“I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.” Johanna clamped her mouth guiltily. She couldn’t ask Natalie to forgive Lila. As a mother, she believed all this was her fault. Natalie pursed her lips and looked at her mother. Tears welled up in her eyes when she saw Johanna cry.
She didn’t want to blame Lila again in front of her parents.
“I was just complaining. Dad, Mom, don’t worry. Lila and I are okay now.” Natalie forced a smile. She shot a vicious look at Lila, alerting her not to mess with her again.
*******
Considering Natalie didn’t break any bones, she soon got discharged from the hospital. All Lila admitted was that she didn’t tell anyone when she knew the parachute wouldn’t work.
There was just no evidence to prove that she had tampered with the parachute. Ultimately, the skydiving club became responsible for the incident. The manager of the parachute club felt wronged. But considering the victim was the daughter of the White family and Brandon Larson’s wife, he had no choice but to compensate Natalie for the unfortunate incident. After all, he had no evidence to defend himself either.
If she hadn’t been careless, Natalie would have been their only precious daughter. She wouldn’t have encountered such problems.
“I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.” Johanna clamped her mouth guiltily. She couldn’t ask Natalie to forgive Lila. As a mother, she believed all this was her fault. Natalie pursed her lips and looked at her mother. Tears welled up in her eyes when she saw Johanna cry.
She didn’t want to blame Lila again in front of her parents.
“I was just complaining. Dad, Mom, don’t worry. Lila and I are okay now.” Natalie forced a smile.
She shot a vicious look at Lila, alerting her not to mess with her again.
*******
Considering Natalie didn’t break any bones, she soon got discharged from the hospital. All Lila admitted was that she didn’t tell anyone when she knew the parachute wouldn’t work.
There was just no evidence to prove that she had tampered with the parachute. Ultimately, the skydiving club became responsible for the incident. The manager of the parachute club felt wronged. But considering the victim was the daughter of the White family and Brandon Larson’s wife, he had no choice but to compensate Natalie for the unfortunate incident. After all, he had no evidence to defend himself either. The club gave Natalie a large sum to prevent her from tarnishing their reputation. She looked at the credit message on her phone and smiled bitterly.
“You’ve always wanted to make a lot of money, haven’t you? Look at you now. Your dream has come true.”
In the past, Natalie had wanted to earn sufficient money to support Hannah.
“I have a wealthy husband and my parents don’t lack money either. What am I going to do with all this money?” Natalie winked playfully. Sebastian held her in his arms and kissed her.
“I understand what you feel but I don’t think the accident was caused by the club’s negligence or poor safety measures.” He believed someone was plotting against Natalie.
“Then who do you think did this? Lila?” Natalie looked at him with wide eyes.
“No.”
Sebastian shook his head. He had shifted his suspicion to Lila’s coach. Only a few people were in the helicopter then. Natalie’s coach wouldn’t have done it because he would also have to jump with her.
Tampering with the parachute would kill him as well. Therefore, Lila’s coach was the only suspect left. However, just as he started the investigation, he heard the news of a horrific car accident. A drunk man had driven his car on the highway and collided with three other cars. One of the drivers was incapacitated, and the other two were severely injured.
The incapacitated one was Lila’s coach. She was now in a vegetative state.
It was not until Natalie was heading to work the next day that she accidentally saw on the news that the coach from the club had been in a car accident and had turned into a vegetable. She immediately gave Sebastian a call. Since she came here to Barnes, bad things kept on happening around her one after another.
“Why in the world did she suddenly become a vegetable? She was perfectly fine a few days ago when I last saw her. Sebastian, should I head to church and pray for better luck?” “What on earth are you talking about? Stop being superstitious, honey.” Sebastian playfully teased her.
Sometimes humans were more terrible than ghosts. In Sebastian’s eyes, someone made this happen. Perhaps he had been onto something and whoever had been behind wanted to get rid of all evidence by turning the coach into a vegetable. Now that the coach was in a coma, she couldn’t tell anyone anything right now. There was no way Sebastian could find out anything else now that the clue was cut off here.
