Chapter 414 Heavy Smokes Above The Time Restaurant

Only after her father-in-law had left, Rachel went upstairs into Hiram's office, as she wasn't prepared to meet him just yet.

As she pushed the door open to come in, she felt with her whole being that something had changed in this room. From time to time she used to come here and even worked in the office next to it. It had only been less than two weeks that Rachel had been out of town. Then why she felt so strange, as soon as she stepped into this place, which she must have visited hundreds of times.

"Coffee or tea? Can I help you?" she uttered in a low voice, after standing right in front of Hiram's desk. It made her feel even worse, that she just sat there and did nothing all day.

Since Rachel had come back to him, she made up her mind to confront all the problems that life threw at her. Running away was not a good idea anymore. It had already proven to not be working.

The old lady on the train was right. Escaping wouldn't settle anything.

Besides, she didn't have the courage to run away a second time.

Now, she had to deal with the mess that she caused by herself.

Not only that her dispute with Gavin didn't go away, but she had also managed to piss off Hiram - the most important man in her life.

He was "buried" in the documents, which Ben just gave him a moment ago. There were three copies on his desk, which were urgent and needed to be dealt with immediately. Without even bothering to raise his head upon Rachel's words, he replied with a cold, emotionless tone,"No, thank you. Tell Ben to pull the car in front of the building now. I need to go out for a business meeting in maximum fifteen minutes."

"Okay, I'll go now!" Rachel nodded her head.

Glancing at him, she turned around and walked out swiftly.

Twenty minutes later, Hiram changed his suit to a set of leisure clothes and also stepped out of his office.

Meanwhile, Rachel was trailing behind him.

As she promised, she had to go with him the next twelve days, following him like a "shadow" - twenty-four hours a day, wherever he went.

As both of them had just gotten into the car, Hiram's phone began to ring. As he took it out and saw who was calling, his eyebrows furrowed. But he picked it up, anyway.

"Hello," he spoke with an almost mechanical voice.

As she was sitting right beside him, Rachel could clearly hear a woman crying on the other side of the phone.

"Hiram, my restaurant's on fire! I don't know how it started, but the flames took over the whole building rapidly. My Time Restaurant's gone……"

It was Flora and she sounded truly heartbreaking,"Hiram, could you, please, come over to me now? I'm totally lost and have no idea what to do."

Looking at his watch first, he hesitated for a moment with a frown on his face, before replying anything. Then he said to Ben,"Please, drop me off at Phoenix Street fast!"

After a swift glance at him, Rachel immediately averted her eyesight outside at the sky, but didn't say anything, nor stop him.

She knew it was Flora who called him. To her surprise, the first acquaintance Rachel ran into after she came back was her, which felt quite complicated and awkward.

They arrived at the Time Restaurant soon. From a distance, she could see a thick black smoke cloud whirling from the burning edifice up to the skies. Two or three pump trucks were heavily throwing wate

"You're my wife in name only, on paper only. My heart and love will never be yours."

Edward made it clear to Daisy that she was nothing to him. They were both victims of family greed -- the marriage was arranged for them.

Six years passed. She remained quiet, gaining a reputation in the army as a tough-as-nails colonel. When she walked into his life again, Edward fell in love with this woman...

around and walked away, she fixed her eye-gaze on their holding hands and lost herself in deep thoughts.

While Rachel was away, Hiram used to come to her restaurant once in a while, either sitting there quietly, doing nothing or drinking by himself.

But now, deep down in her heart, she knew that he wouldn't come here anymore, because - to her big and unpleasant surprise - his wife was back.

Moreover, her Time Restaurant had just burned out. Where could she receive him, even if he needed?

As long as they got in the car, Rachel swiftly pulled her hand out of Hiram's firm grip.

"What's the whole hurry for? Haven`t you noticed Flora's eyes? She looked at you, as if her eyes were scanning your whole body! How could you make her suffer like that?" Rachel asked in a voice, dripping with sarcasm.

Then, quite perplexed, Hiram glanced at her with both eyebrows raised. Meanwhile, he nodded to Ben to start the car.

"Honey, you're totally overreacting! Flora isn't from the kind of people you think her to be. I'm the only friend she has in this city, so it's normal that she can call me, whenever she needs help," he put an extra effort to explain patiently.

In one breath, he took out two bottles of water and passed one to Rachel. When he glanced at his watch again, he realized he was already late for his appointment, but he decided to go there anyway.

Taking the bottled water in her hands, Rachel continued talking, while opening it,"It doesn't matter whether I was overacting or not. I wouldn't say anything, even if tomorrow you find a stepmother for little Jonny and little Joyce, because we're divorced now, right?"

As he had just taken a huge gulp of water, Hiram was almost choked by her words.

Drawing his body coldly away from hers, he looked with his bright eyes and snorted,"Right! Thank you for reminding me! Flora's gentle and virtuous. Besides, she's also good at cooking. Yes, she's a great candidate for a stepmother. Above all else, I do believe she's able to take a good care of our kids too."

At that very moment, Rachel, who had also taken a big sip of water in her mouth, was so struck by his words, that she couldn't swallow it right away, but sprayed it all over on Hiram's face.