CHAPTER 159: BYE. DON’T CALL ME AGAIN

"Stay away from this, Mrs. Leighton; this is none of your business!" James growled at Hazel, and instinctively, she felt a powerful urge to kick him out, drag him away from the door, or even push him from this twenty-seventh-floor building.

Violent thoughts surged through her mind, but she quickly quelled them.

First and foremost, she was pregnant, and second, she had a few bodyguards at her disposal; she should thank her lovely husband, who was in his overprotective era. She had to utilize them, right?

"Mr. Starling, she is my sister-in-law. She is my family." Ugh, Hazel thought. "You need to leave, sir, or else you will be removed from this building, and you will not like it." Hazel crossed her arms over her chest, but the gesture felt a bit odd with her belly protruding. She wondered if her baby could feel the tension in the room as she moved in her womb.

Instead of heeding her warning, James resorted to threats. "Don’t you dare threaten me! If I don’t want to leave, what do you think you can do?"

"Remove him from my sight." Hazel didn’t appreciate his attempt to challenge her.

However, Nolu, who was standing on her left side, leaned closer, speaking softly so only she could hear. "Mrs. Leighton, the Starling family and the Leighton family have a business deal. I don’t think it’s wise to degrade him like this."

Hazel glared at him, her patience wearing thin. "Are you denying my order now, Nolu? I don’t like to be questioned. The only person degrading themselves here is him, not me."

Feeling the weight of her authority, Nolu lowered his head, and with the other four bodyguards, they moved to remove James.

Despite his struggles, he was outnumbered, and his attempts to fight back were futile. The flowers he had brought toppled to the floor, their petals scattered as he screamed and cursed at Hazel.

"You, woman, you are going to pay for this! I am going to tell your husband what you have done, and you will regret it! You’ve made a huge mistake!" James followed with a long line of curses. "Get away from me!" James shrugged off the bodyguards who escorted him as he walked on his own away from this place.

His threats echoed down the hallway.

Once James’s voice faded into silence in the hallway, Hazel knocked on the door. "Laurel, open the door. He’s gone already," she said urgently.

Recently she noticed that she needed to take bathroom breaks several times a day. It was rather exhausting.

"Hey, Laurel, open the door." Hazel knocked again, tapping her knuckles impatiently against the door, desperate because she felt she might wet her pants.

Thankfully, Laurel opened the door and let Hazel in.

"Where’s the bathroom?" Hazel asked with urgency; this was a matter that couldn’t be postponed.

Blinking in confusion, Laurel pointed towards the bathroom. "There. Take a left, and then it’s on the right side."

Hazel did not say anything further and immediately dashed towards the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Nolu, Yara, and the other four bodyguards waited in the hallway. They greeted Laurel with respect.

She glanced at the additional four bodyguards; it must have been Ranon’s doing to assign extra protection for Hazel due to the recent news that had spread wildly.

Obviously, this was to be expected since they couldn’t hide the pregnancy, but Ranon must not have anticipated that this would happen so soon.

After closing the door, Laurel waited for Hazel to finish with her business in the bathroom. She settled into the living room, and once Hazel emerged, Laurel beckoned her to sit down.

"Look," Hazel began, crossing her arms. "Next time something like this happens, call someone else. Don’t call me, okay? Or it would be better if you got your own bodyguard to remove your soon-to-be ex-husband from your place."

Hazel looked upset, expecting Laurel to retort as she usually did.

However, Laurel’s response caught her off guard. "Thank you for coming," she said in a small voice, leaving Hazel momentarily speechless.

"Thank you?" Hazel frowned. "I didn’t hear it wrong, right?"

"No, you heard me correctly," Laurel said, irritation evident in her tone. "But don’t ask me to repeat those words again."

Hazel scrunched her nose. "No, of course not. That gives me a creep," she replied.

"Why don’t you sit down?" Laurel glanced at Hazel’s protruding stomach; her expression was unreadable. There was a hint of sadness flickering across her face, but something felt off.

"No, I don’t want to sit down. I want to go home. You know what? I think I’m going to have a problem with Ranon."

"Why?"

