Hailey’s expression betrayed no emotion as she met his gaze directly.


    “I’m sorry,” she repeated in an impassive tone. “I was out of line. I shouldn’t have interfered.”


    Christian blinked. Well, this was certainly a first.


    Normally, whenever women apologized, it was to gain something out of him. Maybe she had something concocted there in that pretty little head of hers?


    “I thought you said that you have a sense of justice,” he pointed out. “That you did not do anything wrong and that you refuse to apologize to someone like me.”


    “I still think that way,” she said simply.


    Well, that was a surprise.


    “Oh really?” he said sarcastically.


    She sighed. “But even so, I should’ve approached the matter in a more mature way. Calling you an asshole went too far. I should’ve exined calmly and let the matter go, because like you said, it’s really none of my business.”


    He listened to her words, feeling the surprise in his heart increase.


    “You people are not my family or my friends, so…” Her voice trailed off. “I should’ve just focused onforting Patricia instead of confronting you. For my immaturity, I apologize. But still, I do not regret anything. I’ll leave now, but I’lle back to visit Patricia once she feels better. Goodbye.”N?velDrama.Org (C) content.


    She turned her back on him the next moment and left, not even sparing him another nce.


    Christian stared after her with a foreign feeling lodged in his gut. He couldn’t quite exin what it was, but he knew that he was growing a little bit interested in this girl.


    She was feisty, he could tell. She was not afraid to stand up for others, and she was also good with her words. Even though she was still young like him, she had a good sense of judgment. He could tell that she would not be easily bullied.


    Perhaps he took that as a challenge from then on.


    –


    [Present Time]


    –


    Christian couldn’t remember anything when he woke up. Most ofst night, in fact. What he could remember, though, were bits and pieces of what happened before he got drunk.


    He had been drinking with some potential investors for thepany’s expansion ns, but his mind was in the clouds. He didn’t know why, but he regretted it a little.


    Using Camille to get to Michael McGregor.


    Christian had a lot of ns for Michael and the McGregor family business. It seemed that Haynes-McGregor Industries was rising to the top, even bing more popr than the Cahan Group. Christian didn’t like being upstaged, and now Gregory seemed disappointed by the oue.


    Time was running out. The twopanies were scheduled tounch their new products in September and October of the following year, which was an uncanny coincidence since they were one month apart.


    Since Michael’spany was going tounch theirs a month earlier, Christian had toe up with a good strategy to either dy theunch or use better advertising and features.


    Camille helped hime up with innovative ideas for advertising that he personally thought were great concepts. This was one of the reasons he trusted her and only her to be his personal assistant. She was capable and intelligent, and she also had great ideas in that head of hers.


    Michael’spany hadn’t started advertising aggressively yet, but it seemed they were nning something big. Something that would surprise everyone and bring customers to them in droves.


    However, thanks to Michael’s personal assistant – Grady – and his proficient ability to keep confidential information from leaking out, Christian was only able to gather very little information about such secrets.


    But aggressive advertising and creative ideas weren’t enough for Christian. He wanted to ruin Michael’s reputation. He had wanted to do so for years.


    And Camille was the perfect pawn to use against him.


    Because she was Michael’s only weakness.


    It was like hitting two birds with one stone.


    ‘Now, if only she would cooperate better with the n,’ he thought to himself as he sat up in bed, feeling irritation slip into his gut.


    Camille was getting a little rebellioustely. Maybe it was because she thought she had a fallback if she ever got ruined – and that was Michael McGregor.


    Christian groaned as he felt a killer hangover attack his head. He looked over and saw a ss of water on his bed and a single pill. It seemed that Camille had left it there for him. How thoughtful.


    Even though he couldn’t remember anything fromst night, he had a dream about the past. Back when he had met Hailey in person for the first time.


    It was interesting because he usually held a grudge, even as a child. But with Hailey, he didn’t feel so angry, especially after hearing her honest apology. She was straightforward with her reasons and didn’t waste words. She had been the bigger person between the two of them, and it showed.


    He remembered that his odd interest in Hailey had only grown since then. Maybe it was because she didn’t really like him very much. She probably even hated him, which was a stark contrast to the way other girls usually felt about him.


    Even when he was young, he dated a lot. He found sadistic pleasure in dating girl after girl for a few weeks – sometimes a month or two, depending on how interesting they were at first – and then mercilessly breaking up with them.


    He felt nothing when he saw their tears. He had no feelings for them at all. In fact, dating them soon felt like a chore.


    Some were whiny, some were arrogant, and some were so clingy that he sometimes had to physically shake them off. A few were fun to be with, but as time went on, they became boring.


    But after he met Hailey, he changed for a while. Suddenly all the girls he dated became nd, and he soon stopped having fun. He no longer enjoyed himself.


    Instead, he got mad at them more often. He didn’t date much then, but whenever he did, it was only for a short time. Perhaps only for distraction purposes.


    Even as they slipped into their 20s, Christian treated Camille differently from the other women. He would ask her opinion about things that he never did with anyone else. He trusted her opinions and wanted to know her views, especially about business.


    He did not love her, but he acknowledged that deep inside, he wanted her to be his. He wanted to possess her.


    He did not want to give her to anyone else.


    She was his. Forever.