Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Avery only left her apartment at eight the next morning.
Luckily, the journey between her apartment and the company only took twenty minutes. She had never felt so grateful that she had managed to rent such a cheap place that was so close to the company.
The moment she stepped out of her apartment, the sun shone right into her eyes, and she instinctively raised a hand to shield her face.
As she did not sleep well last night, her eyes felt much more tired than usual.
The sun shining into them made them extra uncomfortable.
She had racked her brain in bed for a long time, wondering why Cayden kept sending gifts to her.
Were the private consultation and healthy meal his way of showing his gratitude toward me for taking care of his kids? Were the flowers simply a friendly gesture for a sick friend?
But he just doesn't look like the type of person to do that.
Then there are the two boxes from yesterday. What is up with him?
She felt a subtle sense of uneasiness upon receiving every single one of his gifts.
He was the almighty Cayden Moore, after all, and she was just a regular person.
He was the CEO of Trident Group and was practically unrivaled when it came to the business world.
Most importantly, his outstandingly fit figure and chiseled appearance made every man want to be him and every woman want to date him.
As the latter, there was nothing worth mentioning about her other than the fact that she was a woman and she was alive.
Cayden's actions toward her were seriously making her mind go haywire. One particular idea kept niggling at her, but she couldn't bring herself to believe it. For one, it was a pretty self-centered idea.
If he wants to keep a woman, he has plenty of stunning women around him that he can choose from. Why would he pick someone as unassuming as me? Yeah, that's completely unrealistic.
Just outside the residential area, Avery was about to cross the road when she spotted an old janitor in a yellow vest cleaning the contents of a trash can.
He took out two boxes in succession—one was blue and the other was white.
Aren't those the boxes that Zach was holding on to yesterday?
The old man bent down and opened the boxes.
Right at that moment, two well-dressed women walked out of the residential area.
“Mister, did you pick these out of the trash?” one of them who seemed to be in her mid-twenties asked in shock as she rushed toward him.
The old man felt that these clothes were pretty useless to him since his wife couldn't wear them.
At that moment, a car drove past Avery.
When she looked in the direction of the trash can again, she noticed that those two women had already discussed the price with him and were about to pass him some money.
“Here's two hundred. Keep it!”
After that, the women glanced at each other before reaching out to snatch the other box in his hands.
“Wait,” Avery called out, looking at the box. “I want both the clothes and this blue box. I'll pay you ten thousand for it.”
The two women shot Avery an unfriendly look.
Why can't she just mind her own business?
Avery did not feel offended about being stared at. After all, she wasn't exactly doing a friendly thing.
These things did not belong to her since she had rejected Cayden's gifts in the end; but now, these things belonged to the old man.
Ralph Lauren clothes were some of the most high-quality clothes that a working woman could buy. Some celebrities even wore it on the red carpet.
The Tiffany brooch was even more valuable.
How could these two women rip the old man off a hundred and fifty thousand worth of things for just two hundred? How could they be so greedy?
“T-Ten thousand?” the old man repeated in shock.
Avery nodded earnestly.
“Mister, I'll give you ten thousand five hundred for it!” The woman who had paid first glared at Avery again before taking her card out and looking for the nearest ATM.
The old man didn't exactly look like someone who would have a PayPal account.
“Twenty thousand,” Avery said as the old man stared at her in utter disbelief. “I'll give you twenty thousand.”
The old man looked at her as if she were pulling his leg.
“These aren't fake, are they?” the other woman said to the friend who was looking for her card. “They might be scammers working together to swindle us of our money! Think about it. How often does one even find designer goods like that in some neighborhood trash can?”
The woman holding the card immediately put it back into her bag out of fear that it might be a scam.
“True. I almost got cheated! This must be fake.” She snorted and walked away with her friend.
The old man finally snapped, “Scam? I think you guys are the ones who are scamming me! You guys
are trying to rip off an old man!”
Twenty minutes later, Avery brought the old man to a luxury boutique.
She took out the brooch and the receipt and easily exchanged them for money, dealing with everything on her own.
The old man still didn't know what was going on. His hand shook as he held onto the money. “W- What's going on?”
“Mister, this isn't a scam. What you picked up is yours,” Avery said. She did not want them yesterday, and she did not want them today either.
Since it was a luxury brand, they were completely efficient at returning the money since she had both the receipt and the product.
“How is this possible?” the old man cried out in both fear and happiness as he held onto the envelope of money. “That's five years of my medical bills done and paid for! This isn't going to come back to me in the future, is it?”
Avery shook her head with a smile, then glanced at his inured leg.
Only at ten-thirty in the morning did Avery arrive at her office.
As she chatted with the old man along the way, she learned that the old man didn't have any kids and that he had been living with his wife since they got married. However, he was hit by a car in his first year as a janitor.
The perpetrator had escaped and hadn't been found.
The old man had been shouldering the heavy amount of medical bills for his leg as well as the fees for the operation on his own this whole time. He had even thought about committing suicide, but he didn't want to leave his wife alone.
Avery suddenly felt grateful to Cayden. Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.
To a rich man, that sum was nothing. However, to someone like that old man, it was a life-changing sum.
Unknowingly, Cayden had done something good.
Avery, who was already late, didn't even notice that it was Saturday.
She walked into the building and noticed how there was practically no one except for some people working overtime. Only then did she remember that it was the weekend.
Meanwhile, Cayden and Zachary were in a stand-off.
Cayden was sitting in a black Land Rover that matched his black shirt. He was staring at his son with his face scrunched up. “Are you sure you don't want to come with me?”
“No! I'm really disappointed in you!” Zachary hugged his schoolbag tightly with his little fleshy hands as he looked at his father with a pout. “I wanted to compliment you to others so that they'd have a better impression of you, but I couldn't come up with a single thing! There's nothing good about you. You have
a horrible temper and you aren't gentle at all. I have plenty to say about how bad you are.”
Cayden's brows snapped together. He could tell that his son was troubled about something.
Abruptly, Zachary added, “You're not going to get a wife like this.”