reception area with several suitcases.
It was a familiar foreign face—Kenley Kim’s sister, whom he had met on their last trip to Dresland.
When she heard Simon Lockwood had gone to Dresland, Heidi was very disappointed. She then asked if Joanna Kennedy was around, or if he knew where she was. Of course, Jack Warren couldn’t say, so he lied without batting an eye that he didn’t know.
He wasn’t sure of Heidi’s true purpose in coming, but since she had found her way here, he couldn’t just ignore her. Worried something might happen, Jack Warren politely arranged for her to stay at a hotel under the Lockwood Group and planned to inform Simon Lockwood as soon as he returned.
However, he’d been so stunned by what Simon Lockwood had just said that his mind had gone blank, and he’d completely forgotten to bring it up.
Jack Warren was about to call him back, but he discovered his phone was dead. So, he had Sean Grant call and explain the situation.
After the call ended, Jack Warren saw that Sean Grant’s expression was off. "What did Simon Lockwood say?" he asked.
"He said he already knew..." Sean Grant shrugged. Seeing Jack Warren still standing there looking dazed, Sean laughed and slung an arm around his shoulders. "Come on, it’s after hours. Why are you worrying so much?"
"This is part of my job."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, right. Come on, let’s go for a drink..."
*
The lights were on in the villa’s study.
A pile of documents requiring his signature had accumulated over the past two days. Simon Lockwood was halfway through them when his phone buzzed. It was a message from Jack Warren with the hotel information.
Without even looking at it, Simon Lockwood forwarded the message, exactly as it was, to Kenley Kim in faraway Dresland.
After sending it, he instinctively clicked on his chat with Joanna Kennedy. She had replied an hour ago with a picture: the empty thermos.
A distinct curve formed on Simon Lockwood’s lips. He zoomed in on the picture, looking at it several more times before finally putting his phone down.
*
Joanna Kennedy had thought the rest of the shoot would go smoothly, but for the next few days, it rained continuously in Marinus. The downpour was so heavy it even flooded a small island out at sea.
The director was a real taskmaster. Not only did he not halt filming, but he took advantage of the natural rain to shoot all the rainy scenes from the original novel.
After another scene shot in the rain wrapped, Leo rushed over with a large towel and wrapped it around Joanna Kennedy. "Jojo, have some ginger tea..."
Joanna Kennedy sniffed the strong ginger aroma from the thermos, her face scrunching up in distaste. She took it anyway, and after a moment of mental preparation, she downed it in one go.
Then she frantically rinsed her mouth out with warm water. She swore that ginger and cilantro were the two worst-tasting things in the world!
Her look of disgust was all too obvious.
The middle-aged actress playing her grandmother in the film chuckled and said, "It seems Jennings isn’t a fan of ginger."
This actress, May Lawson, had recently won a prestigious overseas award for Best Actress. She was a late bloomer, and unlike "veteran actors" like Leah Shaw who just threw their weight around, May Lawson was a true artist with real skill.
May Lawson played Joanna Kennedy’s grandmother and had the most scenes with her. They often rehearsed their lines together during their downtime, which allowed her to get to know Joanna better.
’She’s a young, beautiful actress, but she’s not as flighty or arrogant as one might expect. On the contrary, she’s very composed and humble. If there’s anything she doesn’t understand, she’ll take the initiative to ask, and she’s not afraid to share her own opinions either.’
May Lawson had been in the industry for decades and had worked with countless actors. She could size up a person’s character with just a glance.
Most actors were good at putting on an act—polite and modest on the surface, but in reality, so full of themselves they’d forgotten who they were. They had no real talent but would fight tooth and nail over their billing. It was only a matter of time before they crashed and burned.
Having seen so many two-faced people, she found someone like Joanna Kennedy—talented, yet without a sycophantic bone in her body—to be all the more precious and likable.