Haylee blinked her eyes a few times and turned to her right, avoiding looking at him in the eyes. 'How can you toughen up your heart if you keep falling to him?' She reprimanded herself internally.
"Why? What's wrong with you?" Niel got confused as she suddenly looked away from him.
Haylee took a deep breath and faced forward again.
"Nothing," she said.
"Do you want Ben to send you to school or do you want me to give you a ride?" He repeated his question.
"Don't you think that I might gain haters if I get off from your car in front of the school? Are you trying to put me in trouble?" Haylee rebuked him.
"I can drop you off two blocks away from school. Wasn't that what you always ask Ben to do?" he still insisted a little.
'He knew that? Wow, Ben and Martha must be his spies on me,' Haylee muttered inwardly.
"Still, some students might see me. Your car is too eye-catching, the other students for sure can't get their eyes off it,
"I'll just skip school today then," she gave an excuse to escape the situation immediately."You're not sick. Why do you want to skip school?" Niel reprehended her firmly."I..." She wanted to come up with another excuse but Niel cut her off."Don't be ridiculous. What's so wrong with going to school together with me? Can't you trust me a little? I'm not going to let others hurt you, harm you, bully you or belittle you. Just rest assured and take a moment to do something that you had been really wanting to do inside your mind. Don't you want to take revenge on Brianna? This is the time. Do it now while you still have the chance. An opportunity like this won't come often. Take it while the door is still open. Why would you need to worry anyway? You had a top one billionaire of Metropolis M behind your back. Just do it boldly and confidently. For once in your life, be brave enough to do it for yourself. Why are you so scared over something so ridiculous like gaini
He rubbed his hand on her head like she was a child. Haylee quickly brushed off his hand and fixed her hair again while glaring at him like a little lion cub. Niel just giggled at her behaviour. "So, should I go out now? Should I just get off?" Haylee was hesitant about what to do next. Her hand reached the car door handle and got ready to get off. Niel stopped her promptly and leaned his body around her to grab her hand that was holding the car door handle. From the view of the people outside of the car, they saw it like Niel was hugging Haylee. All the girls that were seeing the situation had their jaws dropped in an instant. "No no no. I'll open the door for you. From outside," Niel told her his suggestion. 'Let's just break all the girls' hearts savagely today,' his plan got more wicked inside his mind. He felt so good that he had Haylee by his side to play around with him. She was like his partner in crime. It felt so good when they did some naug
"Good morning. Master. It's done. The school principal wished to see you in person. Are you willing to make time?" Ben sent a text message to Niel. In seconds, the message reached Niel's phone and he checked it immediately. "Sure. Let's do it now. Just escort them to my classroom," Niel replied. Ben was stunned to read his reply. He didn't really expect that Niel would want to meet the school principal now and even wanted to do it inside his classroom. He was expecting Niel to do it after school or during the weekend when the school was not in session. Yet, by the ways Niel's replied to his text messages, it looked like Niel didn't really care if his identity might be exposed. "Are you sure, Master?" Ben texted him again for confirmation. "Yes," Niel replied shortly, double confirming his intention. 'Well, I guess he must be wanting to expose it deliberately. Probably to impress Miss Johnson since they were in the same class. He had be
"Okay then. Since my homeroom teacher allowed me to leave, then I will gladly follow you to the principal's office," Niel said casually to Mr Houstan."Thank you, Mr Anderson. Thank you so much for your time," Mr Houstan and Mr Murphy said in unison and kept bowing down to Niel multiple times.Haylee stared at Niel from the back of the class, wondering what he did to cause the school principal to come in person to him and bowing down in respect to him. 'He can't possibly make a donation to the school, right? It can't be. Did he?' She was really curious to know what happened. Since that morning she was having a discussion about school donation with Niel during breakfast, she thought that he might be doing it for real. Haylee gulped in nervousness. 'If he really did that, then he'll be able to control the school. Everyone will know the truth about him. Everyone will know how wealthy he is,' Haylee's mind ran wild at the possibility for that thing to happen. She became an
'You're playing with fire, Haylee. You do know that these things aren't going to last, right? Niel never dated someone longer than a month...' that rumor haunted her mind the most. Haylee suddenly felt like she was bearing two souls inside her body. The first one was begging to make her stay with Niel, lusting for his wealth and body, while the second one was condemning her for her indecent life choice, telling her that it was wrong to stay with Niel when he never gave any guarantee that he would give her what she really wanted, a real relationship. 'So what if he didn't make you his girlfriend anyway, you still going to get to sleep with him... He's still going to lavish you with his money. Think about all the things you wanted to buy before, think about all the places you wanted to visit before, think about all the good things you going to get when you are with him... Niel was the real deal... He could provide all that for you. You don't have to worry about a single dime a
