Chapter 6 Questioning

Charlie's indifferent expression greeted Ashley as soon as she walked into his office. After staring at her without a word for some time, he asked in a slow, measured tone, "Where did you go last night?" His look deepened and became more searching.

This morning, Charlie asked Yasmin if she had heard from Ashley, to which the woman replied that his girlfriend went back to her apartment and slept until noon. However, Charlie didn't believe it. He saw Ashley consume the drink with his own eyes last night. The aphrodisiac was an especially potent one that he had imported from overseas, and there was no way she would have been okay if she didn't have sex. Ashley was glaring at him coldly. She still looked so elegant, this girlfriend of his, but never had Charlie felt the distance between them so keenly than at that moment.

"Where do you think I went last night? Mr. Synder, if this conversation doesn't pertain to company matters at all, then I'd like to get back to work," Ashley firmly replied, ignoring the slight disappointment in Charlie's tone.

"Don't you have anything to explain to me, Ashley?" His weighty stare was making her uncomfortable, but her face did not show it. At the sight of Ashley's calm face, Charlie grew more annoyed at being ignored.

"Mr. Synder, is it interesting for you to ask what you already know?" Ashley had never realized until now the extent of Charlie's shamelessness. How could he have the nerve to question her and ask her to explain what he had done to her? He already knew what happened, but he still looked like she owed her an explanation. If they weren't within the company premises, she would have definitely beaten him up.

After taking a couple of seconds to calm herself down, Ashley declared in a cold voice before Charlie could say anything else, "Well, events transpired as you probably expected, except you weren't the man involved. Charlie, there's nothing more to say between us. We're through." Then, with a scathing look at the man, she turned around and walked out of the office without a regard for his reaction.

Charlie snapped out of his daze to watch Ashley's rapidly departing back. She was beautifully slim and fragile, but oh-so proud. The thought of her reply made him sneer. 'Who does she think she is? She has nothing going for her but a beautiful face. Without it, how could the most eligible bachelor like me fall for an ordinary employee?'

From the beginning, it was Ashley's beauty and indifferent attitude that drew Charlie to her. Wanting to conquer that unshakeable facade, he began to pursue her, with the final goal of marrying her. However, after spending more time with Ashley, Charlie had started to feel that she was a cold person through and through. Several times, he had dropped hints that he wanted to have sex with her, but she didn't budge. Charlie had planned to act on his desire to make her his woman in every sense of the word because of his baser nature as a man, and he had arranged last night's scenario. What he didn't expect was for another man to walk into the scene.

Last night, when Ashley told him that she was heading up to her room to rest, Charlie had planned to enter her room in half an hour, which was when the drug was expected to take effect. After that, everything would just naturally fall into place. However, on the way to her room, the last thing he had expected was to be waylaid by his own father, James Snyder, who called to ask him to go and deal with an urgent company matter. James was the current CEO of Synder Group. For Charlie, his father was the perfect example of a dignified man with an iron-handed way of running the company. Thus, he dared not disobey his father's order. He was also perfectly aware that his father didn't hold much affection for him. If he didn't perform well, his father could easily replace him with another successor to the company. Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, he chose to give up his girlfriend temporarily and hurried to the company.

By the time Charlie had returned to the hotel and gone to the room he had booked for Ashley, it was already one o'clock in the morning. However, his girlfriend was nowhere to be found, and there wasn't any trace of anyone having been in the room. He ran out of the room to look for her, but he didn't dare to search her in other rooms on this floor. After all, all the rooms on this floor were presidential suites, and every person staying on this floor was basically rich and powerful. If his actions caused anybody any disturbance, then the news would definitely reach his father. That would undo several years of hard work he had accomplished in the company. Thus, seething with thwarted anger at failing to find his girlfriend, Charlie went back to the room he had booked to sulk.