Since the first day of his uninvited flower deliveries, she had not called him again to express her stance. Wait… What if she suddenly changed her mind?
As that thought crossed his mind, Lucian grew nervous, and he answered the call with tightly knitted brows. “Mr. Farwell,” Roxanne greeted him coolly once the line connected.
Her cold demeanor was evident to Lucian, whose heart sank. “Good day, Ms. Jarvis. How can I help you?” he asked.
On the other end of the phone, Roxanne pursed her lips in annoyance at his innocent act.
She replied, “Well, Mr. Farwell, what’s the meaning of your persistent flower deliveries? I’ve made my rejection very clear. Why waste your efforts, Mr. Farwell?”
Her question brought a severe frown to Lucian’s face, but he quickly schooled his expression into a mask of calmness before responding, “Just as you are free to reject my deliveries, I am free to continue expressing my affections toward you, Ms. Jarvis.”
In other words, he would not stop sending her flowers.
Roxanne clenched her fists in exasperation as she gritted out, “I may not have a say over it, but I implore you to consider the propriety of your timing. I don’t believe you want the children to learn about this, do you, Mr. Farwell?”
At last, Lucian fell into silence. He had been doing this behind Estella’s back. The girl had always thought that Roxanne had accepted them, and he did not wish to disappoint her.
If Archie and Benny knew that Roxanne had been rejecting Lucian’s flowers, they would surely find a way to tell Estella about it. Roxanne took his silence as agreement, and she added, “Mr. Farwell, please stop sending these things to my house!”
She then hung up without giving him a chance to reply.
Lucian’s gaze darkened as he stared at his phone. An indeterminate amount of time passed before he located the flower shop’s number and called them.
“Don’t send any flowers tomorrow. Starting next week, please send them to VR Research Institute instead.”
The flower shop staff agreed immediately. Meanwhile, though Roxanne had clearly expressed her rejection, she continued to worry that Lucian would ignore her pleas.
The next day, Roxanne awoke bright and early and waited in the living room. Her children seemed to echo her thoughts as they came downstairs early to wait with her.
The three of them waited with bated breath, especially Roxanne, who was fraught with nerves.
Thankfully for her, no one came to ring her doorbell even after a long while.
Roxanne was immensely relieved as she watched the suspicions clearing from her sons’ faces. She naively assumed that Lucian had finally given up.
The next day, after resting at home for almost half a month, Roxanne was dying to return to work.
Her wound had healed nicely, and she could walk quite comfortably. Roxanne convinced Lysa and the boys to allow her to return to the research institute.
She arrived at about ten in the morning, having spent much time trying to persuade Lysa. Roxanne did not know why, but she thought the workers at the research institute were all staring at her with strange expressions.
As she approached the doorway, Colby happened to exit her office. “Dr. Jarvis,” Colby greeted, a conflicted emotion flitting across his expression.
More confused than ever, Roxanne asked, “Did anything happen this morning?”
Why is everyone staring at me like that? And why did Colby come out of my office?
Instead, Colby stared at her with a concerned expression and asked, “Why did you suddenly show up to work? Has your leg healed completely?”
Roxanne replied simply, “Almost.”
After that, she questioned, “So what happened here? Why does it feel as though everyone’s staring at me with such a strange expression?”
Forced into a corner, Colby pretended to be calm and smiled at Roxanne. “Someone sent a bouquet of roses over this morning for you. I thought you weren’t coming today, so I put it in your office for you.”
Colby had run into an employee from the flower shop when he arrived at the research institute that morning.
The employee immediately asked Colby if he knew Roxanne, and Colby froze for a good minute when he saw the bouquet of roses.
Eventually, he received the flowers on Roxanne’s behalf.
His heart churned with an indescribable emotion as he walked into the research institute. Naturally, gossip about the anonymous flower delivery spread like wildfire among the workers at the research institute.
The chatter only ceased when Roxanne herself showed up. After the woman heard Colby’s explanation, her expression froze, and she almost ran to her office, only to see a bouquet of red roses lying on her desk.
From behind her, Colby explained, “I didn’t manage to ask who sent the flowers. Perhaps you already know who sent them.”
Roxanne clenched her fists so hard that her nails dug into her palm. She forced herself to calm down before shooting Colby a strained smile. “I know, but could I trouble you for a favor? If anyone asks about this, just tell them it’s a wrong delivery?”
She did not want the delivery to affect her reputation at work.
Colby was surprised and perplexed by her request. Is she accepting the bouquet sender’s feelings or not?
Meanwhile, Roxanne nodded nonchalantly at him before taking a seat at her desk. As Colby immediately sensed her unwillingness to discuss the issue, he suppressed his curiosity. Instead, he nodded and agreed to her request.
When Colby wanted to continue updating her about the progress of projects at the research institute, Roxanne stopped him. “I have to take care of some matters now. You can leave first if there’s nothing important.”
Colby could not quite see the expression on her face as she was facing downward. Knitting his brows, he glanced at the roses beside her.
It was obvious that the roses had affected Roxanne’s emotions.
In the past, as someone who took her work seriously, Roxanne would have checked on the progress of the projects with him whenever she was away from the research institute, but she seemed a little different today.
Hence, Colby was overwhelmed by conflicting emotions. Since he only had limited interaction with Roxanne, he did not know who gave her the flowers.
Most importantly, he had no idea how Roxanne felt about the person.
Roxanne lifted her eyes, noticing Colby was still standing in her office. Giving him a puzzled look, she asked, “What’s wrong? Is there anything else you want to tell me?”
Colby returned to his senses as he lowered his eyes and replied, “Nothing. I’m going out now. Feel free to call me if you need help.”
Nodding, Roxanne watched him leave the office. As the door gradually closed, Roxanne was left alone in the office.
She looked away and tried to suppress her anger, hoping to focus on her work. Yet, the bouquet was so distracting that she could not stop herself from staring at it.
Feeling annoyed, Roxanne put aside her work and walked to the bouquet, but she did not know what to do with it.
She thought Lucian would have listened to her after the call she made last weekend.
I didn’t expect him to deliver the flowers here! Given his character, he’ll still do it in the future. His action will cause further misunderstanding among my staff if they see this!
Roxanne’s heart started to hurt when she thought of the consequences. After a short hesitation, she fished out her phone and decided to give Lucian a call.
Meanwhile, Lucian was listening to updates from his subordinates in Farwell Group’s conference room with a deadpan expression.
Deep in his heart, he was a little frustrated with himself. I wonder how she reacted to the bouquet since I ordered someone to send it to the research institute without her permission.
All the subordinates put their guard up during their presentation as they could sense a chilling aura from Lucian.
All of a sudden, a phone on the table started vibrating, interrupting the meeting.
“Let’s take a break.” Before anyone could react, Lucian picked up his phone and left the conference room.
Everyone in the room exchanged glances upon seeing the CEO’s reaction. It was the second time Lucian answered a call during the meeting throughout this period.
They wondered if the call was from which influential figure. At once, all of them started discussing among themselves. Lucian had no idea what they did behind his back as he went straight back to his office to answer Roxanne’s call.
“What are you trying to do, Mr. Farwell? Did I not make myself clear? Why did you send a bouquet to my workplace?” Roxanne’s voice emerged from the other end of the phone.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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