Their conversation ended and the car was filled with silence. Niel focused on his driving while Haylee was staring outside of the car window. The atmosphere felt empty so Niel deliberately turned on the radio to fill the emptiness. Once in a while, he glanced at Haylee wondering about what she was thinking.Haylee kept remembering what happened at school before. Somehow, she couldn't get those thoughts about how attractive Niel was at school from her mind. That moment when he suddenly helped her wipe the whiteboard and also the moment when he exited the classroom with the school principal and his vice. 'Wow, that's so cool. He really looked cool back then. I'd seen him handle a board of directors meeting before, why didn't I realize it sooner that he was a cool guy?' She pondered alone. A smile unconsciously appeared on her face as her mind kept flashing back all those moments she saw Niel acting cool at school that day."Wow, what are you thinking? Who's that smile fo
Having their Friday routine right after school, both of them could feel like their energy was draining out. Niel and Haylee slowly fell asleep unexpectedly. By the time Niel woke up, it was almost dusk already. He wiped his eyes a little to clear his vision. Then, he checked the time on his watch and saw that it was ten minutes after six.Haylee was still asleep right beside him with his left arm hugging her and they both were still naked on the sofa. He stared at her calm complexion when she was sleeping. A smile slowly formed on his face as he felt glad that he managed to be there for her during her hard days. He still remembered the expression on her face that day when she was chased out from home. It was heartbreaking, he could feel his heart was aching too when her mother left her in the rain alone on the street in front of her house.It was somewhat similar to his situation. She was thrown away, meanwhile, he was abandoned. His parents didn't want him since he wa
"What do you mean? They are old," Haylee leaned her face closer to him and covered one side of her mouth with her hand, whispering to him to avoid the chefs from hearing them. "They're not old. They're just twenty-seven," he whispered to her as well with a bit of jealousy. "They're old then. Are you in your right mind? I'm seventeen. It's ten years apart between me and them. They're like young uncles to me. I'm not into older guys, you know..." Haylee felt like it was kind of silly for him to think that she was flirting with the chefs. "Really? Are you sure about that? What if they're rich?" Niel still wasn't satisfied. He suddenly developed some kind of possessive trait over Haylee. He felt like he couldn't stand it seeing her talking with another man. "You're the top one billionaire inside this metropolis. Who could possibly be richer than you?" Haylee glared at him in annoyance. She could see Niel was smirking in gratification when he heard
After Haylee was done cleaning herself up, Niel finally brought her up to the top floor again. It felt truly uncanny when he saw her smiling, laughing and even making some jokes to him while they were inside the elevator. He felt horrible inside because he remembered what happened to her last night. The fact that she forgot all about it was clear proof that her mental health was deteriorating.They entered the penthouse again and Niel's eyes swiftly went to look at the living room. The television was gone and the mess there had been cleaned up. The food was also had been served on the dining table."Where's the TV?" Haylee asked. She was weird that the television was gone. She tried to recall what happened last night but her head felt hurt instantly. She cried out in pain while holding her head with both arms."What's wrong?" Niel grabbed her body from falling. The woman looked like she was about to faint."Aspirin..." she said and Niel helped her to sit at the dining table first befo
Upon seeing her leaving the open kitchen and entering the bedroom, Niel rushed to the elevator and went up to his penthouse again. He took his spare key card of the condo unit and went down again. He just left his laptop on the floor in front of the condo. It only took him less than five minutes to return and he quickly went into the house.The first thing he did was go to the open kitchen and grabbed all the knives and cutleries. He put them inside a black plastic bag and hid them inside a bin. Then he carried the bin and put it into a cupboard inside another bedroom. He threw a bunch of towels and a blanket inside the cupboard to hide the bin even more.Then he came out to the living room and slowly went to the bedroom that Haylee entered before. He carefully twisted the knob to check if the door was locked. It was and he just stood there thinking about what he should do next. There was not a single sound from inside and that made his heart race. He didn't know if she was okay or hu
Seeing her become speechless, Niel smirked and just walked towards his bedroom again. She was so frustrated that she grabbed an empty wine bottle and threw it toward the television in the living room. The cracking sound of the screen made Niel panic and he ran back to the living room to check on her. He saw her grab another few wine bottles and try to throw them on the television again, just like before. She was acting like a lunatic and so he quickly hugged her body from behind, locking both her arms from moving to stop her violence. "You don't know shit! You don't know what it's like to be me! You don't know shit about me! I'm fucking tired of you! I fucking hated you! I fucking hated living with you!" She shouted frantically while struggling to free herself from him. Niel grabbed her body firm and even tighter, slowly had his eyes reddened and his cheeks felt hot. He didn't know why he was so angry at her yet felt hurt at the same time while looking at her losing her sanity. Hayle
