Exclusive Memory

Chapter 23 Truth

The summer breeze swept over the river behind Banquet Night Building, gently circling around the square. It took away the summer heat.

Just as her father said, life was too short and busy. People usually didn't have much time to do one thing before life ended. She didn't know if there would be a reincarnation in this world. If not, then she would only live once in her life. She wanted to live as she wished, which was not in vain.

The Fang family was so quiet. They were probably asleep.

Ashley went to the kitchen, poured a glass of water and went upstairs. She had pharyngitis. She was used to prepare a glass of water bedside table so that she could drink some water to soothe her throat when she woke up.

When she pushed the door open and entered her bedroom, she felt something was wrong. There was someone in the bedroom!

She was too late to react, "crack!" A slap across the face jolted her to drop the glass and spilt over the water.

"Huh." Her face stinging with pain, Ashley knew who she was without the need to check. Who else would be so crazy except Sheila?

"Bitch! How dare you seduce your brother-in-law!" After saying that, Sheila raised her hand and wanted to beat Ashley again.

By the dim light outside the window, Ashley grabbed Sheila's hand and gave her a slap in return. "That's what I'm saying. Francis used to be your brother-in-law. How is your feeling to seduce your brother-in-law? Is it exciting?"

"Bitch, you are a slut. Francis hates you for long time. Francis and I are true love." When she studied abroad, Ashley had practiced close combat for three years. The slap on was so hard that Sheila couldn't stand up for a while.

"Am I a slut?" Ashley shouted, "Who told you this? Francis? Did he see me sleep with another man on the wedding night? In my opinion, you two have colluded to find excuse. I never had affair with other man. Francis was the only one."

"Do you still disbelieve at this point? Well, in order to let you give up, I have to tell you the truth. " Sheila stood up and said, "Listen, Ashley. The man you slept with on your wedding night was arranged by me."

It was like a thunderbolt to Ashley.

"I have told you before. Neither your mother nor you are match for me." Sheila continued scornfully, "Yes, Francis didn't see the man who slept with you that night, but he saw the hickeys on your body and the virgin blood on the sheet. He was clear about everything."

Ashley stared at Sheila with her crisp red eyes, but the light was so dim that Sheila did not notice the expression in her eyes.

"So, stop pestering Francis anymore. He hates you very much. If you keep pestering him..." Sheila threatened, "It's hard to say whether I will find a group of men to rape you. I don't believe you have the cheek to appear in front of Francis then."

Then Sheila slammed the door and left.

Ashley was still keeping the same posture. If the hatred in her eyes could turn into a knife, she would have killed Sheila.

'Dylan, even if you are not in a hurry to watch my show, I will not let Sheila off. I'll ruin her reputation and make her want to die.

When Francis woke up at night, he saw his cell phone flash. Worrying that it was the business of his company, he took the phone over with sleepy eyes. He unlocked the phone and saw a message from Ashley.

I didn't make it clear during the daytime. Are you free tomorrow? Can we meet?

Francis didn't reply immediately. He was in a bad mood and threw the cell phone aside.

In the darkness, he suddenly thought of a lot of pictures: her amazing beauty today; her blank and helpless appearance behind the rockery and the way she walked around in Xue's house when she was pregnant with someone else's baby. Francis put his hand on his heart where he could feel jealousness and pain as well as memories of her.

He tossed and turned until dawn, unable to sleep anymore.

The next morning, when he got up and went downstairs, his mother was still angry with him and didn't talk to him. His mind was in a mess today, so he wasn't in the mood to please his mother. After dinner, he went to work. When he sat in the office, he turned out the message again, as if through it, he could see the way she thought about him at night.

Francis plucked up courage to edit a message, and made amendments before sending.

yes.

Ashley was talking with Leona about resignation in her office.

"You've done a good job here. You've just got your bonus and the basic salary has been raised. Why do you want to resign suddenly? Is it because of Kate?"

When it came to Kate, she was more and more silly recently. She ignored everyone except Leona, as if she was the second in command in the Department. Everyone was afraid of her relationship with the boss, so they all choked with silent fury.

"It's not a problem with Kate. No matter what happened to her, it won't have much impact on my work. It's my own opinion that there's no further prospect of this work."

"Is it about your salary? I can talk to the HR about it for you." Leona really liked to work with Ashley, as she always knew how to handle things properly and sensibly. The key point was that she was really helpful, not like those insincere people.

