The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 922 You Better Go First

"This has nothing to do with you. You better go first," Sheryl persuaded. As much as Coral was kind-hearted to offer her help, Sheryl was kind enough as well to leave the former out of her own trouble. "I can handle it," she asserted, though she did not believe her statement herself.

"How can you handle it?" Coral asked, forcing a bitter smile. "You said it yourself. Holley has arranged people to keep an eye on you. How can you run away with so many eyes following your every move?" "This has nothing to do with you," Sheryl repeated, trying to get this innocent girl as far away from her problem as possible. "I have to deal with this myself. It's none of your business. So you better move away now, or else you won't be able to steer clear of this thing when Chuck Zhang comes back and finds out about you helping me. I don't want you to get involved in this."

Her words surprised Coral. Even in the midst of such a dangerous situation, the woman in trouble only thought of Coral's well-being and how to keep her away from the problem. Instead of dragging Coral into her dilemma and clinging to her for help, she pushed away from the only help that seemed to within her reach.

Hesitantly, Coral offered Sheryl the dazzling poison that was disguised as a glass of wine. When Sheryl saw the drink, she felt her thirst and fatigue creeping on her body. With everything happening, she thought a drink could help calm her nerves so she raised the glass to her lips.

As she was about to take a sip, Coral could not help but recoil abruptly. Her sudden movements shocked the older woman.

"What's wrong?" Sheryl asked, concerned. "Nothing... Nothing's wrong," said Coral, despite being filled with overwhelming guilt. The young model was so close to blurting out the truth, but she managed to stop herself just in time. Once she was able to control herself, she pretended to be calm and nonchalant while watching Sheryl drain the remaining contents of the glass. Silently, she lowered her head.

"Why are you still standing there?" the woman asked, and gently shoved Coral away. "There's no time to waste," Sheryl reminded Coral to leave. "Be quick. Go. Otherwise they'll notice."

"Sheryl..." Coral began, and looked at her with such remorseful eyes. Just when she was about to say something, she thought of the money that Holley promised to give her, and suppressed the urge to tell the truth once again. 'This is for my sister,' she reminded herself. 'I can't back out now.'

"What?" Sheryl asked suspiciously. It appeared as though the younger model wanted to tell her something, but every time she tried opening her mouth, she would bite back whatever was on her mind.

"It's nothing!" Finally making up her mind, Coral decided to stand by her decision. "Just that... I'm sorry I couldn't help you," she apologized. She was, indeed, sorry. However, it wasn't only for being unable to help, but for letting herself play a terrible role in whatever horrific plan Holley had.

"This has nothing to do with you," Sheryl repeated firmly. With the way Coral was looking at her, she could tell the woman seemed to be filled with guilt. The least Sheryl could do was to reassure the young model that she wasn't responsible for the situation.

After hearing her reassurance, Coral could not utter another word and just walked away. Before the horny man returned, Sheryl decided to look around, and searched for a familiar face in the crowd. As long as it was a face that she recognized, even though she might have only seen the face once, she would not hesitate to?call for that person's help.

Glancing through all the guests, she was about to give up, when she finally found one.

Cary Su, the man who had asked her to plan for his wine party, was there.

Before he came to this city, Sheryl had helped him finish the entire event flow. She did not expect to see Cary on such an occasion at all.

As though he represented the last straw for a drowning man to hold onto for dear life, Sheryl sprinted towards the man. If she remembered correctly, Cary had told her he was Charles' friend. Now that she was caught up in a huge dilemma, she could only hope he would agree to help her.

However, the joy on Sheryl's face did not last long. As she took her first step towards her only means of escape, a firm hand grabbed her.

"Where do you think you're going?" came a playful voice from behind her. When she turned to see the owner of the hand, her expression shifted to a horrified look as she gazed at the face that she least wanted to see. The vile man had returned; she was a few seconds too late.

"Let me go," the angry woman demanded. As Sheryl tried to shake him off, she could not gather her strength at all. She soon recalled the guilt in Coral's eyes and realized what that guilt was truly for. 'Damn it!' she thought to herself. Even though she tried her best to be careful, it seemed she had still fallen into their trap.

The playful smile on his face widened, and he asked his prey in delight, "How do you feel right now? Are you feeling extremely tired?

Are you, perhaps, losing your strength and consciousness?" "You... What did you put in my wine?" she asked, barely able to stand on her own now. "Oh nothing of great importance.

