He was scared to continue the conversation. With how understanding Christopher was being, he felt like he would get depressed and burst into tears any moment!Calls came one after another, but Stefan did not pick up his phone again. Instead, he turned it off to get some quiet.Stefan took off his rimless glasses and leaned against his expensive office chair, looking up at the white ceiling. He suddenly felt a little tired.He rubbed the space between his eyebrows with his long fingers. The tall bridge of his nose made his face appear even more handsome, more defined, and more profound.Over the last four years, he had disguised himself as an ice-cold machine, going through his daily routine like clockwork. His life was filled with work and more work—no joys, no sorrows, no... life.Outsiders may think he was unhappy, but he actually enjoyed the feeling—the feeling of being in control of everything.'But... damn you, Renee Everheart. Why have you suddenly come back after disappear
It did not take long for Stefan to find Mandy's account on Instagram.Renee's beautiful and delicate face popped up on the small phone screen.The screen may be small, but the power of its destruction was immeasurable, like an atomic bomb.Stefan froze. His deep, wolf-like eyes locked onto the screen and his grip on the phone involuntarily tightened.“Good evening, my babies! Welcome to Cutie Pie's live stream! As you all know, the popular dating show "Heart Signal" is currently looking for non-celebrity guests. I secretly signed up for it. The organizer's condition is, whoever receives the most donation tonight will be eligible to participate in the program. Therefore, I hope you guys can support me, Cutie Pie, and help me debut in the entertainment industry!”Wearing a pink dress and a cat ears headband, Mandy made all kinds of cute moves towards the camera and worked hard to get donations.The dating show "Heart Signal" was very popular lately. Anyone who could show their face
[The goddess is pretty no matter what she does. Bring her back!][Goddesses should only exist in paradise, yet one has appeared in our mortal realm. I love her so much.]Amidst the enthusiastic praises, a disharmonious message suddenly appeared.[Pretentious woman.]Like a stone thrown into a calm lake, the message immediately sparked a thousand ripples. People in the chat lashed out at the sender.[Why don't you stream, then? Let's see how unpretentious you are.][Are you blind? You call that pretentious? She's all natural!][The message was sent anonymously. The sender must be a lewd man who covets the goddess. Get out of the stream!][Kick the lewd man off the stream! Kick the lewd man off the stream!]When Mandy saw the chat arguing, she quickly tried to calm everyone down.“Stop arguing, everyone. Also, can the viewer called Anon12538 please stop it with the baseless accusation? My cousin Ren is a very sincere person. How is she pretentious?”Unfortunately, the viewer w
Other people in the chat were shocked by Anon12358 too. Messages popped up one after another.[Oh my god, this guy is a real whale. I didn't expect that.][He's spending so much money just to chase after some girl…][Could this guy be the CEO who's trying to coax his wife?]Renee stared at the top donor's profile picture. She became even more curious about the identity behind the anonymous ID.They thought the matter had come to an end.Mandy, filled with excitement, said loudly to the camera, "The contest will end in five minutes. Thank you to the top donor for helping me get on the dating show. I'll keep my promise. I'll prepare a romantic candlelight dinner for you and Renee...”But suddenly, another mysterious person started donating like crazy too. With 160,000 dollars worth of donation, he successfully wrestled the top donor spot away from Anon12358.Everyone became really excited. The number of viewers kept climbing until it reached 50 million.“W-Wow... thank you “Shad
”Stef, did you watch your little darling’s stream just now?”Xavier rushed up to Stefan with an excited look on his face and immediately asked, "Tell me honestly, are you the stupid top donor who fell for their trick?”Stefan appeared disinterested. While flipping through the documents in his hand, he said expressionlessly, "What stream?”“Stop pretending. There's no way you didn't know about something that big. Moreover... it's your little darling’s live stream! There's no way you would miss it!”Stefan didn't even look up. "I'm busy.”What he meant was: Shut the hell up!Xavier knew Stefan would not admit it. After all, the guy had always been proud.Therefore, he snatched the phone that Stefan had placed aside before Stefan could react.“Your phone is turned off. That's even more suspicious. I have to check it!”Xavier tried to turn on the phone.“Give it back!”Stefan looked up and gave Xavier a death stare.Xavier gulped and immediately changed his mind. He obediently
“Uhh... how would I know?”But Xavier quickly latched on to the key point and asked with a strange smile, "Stef, why are you only curious about who the second highest donor is and not the highest? Aren't you exposing yourself?”Based on normal logic, people would normally be curious about the first place. Who would care about the second place?!Stefan knew he could not deny it anymore, so he pursed his lips and said nothing. His cold, handsome face clearly read "Don't push it".Unfortunately, Xavier was a guy who had no fear. He continued teasing Stefan. "Stef, like the netizens said, you sure are willing to spend to make a woman happy. 4 million dollars for a dinner. That must be a Guinness World Record. You're... going tomorrow evening, right?”Stefan did not answer Xavier's question, but instead mocked him back, "In terms of spending money on women, how can I compare to you? In recent years... in order to make your girl famous, you must have spent more than 40 million dollars.