“Unexpected things do happen all the time, which is why people turn to superstition,” Natalie went on to argue. Sebastian couldn’t refute what she said. He suddenly burst out laughing and said, “Well, I know that I can give you some comfort in bed tonight. You know, just to make you relax some more.”
On the other side of the phone, Natalie’s face flushed red. She snorted and immediately disconnected the call.
“What a silly girl,” said Sebastian in a rather doting tone.
******
Covering her face with her hands, Natalie headed back to her desk. She had been in the hospital for days now and was already behind work. After she went back to work, the Milan Fashion Week was on everyone’s lips. Small-time designers like Natalie weren’t qualified to participate in Milan Fashion Week normally. Among the four major fashion shows, the Milan Fashion Week had the shortest history but happened to be the most renowned one.
In addition, the most famous icons, media, and models in the fashion industry would actually make an appearance here at the Milan Fashion Week. It was an international event and one of the most important events in the entire industry. Milan Fashion Week had always led the fashion and design industry and people looked at it to gauge the next wave of fashion trends.
Therefore, every designer in the world craved to participate in it.
Seeing that everyone was talking about it while Natalie listened quietly, Rosa said to her in an excited voice, “You were in the hospital. I guess you don’t know about it yet. Mr. Wesley was invited to Milan Fashion Week and he’s going to take an assistant with him to accompany him at the show!”
Natalie thought that since she hadn’t been here for a long time, it couldn’t be her. With a smile on her face, she said to Rosa,
“That will be either you or Elizabeth. That’s really great!”
Rosa waved her hand around and smiled. “I guess it’s going to be Elizabeth. Her designs fit the Milan Fashion Week really well.”
After mulling it in her head for a few seconds, Natalie agreed.
“That’s true.” Just when the whole studio had accepted the fact that Rosa or Elizabeth would most likely be chosen to go to the Milan Fashion Week with Draco, Draco made his way out of his office.
“Have the two of you finished your design drafts? Rosa? Elizabeth? And Natalie, please finish your assignments by today.” Natalie was shocked to hear that. How could she finish it all today?
“Mr. Wesley, I thought you were giving us more time. The client said that he’ll need it by next week.” Turning back to look at her, Draco asked, “Do you think you’ll have the time to finish it in Milan?”
“I’m going to Milan with you?” Natalie was shocked and asked in a very loud voice.
“Sir, are you joking around with me?” Speechless, Draco glanced over at her and headed straight into his office. He didn’t like to repeat himself.
After a good while, Natalie regained her senses and was concerned that Rosa and Elizabeth might think it unfair that Draco was taking her instead of either one of them. She snuck a glance at Elizabeth who didn’t appear any different. She was still as indifferent toward everything like how she usually was. However, Rosa congratulated her joyously. She blinked her eyes with a smile on her face and said, “Natalie, I’m so very happy for you! Can you finish your work by today? Tell me if you need any assistance!”
Draco booked their plane tickets and they would set off two days later. Early that morning, Natalie arrived at the studio with her luggage. But before they could set out, she suddenly felt a sharp stomachache and ran into the bathroom. At first, she thought it was something she ate. However, when she came out of the bathroom, her stomachache worsened. She felt as if there was a grinder gnawing away at her stomach.
Natalie crouched to the ground, her face scrunched up in pain, her brow dotted with cold sweat. Draco had started approaching with the intent to urge her to keep going, but as soon as he saw her pale complexion, he hurried over and fell to his knees beside her. Natalie was curled into herself with her arms wrapped around her belly.
“Are you experiencing menstrual cramps, by any chance?” Draco asked. But she was hurting so badly, she was barely able to speak. Instead, Natalie responded with a feeble shake of her head. Her period had just ended a few days ago. Without further hesitation, Draco picked her up in his arms.
“I’m taking you to the hospital.” Natalie was rather surprised to find that the gentle and seemingly feminine man was, in fact, pretty strong She struggled to endure the pain throughout the drive.
“Mr. Wesley,” Natalie said through gritted teeth.
“I apologize, but I don’t think I can go with you to Milan. You can drop me off at the hospital and get someone else to come with you.” Draco glanced at her indifferently.
