Don't Mess with the Girl with Candy novel Chapter 75

Juniper: [You there?]

When Juniper’s message came through, Shanley was in the middle of an international conference call. The high-level executives on the receiving end of his verbal assault were all hunched over, barely daring to breathe. The atmosphere in the massive conference room, built to hold a thousand people, was suffocatingly tense.

“Ding-ding—”

The cheerful notification sound shattered the silence. In an instant, every head shot up. Who was suicidal enough to leave their phone’s volume on during a meeting with Mr. Schwartz?

Their eyes scanned the room, finally landing on the man at the head of the table. The impeccably dressed, ice-cold man was holding his phone, a slight curve to his lips and a soft light in his eyes. He was unmistakably smiling.

What? They must have been hallucinating from the stress. How could Mr. Schwartz be smiling? This was the first time any of them had ever seen him smile!

Who on earth was on the other end of that message?

“This meeting is over.” Shanley stood up and, without a second thought, strode out of the room, leaving a crowd of bewildered executives in his wake.

“Mr. Schwartz was smiling!” someone whispered. “The message must have been from a girl!”

“Are you saying Mr. Schwartz is dating someone?”

“We need to find out who the future Mrs. Schwartz is. If we get on her good side now, maybe she can talk him down the next time he’s on a rampage,” one executive declared, clutching his chest and taking a deep breath. “My heart can’t take much more of this.”

“I wonder which socialite managed to melt our ice-cold president’s heart.”

...

Once out of the conference room, Shanley replied to Juniper: [What’s wrong?]

It was the first time the girl had ever reached out to him on her own. The smile on his face was impossible to hide.

Juniper: [Something came up and I need a guardian. Can you help me out?]

She had just started school and didn’t want to worry Saskia. But she couldn’t get Salma off her back without a guardian. It was a pain.

“Okay,” Juniper nodded, walking inside with a blank expression.

As they approached the interview room, they saw a balding, pot-bellied man yelling at three adults. “Where are they? Got the guts to hit someone but not to admit it! I’m telling you, you hurt my son, and you’re not getting away with this!”

“Hmph!” The man who spoke next was Qadir’s father. He was no pushover. He slammed his hand on the table and retorted, “The investigation isn’t even finished, so don’t you dare accuse my son.”

“I know my boy. Sure, his grades are terrible, his habits are bad, and all he does is mess around, but his character is solid,” he declared. “I’d never believe he’d start a fight for no reason.”

“My Queenie is a good girl. She would never do something like this.”

“And Dolce is too timid to even think about fighting.”

The three parents stood up, fiercely defending their children.

“Are you kidding me? Then how did my son end up looking like that?”