Mr. Charles's Hidden Wife novel Chapter 177

Seeing as Henson agreed to the idea, Principle Burke felt relieved and he chirped up, "If that's the case, why not let my daughter Nancy here be your personal assistant, Master Henson? She's an alumni of the university and she studied in the same faculty as you did, so I thought she might be of great help to you and-" 

"You want Miss Billy to be my personal assistant? Forget about it," Henson interrupted before he could finish. He shook his head afterwards.

Nancy, who was sitting in a corner, suddenly had an anxious look on her face as she stood up from her seat. "I promise I can be a good assistant, so please give me a chance, Sir," she begged.

Henson remained calm and expressionless, but his voice sounded quite cold, "Absolutely not. You can't even keep a secret well, thus you've failed the first requirement of being my personal assistant - knowing when to keep your mouth shut," he snapped.

"I can change, I promise you I won't be so loose-lipped next time," she kept insisting while nodding profusely. "I swear I'll keep my mouth shut from now on," she pleaded.

He smiled faintly. "I clearly instructed Burke here to keep the matter of my being a guest lecturer an absolute secret, so why did you go and blab your mouth to everyone about it? If you did this as an employee in my company, you'd be fired long ago," he reprimanded.

"I didn't know that the matter needed to be kept a secret," she muttered sheepishly.

"She's right, Master Henson. I'm the one to blame for all of this as I didn't tell her about how it should be kept a secret," President Burke piped up apologetically.

"How reliable can one's daughter be if their father isn't as well? As daughter of the university's president, if you can't even keep university matters a secret, how can I be sure that you won't leak my company's secrets? Ergo, I refuse to take up such an incompetent person as my personal assistant," Henson sneered in reply.

She felt like the more she spoke, the deeper the grave she was digging for herself now. "I swear I've only told Miss Evans about the matter," she admitted.

"Isn't Wendy a human being?" Henson snapped.

She fell silent. Now that the situation had escalated to such a degree, she didn't know what else she could say to defend herself. After all, it was her fault for not being able to keep a secret in the first place. 

"Speaking of Wendy, I feel that she's a suitable candidate to be my personal assistant. I heard that she used to be one of the top achievers on campus, and since she also worked as a private tutor for my younger brother, I've already assessed and interviewed her thoroughly. So, let's just have her as my personal assistant instead," he continued.

"But wait, Miss Evans also leaked the secret," she hurriedly interjected.

"Oh, really?" He said and raised an eyebrow.

"How would you have found out about it if she didn't tell you? I was the one who leaked the secret to her after all," she reasoned.

"You don't have the right to compare yourself to her right now. Just admit you were in the wrong. You making excuses won't change anything now,"  he scoffed

and got up from his seat. He then turned to face Burke. "It's settled then. Be sure to inform Wendy of my decision for her to be my personal assistant. One person might not suffice for the task though, so ask her to find two more people she trusts to help her. But of course, that excludes Miss Billy," he instructed.

"Understood, Master Henson. You have yourself a nice day," Burke said.

The moment Henson left, she stomped her feet in frustration. "Who's this Wendy Evans girl, dad? She's really starting to piss me off," she shouted.

"Now now, don't you dare throw a fit now.

Didn't I tell you to keep Master Henson's matters a secret? Why in the world did you tell Wendy about it?" Principle Burke retorted.

"How was I supposed to know that she'd tell him about it?" she snapped and crossed her arms. "This Wendy girl deserves a beating," she huffed.

"Stop it already. She's on good terms with Master Howell, so you better be careful in the future," he chided.

"So what? So long as she doesn't get married to Howell, she won't have anything to do with the Charles household," she said.

"Before I got the job, Master Henson told me one thing, and that was to take good care of Wendy. Why do you keep insisting that she has nothing to do with Charles family then? If she really had nothing to do with them, why would he even tell me that in the first place? Didn't I tell you to get her on your side? She can help you," he scolded.

Nancy wasn't deterred by this. Surely Wendy wasn't as capable as he thinks she was.

