?Chapter 277:


    A long silence followed.


    The silence stretched on so long that Merlin felt like he might pass out waiting.


    Finally, Hailee’s voice broke through. “Now that I think about it… I don’t think I ever loved him.”


    Relief swept through Merlin’s body. Good. If she had fallen for someone like Boris, he would’ve scolded her on the spot.


    “Looking back, if he hadn’t pulled that stunt with the car, I probably wouldn’t have given him the time of day. He was never my type. After that, I felt sorry for him. I thought I owed him something. Then I got caught up trying to help with his treatments. I didn’t even stop to think.” Hailee took a deep breath and let it out slowly, a smile breaking through. “Now that the fog’s cleared, I feel nothing but disgust for that scumbag. No pain. No heartbreak. Just relief.”


    “That’s what I wanted to hear!” Merlin, who had been eavesdropping the whole time, blurted it out before he could stop himself.


    “Who’s there?” Hailee’s voice cut through the silence as she peered over the flower wall.


    But no answer greeted her persistent inquiry. Suspicion flickered across her features—perhaps Boris had dispatched someone to eavesdrop. After a moment’s hesitation, she darted around the flower wall to investigate.


    Elliana remained behind, a knowing smirk ying on her lips as she cast a sardonic nce at the flower wall. She had misjudged Merlin entirely. His perpetually frigid demeanor and quick resort to violence had once led her to dismiss him as heartless. Yet, here he was, crouching to hear them talk the whole time. How absorbed must he have been to blunder into their conversation?


    On the flower wall’s opposite side, Merlin jolted at Hailee’s questioning voice. He froze, breath suspended, hoping silence would discourage her curiosity. Instead, the sound of her determined footsteps approaching sent panic coursing through him. Discovery would be mortifying. He leapt to his feet, seeking escape.


    Thewn stretched before him, barren of hiding ces, with Hailee’s footsteps growing louder. Desperation drove his gaze to severalrge trash bins at thewn’s edge. Without hesitation, he lunged for one and plunged inside. Putrid stench enveloped him, but humiliation proved a stronger deterrent than disgust.


    Hailee arrived to find only emptiness and the row of bins.


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    Elliana sauntered up behind her, unhurried.


    “I swear someone spoke to us,” Hailee insisted, scanning the area with bewilderment. “They couldn’t have vanished so quickly—there’s nowhere to conceal oneself here.”


    Elliana’s gaze drifted to the bins, amusement dancing in her eyes. “I heard nothing, Hailee. Perhaps your imagination is ying tricks.”


    “Huh?” Certainty wavered in Hailee’s voice. “I must have been mistaken.”


    If someone as perceptive as Elliana detected nothing, Hailee reasoned, the voice must have been illusory.


    Having sessfully misled her friend, Elliana casually retrieved a substantial stone and hurled it at Merlin’s sanctuary.


    The attack caught Merlin utterly unprepared. Out of nowhere, something heavy came hurtling down from above. He barely registered the movement before instinct took over. He jerked his head to the side just in time—but the trash bin was…


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