The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 2003 Why Are You Being so Cocky

That morning, Charles woke up in his bed in his villa in Dream Garden.

Although he had barely slept a wink last night, his head felt fine.

Downstairs, Charles noticed that Nancy had already prepared quite a spread for breakfast. At the end of the table sat his mother. Melissa had already been up and waiting for her son.

"Charles, you're awake! Come and join me for breakfast." Melissa beamed at Charles. She was obviously in a good mood this morning.

Charles looked at Melissa speculatively. He nodded to acknowledge his mother's exuberant greeting before taking the seat opposite her.

As they started to dig into their breakfast feast, neither said a word to one another. An awkward silence filled the table. After a moment, Charles broke the silence. "Mother, about me and Sheryl," he began. "Can you please stop meddling and just leave it to us?"

Melissa's gut instinct was to say no to Charles. As his mother, she would always want to help his son. But as she saw how serious he was being, Melissa reluctantly agreed. She would have to stop pushing before her meddling backfired on her and her relationship with her son.

"Fine. I promise to stop meddling between you two from now on." Melissa then directed her attention to her breakfast to distract herself. She may not like agreeing with Charles, but he didn't have to see how reluctant she was in doing so.

After their uncomfortable breakfast, Charles hurried to leave for work at the Shining Company. Melissa could swear there were skid marks at how fast Charles escaped the awkwardness that was their breakfast. As soon as his son left, the gears in Melissa's head started turning. She may have promised to back away, but that didn't mean she would stop thinking about how to patch things up between her son and Sheryl.

Meanwhile, Sheryl and Isla were on a shopping spree. Bags and bags of retail therapy were shared between them, but even that couldn't help improve Sheryl's mood.

After satisfying their little shopaholic hearts, they went back to their company. As they entered their office, Isla immediately hit the couch and moaned at Sheryl, "You're doing this on purpose. You knew I'd be dead tired from my business trip for the past two days, and you still dragged me to go shopping today. You're killing me, Sheryl!"

Sheryl chuckled at Isla's prone figure. Sitting beside her friend, Sheryl mocked while massaging Isla's arms, "Aw, come on! Stop playing around, Isla. We both know you're a shopaholic. There's no shopping spree you'd ever turn down."

"Fine, guilty as charged! But this time, it was you who tempted me into going shopping. This is on you!" Isla continued whining on the couch.

Sheryl shook her head, a look of amusement on her face. "Fine! What about this: The clothes you bought today are on me. Happy?"

"Awesome! No take-backs, okay." Isla jumped out of the couch, obviously energized by Sheryl's suggestion. She widened her eyes as she peered at her friend, looking for signs that Sheryl was playing her. Sheryl nodded at Isla's adorable peering eyes, promising to keep her word.

"Ha-ha! Now you're talking!" Isla felt both excited and relieved. Sheryl was indeed being serious about her promise.

"Sure," Sheryl shrugged. "A promise is a promise, so I'll pay for them. Take your stuff and get rest some rest. Lucky you, there's not much work we have to do at the moment." After assuring Isla of her word, Sheryl pushed her friend out of her office so she could be alone with her thoughts.

As she closed the door and had the room to herself, her mood did not improve. Instead, she grew even more anxious and agitated. Things between her and Charles still bothered her. How was she going to deal with her problem with Charles?

Melissa might have started it, but now Jackson was already in the picture. Sheryl felt responsible and even a little guilty of dragging him into this mess.

Speaking of Jackson, Sheryl thought of something. She called her secretary through the intercom.

"Please make an appointment with Jackson. Tell him we still need to discuss our project with him. Let me know when he will be available for a meeting here in our office." It was a little underhanded, but Sheryl wanted to meet Jackson in her office so she could personally apologize. She couldn't think of a way to go about it without being blunt and obvious. So if doing this under the guise of a business meeting helped, then she would take the opportunity.

"Sure. I will get right on it."

As she watched her secretary go, Sheryl took a deep breath and began to think of what she would say to Jackson.

Back in the hospital, Vicky had been quiet for the past couple of days.

Any observer may think this was an attempt to appear understanding and gentle, but really, it was just Vicky trying to look patient while waiting for a visit from Charles. If he did come, she didn't want to appear rude in front of him.

But the nurses knew better. They stayed away from her, knowing she could and would erupt at any moment and blow her fuse at them for anything and everything. So before Vicky could lash out at them and injure anyone-patients, medical staff, or otherwise-they stayed away. Most especially Cassie.

Cassie hated this woman so much that she was afraid she might not be able to control herself and lash out at Vicky. So to prevent any unwanted incidents, she kept her distance.

