جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 400

"Then your new secretary is useless. She doesn't know who matters." Catherine rested her chin on her hands and leaned across his desk.Vance avoided her gaze. "So, what brings you here?""I came to see you," she replied. "You didn't reply to my messages. I was worried."He cleared his throat lightly and picked up his phone. "I just fell asleep.""Are you working too hard?" She blinked. "Why don't you move in with me? I can take care of you."With his head low, he kept tapping on his phone. "That's not a good idea. I have too many work files on my home computer, and I often need to work late.""But..." she pouted. "I don't want to go back to that place either. It's full of traces of Rebecca."Vance froze as Rebecca's past accusation echoed in his mind: "You really think that is my home? Even the door password is Catherine's birthday. The decoration style is what she likes, and you call it my home? I hate it.""Vance..." Catherine called out.He snapped back to reality. "Then...

Vance had never really thought about whether he loved Catherine or not.He had simply wanted to prove his power and influence—to show that if he wanted, he could spoil a woman to the extreme. But in the process, he had hurt Rebecca.He hadn't thought that much. He had simply lost himself in his interactions with Catherine while explaining to Rebecca that he was only grateful to Catherine for volunteering to help his grandmother back then and that nothing was going on between them.That excuse probably sounded reasonable enough. He needed a noble-sounding reason to support his dark and despicable motives, but by and by, he truly believed it.He could do anything for Catherine, but he would not betray Rebecca.By that, he meant he would never cross the physical line. Yet Isabelle said emotional betrayal was still betrayal."Is it? Have I emotionally betrayed Rebecca?" he muttered, not sure of the answer.As for Catherine... He couldn't tell whether it was unresolved resentment or

"Who? I don't remember you having any female classmates like that," Catherine pressed."High school classmate. You don't know her," Vance replied.She wasn't convinced. "A high school classmate who cusses you out?"He was now a powerful CEO. Who would dare speak to him that way? She didn't even dare.She tried to snatch his phone and succeeded. He watched her skillfully enter his phone password and thought of a saying: "You reap what you sow."He finally understood how that strange post had appeared on his social media. He truly deserved it.She saw the top call log entry, then put the phone down. "It really is a classmate, but she has no manners at all."He took the phone back. "Who else did you think it was?""I thought..." She didn't finish the sentence. Of course, she had thought it was Rebecca—the only person daring to curse him like that.But how? Despite her bad attitude, he was willing to give Rebecca all the assets. That was crazy.Catherine had always admired and pa

"Don't even think about it. It's all mine." Catherine rolled her eyes. "You can't compare with Vance."Aiden wasn't impressed. "Except for that pretty face, how is he better than me?"She insisted, "He's better than you in every way.""Is that so?" he scoffed. "We graduated from the same school and the same major. We founded the company together. I didn't do any less work than him. In what way am I inferior?""He's the president, and you're the vice president. That's the difference," she snorted."Then why did you sleep with me?" he smirked. "Rather than with him?"She glared at him, but he wasn't fazed. "Stop overthinking it. Take good care of the fetus, give birth to my child, and work hard to become Mrs. Bradford."She frowned. "Easy for you to say. What if he demands a paternity test?""He won't," Aiden said confidently. "His biggest weakness is that he values our old friendship too much and trusts the people around him too deeply."She was puzzled. "I didn't expect you to

It blurred the words into a smear of ink.Vance quickly closed the notebook and handed it back to Jocelyn, afraid more words would be ruined by his tears. "I'm sorry..."Jocelyn put the notebook back in the box and smiled bitterly. "It's alright. These past few years, I've flipped through this notebook so many times it's almost falling apart. I don't even know how many tears I've dropped on it myself."Vance still held the stone in his hand, turning it over carefully. He remembered it had once been rough. Now it was smooth and rounded from years of being rubbed between fingers."Do you recognize this stone?" Jocelyn asked.He nodded. "Yes, it was carved by one of our high school classmates. During an autumn outing, we picked up this stone by the river. Someone carved patterns on it, drilled a hole, and made it into a pendant. I didn't know who had it in the end. Turns out, it was Darren.""He treasured it very much," Jocelyn said. "Since it's something from your classmate, you sh