When the clock showed past twelve at noon, Niel finally returned to his office room. He entered his office room hastily without knocking on the door.
"Oh my goodness!" Haylee was utterly startled by his sudden arrival that she accidentally dropped the phone in her hands.
Niel laughed seeing her reaction. He walked speedily to his office desk while shaking his head. Haylee was still laying on the sofa, relaxing by herself. She took her phone again that dropped on her stomach.
"What are you doing? Are you slacking off while I'm working to find money to feed you?" He mocked her lazy behaviour.
He looked at Haylee, waiting for her to react. She focused her eyes on him, looking at him sharply.
"You're rich," Haylee replied scornfully to him.
Niel laughed again at her words. He took a few papers from his desk and reviewed them. Then his eyes caught his brown leather journal was being put in a place that it was not supposed to be. He usually put it
After his evening meeting was done that day, Niel spent the rest of the day with Haylee. He took her to a mall to hang out and had fun. Then when it was almost dusk, he brought her to a fine dining restaurant to have dinner together. They only returned to the penthouse again after dinner. Both of them were too exhausted that by the time they arrived home, they took a shower and went to bed immediately.The following week, Niel dated Brianna officially. As promised, Haylee shouldn't know their relationship thus Niel made the decision to keep it a secret from anyone inside the school. He didn't even make any interaction with Brianna at school. They just simply exchanged glances once in a while without making them obvious to anyone else.Since now that Brianna was his girlfriend, Niel had no choice but to treat her like one. Even though he didn't like Brianna that much, he put up with her in order to make sure Brianna didn't try to mess with Haylee at school. He organized
However, she also had begun to notice some changes in Niel. He was always smiling while looking at his phone recently. He never did that before since he only looked at his phone to do his work. Sometimes, he also hindered her from coming to the penthouse during the weekend like she usually did. He gave excuses that he was busy and told her that he would come to the lakehouse during the night instead to spend time with her. Truthfully, Niel actually began to spend more time with Brianna. He started to go out with her on Saturday and Sunday as well. He felt so much fun hanging out with Brianna that he forgot his real intention of dating her. He began to cut down the time that he spent with Haylee so he would have more time with Brianna. It seemed that he didn't realize that it was wrong as he had forgotten his promise to Haylee before, that he won't date anyone. Niel thought that it was okay since he never really assumed that his relationship with Brianna was any near
Niel pushed the phone on his hand to Mike's chest, giving it back to him. Cold sweat began to run down his forehead. He wanted to approach Haylee, but his steps got halted when he saw her take her school bag and looked away from him. She walked out of the class to escape the situation."Haylee, where are you going? The bell almost rings," Helen asked in concern. She could see that Haylee didn't take the news pretty well. She turned to look to the front of the class, trying to find Niel as to check if that man would take concern about Haylee."Haylee! Haylee, the class has almost started!" Melly yelled a bit, calling out for her friend in distress too. She also turned her head to look at Niel and gave him a disgusted look as he had already played with her friend's feelings.Niel quickly caught his school bag from his seat and ran to the back door to exit the class. He got stopped by Helen and Melly as he was trying to pass through the back door. Both of them thre
Haylee put her phone away and scoffed in disbelief. She didn't want to look at all those irritating pictures anymore as she felt like her chest was about to burst. Funny thing was that she couldn't even bring herself to get jealous or angry about it. She was quite aware she didn't have the right to feel that way since she wasn't his girlfriend. She cried silently inside the bus like a broken girl, feeling trapped inside an invisible world that Niel created for her. Now that she came this far with Niel, she just realized that she had nowhere else to come home to. At the end of the day, she was bound to come back to Niel's house. How she wished she could just run away and disappear. Yet, she also knew that she only have a chance to have a brighter future if she stayed with Niel. The feeling of knowing that she had no one else to hold on to apart from Niel suffocated her. He really had tied her life with an invisible bond that she had no choice but to accept willingly.
Niel turned around again and glared at her with ferocious eyes."You dared to threaten me again after I caught you red-handedly having ill intention towards me?" He asked abysmally."You knew it from day one. Dating me would eventually come to this day where everyone would know about it. You might think that I'm having an ill intention to you, but it was not for you to say that what we had before wasn't real. It was real to me. How I acted back then when we were dating was real. I'm not faking it. I did love you," Brianna confessed her feelings again to him."Love? How ridiculous," Niel laughed at her. Then he inhaled sharply as if he was in a frustrating situation.To be honest, it was indeed a frustrating situation. Haylee, the girl that he couldn't bear to lose yet didn't dare to date her either was now sulking and running away from school. And then another girl, Brianna that he dated in order to protect Haylee's feelings, was showing her love to him w
His bottom slowly landed on the sofa inside the living room with his eyes staring blankly on the floor. His heart turned devastated. He was on the verge of depression when suddenly the front door was unlocked by someone from outside. A girl's silhouette entered the penthouse with a grim expression on her face. It was Haylee. She looked mad but upon seeing her, Niel couldn't help but felt relieved and thrilled. He really thought she was gone. Niel quickly stood up and rushed to her. He embraced her swiftly while sniffing his nose, giving a hint to Haylee that he had cried before. Yet, Haylee who didn't seem to notice it just brushed him off and escaped his hug. She glared at him instead. She did notice that his face was red as if he had cried. 'So what if you'd cried before? You're in the wrong anyway. You deserved it!' She mocked him internally. "Haylee, I thought you'd leave me," Niel said hoarsely. He cleared his throat a little after that and tried
The VIP elevator reached the ground floor. As soon after the elevator doors were opened, Haylee rushed out to the foyer in an instant. The blood from her wound kept dripping on the floor and she could feel her head was getting heavier. But she refused to seek help from Niel. Instead, she just wanted to run away from him.Niel chased after her from behind. When they walked past the front desk, Anna came forward to greet them. Her eyes got widened when she saw the bloodstain on Niel's shirt. She gasped in horror and quickly approached him and looked carefully at his body."Mr Anderson, what's wrong?! Oh my God! Who hurt you?" Anna turned panicked. She was completely unaware of Haylee's existence that just walked past her before Niel. After all, Niel was her boss. Thus after seeing that his shirt had a bloodstain, she couldn't help but worried about him first."It's not my blood," Niel said frustratedly and pushed Anna away.Upon hearing him, her gaze follow
As the water ran down his body, Niel's mind still could stop thinking about Haylee's behaviour before. He didn't expect her to turn that savage. She was totally out of control. He began to reassess his former action that had caused Haylee to react that way. Of course, the clearest reason was that he had dated Brianna. Then during that period, he also began to neglect her, spent less time with her and even lied to her several times. Considering that they had shared some intimate relationship and the fact he had promised her before that he won't date anyone, it was only natural that Haylee would turn insane after knowing about his relationship with Brianna."I'm such a despicable person..." he muttered slowly while rubbing his hair with some shampoo.After a while, he finally finished taking a shower and covered himself with a bathrobe. He went out of the bathroom to take his new fresh clothes from the wardrobe only to see Haylee's body was being wiped by Martha.
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