Chapter 241
I'm Afraid I Won't Be Able to Come
In the blink of an eye, two days had passed. Today was Maison Verne's new product launch.
For the past two days, Naomi Pierce had been waiting for a message from Fran, but there had been no response at all from Fran's side. Although she was extremely anxious, there was nothing she could do. The only thing she could do was wait.
Fortunately, after that day, Kevin Parker didn't come looking for trouble with her again. It seemed that she'd satisfied him that day, so he'd let her off.
Naomi Pierce relaxed a little. After she got up that morning, she received a text on her phone: Naomi, it's been taken care of.
When she saw that message, Naomi Pierce almost laughed out loud.
Her mother had finally taken care of it for her. Victor Bennett would not be coming, and she no longer had to worry about her fake identity being exposed.
Even heaven was helping her!
Naomi Pierce swept away her nervous mood and happily headed to the hotel where the launch was being held.
In the car, she confirmed with Yoyo once again, "Has everything with the media been taken care of?"
"Manager Pierce, don't worry. It's all been handled. When the time comes, they'll definitely publicize it on a huge scale and blow this whole thing up. Claire Bennett won't have any choice but to become famous."
Before the new product launch, Naomi Pierce had already made a big fuss promoting the news that Queen would be coming. After building hype for so long, quite a few people today had come specifically for Queen.
If these people found out they'd been tricked, wouldn't they tear Claire Bennett apart?
Naomi Pierce nodded. "All right, drive."
At the same time, Claire Bennett, dressed in an elegant, professional outfit, sat in Julian Sterling's car and had him take her to the launch venue.
She felt like they had now started a new way of getting along.
Before, they had lived together and slept together, spending every day together morning and night. There had been a kind of ambiguity between them, but neither of them had pierced the paper over the window.
Now they had started dating and become the closest kind of relationship, yet they had to live separately. Every time, Julian Sterling still went out of his way to pick her up, never thinking it was too much trouble and never offering the slightest complaint.
It was precisely because Julian Sterling was so considerate like this that Claire Bennett felt even more guilty.
She had to investigate what happened at Kinley Estate as quickly as possible and find the person behind it.
Before long, they arrived at the hotel. Claire Bennett unfastened her seat belt, thought for a moment, and said, "Then I'll go get busy first. I don't know what time I'll be able to leave tonight, so you don't need to wait for me."
After saying that, Claire Bennett undid her seat belt and got out of the car.
After she left, Julian Sterling had just been about to open the car door and get out when he received a call from Marcus Reed.
"Mr. Sterling, this is bad. A message came from the Bennett family. Victor Bennett ate something wrong and has had diarrhea since this morning. I'm afraid he won't be able to come."
Julian Sterling's brows knitted tightly. He had known something was bound to happen.
If Victor Bennett couldn't come, then he would just have to work a little harder.
"Mm, I know."
Julian Sterling ended the call, then opened the car door and got out.
Claire Bennett thought that after dropping her off at the hotel, he would leave for work. In fact, he would also be at the hotel today to help Claire Bennett.
...
New York, public hospital.
Victor Bennett lay on the hospital bed with an ugly expression on his face. Ever since eating dinner last night, he had been running to the bathroom nonstop. He'd practically had diarrhea until he was dehydrated, and then this morning he was rushed to the hospital.
The doctor's diagnosis was that he had eaten something bad: acute gastroenteritis.
After getting an injection, he felt much better now and was lying on the hospital bed resting.
The sound of footsteps rang out. The door to the hospital room opened, and immediately after, a gentle woman's voice sounded. "Boheng, how are you feeling?"
The woman was exquisitely dressed. Her features were beautiful and moving, her skin fair and supple. She looked to be only in her thirties, still charming with age. She was Victor Bennett's current wife, Hannah Bennett.
Victor Bennett nodded lightly. "Much better already. The doctor said I need to be observed a little longer."
Hannah Bennett sat down beside the hospital bed. Looking at Victor Bennett with gentle eyes, she said, "I heard Claire is in Chicago right now, and she's holding a new product launch today? Your body is already in this condition, so you shouldn't go."
Victor Bennett's face darkened, and he pressed his lips together without saying anything.
He was unwell and unable to go, but he had already promised that he would. If Claire Bennett didn't see him, would she be hurt and upset?
It hadn't been easy to repair the relationship between father and daughter. If he disappointed Claire Bennett again, then the relationship that had only just begun to improve would probably fall back to freezing point.
Hannah Bennett was secretly observing Victor Bennett's expression.
Seeing that he hadn't agreed, she knew he was still thinking about Claire Bennett.
She silently suppressed the darkness in her eyes. Only after letting out a heavy sigh did she say, "Actually, Claire is too thoughtless. Back when she did that kind of thing at Bennett Group, you didn't blame her afterward. You only told her to rest for a while, but she stubbornly insisted on making a scene with you."
Thinking of what had happened back then, a look of helplessness appeared in Victor Bennett's eyes.
Back then, Claire Bennett and Ava Bennett had entered Bennett Group to work at the same time. Later, a problem was exposed in Claire Bennett's design draft, causing that entire batch of jewelry designs to be recalled. At the time, all the publicity had already been prepared. Bennett Group lost a large sum of money, and its reputation was ruined too.
Claire Bennett, the designer behind it, was pushed straight into the eye of the storm.
He had been thinking of Claire Bennett's safety when he told her to stay home and rest properly, to let the matter cool down quietly and wait until the uproar had passed.
He had never expected Claire Bennett to be so unwilling to admit defeat and to keep going against him.
Later, their relationship became more and more strained, and Claire Bennett even spoke rudely to Hannah Bennett, her stepmother. He hadn't been able to control his temper either.
Although he had stripped Claire Bennett of her status as the family's daughter, she was still his blood-related daughter.
"Boheng, since Claire Bennett wants to cut ties with you, why do you have to keep fawning over her? If you ask me, just forget it. Even if you want to be good to her, she won't accept it."
Hannah Bennett's voice pulled Victor Bennett back out of his memories.