The Cherished Wife (Noelle and Charles)

Charles scrunched his forehead. "Chill. Don't sweat it." He gave Noelle's shoulder a reassuring pat. "He won't corner you like that again."

"Really?" Noelle was taken aback, sensing that something was off.

Maxwell did not seem to hate her, he was just dead set against her being with Charles.

Clarisse had made her feelings crystal clear when she came looking for Noelle-she could not stand her and did not want her anywhere near Charles, but Maxwell? He was a total enigma to Noelle.

"Come on, when have I ever lied to you? Let's just drop it for now. So, anything exciting happened at the construction site with Brian today?"

"Well, to be honest, I'm not sure. Mr. Parker and I had just gotten back to the Colossus Group, and before we could even head upstairs, your grandpa whisked me away," Noelle said with a helpless shrug. "But Mr. Parker did say something about you not wanting to open up the project for bidding, right?"

"Yep!" Charles confirmed with a nod. "I never planned to let it go to bid in the first place!"

"So, you were set on teaming up with Lennon Group from the get-go?"

"Not exactly! This time... it's kind of like doing Peter a solid," Charles said with a smirk. "Anything else you're curious about?" He gently ran his fingers through Noelle's hair, and she shook her head. "Feeling hungry?"

Noelle patted her belly and nodded. "Starving!"

"I'll whip something up!" Charles declared, shedding his coat and rolling up his sleeves as he made his way to the kitchen.

Sean had been watching Noelle and Charles the whole time, and he could not resist shaking his head with a tsk. "You two are just too much."

Noelle turned to him, her cheeks tinged with pink. "Mr. Smith!"

"Okay, okay, I'll zip it," Sean said, raising his hands with a chuckle. "But you should start calling me 'brother' next time," he teased. "It's not every day I get to one-up Charles. Man, does it feel good!" Noelle could not help but let out a snort of laughter, leaving Sean totally at a loss for words. "What's up? Does it bother you to call me 'brother'?"

"No way. I'm all for it!"

Deep down, Noelle understood that Sean's attitude was all because of Charles. It was for Charles' sake that he was helping her.

Meanwhile, at the seaside villa, after

Charles and his crew had departed, Maxwell lingered for quite some time. James noticed Maxwell's troubled look and quickly approached. "Sir Hoffman... you..."

"Time to head back."

swravel

After a moment, Maxwell rose and departed the villa with James.

"Sir Hoffman, Mr. Hoffman had his guys..." James could not keep quiet. "They cut the tendons in their hands and feet..."

"Give each one 15 thousand dollars immediately as compensation!"

"Understood!"

Maxwell had definitely lost this round, but that was not his real aim today. He had just wanted to gauge Noelle's story to figure out her true background, but he had played his cards wrong. What he had not seen coming was that Noelle, who looked so much like Kelly, would make Charles issue him a warning when Charles had never lifted a finger for Kelly back in the day.

"Find out where Kelly is. After all these years away, it's time she came back. And what's the deal with the Anderson family now? Who's running the show these days?" "Sir Hoffman, it's Grant, Flynn Anderson's son!"

"Really? Him?" Maxwell squinted. "You mean Kelly's brother?"

"That's right!"

"Okay, let's find out where Kelly's hiding. Stir up a little trouble for her. The Andersons might have kicked her out for three years, but she's still one of them. They won't just sit back and do nothing." en FindNovel