Chapter 154
Frederick hadn’t been able to reach Maeve all day yesterday. First thing in the morning, he parked outside her apartment building to wait.
After sitting in his car for nearly an hour with no sign of her, he reluctantly drove to Yvette’s Fragrance Studio to track her down.
Stepping through the front doors, his sharp gaze swept the room.
The studio was practically empty. It looked like a failing business on the verge of bankruptcy.
He couldn’t fathom what Maeve was supposedly accomplishing here.
Wasn’t going home to be the pampered Mrs. Fairchild infinitely better than rotting in this dead-end shop?
Pulling his gaze back, Frederick strode over to the reception desk and rapped his knuckles against the wood.
“Where is Maeve p>
The receptionist looked up. Caught completely off guard by the devastatingly handsome man standing before her, she stared blankly, utterly forgetting how to speak.
It wasn’t until she met the chilling, impatient storm brewing in Frederick’s eyes that she snapped out of her daze with a violent shudder.
“Are… are you looking to commission a custom fragrance, sir? We have a bit of a backlog right now, but you can place an order, and we’ll prioritize it as soon as the current batches are done p>
“I am Maeve’s husband,” Frederick stated, his voice laced with icy displeasure.
“Where is she? Tell her to come out here p>
The receptionist’s eyes slowly widened.
Maeve’s husband?
She had no idea someone as young and beautiful as Ms. Sinclair was already married.
When Frederick was met with continued silence, he raised an eyebrow, the frost in his gaze deepening.
Terrified, the receptionist immediately dropped her head and stuttered out a reply.
“Ms. Sinclair had a family emergency. She left first thing this morning p>
A family emergency?
Frederick furrowed his brows. He turned on his heel and strode out the door, already pulling out his phone to make a call.
Watching his broad, imposing back disappear, the receptionist suddenly frowned.
Wait a minute.
If he was her husband, how did he not know where she was?
What a joke.
Feeling increasingly unsettled by the strange encounter, she quickly pulled out her phone and texted Maeve a warning about the visit.
Meanwhile, at the Fairchild Group headquarters.
Frederick sat behind his massive mahogany desk, casually spinning a fountain pen between his long fingers as Samuel Vance delivered his report.
“Your wife’s family is indeed dealing with a significant crisis, Boss p>
“Marcus Sinclair’s lumber mill recently shipped a batch of premium agarwood that earned them stellar industry reviews. The resulting surge in business attracted the jealousy of their competitors, who decided to play dirty p>
Frederick’s expression hardened.
“How dirty p>
Samuel answered promptly.
“A rival company hired a local thug to stage a horrific workplace accident on Mr. Sinclair’s property The man’s leg was crushed by falling timber. He’s now refusing to admit fault, blaming the mill’s poor safety regulations, and is suing Mr. Sinclair for over a million dollars in damages p>
“Mr. Sinclair has been scrambling to handle the fallout, but the delays have infuriated his top client. They’re demanding ten million dollars in breach-of-contract penalties p>
“It’s highly likely your wife rushed home to deal with this exact disaster p>
Listening to the breakdown, Frederick reached a confident conclusion.
“She can’t handle a mess like that p>
“Will you be stepping in to assist her personally, sir?” Samuel asked.
Frederick tossed the fountain pen onto his desk with a quiet clatter.
“There’s no rush p>
Samuel blinked. “Sir p>
“Maeve has spent the last few years living a perfectly sheltered life under my protection,” Frederick said smoothly. “Yet she continually convinces herself that being with me, being part of the Fairchild family, is a burden. I don’t blame her for being naive. But I certainly won’t step in to solve this easily. Once she hits a dead end and realizes she has absolutely no other options, she’ll finally understand that I am the only person in this world she can truly rely on p>
Once that happened, she would stop throwing the word ‘divorce’ around every time she got upset.
Samuel couldn’t help but offer a word of caution.
“I believe your wife is quite close with Jonathan Giles. She might ask him for the money instead p>
Frederick shot him a lethal glare.
“You’re talking entirely too much today, Samuel p>