"Cassie, what is with you lately? Don't think I didn't notice how you've been avoiding Vicky. Is there anything going on between the two of you?" Cassie was not doing a good job of avoiding Vicky. As the staff began to notice this, they also started teasing her about it. They might give her a hard time about it, but she knew they were dying inside to know the reasons why.

Unbeknownst to Cassie, her attempts to stay away from Vicky were obvious. When there's smoke, there's fire, and the nurses at the hospital could only ignore the billowing smoke for so long. "Nonsense! Why would I need to avoid her? I just don't want to see her. Difficult people like her annoy me. So I stay away from her, it's no big deal. Stop making a fuss about it!" Cassie blushed at her colleague's blunt question. She hid her embarrassment well by acting nonchalant as if nothing had ever happened between her and Vicky.

At her explanation, the nurses began to see her side. Vicky was truly being a difficult person. So the nurses all understood where Cassie was coming from. They nodded in agreement, "Guess you're right after all. Maybe we have been overthinking things between the two of you."

"Of course, you're reading too much into this. Now stop fussing around and go replace yourselves something to do. You," Cassie said, pointing to one of her colleagues. "Check on this floor today. And you, visit this old lady and check her stats. If I hear any murmurs again about this, I'll be kicking asses!" The nurses broke apart and went on with their own duties. Meanwhile, Cassie quickly got out of their sight and tried to catch her breath.

One of Cassie's colleagues, Lilian, watched as she fled their huddle before realizing it was her turn to check on Vicky today. Visibly gulping, Lilian sighed to herself. "Guess who's out of luck today? Better get this over with." She then began her tour of the day to check on patients.

With all other patients attended to and cared for, the last room beckoned at her like death to the dying. As the room of the last patient came into view, Lilian's heart began beating harder. Taking a deep breath, she knocked on Vicky's door and swung it open before the occupant could answer.

"Alright, I got it. Let's talk again some other time!" Vicky was on the phone when Lilian came in. She immediately ended the call for fear of her secret getting out. She did not trust anyone, especially a nurse who could leak her secret.

"Who told you to come in?" Vicky asked snidely, unpleasantness dripping from her ice cold voice.

Lilian started to tremble. She had knocked on the door, and that should have been enough politeness. And for goodness' sake, this was a hospital, not a hotel. It's part of being a nurse to enter rooms and check on patients. It's really illogical to restrict her from accessing any ward during her tour of the floor.

"I was..."

"I don't care. Don't you know this is a VIP ward? If I didn't ask you to come in, then you shouldn't enter. Now is that understood?" Vicky scolded Lilian, her eyes blazing with anger.

Panic began to ride Lilian's veins but, soon, calm overtook her. Out of anger, she challenged Vicky, "If you passed out, should I wait for you to come to your senses before I come in and administer first aid? Should I wait outside and let you die? Who would be held responsible if anything happened to you due to the delayed detection and rescue? Don't you care about your own life?" Lilian looked at Vicky calmly.

She stood her ground, her principles strengthening her resolve. She would not apologize. She had nothing to apologize for, anyway. As much as she could, she would try to reason out with Vicky and let her see the error of her thinking.

"What are you saying? Do you still not realize you're at fault here?" Vicky had been on a phone call, and she did not want anyone to overhear. If anyone heard what she was discussing on the phone, her reputation would be badly hurt. And she couldn't have that. Lilian's mere presence in her room already posed a threat to her, and she never responded to threats or enemies kindly.

"Please enlighten me, oh, wise one, what I did wrong exactly? This is not a fancy hotel; this is a hospital. If you don't feel comfortable here, you may as well request a transfer to another hospital. And, also, you have already been healed a long time ago. There are no more reasons for you to stay here." Vicky's attitude and rude behavior had always been a problem for Lilian. And now, with her unreasonable argument, Lilian had run out of patience. She could no longer hold back all the things she had been keeping inside her.

"Say that again! I dare you!" Vicky glared at Lilian. If looks could kill, Lilian would have been cold and bleeding out on the hospital floor now.

Lilian faltered at Vicky's glare. She could barely speak from her fear.

Vicky, not about to let her off the hook, called the hospital management to file a complaint. Shortly after, her physician arrived.

"I am filing an official complaint against this nurse," Vicky pointed at Lilian. "Not only did she disrespect my privacy, but she also humiliated me right to my face!" Vicky held nothing back. The nurse would get what was coming for her. How dare she disrespect Vicky like that?

"Why are you being so cocky? Do you think, just because you are a friend of the CEO of the Shining Company, you can get anything you want?"

"Bullshit! I am not his friend; I am his wife! I am the wife of the CEO of the Shining Company. If you dare cross me, you are going to answer to him!" Vicky said viciously, expecting a sincere apology from the doctor.