?Chapter 491:


    “Ah! It hurts! Let go!” Linda shrieked, tears brimming in her eyes.


    “Hadley!”


    Eric rushed forward, grabbing Hadley’s wrist. “Let go! Now!”


    N and Ernest were still waiting!


    But Hadley didn’t let go. Didn’t even flinch.


    Eric had no choice but to tighten his grip, prying Hadley’s fingers from Linda’s hair.


    She hesitated for a second, then let out a low, bitterugh. “You two really know how to put on a show.”


    “Hadley!”


    “What?”


    Eric’s jaw tightened, his usually controlled expression clouded with frustration. His eyes burned with something unreadable—something dangerously close to fury.


    “You actually think I’m that contemptible?”


    “Absolutely.”


    Hadley didn’t even blink, herughter cutting like a de. “What’s wrong? The truth too much for you? Or are you just too much of a coward to face it, Mr. Flynn?”


    “Hadley!”


    Eric’s voice dropped, low and deliberate. He gripped her chin, tilting her face up until their eyes locked. His gaze was unreadable, but the weight behind it pressed into her like a silent usation.


    “I had no idea you saw me this way. If that’s how you feel, why did you even say yes when I asked you to be my girlfriend?”


    Then, just as abruptly, he let go and turned away. Without sparing Linda a nce, he strode off.


    “Eric, wait!”


    Linda scrambled after him, fingers fumbling to fix her disheveled hair.


    Hadley stood frozen, the moment reying in her mind.


    Then, with a sharp exhale, she knocked her forehead with her palm.


    She had acted purely on impulse.


    What was she thinking? How could she have let the truth slip so easily?


    Now that the illusion was shattered, how was she supposed to keep pretending with Eric?


    For the next two days, Eric didn’t call or text Hadley.


    The usual flowers he sent to the studio? They stoppeding too.


    Hadley couldn’t shake the question nagging at the back of her mind—was this it?


    Was their arrangement over?


    She didn’t love him. That much was clear.


    But she needed him.


    Joy needed him.


    She couldn’t afford to let this fall apart.


    If Eric wasn’t going toe to her, then she’d just have to make the first move.


    Hadley regretted it more than she wanted to admit.


    Some fights just weren’t worth it.


    But that day, frustration had won. She hadn’t been able to hold back.


    .


    .


    .