Hazel shook her head, frustrated that Laurel couldn’t connect the dots. "I just kicked out your soon-to-be ex-husband, and as far as I know, the Starling and the Leighton families have a few deals in some business. I highly doubt your soon-to-be ex-husband will take it lightly that I kicked him out. You heard him say he was going to tell Ranon about it."

Laurel stood up slowly, chuckling lightly at Hazel. "I don’t think you will be in trouble. Ranon couldn’t care less about his deal with the Starling family, especially now that he is venturing into new business with Rafael Scar".

The Blackthorn Company was on par with the Starling Company, if not better.

"I don’t think Ranon will be particularly worried about this. Ranon cared about you, and the four additional bodyguards are the evidence of it."

"Yeah, I see those bodyguards," Hazel said, unimpressed. "But whatever it is, I need to go home."

"Don’t you want to eat?" Laurel asked.

"Do you have something?" Hazel hesitated; now that Laurel mentioned food, she felt a little bit hungry.

"We can order takeout," Laurel suggested.

"No, I don’t want takeout. It’s not healthy for my baby." Hazel firmly refused. She didn’t have an appetite for takeout; she preferred homemade meals and planned to ask Renna to cook something for her when she got home.

"Well, if you don’t like it, I can cook," Laurel offered again.

Hazel tilted her head, looking at Laurel with skepticism. Was this her way to thank her? "Can you cook? What dishes can you make?"

"I can cook instant noodles and scrambled eggs," Laurel replied.

Hearing that, Hazel simply turned around. "Bye. Don’t call me again," she said curtly.

Certainly, whatever skill Laurel had, it didn’t meet Hazel’s standards. It was clear to her that Laurel hadn’t spent much time in the kitchen for quite a while.

"Don’t worry, baby," Hazel murmured to her stomach as she opened the front door, "I won’t let you eat something so horrible." Unfortunately, her voice wasn’t quiet enough for Laurel to miss.

"What do you mean by that?" Laurel asked, irritation creeping into her tone. But by then, Hazel had already walked out and shut the door behind her.

Laurel watched through the CCTV camera, seeing Hazel walk away with her six bodyguards. It looked like a little parade, and the sight of her sister-in-law in that situation elicited a chuckle from Laurel.

She had meant what she said; Ranon wouldn’t do anything to harm Hazel.

Whether Ranon was mainly concerned for the baby or both the baby and the mother, Laurel felt confident that Hazel would be okay. She remembered how Ranon had treated Ema in the past; while she and Ranon weren’t close, she had heard a story or two about their relationship.

***

Hazel was already inside her car when she received a text from Olivia asking to meet with her. The message said.

[I have something important to tell you. I can’t reach River, so I want you to relay this message to her.]

Hazel frowned at the text. Yes, Olivia couldn’t reach River because Hazel had turned off the phone to avoid disturbances.

However, she was puzzled as to why Olivia wouldn’t just share the information in a text.

[Just tell me now. I can relay your message to River.] Hazel typed back.

Nevertheless, Olivia insisted on meeting in person.

[This is not something that I can relay via text. Come here.] She replied, providing the address of a café that was out of town.

"Is she crazy?" Hazel muttered to herself, realizing that the café was an hour away from her current location.

Yet, her curiosity got the better of her, and she typed back that she was on her way. Reluctantly, she agreed to the meeting and headed towards the café Olivia had mentioned.

She told Nolu the address, since he was the one who was driving.

As Hazel was about to put away her phone after informing Nolu, her phone buzzed with an incoming call. It was Ranon. She picked up the phone, greeting him cheerfully.

"Hi, how are you?"

"How am I?" Ranon’s voice relaxed.

Hazel liked hearing him in this lighthearted mood. She felt comfortable with their idle conversation, and it seemed her baby felt the same way, as she could feel gentle movements in her belly. She lightly caressed her stomach where her baby had just kicked.

"I don’t know if I can say that my day is going well. Just a moment ago, I received a furious phone call from James Starling, who cursed at me because you caused trouble for him. He threatened me with the deal between our companies. May I know what kind of trouble you caused?" Ranon asked, his tone playful, almost as if he found the situation amusing.

Hazel grinned, feeling a little guilty, but only a tiny bit. "I didn’t do anything. I only told him to leave the apartment."