Just something to make you more compliant to my whims," he chuckled and replied.

Holding onto her waist to support her, he proudly said, "I told you I would find a way to tame you, you feisty girl."

Sheryl felt like the entire world was fading away. With her last bit of strength, she pulled the tablecloth away and made everything drop from the table to attract other people's attention. The loud noise in the warm atmosphere of the party somehow worked and made people turn their heads.

But all she wanted was for Cary to look. Trying hard to keep her eyes open, she glanced at the direction where Cary was in desperation. Clearly, Cary was her last hope now. If Chuck managed to take her away, he would have already done what he had wanted to do to her by the time she regained her consciousness.

She was screaming in despair inside, but all that came out of her mouth was a barely audible murmur, "Help..."

When Cary was discussing his business with someone, he heard the strange blast. He turned his head towards the source of the turmoil and heard Chuck saying, "I'm so sorry everyone. My partner is drunk. Sorry for the disturbance. Carry on with what you were doing. Everything is fine here."

After he finished his speech, he prepared to take his leave with a barely conscious Sheryl in his arms.

From where Cary was standing, he could only see Chuck but not the woman he was with. Uninterested, he turned his attention back to his conversation earlier. The person standing opposite him sighed, "Poor girl. She's going to suffer tonight."

"Mr. Lin, what do you mean by that?" asked Cary in a clueless manner. Based on his question alone, it was clear that he had no idea who Chuck was.

"You don't know?" asked the man. Looking at Cary in surprise, the man found it hard to believe that the businessman in front of him knew nothing about Chuck's past activities, so he kindly explained, "That's Chuck Zhang. He's an infamous womanizer around here. That man... He has molested countless innocent girls. I heard that he had spent a fortune to buy this one girl tonight. Just take a look around at all the girls here. They are not bad, right?"

He suddenly lowered his voice as though he was telling a secret, "I heard that they're all from a model company."

"Oh really?" Cary asked, wearing a meaningful smile. "I guess it's only natural for a man to flirt around."

"Oh, he's not only flirting," said the man, instantly putting on a disdainful look. "He has become who he is today all thanks to his wife's family. And do you know what he did? After he made a fortune, he divorced his supportive wife. And then, like that was not bad enough, he got married to a young girl who is twenty years younger than him. That's not all. Who knows how many women he still has outside? That woman over there is only one of them."

The man heaved a sigh and started to reveal something even darker. "I heard that he had gotten all the girls that ever wanted. No single poor soul succeeded to escape him. And he is a cruel person by nature. Someone said he even tortured one of his so-called 'partners' to death. They said he succeeded in dodging the police only because the case was 'lacking evidence'."

"Really?" Cary's mouth twitched disapprovingly. What he heard definitely shocked him. How could a man be that brutal to women? "I couldn't tell from his profile that he is such a ruthless person," he said. "Exactly," the man said taking a swig of his drink. He then continued, "Nowadays, there are just too many people who hide vicious beasts inside of them."

In an attempt to see the evil man's true color, Cary took another glance at Chuck. It was only at that point when he saw the face of the girl. Now, he was not the most righteous person to pass judgment around, but the face of Sheryl caught him by surprise.

When he found out that the woman this supposedly terrible man had paid to have for the night was Sheryl, he fell into an extreme daze.

'She's Charles' wife, isn't she? Why is she here in this party?' he thought.

Before he could even figure out the answer, he decided to walk towards Chuck and stop him from taking away the woman. If Mr. Lin's stories were accurate, she was not safe with him. "Mr. Su, where are you going? We haven't finished talking yet, have we?"

"Later, Mr. Lin. I have some personal business to deal with right now," Cary retorted without turning back. In the first place, he had no intention of interfering Chuck's business. But the woman he was with was Sheryl, a project planner whom he highly appreciated. She was also Charles' wife, and if he could do Charles' a favor by saving his wife, that would instantly establish a stronger business tie with the man. Stronger partnership most likely equated to a lot of profit. So it was an easy decision to make for a businessman like him.

Speeding up his pace, he caught up with Chuck before he entered the lift. "Mr. Zhang, what's the rush? Where are you going?"

The man with wicked plans was startled to find that the person who had called out to him was Cary. "Mr. Su?" he asked uncertainly. "What brings you here?"

"I'm here for your party," Cary replied with a big grin. "I heard your company needs an investment. Can I have some of your time to discuss a business opportunity?" He paused, studying Chuck's interested look. "I'm interested to invest."