It was a spot-on imitation of Sheryl''s whiny tone.
Except, when Sheryl did it, Shanley found it nauseating. When Juniper did it, it was maddeningly seductive.
"Jealous?"
Shanley''s eyes darkened. He pulled her into his arms, a helpless smile ying on
his lips.
"Yeah."
Juniper admitted it without hesitation. Her lips curved up, but there was zero humor in her eyes. "If I hear another woman call you like that, I''ll crack your skull open."
"So vicious, Ms. Payne." Shanley let out a low chuckle, his smile widening.
She looked so cute when she was possessive. He absolutely loved it.
"Wipe that smirk off your face." Juniper pinched his waist, showing no mercy. "Understood."
Shanley nodded, his attitude a picture of perfect repentance. "I promise I won''t attract any more crazy admirers. If another woman even looks at me, I''ll gouge her eyes out and give them to you to y marbles with."
Seeing he wasn''t taking it seriously, Juniper rolled her eyes, shoved him away, and copsed onto the couch. She pulled out her phone and booted up a mobile game.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Her in-game opponents were soon scrambling for their lives as she ruthlessly sniped them down.
Shanley''s throat tightened as he watched the screen. Thank god it wasn''t his head exploding into pixels.
His girl definitely held a grudge.
***
The holiday
eason icially wrapped up.
Once the festivities were over, Juniper reported to Era University, escorted by her six older siblings.
An A-list actor, a top-tier surgeon, and a professional racer for brothers. A Special Forces instructor, a legendary botanical scientist, and a casino boss for sisters.
Their arrival turned the university campus into an absolute spectacle. Everyone now knew Juniper was no longer some isted orphan. Not only did she have the Schwartz family backing her, but she also had six terrifyingly powerful siblings. Pulling out just one of them was enough to shake the city.
Life quickly settled into a routine.
But the peace barelysted two days.
Juniper suddenly received a frantic call from Lue: "Damn it! Over the past week, some mystery entities have been heavily buying in. Subterra Vanguard''s stocks are of the verge of crashing!"
"Calm down."
Juniper''s lips twitched upward, trying to soothe the panicked Lue. This girl loved money even more than she did. Losing a few. thousand bucks usually felt like the sky was falling to Lue, so the dramatic yelling wasn''t exactly new
"Juniper, it''s actually critical this time." Lue sounded like she wanted to crawl through the phone line. "It''s not just our Subterra Vanguard taking a bit The Schwartz Group is bleeding out too.
"Mr. Schwartz''s team is brilliant, but even they can''t withstand this level of sabotage."
What?
The Schwartz Group was being targeted too?
"Hang on."
Juniper dropped the casual tone, instantly opening herptop and pulling up the stock market data.
It was a bloodbath.
A fewpletely unknown stocks had materialized out of nowhere,unching malicious, coordinated attacks against both Subterra Vanguard and the Schwartz Group.
In just one week, both conglomerates had suffered losses well into the billions.
"Why are you only telling me this now?" Juniper tightened her grip on the mouse, a dark storm brewing in her eyes.
"You''ve been so swamped finalizing those new university textbooks, and then you had to fly out to Liberty Ind to check on Celine''s health. You were exhausted."
Lue cleared her throat, her voice shrinking. "We honestly thought we had it under control... until they executed a massive dumpst night..."
Bam.
Billions, gone. Gone!
"Did you track down who''s behind this?" Juniper rubbed her temples.
"Nothing."
Lue shook her head, sounding utterly baffled. "Neither Cybeic Shadows nor Binary Oracle can trace their signal. It''s like they''re not even operating on this."
Juniper''s frown deepened.
Someone actually had the nerve to scheme against her like this.
Even if they were hiding in hell, she was going to drag them out.
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