Deceiving Her Ears: Ignoring Your Call-Chapter 151: Did You Make Her Drink?

Natalie returned home and saw the towel and blanket left on the shoe cabinet by the entryway. She let out a soft sigh.

She put the blanket back in the cabinet, took the towel to the bathroom, washed it, and hung it up to dry.

After doing all that, she collapsed wearily onto the bed.

Not long after, her phone rang.

Natalie grabbed her phone to take a look—it was Vanessa Grant calling.

She sat up and answered the call.

"Hello."

"Uh, hey Nat." Vanessa’s voice was hesitant and awkward.

Natalie responded patiently, "Mm."

"So, I heard from Isaac," Vanessa fiddled with her crystal nails, sounding a little embarrassed. "He said when he fainted, you stayed and took care of him."

Natalie’s fingers holding the phone suddenly tightened.

She’d thought Isaac was too out of it with his fever then to remember anything.

She hadn’t expected he’d remember.

For her, that wasn’t a good thing.

She frowned slightly, looking a bit regretful and irritable.

"I didn’t know. When I saw Isaac faint on the floor and you were on your phone, I thought you—I thought you didn’t care about him at all."

"..." Natalie didn’t know what to say.

She wanted to say she didn’t care, but she figured Vanessa wouldn’t believe that.

"Nat, I don’t know what Isaac did wrong to you. He didn’t tell me. But I can tell, he feels really guilty with you. I’m not saying you need to forgive him so easily, I just, um, just..."

"Sorry," Natalie said softly, "I’m a little tired."

"Oh, okay, okay. You took care of Isaac today, and then stayed with him so long at the hospital, of course you’re tired." Vanessa wasn’t upset at all. Considerate as always, she said, "Get some rest early."

"Okay, you too."

Natalie had just said that and was about to hang up when Vanessa suddenly asked, "Nat, are you coming by tomorrow?"

"...I have something to do."

"Alright, no problem. The hospital’s not a great place anyway, best you come less often." Vanessa was truly understanding. "Rest well."

"Mm."

——

The next morning, as soon as Natalie got to the office, she received a message from Lucas Lowell.

[Didn’t forget, did you?]

Natalie replied:

[Didn’t forget.]

After work that evening, she brought her gift and headed to their agreed spot. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The private room was decorated exactly the way Lucas always liked it.

An over-the-top, flashy mix of styles.

When Natalie entered, Lucas had one arm around Mia’s shoulder, praising her for the setup—he loved it, and said he’d give her a raise for it.

Mia adjusted her black-rimmed glasses. She didn’t react to the praise, but when she heard about the raise, her eyes lit up a little.

"Natalie!"

Lucas heard her voice, turned to look, and immediately let go of Mia, walking right over to Natalie.

"The gift." He stretched out his hand toward Natalie, staring straight at the bag in her hand.

Mia, seeing her boss act so undignified, averted her gaze and quietly started counting balloons on the wall.

Natalie handed the gift to Lucas, speaking softly: "Happy birthday."

Lucas took the gift in one hand and put his arm around her shoulder with the other. "You coming to my birthday makes me happy—so happy I could die!"

"’Die’ isn’t a word you should use on your birthday. It’s unlucky," Mia said coolly.

Lucas’s eyes went wide and he slapped a hand over his mouth. "Why didn’t you remind me earlier!"

Then he hurried off to touch some wood for luck.

Mia took a deep breath and greeted Natalie, "Miss Kendall, good evening."

"Good evening," Natalie replied with a smile.

Honestly, with Lucas’s status, if he really threw a birthday party, there’d be a ton of people.

But he thought all those people, even if they came, wouldn’t genuinely wish him well. In the end, it was just forced socializing, so he only invited Natalie and Mia this year.

When Natalie heard that, she thought Lucas, despite his brash and unserious exterior, was actually quite clear-minded about life.

Mia, on the other hand, saw right through her boss.

All that high-sounding talk—really, he just wanted a chance to flirt with a girl.

And that girl was Natalie.

——

Isaac was made to go home and recuperate as soon as he left the hospital.

Honestly, there wasn’t much to recover from. After all the commotion, he was pretty much fine now.

Dinnertime.

Ansel Vaughn spoke in a cold voice: "Sign the divorce papers and bring them to Natalie, then get the procedures done quickly."

Vanessa was startled; she hadn’t expected her husband to bring this up out of nowhere.

Isaac slammed his chopsticks down, hard.

There was a sharp "smack" as they hit the table.

Ansel immediately flared up. "You’ve got nerve! Try throwing something again!"

Isaac’s face was dark and cold, and he didn’t back down an inch as he met his father’s gaze.

Ansel was infuriated. Vanessa jumped in before things got ugly: "This is between Isaac and Nat. Why are you butting in?"

"You think I want to butt in? The divorce papers are right in front of us. Are we supposed to just pretend we didn’t see them?"

"Yeah, just pretend you didn’t see them," Vanessa replied. "Isaac and Nat just had a fight. It’s normal for young couples to talk about divorce during fights. I threatened you with divorce plenty of times—did I actually divorce you?"

Ansel was helpless. "How can you compare these two things?"

"Just leave it alone," Vanessa said, then turned to her son. "Baby, ignore your dad. Do whatever you want."

Isaac stood up and left the dining room without a word.

"Look at that attitude!" Ansel grumbled, "Is Natalie the only girl in the world?"

"Well, he only wants Nat." Vanessa pouted. "I told you to stay out of it, so stay out."

"Fine, fine, I won’t say another word—I’m done." Ansel put down his chopsticks, too angry to eat anymore.

——

The elevator dinged open.

Lucas helped Natalie out, with Mia following behind.

As soon as Lucas looked up and saw a tall figure standing at the door, he froze.

But Isaac’s gaze was fixed right on Natalie’s face, as if Lucas wasn’t even there.

Natalie squinted at Isaac for a while, then suddenly broke free from Lucas’s grasp, stumbling toward Isaac.

Isaac was momentarily stunned, but his body acted before his brain—he reached out to catch her.

Natalie, soft and smelling of alcohol, fell into his arms. Instinctively, he tightened his hold, hugging her as if afraid to lose her.

"Did you get her drunk?" Isaac looked up at Lucas, his low voice laced with anger.

Lucas gritted his teeth. "It’s my birthday, Natalie helped me celebrate. We were happy, so we drank a bit more—so what?"

"Mr. Vaughn, that’s exactly how it happened," Mia stepped forward, speaking up.

If Lucas’s assistant hadn’t been there, Isaac would not have let Lucas off easily.

He had his arm around Natalie at the door, just about to reach up to enter the code, when he suddenly remembered Natalie had changed the lock’s password.

"Little Ear, can you type in the password?"

Natalie turned to look at Isaac, blinked, then suddenly raised her hand toward his face.