Chapter 97 Bad Luck
Duncan was feeling a touch of annoyance. What did this mean? Was Sylvia still taking Cyril’s side? Hadn’t go of Cyril crossed the line? Of course. Duncan knew it–even though they were divorced, Sylvia hadn’t let Cyril, and she wasn’t ready to admit it.
As for Cyril, he was nearly at his limit for keeping a composed face. Although he was well aware that they were divorced and there was no relationship left, he couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable seeing Sylvia defend Duncan. Why was she protecting him?
“There are so many eyes on us, let’s just finish our meal and leave. I’ve got work this afternoon,” Sylvia said, her patience diminishing. She only had the lunch slot to spare and refused to waste it on Cyril.
After hearing this, Duncan huffed and nodded, following Sylvia back to their table. The brief confrontation had made it all too clear that it was a deliberate dig at Cyril, an unnecessary flaunting of their closeness in the face of Sylvia’s ex–husband.
Back at their table, Duncan casually draped his arm over Sylvia’s shoulder. She felt like saying something about it, but seeing his smug look, she held back. After all, today was about finding Cyril and unsettling him; if she made Duncan drop his arm now, he might just kick up a fuss.
Though Cyril didn’t speak up, his darkened expression and the chill in the air around him were clear indicators of his foul mood to those at the table.
“I don’t quite get it. Sylvia is attractive and has done some impressive work lately. For someone who parachuted into a VP role and secured so many partnerships, she must be quite capable. Why did you think of divorcing her?” Louis turned the conversation to Cyril.
“And why didn’t you partner up with her then?” Cyril lobbed the question back at Louis, who now felt quite uncomfortable. He had initially thought Sylvia was just a pretty face and wasn’t pleased with the idea of working with someone he perceived as a vase.
If he had known her true capabilities back then, he would have definitely acted differently. After all, in business, if partnering up could earn a profit, who you work with doesn’t particularly matter, and working with Sylvia might even mean a bigger slice of the profit pie.
“It’s not like that; I just mean, Sylvia seems like a decent person. Don’t you regret divorcing her? If you two could get back together, it’d be good, right? A merger of two powerful companies would put you both at the top,” Louis suggested, not fully aware of the dynamics within their previous marriage. In his mind, a reunion between two powerhouses was a winning scenario.
“I’ll never marry her again, not in this lifetime. If you think she’s a decent person, then consider partnering with her. Don’t worry about my stance. When I talked to you about her, it was with the hope that you’d consider a partnership. As for why I’m doing this, it’s simply to make reparations. When we divorced, she walked away with nothing,” Cyril said, not denying his reasons for helping Sylvia.
Louis and Jonathan fell silent after Cyril’s admission.
Everyone had assumed Cyril only wanted to help Sylvia because there was profit to be made. They didn’t expect he harbored any desire to make amends. If he felt this way now, what had he been doing all along?
Chapte 97 Bad Luck
“To put it bluntly, running into us here probably made them feel unlucky, but trying to make amends with her now, isn’t that a bit late? If you wanted to make amends, you could’ve done so earlier, yet you didn’t. It’s really too late now. And she’s the VP of the Ivan family’s business, which pays generously. Her salary is hardly modest,” Louis commented, not really wanting to undermine Cyril but feeling compelled to point out the folly of his friend’s ways.
When they had worked together all these years, Louis really felt like asking Cyril what had been running through his mind. Why did he want to make amends with Sylvia? Looking at her today, did she seem like someone needing compensation? She seemed quite carefree post–divorce.
Cyril was well aware of how freely Sylvia had been living since their divorce. Every time he saw her, he witnessed a different side of her–a side not seen in their years of marriage, as if she had been hiding her true self. Only after the divorce did Cyril realize Sylvia was quite a different person.
But those realizations came too late and were utterly useless now. They were divorced, and up to this point, Cyril felt guilty but not regretful about the marriage. He had a hunch that if they’d stayed married, his entire life would have continued much like those monotonous three years.
He preferred divorce over a lifetime of the same dreariness.
“I didn’t consider partnering with her initially mainly because the Ivan family had an edge in Al development and were ahead of us. They didn’t seem to focus on it over the years, so I wasn’t too informed about their department’s salary details. Now that I’ve returned, they might shift their focus to internal development. Partnering with them might lead to being swallowed up,” Cyril explained.
Despite the technicalities being on par with his company, when it came to connections and financial resources, even with Cyril’s help and years of accumulation, it would still fall short against the entirety of the Ivan family. It would be too disgraceful to cash in on the help from his family’s Walker empire for the venture he started independently.
After a moment of realization, Jonathan exclaimed, “Got it, so you deliberately stirred things with Sylvia, huh? But aren’t you afraid of Sylvia striking first if you’ve riled her up?”