Sugar Daddy

Growing up, she’d heard all the cruel things people said. She understood them perfectly but didn’t know how to respond. The more others put her down, the harder she worked to be better. No one else understood this—only she knew the real reason was that she just wanted her mother to look at her, even if only once.

But it never happened.

Elias looked at Raina, knowing exactly why she’d suddenly come here today—to ask this question.

In the past, Raina had asked him many times, but each time he had found excuses to brush it off or simply avoided the topic. Sensitive and mature, Raina never pressed further.

Elias stroked his silver beard slowly. “Raina, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you. It’s just… there are many things even I don’t know. But I can tell you this for certain—your mother loved you deeply. She risked her life to protect you. At that time, she had no choice…”

No choice?

What exactly did she have no choice about?

Raina closed her eyes, and after a long pause, she reopened them and set down her cup. “Alright, Teacher. Let’s not talk about this anymore. Today, I came to ask you—VIREXIN itself is poisonous. How did you know that?”

Normally, a new medicine might have some side effects, but it wouldn’t necessarily be poisonous.

VIREXIN was her mother’s final research project before she suddenly passed away, and since she never got to finish testing it, only a few people could possibly know it was toxic.

Seeing Raina drop the earlier topic, Elias breathed a quiet sigh of relief and said, “When your mother was researching VIREXIN, she discovered that. She even mentioned it to me once, which is how I knew it was poisonous. But the exact details… I don’t know much.”

After a pause, he added, “But what puzzles me more is where Mireille got the formula to VIREXIN and actually managed to develop it… Could it be that some of your mother’s notes were left behind at the Carrington’s home?”

At first, when Mireille claimed to have made VIREXIN, Elias didn’t take it seriously. But now, with Vireon Labs and Hale Group jointly announcing the pill’s official launch, it was hard not to believe.

But how was that possible?

VIREXIN wasn’t an ordinary medicine. Although its effects were miraculous, it was extremely difficult to make. Where did Mireille find the formula?

Raina raised an eyebrow. “Maybe. But if VIREXIN really is poisonous, and Mireille recklessly released it to market, I doubt she can bear the consequences alone.”

Elias took a sip of tea, his expression grave. “Even before VIREXIN was fully developed, outsiders were already clamoring for it. Now that it’s going public, it’s going to cause quite a stir in the industry. If she can’t remove the toxicity, then what she created is just a defective product. To announce it on the market and sell it to patients would be… reckless endangerment of human lives.”

Raina asked, “Teacher, you can’t remove the toxicity from VIREXIN either?”

Elias shook his head helplessly. “I’m human, not a god. Besides, I have no research on VIREXIN. When your mother stubbornly chose this path, I swore I would never touch that thing in my life.”

VIREXIN was a once-in-a-lifetime breakthrough. Ordinary people wouldn’t even dream of making it, and no one dared to take that road.

But Raina’s mother went all in, no matter the cost.

And for what?

Raina was silent for a while. At that moment, Briar, who had just finished distributing gifts, walked in.

After greeting Elias, Briar’s gaze fell somewhat restrained on Raina. He smiled, “You just returned to the country and rarely visits. How about staying for dinner tonight before you go?”

Then, as if realizing he might be overstepping, he glanced at Elias and added, “What do you think, Grandpa?”

Briar was Elias’s only grandson and the future heir of The Green Chamber.

It was obvious even to a blind man that Briar liked Raina. And Elias certainly knew his precious grandson’s feelings.

Briar was calm and fair-minded, always giving off an air of gentlemanly dignity. Elias often used him as a role model to teach other disciples.

In the future, The Green Chamber would be passed down to Briar. And after Elias’s time, Raina was the one he worried about most. If those two could be together, he’d be at ease.

Elias was about to reply when Raina’s phone suddenly rang.

She glanced at the two men, then at the caller ID. She nearly choked on her tea.

It was Leif—again!

Thinking about temporarily staying at Wexford Lane, Raina sighed silently. Well, her sugar daddy had every right to be capricious.

She waved vaguely. “I’ll take this call.”

Walking away, she picked up the phone and pressed it to her ear, one foot lazily tracing circles on the floor. “Mr. Vexley, what’s up?”

On the other end, Leif sat upright, tapping the armrest impatiently with a stiff tone: “You… come pick me up.”

Raina’s finger froze for a moment. After a while, she put down her phone and glanced at the caller ID — sure enough, it was Leif’s name. And now he was asking her to come pick him up?!

His family had so many cars; why on earth did he need her to pick him up?

But that wasn’t even the point. The rumor was that Leif, the aloof and untouchable CEO of Vexley Group, was actually… surprisingly familiar and casual?

That just didn’t add up!

Raina scratched her head, still tracing circles on the floor with her foot. “...Mr. Vexley, are you sure you didn’t dial the wrong number?”

Leif said, “No, Rael’s out on a business trip.”

Raina: “Huh?”

Leif continued, “And the car was taken.”

Raina: “...Oh.”

She paused, then sighed and said, “Alright then, send me your location, and I’ll come get you.”

After all, she was driving Leif’s car, and since Rael took his car away, she couldn’t very well let a top-tier CEO like Leif have to take a cab. That would just not fit his image.

The moment she mentioned the location, Leif’s voice turned cold as ice, his smile tight and forced—nowhere near his eyes.

“You haven’t followed me yet.”

Raina blinked, caught off guard. Was that… resentment in his voice?

She hesitated. “Followed? What do you mean?”

Leif stopped tapping the armrest. His jaw tightened as he ground out one word:

“I*******m.”

***