The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 1628 Pretending To Agree To The Plan

Holley was panting as she arrived at the cafe. So the moment she saw Leila, she expressed her irritation, "Oh, Leila! Do you know that it almost killed me to get here in such a short time?"

"How long do you think I can afford to stay away? Now that Charles is in a coma, I will only earn Melissa's wrath if I stay away for a long time. And that will just get in my way of getting inside Shining Company. Maybe I will then lose my last chance to get into that company. Do you want that to happen?" Leila reasoned with Holley, expressing her displeasure as well. 'I didn't question her once for asking me out on such short notice. But she is blaming me for asking her to hurry to the cafe?' Leila angrily thought to herself.

Holley realized that her words had offended Leila; hence, she checked herself at once. She hid her dissatisfaction as she reasoned in her mind that it was important for her to remain cordial with Leila at the moment.

'I need Leila's help right now. I can't afford to make her angry. Although I've paid her well for doing numerous things for me in the past, it seems like she doesn't care about that money at all. Last time, she even laughed at me when I threatened not to pay her again. There must be something bothering her that I am not aware of. So I'd better play it nice and be respectful towards her for now.'

"No, no. Sorry, Leila. I didn't mean to blame you for that. I was only nervous about something. I didn't mean to say that. By the way, haven't you got into the Shining Company, yet?" Holley replied in an amicable tone. She was not in the mood to argue with Leila now, so she changed the topic.

Leila shook her head in frustration and replied, "No, I haven't. But that's not the reason why you called me here today. Just stop beating around the bush and tell me what you want. You said there's something urgent. What's up?"

"Look at this," Holley said as she furtively placed the file she got from Ferry in front of Leila. On the way to the cafe, Holley had thought about how to convince Leila to complete the task. She knew very well tha if she alone asked Leila to blow that project off on her own, Leila would never agree to do that. After all, Leila thought of herself as the future Mistress of Shining Company, and she would not do anything that could hurt the interests of Shining Company.

"What is it?" Leila asked with a frown as she picked up the file and flipped it open.

As she carefully read through the file, she was stunned. Her eyes went wide open. "Holley! How did you get this file?" Leila stared back at Holley slack-jawed.

"That's not important, Leila. The important thing is that we already have it. Although it's just a piece of paper, you must know how important it is to the Shining Company. Do you know what this project is?" Holley asked inquisitively.

Leila nodded as she scanned the pages with her roving eyes.

'It's a project that is worth billions of dollars. It must, therefore, be a project crucial to the Shining Company. I'm not a fool. I know how important it is!' Leila thought to herself. Holley saw Leila's excited reaction and persuaded in a low, yet excited voice, "Great. Then, you know, you can secretly blow this project off..."

Holley's suggestions felt like whiplash to Leila. She retaliated immediately, "What are you talking about?! Do you honestly think that I will do that? You must be insane!" Before Holley could finish speaking, Leila interrupted her and sprang up from her seat angrily. She flung the file on the table and immediately started to leave the cafe.

Holley grabbed her arm suddenly and pleaded, "Wait! Wait, Leila. Let me finish explaining! Please, be seated. Please."

Holley could not allow Leila to leave so easily. After all, she was her last hope, her last ally who could help her destroy Charles and Sheryl. Leila twisted her arm to free herself from Holley's grip but failed to do so. Hence, she sulkily sat down again. Although she didn't leave immediately, she now looked irked. As soon as Leila sat down, Holley started persuading her in earnest again. "Listen carefully, Leila. After you sabotage this project, you can fix it up again. Think about it! If you go to Charles and tell him that you have solved the most difficult problem facing the Shining Company, what will Charles think of you then?" "You mean..." Leila hesitated. A frown appeared on her face. It seemed that she was in deep thought. After a while, her anger disappeared. She said to Holley seriously, "You mean I can win Charles' faith in me with the help of this project? After this, he will understand my worth. I can make him realize how important I am to him! How loyal I am towards him! And he will finally believe in me?" Leila thought the plan through carefully.

"Yes, that is exactly what I meant," Holley said, heaving a sigh. A smile appeared on her face as she could see Leila slowly falling into her trap. After all, she had put a lot of hope on Leila.

"Okay. Deal!" As Leila replied, a wide smile appeared on her face. All the clouds seemed to have disappeared from her mind. She then looked at Holley with gratitude.

"So, what do you plan to do?" Holley asked. She couldn't wait to know how Leila was going to sabotage this project.

As long as this project failed, Ferry would spare her, this time. Hence, it was important for Holley to make sure that this project did indeed fail.