"It's not about the money," Ashley was so glad that she had a rich father, otherwise she wouldn't be so unrestrained to resign.

"You are my major headache." Leona shook her head and said, "I can't stop you if you insist on leaving. But according to our company rules, if you resign now, you have to wait a month before going through the procedures. Do you know that?"

"I understand."

"Well, I accept your resignation. You can go to inform the human resource department."

Getting out of Leona's office, Ashley noticed the flashing screen of his mobile phone when she went back to her desk. She unlocked her phone and saw the text from Francis.

What Dylan said was right. Francis still had feelings for her, so things would go much easier. Ashley thought for a while and replied, "Then shall we meet at the Crystal Palace? You name the time."

Francis was so nervous. He unlocked the phone to check the message. Sweats began to break out in his palms. He was even more nervous than when he courted Ashley.

He sent a message: seven o'clock in the evening.

Ashley replied, "okay.".

Holding the mobile phone in his hand, Ashley was sitting on chair to think about the next step: their relationship was already quite bad, and it was not wrong to say their relation was worse than enemy. The only chip in her hand was just a little bit of Francis' attachment to her. So the goal of the next step was to change the relation from an enemy to a common friend.

"Ashley, are you out of mind? You are not paid to sit here in a trance."

Ashley glanced at Kate and didn't say anything. She didn't want to waste her energy on someone like Kate.

Seeing that Ashley didn't refute her, Kate was quite satisfied and went to inspect other employees.

Carol slid her chair with a document in her hand and said, "Ashley, I don't understand these. Can you teach me?"

Ashley took a look at the document and didn't find anything wrong. She just came here to have a gossip with her.

"Have you heard about Kate?"

Ashley was not in the mood to deal with the company these days. She looked puzzled and asked, "what's the matter?"

Carol said with a pressed voice, "Kate was nurtured as mistress by a leader."

Ashley was shocked. Although Kate was a little bit silly, she had always put on an air of strong indignation, and Ashley didn't expect an easygoing woman like her would accept to be a mistress.

"That's why we can easily settle Dylan's matter." Then Ashley finally understood why Kate came back to work so soon. "But does she have to sacrifice herself for a job?"

Carol reasoned, "Maybe work is just an opportunity. Perhaps there are other temptations that she could not resist."

What else except money and vanity? Ashley thought in her heart, and then she asked, "Where did you get the news?"

"Who else can it be? It's someone in our company. Being a mistress should retrained herself a little bit. You know, our colleague were good at exploiting people's privacy. " Carol said with a more pressed voice, "I don't know which staff Kate had offended. It spread quickly as soon as the scandal was revealed."

Ashley looked at Kate who was not far away. It seemed Kate didn't realize that others were talking about her, or she enjoyed being discussed by others as if she was standing in the center of the world and she was the big shot in it.

Ashley suddenly pitied Kate.

Carol continued, "If she continues to do that, news will soon come to the leader's wife. Kate will end up with misery."

After talking with the HR Director, Ashley submitted her resignation letter. And then she stayed in the company all day without going out to squat on the news.

It was sunny the whole day. The wind began to blow at four o'clock in the afternoon. The wind was getting stronger and stronger, and some thinner trees even became crescent under the strong wind.

It might rain at night, thought Ashley. If she wore a dress in such a bad weather, she would be in a mess, so shirt and denim shorts would surely be more suitable for her. But Ashley wanted to leave a good impression on Francis, at least letting him know that she had paid a lot attention on him.

After thinking for a while, Ashley went to the street and bought a red above-the-knee dress. She wore a white Chiffon shirt, with a light make-up, and her long hair hanging over her shoulders. Then she went to the Crystal Palace shortly.

She used to come here with Francis in the morning, because they loved the dumplings hairy crab roe in Crystal Palace. The waitress seemed to have remembered her so they greeted her warmly. Ashley went to the table on the third floor by the lotus pond. She always dined on that table. She believed that Francis could find her.

She sat down and ordered a pot of tea. She looked at the lotus pool at dusk while waiting for him.

At 6:55, Francis arrived. From the reflection of the glass window, Ashley saw him wearing a suit and walking slowly towards her.

After calming herself down, Ashley smoothed her hair and turned around

"Oho, so you've come!"