The two grown men fought over the phone like kids. After going at it for a while, Stefan said, "Stop meddling in my affair with that woman from now on, and this recording won't get to Shirley.”“Fine, you win. I won't gossip or meddle in your affair anymore.”Xavier was well and truly defeated this time.“Good boy!” Stefan nodded with satisfaction.Sure enough, when push came to shove, he had to use a lethal weapon like Shirley to keep the annoying and gossipy Xavier in check!Xavier fled after he was defeated, but before he left, he tried asking one last time, "You’ll go to the dinner tomorrow, right?”Seeing Stefan unlock his phone and act like he was going to send the recording, Xavier quickly gave up. "Never mind. Forget I even asked.”At the same time, he thought to himself, 'Keep pretending, Stefan. You're gonna regret it!'-Mandy was still in disbelief after turning off the stream.She checked her account's income with her mouth wide open the whole time.“Oh my god,
Anon12358's reply was: [I'll go if I feel like it.]They didn’t know what he looked like, but from just the reply, they could imagine his smug, cocky face.Mandy clicked on Anon12358's personal information page. It was completely empty.“This guy seems to be using a newly registered account. His profile picture is the default one and there's nothing in his personal information page. But the first thing he did was spend 4 million dollars... He obviously came for you, Ren.”She boldly speculated, "Maybe he's Mr. Hunt.”Looking at the default profile picture, Renee's red lips curled up into a faint smile. "Maybe. We'll find out tomorrow.”If she really wanted to know, she could investigate his IP address any time, but she did not do that. She was curious if he would go to the dinner tomorrow.Late that night, Renee returned to Leia Osborne's apartment.To her surprise, Liam was there too.“There you are, Boss. If you had come back any later, I would have called the police.”Liam
"I'm so thirsty!" The burning sensation of the wine made Renee thirsty. She wanted to drink some water.In the dark, she heard some rustling. The next second, something was on her lips. It seemed to be someone else's lips. She wondered if someone had secretly kissed her."Who are you?" Renee grabbed the person in front of her and interrogated angrily, "How dare you kiss me without my permission! Do you know who I am? I'll cut off your lips!""Let's see if you can do that or not." The man sounded dull and drunk, but he was also overbearing.Although Renee was drunk, she could discern who it was. She called out in the dark and tried to confirm her doubt. "Haze…?" "Yeah, it's me," Justin admitted, but he did not plan to let her go. He used a more overbearing manner and trapped her between him and the door."What do you want?" Renee panicked. She wanted to kick him away, but she did not resist when she learned that it was Justin. After she had done so many things to hurt him, s
The servant walked forward with trepidation and helped Justin back to his room. Austin's eyes were dark. He whispered to his assistant, who nodded and immediately carried out his order.After two glasses of strong wine, Renee felt dizzy and could not stand steadily. "It's weird. Is this wine this strong? I just had two glasses of it, but I feel quite dizzy." It was hard for her to exit the hall. She could not stand properly, so she supported herself against the wall."Ms. Everheart, you didn't seem well. Let me help you to get some rest." Austin's assistant caught up to her and stood behind her. He even sounded respectful. "It's… fine. I can go back to my room." Renee waved; she didn't want to trouble others. Besides, she did not want others to see how miserable she was. She had assumed that she was good at drinking and would not get drunk, but it seemed like she had overestimated herself. After two glasses of wine, she became quite drowsy. She would not easily leave if s
Renee blinked and smiled brightly at Justin, asking him, "Are you worried about me?" "No, I'm not worried about you!" Justin said angrily. "I don't want you to get killed here. I can't explain it to your brother and kids. It's hard to handle the three of them."He was not lying. Although he had befriended Quinton, Adie and Abby might make a scene there if they realized that Renee had drunk so much wine at the party. They were witty, always full of ideas.Hence, it was better not to cause trouble. Before they could make a scene and things get out of control, Justin must stop Renee. He wasn't worried about her at all. "So, you're not worried about me?" Renee's gaze turned dull as she sighed. "It looks like you didn't forgive me. So, I must drink this glass of wine." Something was wrong with Renee, or perhaps she just wanted to torture herself. It seemed like she insisted on drinking the wine. She swung off Justin's hand and gulped down the wine."You're out of your mind!" Justi
The aged white wine was strong. Ordinary people would find it hard to drink a glass of it. Yet, Renee had drunk two glasses of it consecutively. It was a little dangerous. Everyone at the dining table was initially watching the fun, but they showed Renee some pity after she drank two glasses of wine consecutively. After wiping her lips clean, Renee staggered and said to Justin, "Let me toast to you now. I've wronged you the most." Justin, sitting there, said with a poker face, "You don't have to say sorry to me. We don't hold each other any grudge. After all, we can't make others fall in love with us.""No, I must apologize to you. It's for my sake." After that, Renee used a bigger glass and filled it with wine."Whatever!" Justin frowned and ignored Renee. He had no idea what was wrong with her. He had yielded and let her off, but she stubbornly wanted to keep drinking the wine.He wondered if she had forgotten the fact that she had just recovered from a serious illness. She