"It is not an easy task. You have to give me some time to come up with a good plan for it," Leila said as she looked at Holley in disdain. 'Who does she think she is? Why would I reveal the plan to her? Does she think me a fool or something?' Leila mentally complained.

Leila glared at Holley and kept her lips tightly zipped shut.

"Yes, yes. Take your time. When you come up with a plan, remember to tell me about it, so that I can help you," Holley said innocently. Holley lifted the coffee mug and took a sip to cover her nervousness. "Okay. I will. Don't worry about that. Well, it's time for me to go. Bye," Leila said curtly as she excused herself and walked out of the cafe.

Both of them had their own vested interests and their respective secrets, yet Leila seemed to have had an upper hand in her meeting with Holley this time. She had seen through Holley and knew what she wanted.

'Interesting! I didn't know Holley to be such a nice person as she is presenting herself to be. Why would she suddenly be so kind as to help me win Charles' love?

All she wants is to use me to destroy Shining Company, ' Leila pondered. She knew quite well that Holley just wanted to take advantage of her. Yet, she didn't show her cleverness in front of Holley and pretended to agree with her plan. 'So, let's see what she has planned for us. It hardly matters what she does, since I'm in control of everything right now. The Shining Company and Charles will all be mine very soon!'

Later when Leila reached the hospital, she found a nurse changing the medicine for Charles. She walked over and asked her, "Nurse, how is he?"

"He's in good condition right now, and he is recovering well. If you want to know more details, you might want to ask a doctor about it," the nurse replied politely. After she was done with her task, the nurse left the room.

Leila looked at Charles, who was lying still on the hospital bed and mused, 'I don't know what will happen this time. Will I be able to win him over this time?'

Then, she leaned closer and mumbled to Charles in a low voice, "Charles, trust me. I don't want to hurt you at all, but I'm just so eager to be with you. I have to cooperate with Holley. But don't worry, Charles. I won't let this project fail. I know that you see this project as a very important one for the Shining Company. So, please, wake up soon, and we can together make this project successful. How about that?" As she started speaking to Charles, all her wishes felt like they were coming alive in front of her eyes. She could visualize a beautiful future with Charles and as the Mistress of Dream Garden. The anticipated joy reflected on her face.

But after a while, she stared back at Charles, who was lying motionlessly. His apparent inattentiveness left her feeling frustrated, and she stopped speaking with him further.

She knew that Melissa wouldn't be coming back any time soon, and Charles was even doing well in his room with the nurses around to help. So, she decided to go upstairs and get some rest in the VIP room. Soon after Leila left, Sheryl came over.

It was the first day that Charles was transferred from the Intensive Care Unit since he had been admitted to the hospital. Sheryl could not wait to see him.

Sheryl stood by the side of his bed and looked at his face affectionately. She could finally touch his face now. Looking at him silently, she marked how his face still looked a little pale. He looked weak. Tears pooled in her eyes as she looked down at his face.

On the one hand, she was overwhelmed that she could touch Charles' face once again, while, on the other hand, her heart bled to see him suffering.

"Charles, wake up..." Sheryl whispered in a trembling voice. Slowly she broke into an uncontrollable sob.

After a while, Sheryl decided to leave. The moment she saw Charles, her mind would get flooded with thoughts about the things that had happened between them. She could not take it anymore. So she just turned around and ran from the room.

'I thought that I could just come by and visit Charles, but I couldn't. I am not as strong as I thought I could be,' she thought to herself as she ran away.

She ran with only one breath until she came out of the hospital and stopped there. Finally, she stopped and gasped for a fresh breath of air.

After a while, when she felt that she had calmed down, she thought of going back to the hospital. But just as she was about to turn around to go back inside, she spotted Melissa at the gate of the hospital. Sheryl realized that Melissa must be coming to the hospital to visit Charles. She didn't want to meet Melissa at that moment, so she gave up on her plan to go back inside.

In a big house outside the city, Rachel was waiting for Bernard to come back home.

Bernard had been out all day.

Ever since Bernard met Tom the other day, he left home very early in the morning and returned home very late at night. Sometimes, Rachel felt that she hadn't seen Bernard for a long time, even though they lived under the same roof.

Rachel knew that Bernard was trying his best to complete his task. If they did not help Tom to kill Ferry, Tom would not spare their lives.

Whenever Rachel thought of that, she became extremely nervous.

She felt that she should do something. She couldn't just let Bernard do everything on his own. Bernard would never be able to handle a gang all by himself. Hence, Rachel had to get in on the action if they wanted to swim through the situation successfully.