Caprice’s heartbeat spiked in an instant, her cheeks became flushed with red. "I... It wasn’t on purpose," she explained frantically while removing herself from Liam’s lap and throwing herself on the seat, sitting only roughly ten centimeters away from him. Liam glanced at her. Caprice was afraid that he would be upset and lowered her head in shame. A stiff and unnatural silence loomed over the air around them. While Caprice was still reeling back from the awkwardness of the situation, a gray package hovered in front of her eyes. It was Liam who held it in front of her. Caprice asked curiously, "What is this?" Liam said nonchalantly, “It’s for you." "Why are you giving me this?" Caprice was confused. "You'll know why when you get home and open it," Liam spoke in an unsentimental voice, it sounded like he was slightly upset. Caprice promptly took the package. It was heavier than it looked, and she wondered if it contained an iron box inside. She won
However, Caprice was aware that strong-arming Liam into a marriage was no way of winning his affection. When she was a child, she heard her mother tell her stories about how Uncle Odell was once forced to marry Aunt Sylvia. It was the reason they got off to a poor start. It was only later on when they realized that their mutual animosity was all a great misunderstanding that they managed to reconcile their differences and stayed together as long as they did. If she had forced Liam into the same situation his parents once found themselves in, she was sure that their marriage would be a replay of what happened to his parents in the past. This was why she decided against forcing him into a marriage. … Meanwhile, Liam's car made a U-turn at an intersection and went in the opposite direction where they were originally headed. Not only was the car getting farther from the dormitory, but it was also driving away from the direction of that nightclub. Inside the car, Liam s
Ding! Another message followed. “Remember how I used to teach you how to solve a Rubik's Cube?” Caprice's eyes glowed. Could it be... She held each side of the box in her palms and twisted it around until eventually, she heard a mechanical beep. An interface appeared on one side of the cube. It was a three-by-three grid numbered from one to nine. This was all she could see. There were no hints as to what the password may be or any other visual cues. How was she supposed to guess the password? She racked her brain for a while but in the end, still resorted to texting Liam for help. “Liam, what's the password?” Liam replied swiftly, “You know.” Something that she knew? Could it be his birthday? When she entered Liam’s birthday, the box glowed red. Caprice subsequently entered the birthdays of Liam’s parents as well as his siblings. She even tried to enter her parents’ birthdays, all to no avail. What could the password be? She thought she must
Caprice quickly picked up her phone. It was Liam. “Have you opened it?” Caprice smiled with pride and replied, “I did.” Liam replied, “Not bad, so that head of yours isn't just for decoration.” Caprice was struck speechless. She brushed it aside, then she grinned from ear to ear and sent another text. “Liam, thank you for the gift!” Liam asked, “Do you like it?” Caprice was ecstatic. “Of course, I do, I love it!” Liam sent replied cooly as usual, “Good.” It was immediately followed by another message. “From now on, you are forbidden from going to nightclubs for birthday celebrations.” Caprice suddenly sat up as something just dawned upon her. He knew that today was her birthday all along. That was why he had prepared a birthday present for her! She thought about all the tales she tried to spin up tonight to explain to Heather why she was at the nightclub. To make it seem like she was a model student, she told her that she was only at the nightclub to celeb
Heather stepped through the crowd and began to approach Caprice. She asked while wearing a bright smile on her face, "Caprice, why are you here? Are you graduating this year?" Before Caprice could form a reply, people began to whisper among themselves, “Caprice? Isn’t she the girl from the 21st intake in the faculty of business?” “It is her. She's only a sophomore this year. What is she doing here anyway?” “I don’t think this job fair is open to students from her faculty.” "Definitely not, nor will it ever be. Everyone knows that her faculty is the worst in our university.” “She’s not here to job hunt, I can tell you that much.” “But it looks like she knows Miss Manson. That’s pretty impressive.” Based on her looks alone, Caprice attracted a lot of albeit unwanted attention from her peers from the very first day she entered Sparkrow University as a freshman. Being the quiet and reserved person she had always been, she preferred keeping her social circle restricted
Somebody in the crowd cried out, “She must have found herself some gross old man to leech off!" Freya quaked with anger. "I did not!” “Haha…” “As if we’d believe that…” Freya grew red with rage and was on the verge of crying as she was practically dry-heaving. Suddenly, someone gestured at Caprice and turned the spotlight back to her. "Look, Caprice wears a lot of designer brands all the time too, doesn’t she?” "I noticed that some time ago. Also, I saw her being dropped off at the school gate in a Mercedes S-class at the beginning of this semester, and she tried to be sneaky about it.” “No wonder she’s not interested in the boys in our university. She’s had a sugar daddy out there all this time!” Caprice stayed silent. Concerned about drawing unwanted attention, she always refused to have her parents pick her up from university during the semester breaks. However, her parents were worried about her and would assign their drivers and bodyguards to pick her u
Caprice stared at Heather with gaping eyes. She made herself look as vulnerable as possible to a point where it seemed like she was going to break out into tears at any second. It was a look that garnered sympathy, and it seemed to hold up a mirror against the ones who made fun of her and made them question themselves. The ones in the crowd who were mocking her only a second ago had become silent. They looked at her and were at a loss for what to do. The rest of them stared at Heather expectantly. There was a subtle shift in her expression as she said, "Caprice, we might not know each other very well, but I know you’re nothing like what they’re making you out to be.” This was a deflective answer to cover her hind. She was trying to suggest to the crowd that she did not know enough about Caprice to make any further comments. In her mind, Caprice scoffed at the subversive reply. Before anyone else could get a word out, she remarked, “I know, but even if we’re not very c
She was the one who bought all the designer apparel worth well into the thousands using her hard-earned money. Caprice was the one who sourced her part-time jobs for her. In fact, she always made sure to secure high-paying part-time positions for her. Even Lana, who did not have many financial concerns, eventually took up the part-time positions Caprice recommended as well. Except for Piper, both Lana and Freya did not know that she was the business owner the entire time and that she was the one who had been offering her friends part-time positions. Freya was bawling her eyes out. Lana and Piper tried to console her, but they could not get through to her. What eventually got her to calm down was when Caprice told her about another lucrative part-time vacancy. Lana teased Freya by commenting how her eyes lit up at the prospect of making money. The two exchanged banter, and Freya was back to her usual self. After seeing that everyone was in a better mood, Caprice