?Chapter 492:


    Both women were caught off guard by that.


    Ste hadn’t expected him to take the me on himself like that. And Willow definitely hadn’t expected him to go this far for Ste.


    “So you knew I was a fake the whole time… and never loved me?” Willow’s voice cracked, a mix of disbelief and desperation. She was still clinging to the hope that something between them had been real.


    But William didn’t flinch. “Yeah. It was all fake from the beginning.”


    Willow’s eyes filled with tears again. “So you used me… to get ess to my family’s shipping routes?”


    Now that the Lawsons were caught, those routes were wide open—William could im them without paying a cent.


    “You already know the answer, Willow,” he said quietly. “Why ask?”


    Willow let out a bitterugh. “Wow, William, you really are something else. Cold. Calcted. You never loved me, yet you pretended to be so devoted. Are you doing the same thing with Ste now?”


    William’s gaze flickered at her words, but he stayed firm. “No. Ste’s not like you.”


    Willow scoffed. “Ste, the two of you will never be happy together.” And with that, she turned away.


    Ste stood there, lips pressed into a thin line. So William had been using Willow all along? That was… unexpected.


    After leaving the police station together, William turned to Ste. “You’re not nning to back out of our partnership just because of what happenedst night, are you?”


    Ste met his gaze, her tone firm. “Mr. Briggs, I can separate business from everything else.”


    Turning down a paycheck had never been her style.


    William let out a quietugh. That was the Ste he knew—always keeping her professional life in onene and her personal feelings in another.


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    Of course, sticking to those boundaries was often harder than it sounded. Throughout the next several days, Ste spent plenty of time with William, sorting out details for the Neb Group’s project.


    Each time he caught sight of her concentrating on the work, William found his mind drifting back to other things.


    It seemed like Ste had chosen to erase his confession from memory.


    Since she never mentioned it, William decided not to bring it up either.


    One day, after Ste finished outlining her thoughts on the Neb Group’s newest venture, William nodded in agreement. “Good suggestions, Ste. Steven just texted. We’re meeting for dinner tonight. You’ll have a chance to go over your ideas with him then.”


    That evening, Ste rode through Choria’s bustling downtown in William’s Bentley. When they parked, she stepped out from the passenger seat and made her way toward a popr restaurant, lights from the shopping district shining around them.


    William matched her stride, keeping a respectful distance, yet anyone watching would have thought they belonged together.


    “Look at those two. Absolute stunners,” someone whispered nearby. “Pretty people just flock together, don’t they?”


    “They’re a perfect pair. If those two aren’t dating, then love must be a lie!” Marc emerged from the mall entrance just in time to catch the murmurs.


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