Chapter 447: Tomorrow, I'm Marrying Him (2)

“Yeah, bye!”

She was practically fleeing in defeat.

She ran all the way back to her apartment without stopping. Riley Caldwell was in the living room playing video games. When he saw her, he called out, “Sis, you’re back!”

He watched her rush into her room, her face looking a little flushed. ‘Something’s fishy,’ he thought.

Riley Caldwell put down his controller, walked to her door, and knocked. “Sis, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” Nancy Hughes’s voice was muffled from under her covers. Her chest felt tight and heavy.

He hadn’t seen her look so flustered in a long time. Something was definitely up.

‘It must have something to do with that guy she’s been on dates with.’ Riley’s mind started racing. ‘Do blind dates really move this fast?’

Nancy Hughes’s thoughts were a tangled mess, not just because of that figure from her past, but also because of Zachary Stone.

She had an indescribable feeling about this man.

He was a good person—witty and a great conversationalist. She could see him as a friend, but nothing more.

Or maybe it was because there was someone important buried deep in her heart, someone she could never forget, and that was why no one else could get in.

Most people who dated after being set up would eventually choose to get married. Maybe she could give it a try.

And Zachary Stone wouldn’t be a bad choice for a husband.

After that, she continued to go out on dinner dates with Zachary Stone, and it always felt nice.

Nancy Hughes found him easy to talk to, but whenever Zachary tried to take things a step further, she would pull back.

This retreat was completely out of her control, an involuntary reaction.

Today, the same thing happened again, leaving them both in an awkward situation.

Zachary Stone was driving her home. Nancy Hughes thought for a moment before saying, “I’m really sorry about what happened today.”

“If you’re never willing to accept me, then I don’t think I could wait a lifetime and ever see the day you do,” Zachary Stone said seriously.

The past few times Nancy had pulled away, he had always said he could wait.

After all, their relationship wasn’t that close yet. It was understandable that Nancy Hughes couldn’t accept him right away.

“…No, it’s not that, I…” Nancy Hughes was flustered, opening her mouth but not knowing how to explain.

Her avoidance felt automatic, like it wasn’t her own body…

“Nancy Hughes, I’m talking about your heart. I really want to build a future with you, but you won’t even give me that chance. Just give me one chance, just once. Open your heart to me, okay?”

“…”

The word “okay” was stuck in her throat. She fell silent, lowering her gaze, not daring to look at Zachary Stone.

He chuckled softly. “It’s late. You should go on up.”

“…Goodbye!”

It seemed Zachary’s words had struck a nerve. She was in a terrible mood.

This awful mood carried over to the next day at work.

Recently, something major had happened at her company. An important client had bought in, becoming their new major shareholder.

The company’s business was constantly expanding, but they hadn’t hired enough new staff to keep up. With the team short-handed, she was shouldering the workload of two people.

She had just arrived at the office and finished a team meeting. Before she could even catch her breath, a colleague beside her nudged her. “Come on, time for the big meeting!”

Gathering her materials, she replied, “I’ll be right there!”

The company’s major shareholder was coming in for a meeting today, which was also a chance for everyone to get acquainted.

Once she had her things together, she grabbed her notebook and headed to the conference room.

A colleague had saved her a seat and waved her over when she walked in.

Within minutes, all the employees had arrived, including the various department managers.

She had just sat down, her mind still preoccupied with her earlier work. She gripped her pen and kept doodling in her notebook.

Suddenly, the conference room fell silent. She pinched the end of her pen, staring at a half-finished sketch, her brow furrowed in dissatisfaction.

Her colleague suddenly nudged her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “Nancy Hughes, look! The new major shareholder is incredibly handsome!”

She gave a noncommittal response, uninterested in the so-called handsome man. She flipped to a new page and started sketching again.

Her colleague, who loved to share her opinions, excitedly tugged on her arm. “He’s seriously hot! Just take a look!”

‘I really don’t care about handsome guys,’ she wanted to say.

Riley Caldwell back home was quite good-looking, and Zachary Stone was handsome too, so…

However, the moment she lifted her head and saw the man sitting at the head of the table, she froze.

To her colleague, Nancy Hughes’s reaction could be summed up in one phrase: her eyes were glued to him, completely unable to look away from the major shareholder.

The man across the room lifted his head, his sharp gaze sweeping over everyone. She subconsciously tightened her grip on her pencil, her knuckles turning white from the force.

‘How could it be him?!’

The moment their eyes met and clashed in mid-air, her heart gave a long-forgotten flutter that spread through her entire body.

Like an ostrich, she quickly ducked her head, avoiding his gaze.

Even so, she could still feel an intense gaze fixed on her from above.

She subtly adjusted her hair. ‘It must be my imagination,’ she thought.

‘A year has passed. He’s probably married to Rose Everett by now.’

