When I Was A Wallflower

Chapter 333 Disowned
Amelie was busy with work for the next few days.
Thankfully, Steven was back from his trip, relieving much of her burden.
She was busy with both Knowlit and her streams.
Know it was booming, and there was a lot of interest from research groups.
She had no choice but to hire a few professionals for quality control.
With more quality content being produced, the platform's business was soaring. Investors were all interested in it and tried to
convince her to go public.
Not wanting to expand too fast, she rejected all of their suggestions.
Meanwhile, she made a few tweaks to the site to improve the user interface and increase the variety of content available.
In the blink of an eye, two weeks passed.
After all that work was over, she generously gave herself two days off from work.
She was thinking about how to make use of her vacation time.
Suddenly, her phone buzzed with a message.
'Come to the Walsh Building.'
It was an unknown number.
She stared at it for ages, but she could not think of just who could have sent her that message.
However, she was familiar with the Walsh Building.
That was where Toby's company, Walsh Residence, was located.
Did that mean Toby sent her the message?

She called Toby, wanting to confirm her guess.
He did not answer the phone.
Worried that it was urgent, she did not spend too much time pondering. She informed Steven before swiftly jumping into her car
and driving over to the Walsh Building.
It was an hour's drive from Halport to Clouson City.
However, she had cut it down to thirty minutes.
As soon as she arrived at the building, she swung the car around in a beautiful arc to slide her car into a narrow parking lot.
She was about to grab her bag and get out of the car.
At that moment, she saw a car stop right in front of her.
The driver swiftly got out and opened one of the doors to allow a middle-aged man to step out.
He was dressed in a fine suit.
Meanwhile, another man stepped out of the car from the other side.
The man was dressed entirely in white with his somewhat long hair tied up in a ponytail to frame the gentle curves of his face.
It was Toby.
"Think carefully. What happened between you and Leo Alston?" the middle-aged man sternly asked Toby. Despite looking very
similar to Toby, he looked extremely strict.
She instantly knew who he was.
He was Toby's father, Theodore Walsh.
The two men had yet to spot Amelie and her car. They were fully focused on each other.
Toby silently pursed his lips. His usually smiling eyes were drooping and staring down at the ground while his shoulders were
hunched over.

When Theodore saw that, his anger only grew as he barked out in a harsher tone of voice, "We have always worked well with
the Alstons, yet today he suddenly canceled our collaboration, specifically your project. Don't tell me this has nothing to do with
you!"
Uncontrollable rage rang in his voice and his eyes looked fierce.
Toby helplessly pursed his lips and huffed in silent agreement.
Theodore slammed his hand against the car window. "You're such a useless failure! Now that the Alstons have canceled our
contract, our necks are on the line! If things do not improve, the entire project will fail. Think carefully; the company will suffer a
great loss once the few hundred million dollars project fails. If you can't resolve this matter, your grandfather will disown you."
Then, without a second glance at Toby, he stomped into the office building.
Toby raised his eyebrows in helplessness as he combed his long fingers through his hair. As he turned around, he spotted her.
"Why are you here?" he asked in surprise with an awkward look on his face.
Ah, so he was not the one who messaged her.
She was certain of that.
She silently got out of her car and walked over to him. "My apologies. I did not mean to overhear your conversation."
He ducked his head down and gave her a smile that was somewhat bitter and somewhat embarrassed.
"What happened between you and Leo? How did things end up this way?"
She knew that the two families had always worked together.
With how close the two families were, there was no reason for Leo to cancel their collaborative projects.
Not unless something major happened.
"Profit has always been the king in the world of business. My project isn't profitable enough for him, so he gave up on it," he
casually explained.
She silently stared at him.

For some reason, she believed that was not the real reason.
"You haven't had lunch, have you? I'm hungry. Do you want to grab lunch together?" he asked, pulling her along as he walked.
That snapped her out of her thoughts.
She instinctively shied away from his touch. "It's fine. I have plans."
She did not want to interact too much with him.
"This is the Walsh Building, and quite a few people know we're dating. If you don't have lunch with me while you're here, people
will be suspicious." He did not try to pull her along again. Instead, he looked down at his now-empty hand.
That rendered Amelie speechless.
Theodore had just expressed his dissatisfaction with Toby. If people start to suspect Toby's relationship with her, it would be
adding fuel to the fire.
He did save her twice, so she could not be cruel.
Finally, she nodded. "Fine."
He walked fast. Soon, he brought her to a huge and lavishly decorated restaurant.
"This way, Mr. Walsh," a waitress greeted, walking up to them. "Your usual?"
It was evident he was a regular here.
The waitress' eyes were shimmering as she looked at him. Her eyes nearly spelled out "I love you" at him.
However, she uneasily looked away when she spotted Amelie.
"No." He snapped his fingers. "We'll have something different today."
He then pulled out a chair for Amelie.
After they sat down, he immediately began to order without even looking at the menu.

The waitress swiftly tapped away on her tablet and added the dishes he named to their order. Then, she paused with doubt in
her eyes. "Mr. Walsh, you usually hate spicy dishes."
"I merely do not like to have spicy food when I'm working. I'm on leave today, so I'd like to give the dishes a go," he replied.
The waitress went silent, hid her doubt, and strode away.
Amelie silently stared at him.
Every dish he had ordered was her favorite.
Was it a coincidence?
They rarely ever dined together, and she had never told him her food preferences.
It was hard to wave it away as a coincidence.
An advantage of high-end restaurants was that few people dined there.
The servers were quick to serve them. In just ten minutes, all of their dishes were served.
Toby politely picked up his cutlery and gestured to her, saying, "Let's eat."
She continued to silently stare at him before turning her attention to the food.
They were soon done with their meal.
Just then, his phone rang.
He shot her an apologetic look. "I have to take this."
He then answered the phone as he walked out.
She took the opportunity to walk over to the sales register as she wanted to pay for the meal.
"Mr. Walsh has already paid," the waitress politely responded while also sizing her up.
Standing nearby, the waitress who had served them whispered to another waitress, "I heard Mr. Walsh never orders spicy food,
yet he suddenly ordered some today. Is it all because of the lady he brought along?"

She had just finished speaking when the waitress she was speaking to nudged her.
Realizing Amelie was standing at the sales register, the gossiping waitress hurriedly covered her mouth while shooting an
embarrassed smile at Amelie.
"I'm sorry, but I have something urgent to attend to. I have to go now," Toby said, suddenly appearing behind Amelie.
"I'll leave you to it," she swiftly replied with a nod.
He nodded to her apologetically before striding away.
She did not go back to the table. Instead, she headed to the exit as well.
She had barely taken a few steps when someone stepped in front of her, blocking her way out. "Miss Dillon."