Love's Cunning Ruse novel Chapter 70

Karl mistakenly thought Kieran was off to pick a fight with Mrs. Hernandez, so he tailed after him. He feared Mr. Hernandez would lose his cool and scare Mrs. Hernandez away. But to his surprise, Kieran just went out to have lunch, then headed to a bakery and ordered a small orange-flavoured cake.

Next, he delivered the cake to Julie in the name of Daphne.

After they left the bakery, Karl was ready to drive Kieran back to the office, but Kieran asked him to get out of the car, "Go back to the office and let Julie clear out storage room number four to use as her office."

"What?" Karl was stuck at the car door. Was he asking Mrs. Hernandez to clean the storage room herself? Wasn't he still pampering her yesterday? What's with the sudden change of attitude today?

Karl looked at Kieran, puzzled. But Kieran's car was already gone.

He had no choice but to return to the office and, per Mr. Hernandez's instructions, told Julie to clean storage room number four.

Julie didn't object. She was more accustomed to this than Kieran's sudden intimacy.

Lunchtime was approaching. Julie had already arranged to have lunch with Porter, so she had to put aside cleaning the storage room temporarily.

She arrived at the restaurant where she'd arranged to meet Porter. As soon as Porter ordered, Julie said, "Mr. Porter, does our contract with Mr. Hernandez mention a penalty for breach of contract?"

Porter, who had just picked up his fork, paused, "Why do you ask?"

"How much would we have to pay Kieran if we switched lawyers?" Julie asked directly.

Porter was so startled he dropped his fork, "What's the matter with you? It's clearly written in the contract that if you quit on your own, you have to pay the full penalty, which is three times the remuneration!"

"What?"

Porter, emotionally charged, sat next to Julie, "This case is simple, just a common news infringement case. With Mr. Hernandez's status, winning this lawsuit is a piece of cake. You really don't need to chicken out. Do you think the bonus I gave you is not enough?"

"It's not about that." Julie decided to be honest with Porter, "I thought I could stay by his side without any reservations, but now I realize I was wrong."

"I've always wanted to ask you something." Porter looked at Julie hesitantly.

Julie gave Porter a sideways glance, "Go ahead."

"Mr. Hernandez publicly admitted at the Ray Group dinner that he had an ex-wife. If I remember correctly, you disappeared after graduating from college. I'm wondering, Mr. Hernandez's ex-wife is?"

"I know her." Julie had already predicted what he was going to ask. He would surely keep asking if she didn't answer him; if she admitted it, she wasn't sure if she could trust Porter.

So, she chose an ambiguous answer. That should shut Porter up.

Lunch was not enjoyable, so she returned to Simpo Co. before the end of the lunch break.

Back at the office, Julie continued to tidy up the storeroom.

As she passed the CEO's office, she overheard Tina quietly asking Karl, "Karl, what's the relationship between Mr. Hernandez and Attorney Abraham? Please tell me so I don't accidentally offend Attorney Abraham."

Hearing this, Julie paused. She was curious how Karl would answer.

However, after waiting for two seconds, she heard Karl's answer with a hint of amusement, "They're alumni."

"But I think they're more than just alumni. I've seen them interact in strange ways twice already. I feel like their relationship isn't that simple."

"What do you think their relationship is?" Karl asked back.

Tina carefully replied, "Lovers?"

Then she denied her own answer, "I heard from colleagues in the office that Attorney Abraham is Mr. Dylan's wife."

"Mr. Dylan is single." Karl looked at Tina displeased, "As the chief secretary assistant, you shouldn't spread such rumors."

Hearing Karl's serious tone, Tina immediately shut her mouth and didn't say anything else.

After Karl and Tina finished their conversation, Julie headed towards the storage room.

Kieran didn't come to the office for the rest of the afternoon.

After tidying up the storeroom, Julie started gathering evidence for the lawsuit. Creative Nexus Media immediately retracted all previous online reports after receiving a statement from Kieran posted under his name on Simpo Co.'s official Twitter account.

However, upon hearing that Kieran was suing Creative Nexus Media, many netizens actively posted screenshots of the news previously published by Creative Nexus Media in the comment section of Simpo Co.'s tweet, so gathering evidence wasn't difficult.

The lighting in the storage room was poor, and even during the day, she had to turn on the lights.

Karl gave Julie a laptop. She spent the entire afternoon surfing the internet in the storage room. She didn't keep track of time.