A Point of No Return

Chapter 74

"When are you planning to start a family?"

Mrs. Li hinted her son when they were having breakfast one morning. Wai Kok and Mel had been married for almost a year and still, no sign of pregnancy.

"We are still young, mother. The baby can wait."

It was Wai Kok's duty to defend his wife whenever Mrs. Li brought up this matter since he knew about Mel's situation. Since he had chosen to be with her, he had to protect her.

"You can wait, but do you think I have the time to wait?" Mrs. Li shook her head and let out a deep audible sigh before leaving the table.

For the past twenty over years, Mrs. Li had single-handedly brought up Wai Kok and Wai Seng. Therefore, she was very eager to have a grandson after Wai Kok's marriage. Even though she could still pin her hope on Wai Seng, her second son, but he was only seventeen years old. As a matter of fact, the relationship between Mrs. Li and Mel was not a bad one since Mel had been a good and dutiful daughter-in-law to her.

Nevertheless, it would simply make her blood boiled whenever Wai Kok had chosen to listen to Mel or tried all kind of lame excuses whenever she raised the up the baby question. Of course, Mel was fully aware about of her mother-in-law's frustration and she would try her best to please Mrs. Li happy in order to balance her emotion even when if it means that she had to act as a vent for her anger.

"Wai, maybe we should tell mother about my condition." Mel suggested.

"Don't worry about it. She will get over it very soon." Wai Kok assured Mel.

Needless to say, this was one issue which Mrs. Li would not get over with and the last thing that she would not tolerate was to have a daughter-in-law who could not bear her any grandchildren. Their marriage would not be possible if Wai Kok had not kept her in the dark about Mel's health. Even after they were married, Wai Kok feared that if Mrs. Li were to find out about this, she would eventually force him to divorce Mel and get another wife.

The marriage between Mel and Wai Kok would have been a perfect one if not for the baby issue, given the fact that both of them had respected each other's freedom and of course, both were also busy with their own work.

Wai Kok became a minor shareholder in his company when his bosses had offered him five percent of their company's share after he secured one long term contract with one of their largest clients.

As for Mel, she was doing extremely well in the IT field, specializing in networking and her capability had earned her job as a senior consultant, drawing a comfortable amount of annual salary, in one multi-national company.

"Mrs. Li, you have a visitor waiting." Mel's secretary informed via the intercom.

"Am I expecting anyone today?"

Mel questioned out as she checked through her schedule, not wanting to miss out any important appointment before she called it for a day.

"No."

"If that is the case, request for an appointment, I am leaving in another ten minutes."

Mel instructed before resting her aching neck against the back of her arm chair. Taking a quick glance at the clock in front of her, she had a few more minutes to spare for a quick rest before Wai Kok's arrival to pick her up for a consultant session with a doctor, which her friends had strongly recommended. Despite knowing the possibility of conceiving was low, Mel insisted on trying different specialists for consultation, mainly for the sake of the nearly strained relationship between her husband and mother-in-law, but they all came to the same conclusion.

"I am very sorry to inform you that there is only 0.01 possibility for Mrs. Li to conceive. Why don't you two consider adoption?"

"Sir, I am sorry but you will have to come another day."

A little commotion outside Mel's office had Mel's power nap interrupted and seconds later her door was suddenly flung open with her secretary trying to stop a man from entering.

"No sir, you should leave right now!"

Mel got up from her seat and her brows were drawn together, in a frown, when she noticed a face that brought her back to those bitter-sweet memories.

"Connie." Mel called out. "Let him in."

"Yes, Mrs. Li." Connie nodded her head before leaving the two alone in the room.

"How are you?"

Samuel Young greeted in an uttermost awkward tone after readjusting his tie back to its original position. As a matter of fact, it was not his intention to create such a havoc entrance in first place, especially when he was practically trying his very best to stay out of Mel's life for the past one year and THAT was the maximum tolerance for him.

That's it…one year and no longer than that… Sam told himself that as he stared blankly at his computer screen that was showing long pages of e-mail report pertaining to Mel.

"I am fine, thank you."

Mel coldly replied before plopping her body back to her arm chair.

"I take it that you want this meeting to be a short one."

Sam remarked when Mel didn't even offer him a seat but he just pulled a chair nearest to him and sat down.

"I have a proposal for you and I swear this is strictly a business proposal." Sam paused, checking Mel's reaction only to see that now-finish-what-you-want-to-say-and-go expression pinned to her face.

"Networking is a potential business and we have decided to venture into this area with our excessive fund and guess what? Your name was repeatedly mentioned by some of our business associates when I've told them about my plans." Sam was beginning to feel that his whole life was a lie as he continued with his persuasion. "I am inviting you to join only because of your capability in the networking field." Sam declared solemnly even despite they were only words used to quiet her doubts.

"I don't think this is a good idea." Mel rejected without giving any second thought.

"Please, can't you sense my sincerity? Why don't you take a look at this first?" Sam had a frown of a disappointed little boy who just learnt that there was no such thing as 'tooth fairy' when the tooth was still lying intact under his pillow.

Mel finally leaned forward a little and focused her attention on the plastic file which Sam had just placed on her table. While Mel was reading through the content of the proposal drawn, Sam waited patiently until she was at the last page, in fact, he was enjoying the entire precious silent moment that he had been deprived of.

"You've indeed impressed me with the content of your proposal." Mel spoke out in a tone so formal that she couldn't even recognize her own voice. "But, give me some time to think about it."

Mel took a pondering pause and gave Sam a short but intent stare, "I need to discuss with my husband."

"Of course…" Sam muttered to himself and quickly looked away because he did not want Mel to know how a simple word like 'husband' could easily left him in a baffled state. The momentary silence inside the room was broken by a knock at the door and followed by a cheerful voice when the door opened.

"Are you ready?"

"Speaking of the devil…" Sam mumbled to himself and immediate got up from his seat to face the person that he wanted to meet least.

"Hello." Sam greeted out after readjusting his emotion and flashed out the most confidence smile that he could fake out.

"My name is Samuel Young and I am a friend of Mel."

Then Samuel reached into the side pocket of his jacket and retrieved out his name card before passing it to Wai Kok.

"Oh…"

Wai Kok was in fact dazed by this stranger standing right before him and had to admit that the green-eyed monster within him was about to wake up the moment Sam had introduced himself as a friend of his wife. Who could ever resist that charming face and well-built figure? Who, in the right mind, could?

"As a matter of fact, the purpose of my presence here is to offer Mel one hell of a good business opportunity that she simply cannot reject." Sam said out with a broad smile pinned on his face despite receiving an almost murderous glare from Mel immediately after he had finished his sentence. Wai Kok gave his chin a wispy rub before diverting his attention to Mel in seek of a silent confirmation about the issue.

"Samuel." Mel finally got up from her seat, pronouncing Sam's full name was a way to tell Sam that he had said enough and of course, Sam fully understood her gesture. "I did say I need some time to think about it. So, I will keep you informed."

Mel narrowed her eyes and gave him an oblivious I-want-you-out-of-my-office-right-now expression.

"Sure…" Sam said and turned to Wai Kok and stretched his right hand towards Wai Kok's direction. "Nice meeting you."

"Me too…"

Sam's hand was still gripped firmly onto Wai Kok's hand after the courteous shake and Sam was in fact staring directly into his eyes and it kind of made Wai Kok a little uneasy. Sam then pulled Wai Kok nearer so that he could whisper something to him.

"You are so damn lucky."

With that, Sam reluctantly turned and gave Mel a goodbye wave before exiting the room. He really hoped that Wai Kok would sense that he was really sincere in his previous remark, especially the 'D' word.

…to be continued