Tempting Him to Lose Control

Chapter 153: Chapter 153: Claire Kendall, Aren’t You Disgusting?

A couture bridal salon in downtown Aethel.

Claire Kendall sat in the waiting area. She had already been waiting for nearly three hours.

She gazed out at the torrential rain beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, her fingertips repeatedly tapping open their chat window.

"Are you still busy at the office? I’m waiting for you at the bridal shop."

"The rain is so heavy. Are you stuck in traffic?"

...

The screen was filled with messages she had sent, none of which had received a reply.

Claire Kendall frowned. This wasn’t like Miles Warren at all.

Even if something came up last minute and he had to cancel, he would have let her know. He wouldn’t just leave her waiting here all by herself.

’Did something happen to him?’

A sense of unease began to spread through her.

The salon’s owner, Amanda Vaughn, slowly walked over. She stopped in front of the sofa and glanced down at her condescendingly.

"Still waiting for Mr. Warren, Ms. Kendall?"

Claire Kendall nodded. "I’m so sorry for keeping you past closing. I’ll send you compensation for the extra time."

"I’ll try contacting him again. He just started a new position, so he might be busy."

Amanda Vaughn scoffed, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Ms. Kendall, you should just save yourself the trouble. A wedding dress fitting is a huge deal. If he really wanted to marry you, how could he possibly forget?"

"You’re just a tool for Miles Warren to provoke Stella."

’Stella Locke?’

Only then did Claire Kendall sense the salon owner’s hostility.

Amanda Vaughn crossed her arms, her voice arrogant and cold.

"Stella and I were university classmates. You think I don’t know what’s going on with her?"

"Miles Warren suddenly proposed to you because he found out Stella has been going on blind dates these past few days. He’s just trying to make her angry. Did you actually take it seriously?"

Claire Kendall’s heart sank. Miles Warren and Stella Locke...

Seeing the color drain from Claire’s face, Amanda Vaughn grew even more smug.

"Miles Warren knows me. He chose my salon specifically so I would tip off Stella."

Claire Kendall picked up her bag and met her gaze. "Ms. Vaughn, I think you might be mistaken. I was the one who chose your salon."

"And another thing, Miles Warren isn’t the kind of petty, disrespectful man you’re describing. The fact is, he didn’t choose Stella Locke. And you are not Stella Locke, so you have no right to stand up for her."

Claire Kendall turned and left without another word. Amanda Vaughn glared viciously at her retreating back, grinding her teeth in frustration.

After leaving the bridal salon, Claire Kendall dialed Miles Warren’s number, but no one answered.

She rushed into the rain, hailed a taxi, and headed for Warren Pharma. But the security guard told her that the new Mr. Warren had left long ago.

’Could he have been called in for an emergency surgery at the hospital?’

Thirty minutes later, Claire Kendall was at Aethel General Hospital. His office was empty.

He wasn’t there. He wasn’t anywhere.

Claire Kendall stood in the long hospital corridor, rainwater dripping from her hair.

Her mind was a mess. The dress fitting, the wedding—none of it mattered right now. All she wanted was to know that Miles Warren was safe.

She called Jonathan Keller.

It rang for a long time before someone picked up.

"Dr. Keller, has Dr. Warren contacted you? Do you have any idea where he is? I’ve called him so many times, but he hasn’t responded."

Jonathan Keller glanced toward the bedroom. He had just dragged Miles Warren in from the pouring rain.

And he didn’t have to guess who was responsible for the state he was in.

Jonathan Keller’s voice was filled with unprecedented rage.

"Claire Kendall, what the hell do you want?"

"If you don’t love him, then let him go! Do you get some sick pleasure out of stringing him along? Ten years! How many ten years does a person get in their life!"

Claire Kendall was stunned by his shouting, her expression completely bewildered. Her breath caught. "Dr. Keller, I... I just can’t find him. He promised he’d come for the dress fitting. I just want to make sure he’s safe..."

"So now you decide to look for him?" Jonathan Keller let out a sarcastic laugh. "Aren’t you disgusting? How long are you going to keep using him?"

