Forced by fate – Destined to be his Wife

Linlin was impatiently thrusting her boba balls in her tea around with her straw, tapping her sandal clad foot over her crossed legs and eyeing up the oncoming food traffic as she waited. Growing irritated with every second she sat here. The sun was shining bright, so she had come to rest outside the small cafe on her way to the clinic and was in no mood for bullshit. She had agreed to meet Rhea for five minutes and the wench was already late. Only here because she said it was important and related to YuZhi and TangShi.

Linlin was battle ready and not about to fall for any kind of manipulation on her part. She had no time to be messing around while TangShi slept at home if this was an attempt to further separate them. After a sleepless few days and sedatives before she had a mental break, Linlin was eager to get back to her. She didn’t want her to be alone for any length of time given she was struggling emotionally over losing YuZhi.

“Miss. Choi.” The familiar soft voice of that picture of poise and elegance strolled into view. A mask and sunglasses to conceal her identity, paired with a long black dress over boots, but Linlin knew who it was right away. She didn’t seem all that concerned about making her wait and it left a sour taste in Linlin’s mouth at how rude that was.

“Rhea. You’re late.” Linlin didn’t care for the formalities having never liked this girl and suspicious of her motives today. “What did you want to meet me for? Spit it out, I don’t have much time.” Straight to the point, no messing. A haughty way of addressing her that was a Linlin normal with people she didn’t like.

“Blunt, I like it. I’ll get straight to the point as you don’t seem like the small talk kind.” Rhea slid into a seat opposite her and rested her elbows on the table to get closer and lowered her tone. “I saw YuZhi a couple of days ago and he was in a bad way. I got the jist of what happened and yet, I don’t really believe it. So I’m here to impart some of my wisdom.” Rhea raised a brow as Linlin observed her with a slight furrowed glare and indescribable and unreadable expression.

“Really? And how is that? Why didn’t you just tell me on the phone?” The sarcasm was evident because Linlin really didn’t think Rhea should ever be trusted. The girl always had a motive in Linlin’s opinion.

“I can’t say this on the phone in case it’s recorded. You’d be amazed how far the paparazzi go nowadays. Rong Cai. He has history with a friend of mine who moved abroad to outrun him a couple of years ago. If he’s connected to this then I figured you should know what I do. TangShi never struck me as the adultery type, and she genuinely seems to love YuZhi.” Rhea waved her hand at the passing waiter and pointed at Linlin’s milk bubble tea to gesture she would have the same. Not sure if sharing this information had a point, but she wanted to offload it and help if it did.

“So, you’re saying TangShi is innocent and that Rong Cai is what?” Linlin raised her brow in distrust, sat back and crossed her arms in a gesture to show she was no pushover. She didn’t fall for some fast words and kind gestures that easily.

“My friend was stalked by him for several months. He tried everything to pull apart her and her then fiancée and he had some pretty inventive methods. He didn’t take no as an answer. I don’t know all the details but in the end she moved abroad and got married and he had no choice but to give up. She didn’t want to make it public given her fiancées status as a celebrity, so she never reported him. He’s unscrupulous and unhinged even if he does hide it well.”This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

“Inventive? Such as drugging a girl to take her back to a hotel room?” Linlin snorted, not even surprised by this tidbit of information. Looking back he certainly seemed the type to become obsessively attached to a girl given the way he seemed to follow TangShi and lie openly the night in the bar. His interest in her was one sided and without any come ons from TangShi he had developed an almighty attachment to her that didn’t seem healthy. Linlin’s gut was twinging like crazy that Rong was capable of devious acts.

“Is that what you think he did? That he took advantage of her under the influence of drugs.”

“I have to collect the blood and urine report today. I’m literally on my way there but my gut tells me they will have found something in her system. TangShi is adamant she wasn’t drinking all that much and then she has no memory between eating cake and waking up in a hotel bed half naked.” Linlin exhaled heavily, still getting irrationally mad anytime she thought of her friends vulnerability that night and what he must have done to her. Her protective instinct kicking in strong, and she downed a gulp of tea to dislodge the choking rage.

“So she really did have sex with him? … Only she didn’t consent, and she was unaware of it?” Rhea felt sick at the thought of how easy it was for a woman to be taken that way. A stirring of empathy and heartache for TangShi because she had no idea what was even done to her. She couldn’t imagine if it was her and how violated she would feel. It didn’t bear thinking about.

“I don’t know. She woke up with her underwear on and I don’t know many rapists who will stop to redress you if they want you waking up convinced it was consensual sex. My gut says he drugged her and staged it but never took it all the way. He hopes to have a relationship with her, maybe he had some sense of boundary when it came to that. I just don’t know how far he went.” Linlin had been confuse don this ever since she picked her up. To her the underwear being on her body and intact was a detail that seemed important.

“You had her checked and blood and urine tests, did they examine her body to see? Can they even tell?”

“No. I couldn’t put her through that trauma, and I know she had a wild night with YuZhi hours before so either way she would have had evidence of rough sex. TangShi is in denial about all of this, and I really don’t want to tell her she might have been raped. The way she is right now, she wouldn’t deal too well with that on top of everything. She already believes they had sex so she would never have agreed to a testing kit because of the shame of it and the doctor agreed not to push her when he saw her, due to her mental state.”

Rhea fell silent, trying to block out her ears to the admission of YuZhi and TangShi having a rough and ready night of sex. Still affected by that in relation to him even if it was getting easier and instead focused on the awfulness of this whole thing. Saddened for YuZhi too as a victim in this as much as TangShi was. Glad she went with her gut and reached out to Linlin this way to understand more of what was going on and now she was determined to right the wrongs.

“What are you going to do if the results are positive?” Rhea leaned back as the waiter brought her drink and smiled with a nod and quiet thank you before turning back her attention to the paused Linlin. They waited until he had walked away and Linlin leaned back in.

“I had hoped ZhengLi would be on board to helping me figure this out, but he’s gone AWOL and won’t answer my calls. He’s one hundred percent Team YuZhi and thinks TangShi is the devil in this.” Linlin stabbed her drink with her straw, trying not to face the swirling bitter heartache that asshole caused her. Hurting much deeper than she wanted to admit at his ability to cut her off and break up over something like this as if Linlin didn’t mean anything.

Rhea smiled softly, a small breathy laugh escaping her lips and she shook her head in warm adoration.

“That’s Zheng all over. Loyal to a fault and when it comes to his brother, he won’t hear anything against him. A bullheaded moron who chooses him above al else, even if it’s wrong. He can’t bear to see YuZhi hurt but I think sharing the results with him will change that. He’s not got a bad bone in his body and if he knows there’s been foul play he will use all his resources to uncover it.” On this Rhea was sure. ZhengLi was special, with the investigation skills of an FBI agent when needed and quite often had been Leng Groups secret weapon. If anyone could find out the truth of something, it was ZhengLi.