In the meanwhile in the office, Wendy's phone started ringing as she was in the middle of typing up a few forms on her PC. 

Upon seeing that the president was calling her, she quickly picked up the phone. "Greetings, sir," she said.

"I'll fill you in on the latest news, Wendy. Since Mr. Charles is currently lacking a personal assistant, I'll need you to fill that role starting next week when he arrives on campus again. You'll only need to assist him in his teaching duties, is all," he said.

"Huh? Me?" she gasped.

"That's right. Master Henson personally requested for you, so I'm afraid everything has been set in stone for now. He also told you to find two other people you trust to help you in this task. So, when next Friday rolls around, you'll need to assist him in his teaching duties. I hope you don't get in the way of his teaching too, understood?" he explained.

"Noted, sir," she said and hung up with a sigh afterwards.

Her teeth were clenched as she recalled what Henson told her just now.

He said that he'd find a way to fulfill her wish of letting her sit in for his lecture. "So, this was how he planned to do it," she thought. She'd been duped once again. 

Wouldn't she offend every female on campus if she were to be his personal assistant?

Thankfully, she didn't have to do it alone, or else...

... but that wasn't right either. It'd be beneficial for her to find two more people to help her out, but was there any way she could do it without offending anyone in the process?

"Oh, Henson. You evil overlord," she thought to herself

and slammed her phone down on the table.

Sitting beside her was a startled Carmen who asked, "What's up with you, Wendy? Did the president trouble you with anything again?" 

"Huh?" Wendy gaped.

Then, her eyes flickered as she suddenly thought of an idea.

"It's not that, the president actually gave me- no, US a really interesting task to do," she said.

There was a glimmer of excitement on her face when she said that. 

"An 'Interesting' task?" Carmen piped up.

"He let the guys in our office volunteer ourselves to be Mr. Charles personal assistants for his lecture every Friday. We'd only need to assist him in his teaching duties," Wendy explained.

The moment she said that, the other two who were in the office also turned to face her with surprised looks on their faces.

"Ouch, it hurts. I'm definitely not dreaming now," Carmen yelped in pain after pinching her arm.

"This joke is in really poor taste, Wendy. Why would the president ever look for us?" Cael retorted in disbelief.

"That's because we're assistant professors from the Business Management Department. Master Henson's lecture is aimed at the students from the Business faculty, right? Since most of the students that attend his lecture are from that particular faculty, that's why he settled on us," Wendy fibbed.

The three of them collectively 'ah'-ed in understanding.

Carmen immediately jumped up in joy after hearing that.

It wasn't long until Cael also joined in the celebration.

Wendy heaved a sigh of relief. It should be better for the president to take the fall for  this 'blunder' instead of having every female on campus despise her, right? 

Alright, it's settled then. 

After clocking off work, Carmen and Cael decided to go shop for some clothes together, so they left the office first. 

When Wendy and Linda arrived at the campus gates, she noticed Henson's car parked nearby.

But since there were still lots of people going about their business at the gates by then, she daren't hop on his car yet

and held on to Linda's hands with her head held down as they walked towards the bus stop together.

A smile crept up on Henson's face as he sat in the car. He was fully aware that she wouldn't dare get in his car yet.

"Drive me up to the intersection ahead, Baron," he instructed.

Baron obliged.

Upon arriving at the bus stop, Wendy's phone vibrated twice. 

She fished out her phone to see that Henson had sent her a text that read, 

"I'm at the intersection up ahead,"

She pouted her lips as she turned to look at Linda. "Something came up, so I won't be taking the bus with you, Linda. See you," she said.

Linda nodded in understanding and replied, "I'll leave you to it then. See you tomorrow,"

"Okay!" Wendy said. She waved her hands at Linda and sprinted off afterwards.

Upon reaching the intersection, Henson got out and leaned on the car to wait for her to get in.

Just as the driver was about to drive off, she noticed a figure standing not far away under a tree. It turned out that Linda was looking in her direction with a shocked look on her face...