"The startup investment for OCHH, your overseas project at Sinclair Design, that plagiarism incident... Claire Kendall, I can’t even count all the things you owe him. You’ll never be able to repay him in this lifetime."

"But you don’t need to repay him now. If you have any humanity left in you, you’ll disappear on your own. He can’t take it anymore. He really can’t take it!"

"Dr. Keller, I..."

Claire Kendall’s fingertips, wrapped around her phone, trembled. Her voice was fractured, lost in the downpour.

Her throat tightened. She wanted to explain, but he had already hung up.

She stood frozen at the hospital entrance.

’How could she not understand what Jonathan Keller was saying? What on earth had happened? In just a single day, it seemed like everything had changed.’

’She had to find Miles Warren and clear things up with him.’

Just as Claire Kendall was about to hail a cab to Jonathan Keller’s house, her phone rang again, its ring sharp and urgent. It was Wendy White.

"Claire, it’s bad!"

"A machine exploded at the OCHH fabric processing plant in the western suburbs! The workshop’s on fire, and all the fabric has been burned!"

Claire Kendall’s pupils contracted. "What about the people? Is anyone hurt?"

"Professor Quinn... Professor Simon Quinn was there for an inspection. I think he’s trapped inside! The fire department is there, but the fire is too big..." Wendy White’s voice was trembling, on the verge of tears.

"I’m... on... my way," Claire Kendall said, forcing the words out through clenched teeth.

She got into a car and sped toward the western suburbs, sending a message to Jonathan Keller on the way.

"Dr. Keller, I know you’re very angry, but I never meant to string Miles Warren along. I think you may have some misunderstandings about me. There’s been an explosion at the factory in the western suburbs, and lives are at stake. As the person in charge, I have to get there immediately. Please, take care of Miles Warren for me. I’ll be back as soon as I can to explain everything to him in person."

The message was sent, but it vanished without a trace.

In the western suburbs, flames lit up the night sky.

The explosion was even worse than Claire Kendall had imagined.

The rain fell harder and harder, but thick smoke still billowed into the sky. The fire showed no signs of dying down, and the entire factory area was in chaos.

Claire Kendall got out of the car and, without bothering with an umbrella, ran straight toward the site of the incident, where a circle of employees had gathered.

She asked urgently, "Where is Professor Quinn? Where was he trapped? Is anyone else stuck inside? Are there any fatalities?"

"Ms. Kendall, calm down!" The employee in charge of the scene quickly grabbed her arm.

"Professor Quinn has already been rescued. He has some minor injuries. There’s no one else trapped inside right now."

"It’s just... there were too many flammable materials inside. The whole factory is probably a total loss."

The tension that had gripped Claire Kendall suddenly released. Her legs went weak, and the person next to her quickly steadied her.

’The factory could be lost, that was fine. As long as everyone was safe.’

Following the employee’s directions, she went to the temporary rescue tent.

Simon Quinn was having a paramedic clean a wound on his arm. When he saw Claire Kendall’s disheveled state, he immediately called out to reassure her.

"Claire, I’m fine, don’t worry. Why did you rush over here all by yourself?"

"If Dr. Warren found out, he’d surely blame an old man like me."

Miles Warren.

Hearing his name, the bridge of Claire Kendall’s nose tingled, and her throat tightened.

"Professor, as long as you’re okay, that’s all that matters. He’s... he’s not that petty. He won’t be angry."

Simon Quinn smiled and teased her a little to ease the tense atmosphere.

"I wouldn’t be so sure. For your sake, he took my elective course for two years and never missed a single class. With that kind of persistence, his feelings for you must be anything but ordinary."

Claire Kendall froze, her head snapping up. Her eyes were wide with stunned disbelief.

"Professor Quinn, I think you’re mistaken. He must have been doing it for someone named Stella Locke..."

Simon Quinn looked puzzled. "But I’ve never had a student named Stella Locke."

"I think you might have misunderstood something, my dear."

"That blue diamond ring you wore at the conference the other day... I was chatting with an old classmate of mine who loves jewelry, and he said it was a treasure auctioned off from the South African National Museum. The buyer had a name engraved on it at the time. It was your name."

In that instant, something exploded in Claire Kendall’s mind.

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