Her long curly lashes fluttered, and her eyes slowly opened, still sleepy. She realized she was being carried into the house by Larry, so she struggled to be let down. However, Larry would have none of that but tightened his embrace instead.
“Why are you awake? You were sleeping so soundly at the door,” he teased.
It was amazing he still had the mood to joke, but that did not cheer Joan up. “I woke up when you sighed. Why are you sighing? Did the discussion not go well today?”
Larry had laid her down on the bed and was pulling a blanket over her. He paused when Joan posed the question. She held his right hand and looked him in the eyes, full of concern. “Please don’t hide anything from me.”
Larry sat by her side and held her hand tightly. “I… the meeting today was with Dustin.”
Joan sat up straight immediately and exclaimed in disbelief, “How is that possible? Dustin? Was it a chance meeting? I thought… I thought you said you were going to meet the chairman of Alpire Group. How did you end up meeting Dustin instead?”
Joan bombarded him with a load of questions as she could not believe it was Dustin. The last she met him was when she went to ask him about Larry. He had not contacted her since then too. Why did he approach Larry this time around?
“It was him. He is now the financial controller of Alpire Group. He said their chairman sent him. At the meeting today, his message was clear. Alpire’s target was Norton Corporation. They wanted to take over everything.”
“What? Dustin has become the financial controller of Alpire Group? And they want to take over Norton Corporation? This is unbelievable!” Joan’s eyes widened with surprise. To her, the chance of Dustin doing that seems so unlikely, like that of seeing a comet fall on earth.
Larry held back his rebuttal. They had overcome much hardship and misunderstanding before finally settling down to a blissful life. He would rather maintain that bliss than try to win an argument.
Financial controller? Joan was baffled. Isn’t Dustin a medical doctor? He was in charge of her treatment when she was in A Nation. He went on to become a lecturer at the medicine faculty of Nirhaven College. That switch was logical given his expertise and training. On the contrary, his latest move to that of a financial controller was puzzling. Wherever he went, they seemed to meet time and again. There were valid reasons for them to meet in his first two jobs, but Joan could not associate his position at Alpire Group with herself.
“I feel he may have some ulterior motives…” Larry tried to suppress his emotions and spoke as calmly as he possibly could. It was tough, as the thought of Dustin made him boil. How he wished Dustin would vanish in the air instantly.
“I think that is unlikely. He was a helpful and nice doctor and didn’t look like a scheming person,” Joan tried to defend.
His wife defending a man he detested made Larry cringed, but he did not rebuke Joan. He would have picked a fight with her previously. After they went through all the earlier misunderstandings, Larry had matured and learned to keep his emotions in check.
Joan was defensive of Dustin as he had been nice to her. People like Dustin only have eyes for those they love and would do anything to get their hands on what they wanted. He was more toxic than Joan could ever imagine. She would always remember the good in people and forgot the fact that everyone had an opposing dark side.
