Chapter 298
A Chance Encounter at the Airport
A puzzled look appeared in her eyes.
Julian Sterling had said he was away on a business trip and was probably traveling with President Sterling. It didn't seem likely that he'd be out with Ruby Sterling, so she must have seen wrong.
After waiting in line for a while, it was finally Claire Bennett's turn. She took the passport the staff member handed back to her and entered the jet bridge to board.
In the first-class seats, Ruby Sterling and Julian Sterling sat down.
At that moment, the other passengers began boarding as well. Ruby Sterling, sharp-eyed, spotted Claire Bennett's figure. Her expression changed drastically at once, and she grabbed the blanket beside her and threw it over Julian Sterling's head.
No one knew what kind of sudden insanity had seized Ruby Sterling. Just as Julian Sterling was about to pull the blanket off his head, Ruby Sterling lunged over and covered him up tightly, nearly strangling him to the point of suffocation.
Julian Sterling: "..."
Claire Bennett didn't notice Ruby Sterling with her back turned to her, or Julian Sterling with his head covered. She walked straight deeper into the cabin.
Seeing that they had narrowly escaped disaster, Ruby Sterling finally felt the heartbeat that had nearly leaped out of her chest begin to slow down.
Wuwuwu... that scared me to death!!
Only after quite a while did Julian Sterling finally shake off Ruby Sterling, that clingy leech.
His brows knitted tightly, and he said unhappily, "Ruby Sterling, what are you doing?"
"Shh!" Ruby Sterling lowered her voice and said in Julian Sterling's ear, "We're screwed. It's Claire. Why is she on this flight too? If she spots us, how are we supposed to explain it?"
Hearing that, Julian Sterling looked puzzled.
Wasn't Claire Bennett supposed to be at work today? Why had she appeared here, and why had she boarded a plane bound for New York?
He took out his phone and sent Wes Mercer a message asking about Claire Bennett.
In less than five minutes, Wes Mercer's reply came back.
He said he'd gone to Maison Verne to ask, and Claire Bennett had taken three days off.
Julian Sterling put his phone away somewhat helplessly. Although he had no idea why Claire Bennett had suddenly decided to go to New York, the worse problem now was that he absolutely couldn't let her know his whereabouts. Most importantly, he couldn't let her see him together with Ruby Sterling, or nothing would be easy to explain.
Only now did Julian Sterling realize what it meant to lift a rock only to drop it on your own foot.
One lie needed countless more lies to cover it up.
...
Claire Bennett sat down in her seat.
Just then, a flight attendant walked up to Claire Bennett and said apologetically, "Ms. Bennett, we're very sorry. Because this flight was oversold, the passenger assigned to your seat has already boarded. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience."
After hearing that, Claire Bennett's brows furrowed tightly.
To maximize returns on every flight and avoid wasting seats, airlines sometimes oversell tickets.
In cases like this, someone would usually be persuaded by the flight crew to leave the flight and travel later.
Claire Bennett was that lucky person.
If your luck was really bad and there were no seats on later flights, making a change would be impossible, and you'd just have to swallow your bad luck and get a refund.
Not only would it delay your schedule, it would also put you in a pretty bad mood.
New York was an international metropolis, and flight seats had always been extremely tight. Claire Bennett had only managed to book a ticket by reserving a week in advance.
If it were canceled now, she definitely wouldn't be able to buy another ticket.
Claire Bennett's brows drew together slightly as she asked, "How do you plan to resolve this?"
The flight attendant kept smiling and continued, "A passenger in business class canceled their trip, so we can upgrade you for free now. We can provide you with a better seat or flight, along with corresponding financial compensation. Would that be acceptable to you?"
Hearing that, the tension Claire Bennett had been holding finally eased. As long as she could get to New York on schedule, she could accept any solution.
Besides, going from economy class to business class meant upgraded service and seating. No normal person would object to that.
So she nodded and said, "No problem."
"May I ask where your luggage is? I'll carry it for you."
After retrieving her suitcase, Claire Bennett followed the flight attendant toward the business-class cabin in front.
At that moment, Ruby Sterling, who was seated, had just let out a sigh of relief and finally relaxed into her seat.
What had just happened had really scared her to death. Luckily, they had perfectly avoided Claire Bennett and hadn't been discovered by her.
There were four seats in a row in business class. Their family had bought tickets in front-and-back seats. She and Julian Sterling were sitting together, and across the aisle the remaining two seats were empty.
At this moment, Ruby Sterling felt a little fortunate. Thankfully, they weren't in the same cabin class, or this really would have turned into a full-blown disaster.
Anyway, once the plane was in the air, everyone would stay in their seats and not move around, so they wouldn't run into each other. And when they got off the plane, Ruby and the others would disembark first, so it was unlikely Claire Bennett would run into them.
She had even reminded Father Sterling and Mother Sterling to be careful when getting off the plane later and absolutely not let Claire Bennett see them.
But before she could be happy for even a few seconds, she saw that the flight attendant was actually bringing Claire Bennett over!!
Ruby Sterling instantly went dumbstruck!
What the hell! What is going on?? Why is the flight attendant bringing Claire Bennett over?