6  Borrowing a Knife

She set her phone down and pushed the blanket aside as she stood. “Mr. Drake.”

Nicholas snapped back to himself. He cleared his throat, stepped forward, and tossed a tube of ointment onto the sofa beside her. “Liam sent this. Apply it after your shower. Helps with dislocation.”

Evelyn lowered her gaze to the small tube resting behind her leg. She bent down, picked it up carefully, and nodded with quiet seriousness. “Thank you. I’ll use it after I wash up.”

He said nothing.

Evelyn continued looking up at him.

“Is there something on my face?” he asked.

“No.”

“Then why are you staring at me?”

She immediately dropped her eyes. Her lips pressed together before she answered honestly, “My sister said you look ugly and fierce. But I think you look very handsome. You’re the best-looking man I’ve ever seen.”

Sister? He vaguely remembered Thomas having a daughter. Must be Evelyn’s cousin.

Nicholas was used to judging others, never the other way around. Almost no one dared comment on him.

He gave her a sidelong glance and turned toward the bedroom. “Go put on your ointment. You talk too much.”

Once inside the room, he made a call to a friend, giving him an instruction to take care of something.

Meanwhile, Evelyn took her pajamas to the bathroom, showered, and applied the ointment.

When she came downstairs for a glass of water, she ran into Liam.

“Mrs. Drake, you’re still awake?” he asked.

Evelyn held her cup of warm water and looked over gently. “I was a little thirsty. I’ll go back to sleep in a bit.”

Liam stepped into the dining area. His eyes drifted instinctively to her right arm.

An hour ago, the doctor had delivered ointment at Nicholas’s request, and that was when Liam realized her injury had come from the master himself. Newly married and already dislocating his wife’s shoulder? Too heavy-handed.

“Mrs. Drake, is your arm feeling better?” he asked.

“It’s much better,” Evelyn replied, glancing at her arm. “The ointment helped a lot. I think I’ll be fine by tomorrow. And thank you for going out so late to get it.”

Liam froze.

What?

Before he could speak, Evelyn had already taken her cup and walked away. “Rest early, Liam. I’m heading upstairs.”

Her shoulder hurt, yes.

But the trip to the club had been worth it.

Nicholas’s stepmother had always been trying to draw her closer to the Dawson household, hoping to make it seem like Evelyn was on their side.

Tonight, Evelyn showed Nicholas clearly, through action, where she stood.

She was his.

Not theirs.

The next morning, Evelyn woke to her phone ringing.

She sat up, pulling the blanket around herself. The call had already been cut off by the system after going unanswered for too long.

She unlocked the screen.

The pale glow lit up her face. A news alert popped up.

“New York University Jewelry Design student Aurora accused of falsifying and plagiarizing her C journal submission. Degree to be revoked.”

Evelyn’s expression remained calm.

As if she had expected it.

She was gifted, having gotten into NYU’s psychology program at sixteen. And with Hart Innovation Group once being the largest jewelry empire in Northern Europe, she had grown up with an intuitive grasp of jewels.

But living under the Sullivans’ roof, she hid her talent deliberately.

Behind the scenes, Aurora’s academic papers and award-winning designs had all been done by Evelyn.

Gradually, Aurora became a campus star, praised as a prodigy. Teachers adored her, classmates admired her.

Thomas and his wife bragged constantly about their exceptional daughter.

Evelyn never said a word.

She made herself invisible.

The frail mute everyone believed her to be.

Aurora ordered her around, and she obeyed without resistance.

The phone rang again. Aurora.

Evelyn looked at the caller ID, then slowly sat on the sofa. She waited. The call nearly timed out before she finally answered.

The moment the line connected, Aurora’s furious voice exploded through the speaker.

“Evelyn, where the hell have you been! Why didn’t you pick up!”

“Sister, I just finished taking my medicine.”

“Sickly piece of trash. Why don’t you just die! My C journal paper got flagged for plagiarism. You wrote it, so who did you copy? How dare you plagiarize something you wrote for me! Do you want me to kill you?”

Evelyn coughed a few times.

When she spoke again, her voice was weaker. “I didn’t plagiarize. Ask for a recheck. It was probably a system error.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I wrote everything myself. I’d never be careless about that.”

“Fine, I’ll trust you this once. Listen to me, Evelyn. If the recheck comes back and the paper is plagiarized, I will send you straight to hell to meet your dead parents. You can’t even do one thing right. You’re useless. The Sullivan family has wasted ten years raising you. You’re worse than a dog. Disgusting.”

“I’m sorry… I…”

The apology never finished. Aurora had already hung up.

When Evelyn lowered the phone, she raised her eyes and saw Nicholas standing there.

He looked freshly showered.

Evelyn stood. “Mr. Drake.”

He glanced at her, walking forward as he rubbed his hair with a towel. “The Sullivans speak to you like that often?”

“It’s not too bad.”

Nicholas scoffed. “Not on speaker and I could still hear her screeching through the whole house. Anyone would think she’s a person, but she sounds more like a wild animal.”

“I had her journal paper rewritten. She plagiarized. NYU will revoke her degree. Do not rewrite anything for her again. Do not defend her. If you do, I’ll break you.”

Evelyn pressed her lips together, silent.

Nicholas shot her one last look, then strode out of the room and shut the door behind him.

Once he was gone, Evelyn’s face returned to calm beneath the hallway’s cold white light.

From campus idol to infamous plagiarist.

This was only the beginning.

By noon, the Maybach pulled into the underground parking lot of a luxury mall. Nicholas parked and got out, waiting a few moments before Evelyn finally stepped out of the passenger seat, bundled in her small puffy coat. She closed the door lightly.

She did everything lightly.

After seeing it enough, Nicholas almost felt she might float away like a feather.

Her steps were slow, too.

He grew impatient and reached out to grab her, but his hand stopped midair as he remembered dislocating her shoulder yesterday.

Better not touch her.

If he accidentally snapped something again, or worse, killed her, it would be bad luck.

And troublesome.