She never used to be like that. She’d always scream when she was scared, and cry when she was hurt. She was never the type to bottle things up. ‘Since when did she turn into someone I barely recognize?’ Lucas wondered.
The sharp sound of brakes cut through the air as Lucas mmed the car to a stop on the side of the road. Fortunately, Emily had braced herself just in time, steadying her body and narrowly avoiding smacking her head.
But the stic charm hanging from the rearview mirror swung forward with the force of the stop and smacked Emily right
in the ear.
The charm looked small and cute, but it wasn’t exactly high-quality. There were even rough edges around it. One of those jagged edges struck Emily’s ear, leaving a thin line of blood behind.
Lucas’s expression shifted slightly when he saw it. “I didn’t mean to do that. Are you… Are you okay?” Emily didn’t say a word. She just nced up at the charm still swinging from the mirror.
Lucas had always insisted on having the best of everything. A cheap little trinket like that was obvious who it came from.
Sure enough, Lucas quickly exined, “This is a gift from Lydia. If it hurt you, I apologize.” He looked so defensive, like he was afraid Emily might just throw the charm away.
Emily forced a smirk. “So, Mr. Bet, it’s not that you hate getting gifts from people. You just prefer these cheap stic trinkets you can pick up for a couple bucks at a street stall, right?”
After the Bet family cut off her allowance, she secretly sold her favorite set of jewelry and even borrowed money from a friend, just to have a custom set of cor clips and cufflinks made for Lucas’s birthday.
But when Lucas got the gift, he just sneered at her in disgust. “I don’t like getting gifts from others, especially from someone with such a nasty heart as you. I think it’s dirty.”
Then, right in front of Emily, he tossed her gift straight into the trash and turned around, beaming to ept Lydia’s present.
After that, he didn’t even give Emily a chance to pay her friend back before he dragged her off to St. Gabriel Reform Academy. Lucas’s face went a little pale as he was clearly reminded of that incident.
Back then, he had no idea that Emily had sold her own belongings just to have that custom gift made for him.
He thought she was using the Bet family’s money to curry favor, and that she’d given it to him in front of everyone just to show off andpete with Lydia for the position of the Bet family’s heiress.
It wasn’t until yearster that Lucas finally realized just how cruel and unfair he’d been. He wanted to say something to make it right, but Emily had already turned her head toward the window, loosening her tied-up hair to let it fall.
Lucas’s words got stuck in his throat. After a long silence, he finally said, “I’ll make it up to you.” Then he restarted the car.
Emily stared out the window at the scenery rushing by, her lips tightening as she tried to hold back her emotions. ‘Compensation? What a disgusting word, she thought.
Lucas drove a lot slower than before. By the time they got back to the Bet residence, Emily had gotten herself back together, and her face wasn’t so pale anymore after that scare.
The moment the car stopped, she jumped out, like she couldn’t stand being in the same space as Lucas for another second.
But what Emily didn’t expect was that as soon as she reached the Bet residence’s front door, she spotted someonepletely out of ce. It was Xavier.
4:10 pm DDD
Why is he here at a Bet family dinner?’ Emily thought.
Xavier spotted her, too, and with that gentle smile of his, he walked over and greeted her, “Emily, it’s been a while.”
+38
That fake, disgustingly intimate tone and that sickeningly sweet nickname, Emily felt like she had a cockroach crawling up
her arm. I have that video Jackson left me. Shouldn’t Xavier be terrified of me?’ Emily wondered.