Chapter 10
The next day’s date-Kieran showed up, just as expected.
He wore a baseball cap and mask, but couldn’t hide those eyes staring daggers at our table.
I pretended not to notice and flashed a sweet smile at the newly arrived Blake Henderson.
3lake pulled out the chair, his gaze carrying an unpleasant assessment:
‘Not bad looking. I heard you used to be with Kieran Rhodes?”
‘Still a virgin? I don’t do secondhand goods.”
pretended to look humiliated, biting my lip and dropping my head without a word, just letting my yelashes tremble slightly.
knew I looked best like this.
Like a helpless little rabbit.
Sure enough, Blake’s breathing got heavier.
He reached out to touch my cheek: “Though for you, I might make an exception.”
deliberately didn’t dodge.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a chair scrape harshly in the corner.
I heard Rhodes Pharmaceuticals is working on some new drug partnership?” Blake leaned closer. “Director thodes sent you to show their… sincerity?”
was about to answer when a dark figure charged over.
Kieran’s fist connected with Blake’s face, the table crashed over, champagne glasses shattered everywhere.
‘Stay the FUCK away from her!”
Kieran grabbed Blake by the collar, his voice raw as a wild animal’s.
The entire restaurant erupted in chaos.
I stood there, watching Blake’s furious face after getting punched, and quietly smiled.
That afternoon, Henderson Pharma canceled their partnership talks with the Rhodes family.
Director Rhodes stormed over to confront me: “Look what you’ve DONE!”
I blinked innocently, tears perfectly welling up in my eyes:
“I just wanted to help the family with business.”
“I really didn’t expect Kieran to be so impulsive.”
Director Rhodes’ expression softened for a moment.
I seized the opportunity and handed her a file:
“This is evidence of Henderson Pharma’s data falsification. A journalist friend of mine dug it up.”
‘I saw the Rhodes family was interested in partnering with Henderson, so I kept this to myself.”
“Think we can use it now?”
Director Rhodes took the file, her stern expression slowly melting into a smile: “You’re such a thoughtful
girl.”
Watching her flip through the documents, I smirked internally.
Ever since breaking up with Kieran, Blake Henderson had been pursuing Mia Summers.
she’d been playing hard to get, keeping him on the hook.
That way she could still get protection from the Henderson family, keeping Kieran from touching her.
Mia’s little scheme was pretty clever.
How could I let her get away with it?
hat night, Kieran came looking for me.
His right hand was bandaged, left cheek still bruised.
His voice was hoarse: “Sage, Dad beat the shit out of me.”
tilted my head at him: “And?”
Hurt flashed in Kieran’s eyes.
le suddenly dropped to his knees, pressing his forehead against my legs:
Chapter 10
“You can get revenge on me however you want, just not like this.”
I leaned down, bringing our faces impossibly close: “Like what? Making you watch me get intimate with
other guys?”
His breathing became ragged.
“Kieran,” I said softly, “watching you kiss Mia-I felt exactly like you do right now.”
Kieran’s eyes suddenly blazed with hope: “Sage, you still love me, don’t you?”
I smiled but didn’t say yes or no.
I knew that to achieve my ultimate goal, I still needed one more spark.
The Henderson family wanted the Rhodes family to show mercy, not destroy them completely.
Knowing Kieran had beef with Mia, they made a big show of cutting ties with her, even releasing a video of
Mia trash-talking Kieran, hoping to make peace with the Rhodes family.
In the footage, Mia rolled her eyes at the camera:
‘Kieran Rhodes? What’s he supposed to be, some kind of catch?”
‘We agreed from the start it was just a role-playing game, messing with some pathetic old woman.”
‘And he actually caught feelings! Ugh, what kind of taste is that?”
‘But don’t think he’s some kind of romantic hero either.”
‘He was so focused on getting in that woman’s pants, he never even bothered checking her background.”
She was a terminal cancer patient with maybe days to live, wanted one last fling before she died, so she
ound Kieran.”
‘Every time we drew lots for pranks, I rigged it so Kieran would always pick extreme sports-bungee
umping, skydiving, that kind of shit.”
‘But that bitch was tough, survived every time, so I personally sent her off at the ski resort.”
‘Kieran’s such a MORON, wanting to cut ties with me over some worthless piece of trash! What a joke.”
I watched the video with amusement.
The Henderson family pulling this stunt-they probably knew I was the one who gave Director Rhodes the evidence.
They must hate my guts.
But now I was Kieran’s precious treasure, so they didn’t dare touch me.
Mia wouldn’t be so careful though. She couldn’t get to Kieran, but she’d definitely blame me.
So the Henderson family was trying to kill two birds with one stone.
Perfect. That’s exactly what I wanted.
After all, I was waiting for her to come.