Ashley gasped in disbelief at her words. She stared at Niel and saw the change in his expression. He looked absolutely grim. But Haylee simply looked relaxed as if she was not even in trouble.'So, what would happen if Haylee fails the subject?' Niel thought. Surely, one thing led to another. She would probably deliberately fail the other subjects too so she would need to repeat the first semester. If that happens, she would be moved to a new batch of students next semester and she won't be in the same class with him anymore for the next five semesters. And if somehow Haylee refuses to repeat the first semester and quit Kingston, she could appeal to get into Hudson University for July intake. She was being clever to him. She knew how to threaten him now too. In short, Niel could not afford to kick her out of the group and make her fail the subject, or else he would be the one at loss here. Slowly he released her arm and let her go reluctantly."Exactly," Haylee said arrogantly and wal
Haylee could feel her cheeks turn hot due to the embarrassment. The hall turned silent for split seconds with a lot of eyes staring at her. Niel boldly beckoned her to come to him. Haylee slowly walked down the stair pathway to go to the front. But then she noticed the mad looks Ashley and Linda gave her. She stopped unconsciously, reevaluating her choice whether she should go to Niel or not. It was obvious he wanted her in. In fact, it was not just Ashley and Linda who were looking at her hatefully right now. Haylee noticed that some other students were looking at her disdainfully too, probably those who had asked Niel to take them into his group before but got rejected."Why are you just standing there? Come here," Niel rebuked her gently, beckoning her to come to him again."Niel, how about if we just take Linda? Haylee didn't seem like she wanted to be in our group," Ashley suggested bravely."Why are you deciding for her?" Niel rebuked her coldly, totally a different treatment co
"Do you really think that I won't have a spare key card?" He ridiculed her and took out another key card from his pocket.She scoffed at him instantly. 'I knew it. He would never let me have my own privacy,' she muttered inwardly and just put the key card inside her backpack."That's not fair. I thought it was supposed to be my own place," she said deliberately to show her dissatisfaction."How is that not fair? You had access to my penthouse as well," Niel replied with a chuckle."Is this mean that I'll be living alone for real now? Can Martha live with me?" Haylee asked. Deep down inside, she was anticipating for that to happen for real. "No. I never said that. You're going to still be living with me, in my penthouse, our house. That condo unit was just for emergency. We're going to be studying here for three years. I'm sure at some point your friends or my friends would want to visit our place. So we need a split residence for that. Aren't you the one who didn't want people to kno
"Anyway, your food looked tasty. How long had you known Haylee?" Lily asked more. Her questions were all over the place, non-relating to each other."Hmm..." Niel was about to speak but the woman asked him some more."Haylee said her brother was rich. You're close with her, so you must know her brother too, right?""Brother?" He knitted his brows in confusion and instantly looked at Haylee. She met his eyes and made a poker face at him, silently sending a signal to that guy to go along with her lies."Yeah. Haylee brought a lot of expensive makeup to class, so we asked her how she was rich. She said she had a rich brother," Lily explained cluelessly."Right..." Niel nodded while giving Haylee a playful glare. 'So now I become her rich brother,' he muttered internally."Of course, I know her brother. We're partners," Niel added the lies."Partners?" Now Lily and Haylee said in unison."Yeah. Haylee's brother worked with me. I sent him abroad to handle some projects. He won't come back
"He was the one I'm talking about before. He's my former classmate during high school," Haylee said."Damn, girl! You got into the wrong gang. We're obviously out of your league," Bruno quipped at her and the rest just chuckled in agreement."Are you together with him? He seemed close with you," Lily asked. She suddenly turned into this kind of over-friendly girl to Haylee."We're just normal friends," Haylee avoided telling them the truth."Bring us together for lunch. Introduce him to me please..." Lily begged. She never would have imagined it getting an opportunity to know Niel in person."You don't even want to know his name first?" Haylee teased her and the girl laughed shyly."His name was Nathaniel Anderson. We called him Niel during high school," Haylee said deliberately to let them all know.A while later, the lecturer came into the lecture hall. He was Professor Damien, an old man in his late forties. As soon as he entered the hall, he went directly to Niel and had a handsha
Weeks passed and they finally started college at the end of February. After the orientation week ended, all the undergraduates at Kingston University started their first class the following week. Haylee and Niel pretty much acted like strangers at college. Niel drove by himself to class even though they were going to the same destination because he sometimes would need to go to the company during his free time if his presence was necessary there. So, Haylee too was the same. She drove by herself to classes using the red Ferrari car that Niel gave her during Christmas last year.After coping with her depression about not going to Hudson for a few weeks, Haylee slowly learned to accept her fate of going to Kingston. She tried to look at the bright side. Home was not far, so she didn't need to think about paying to live in a hostel. And surely, if she was somehow in trouble, Niel was around to help her fix it. Her life was easier that way.She attended her first lecture wearing designer