Suddenly, Justin became mature and stopped making jokes. He talked steadily and was no longer emotional. It filled Austin with worry because it made him feel like Justin was an emotionless robot.In comparison, he liked Justin's previous self better. At that time, Justin was simple and sentimental. He was the grandson Austin doted on the most.Sophia grinned and commented, "Dad, you don't have to worry about Justin. Men will change. Previously, he was just a childish kid even though he was in his twenties. He didn't know how to see through people's pretense. But he's all grown up now. He knows what's right or wrong. That's a great thing!" As a mother, she naturally did not want her son to get hurt. Although she favored Renee and wanted the latter to be her daughter-in-law, she would give up since Renee had let her son down and harmed him. All she wanted was to see Renee get away from her son."Yes, you're right. People need to grow up. He has grown up a lot lately, but the price
After a while, a servant quickly came back with a bottle of wine tied with a piece of red cloth. "Sir, Madam, this bottle of white wine was brewed more than ten years ago. It comes with a rich taste and is strong. I'm sure it's suitable for Ms. Everheart to toast to everyone as a form of apology.""That's good. That's what I want." Rose accepted the heavy bottle of wine. Although it was yet to be unscrewed, she could smell its pungent scent. "I won't easily let anyone drink this. Plus… Believe it or not, a glass of this wine can knock out anyone here." Rose carried the bottle of wine and walked around the table. Finally, she stopped in front of Renee. "I'm letting a sinner like you enjoy such a great thing today. You must drink all of it. You can't waste it.""Huh? Does she have to drink it all? I'm afraid she'll vomit from drinking.""People will lose themselves with only three to five glasses of this wine. If they drink half of it, they might get alcohol poisoning no matter
If any Baldwin demanded an explanation from Renee, she would not resent them."Fine, I won't go easy on you since you said so." Rose laughed recklessly, looking malicious. Everyone knew Rose was fierce and malicious. But none of them said anything, including Justin. They behaved like onlookers and wanted to see how Rose would punish Renee. "Please go ahead." Renee nodded and sounded very calm. "Don't worry. Regardless, you were the only woman my dear grandnephew had loved and wanted to marry. So, I won't be harsh on you. If not, he won't forgive me." At that point, Rose purposely paused and wanted to see how Justin would react.However, Justin merely sat there indifferently and had no intention to get Renee out of the predicament. Hence, Rose became bolder. "Well, let's do this. You've wronged not only Justin but everyone in my family. Since you're here to apologize, you should toast to all of us. Then, we can forget about this."After that, Rose turned to Austin and asked
The party started officially at night. It was a small party, and only some close relatives of the Baldwin family attended.Austin took the main seat while his son and daughter-in-law sat in the secondary seats. Justin and the others sat accordingly.After dressing herself up, Renee attended the party in simple clothes. She looked like a young lady from a great family. Adie, Abby, and Quinton did not attend the party to avoid unnecessary disputes. Renee was the only one who attended the party. When she reached the hall, the people had already taken their seats. They sized her up maliciously and studied her as if they wanted to make her pay a heavy price."Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I got here late." Renee took a deep breath and naturally greeted everyone. She appeared composed, but she knew she was rather frightened. She never panicked when she faced such a scene alone in the past. She could easily handle it because Justin would always take her side no matter what happened.
Quinton was fine even if Renee wasn't that happy. But she must lead a steady life and live beyond a hundred years old. "Quinton, I know I owed the Baldwin family a lot, even if you didn't tell me. I won't be back if not for the sake of their kindness."Renee did not hide or lie even if Justin was around. She merely wanted Justin to hold no hope in her. "How could you be this straightforward?" Quinton had purposely brought Justin along because he wanted to bring Justin and Renee together. He felt that they could still be together since things weren't that hopeless. But the disappointing Renee ruined all possibilities easily. Kindness didn't exist between a romantic couple."It's fine." Justin looked indifferent before he snorted. "I'm glad she made things clear. It's better than being ambiguous.""I'm sorry." Renee looked at Justin. Although she had made herself clear, her guilt did not diminish. She immediately expressed her guilt and helplessness since Justin did not igno