The meeting dragged on for three full hours. The manager’s presentation was impassioned, but Nancy Hughes’s mind was in complete chaos.

Those three hours felt longer than the entire past year, because with a certain someone in the room, she felt even more…

‘But why is he here? A company like this should be insignificant to him.’

She was still in a daze even after leaving the conference room.

Her colleague saw that she was still out of it. “Do you have to be like this? It’s just a handsome guy!”

Her reaction was way over the top.

Nancy Hughes forced a laugh. “No, it’s not that. I’m suddenly not feeling well.”

“Not well? What’s wrong?”

“I think I might have caught a chill last night. I’m a little dizzy,” she said. “I’m going to ask the manager for some time off in a bit.”

In the entire year she had worked there, Nancy Hughes had never once taken sick leave. No matter how unwell she felt, she always pushed through until the end of the day.

Hearing this, her colleague figured it must be more serious than any previous illness and that she really couldn’t go on. “If you’re sick, you need to rest. Girl, if you don’t take care of yourself, who will?”

She glanced at the manager’s office. That man was still in there. If she went to ask for leave now, she would definitely run into him.

“Could you ask for leave for me? I really don’t feel well!”

“Sure, go on!” Her colleague didn’t think much of it and readily agreed.

She grabbed her bag and quickly left the company.

When she got home, she discovered something incredibly frustrating: she couldn’t find her keys. They must have been left at the office.

She was standing right at her front door but couldn’t get in. With no other choice, she had to call Riley Caldwell.

Riley Caldwell was in class and couldn’t answer the phone. He couldn’t just skip class, so he told her to come to campus and get the keys from him.

She had only been to Riley’s university once before—for his first day of school. Today was the second time.

She had long forgotten the route she’d taken a year ago and wasn’t familiar with the campus, let alone some “darn Building Three” he had mentioned.

After asking numerous passersby, she finally found Building Three.

She waited downstairs for ten minutes until the bell rang, and a huge wave of students poured out of the building.

It was too crowded, so she stood under the shade of a tree to avoid the sun.

“Sis, I’m over here!” Riley Caldwell spotted her as soon as he came out of the building.

Nancy Hughes happened to be on the phone with a client, discussing a draft. She held out her hand to Riley, signaling for the keys.

“Sis, since you’re here, let’s have lunch together!” Riley Caldwell said. “I’ll call Cecilia to join us.”

She had taken the bus over and was indeed tired, so she agreed to grab a bite near the campus.

Cecilia Lynch got the call from her boyfriend and rushed over. The three of them agreed to meet at a restaurant.

“Nancy, what brings you here today?”

“She forgot her keys and had to come get mine,” Riley Caldwell interjected.

Nancy Hughes shot him a glare, a fierce look that told him to shut up. Then she turned to Cecilia Lynch with a gentle smile. “Has Riley been bullying you lately? If he has, you tell me, and I’ll sort him out for you!”

“Sis, do I look like that kind of guy?” Riley said with dramatic flair, sending a flirtatious glance toward Cecilia Lynch. “I don’t have enough time in the day to dote on Cecilia!”

Riley Caldwell really was the type of guy who doted on his girlfriend. She was always seeing the two of them acting all lovey-dovey.

‘Alright, I’ve been in love before. I know what this feeling is like,’ she thought.

But the moment she thought about romance, the face of the man she had met that morning popped into her head, and her mood soured.

‘How did he end up here? And how did he become the major shareholder of my company?’

After lunch, she took the keys and went home.

She had never taken a day off in all her time at the company. Now that she had this rare break, she planned to go home and get some proper sleep.

She slept soundly all afternoon, which led to insomnia that night.

‘Dylan Heston is just a shareholder. He doesn’t need to be at the office every day. Besides, with so many other companies under his belt, he probably won’t come to ours often.’

‘So, I probably won’t see him again.’

That’s what she told herself, but she still had a bad feeling. She pulled the covers over her head.

She had no idea what time she finally fell asleep, but she was jolted awake by her morning alarm and scrambled out of bed.

She changed into a smart, professional outfit and hurried to the office.

On the bus, she received a text from Zachary Stone, wishing her a good morning.

The bus was so crowded she could barely move, and with the noise inside the cabin, she didn’t hear the text notification.

It wasn’t until she got to the office that she saw Zachary’s message.

She stepped into the breakroom and called Zachary Stone. “Sorry, I was on the bus just now. It was a bit crowded.”

“No problem. Dinner tonight?”

She thought about it. ‘Zachary is right. You can’t just stay in one place, unable to move forward.’

‘Besides, I need to take a big step forward right now to escape from certain things.’

“Okay.”

“I’ll come pick you up tonight.”

She spent the whole morning on edge, constantly distracted at work. She kept glancing around the office, checking to see if anyone was nearby.