?Chapter 1672:


    He had no idea why Alisha had reached out to him. He also couldn’t understand why Ste had rushed out to help her. But he knew with absolute certainty that Ste wouldn’t use a situation like this to hurt Alisha. Her calm indifference wounded him far more deeply than any tears or outburst ever could — as though she were telling him she didn’t care in the slightest what he did with other women.


    At the intersection where Tower Avenue met Ivy Street, two vehicles sat at awkward angles, their rear bumpers crumpled from the impact. The damage didn’t look catastrophic, but both cars had sustained visible dents. Alisha stood on the curb with red, puffy eyes, still visibly shaking. The other driver loomed in front of her — a middle-aged man talking impatiently on his phone, asionally throwing hostile res in her direction.


    The moment Ste’s car came to a stop, Alisha’s face brightened and she rushed toward it. But when the door opened and Ste emerged instead of William, the smile died instantly. “Why is it you?”


    Ste shut the car door and assessed the scene quickly. “William was tied up with something, so I came in his ce. Did you call the police?”


    Something flickered across Alisha’s expression. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and nodded. “I called the insurancepany too. Ms. Russell, you really didn’t need toe all the way out here. I can just wait for the adjuster.”


    Ste cut her off with calm finality. “I’m already here. I might as well help you get this sorted out.”


    She turned her attention to the other driver, who had just ended his call. “Has your insurance representative arrived yet? And who was at fault here?”


    The middle-aged man looked Ste up and down, visibly reining in his temper. “She rear-ended me. The ident ispletely her fault.”


    Ste gave a brief nod, pulled out her phone, and began documenting the scene with photographs. She moved with such professionalposure that if Alisha hadn’t known better, she might have assumed Ste worked in insurance orw enforcement rather than simply helping out of courtesy.


    Alisha remained off to the side, her expression darkening with each passing moment. As she watched Ste handle everything with effortless grace, bitterness swelled in her chest. She had called William specifically. So why had Ste shown up instead?


    Ste insisted they had no rtionship. William himself had denied any connection between them. Yet here Ste was — not only living in William’s house but rushing out to handle situations like this on his behalf. What exactly were they to each other?


    ???????? e??е????onе ??? ??????d????g ???? ??а??n??v?????.со??


    The question gnawed at her until she couldn’t stay silent. When she spoke, her voice had taken on a cold edge. “Ms. Russell, I need to ask you something. Why didn’t Mr. Briggse? I specifically called him.”


    Ste finished capturing thest image, slipped her phone back into her pocket, and turned to face Alisha. “A minor fender bender like this doesn’t require William to show up in person. Besides, you’ve both already contacted your insurancepanies. Honestly, there wasn’t any real need to call anyone out here at all, was there?”


    Alisha’s teeth dug into her lower lip as fresh tears pooled in her eyes. “But… I genuinely didn’t know what to do. I panicked. The ident wasn’t intentional.”


    .


    .


    .