Chapter 105: You Love Him, Don’t You?
Paige was unaware of Nick’s thoughts. She called Enrico as she walked.
Enrico’s charming, magnetic voice came through the phone, “I knew you missed me.”
Paige bit her lip and walked aimlessly. “What are you doing?”
“Making money, to support you.” Enrico chuckled, “What about you? Not studying and only thinking about me?”
Shameless. Paige rubbed her forehead, struggling to think of what to say. “By the way, I painted a thematic piece. The mentors gave it good reviews. Do you want to see it?”
“Showing off to me now?” Enrico’s smile deepened.
Paige honestly didn’t know what else to say on the phone with him. Most of their communication happened in bed…
“Okay, send it over. I’ll take a look,” Enrico said reluctantly, adding, “Don’t hang up.”
“Okay.”
Paige minimized the call screen and sent her new painting, ‘The Pyramid’, then put the phone back to her ear.
The phone was silent.
It was silent for so long that Paige thought he might have hung up. Then she heard Enrico’s deep voice in her ear, “Why are you studying law? With this talent, you could make a name for yourself.”
He was serious. It always felt good to be appreciated, and Paige smiled. “That’s not what I want.”
“I know, you want me,” Enrico replied.
Paige could imagine his smug expression even through the phone.
“Alright, since your painting is so good, as your man, I have to do something to show my appreciation,” Enrico said on the other end.
Paige heard him pressing something and then giving an order, “Jaden, clear out Diamond Mall tonight. I’m taking her shopping.”
“No need,” Paige quickly said.
“Do you want to shop abroad then?”
“… Diamond Mall is fine,” Paige instantly gave in, fearing he might suggest taking her to the moon next.NôvelDrama.Org is the owner.
After chatting for a while longer, Paige finally hung up the phone, letting out a long sigh. She glanced at the time and realized they had talked for an hour.
Paige put away her phone and was about to leave when she saw a slim figure standing not far away, holding a book and quietly watching her. It was clear she had been waiting.
“Rachel.”
“Were you talking to my brother?” Rachel walked over, her smile forced and her voice low.
“How long have you been following me?” Paige sneered, she walked over to a stone table under a tree and sat down, unwrapping a mint candy.
Rachel stood in front of her, clutching her book tightly, her eyes a bit red. “Joss, I don’t think I’ve ever wronged you. Why do you treat me like this?”
“What have I done to you?”
“I know you don’t like the hidden rules of the Elite Club or us, the heirs of financial conglomerates. But I sincerely invited you to my family’s party to give you a chance to join the Elite Club,” Rachel said, sounding aggrieved. “But how could you provoke everyone to say those things and then secretly record and show it to all the students at the morning assembly? You’ve made me an outcast. Do you know how hard that is for me?”
Rachel’s voice choked up, and her eyes reddened further.
“That’s it?” Paige shrugged, enjoying the coolness on her tongue. “If that’s all, I’ll be leaving now.” She stood up and walked away.
Rachel coughed several times, speaking emotionally, “Carl was right. I must have misjudged you. You’re not a friend worth having.”
Paige turned around, looking at her with a faint smile. “I never intended to be your friend.”
“Really?” Rachel’s voice was even more bitter. “I never thought you were like this. When Nancy was acting foolish, you could have warned her, you could have told the teachers, but instead, you let her steal and then exposed her in front of the entire school, forcing her to drop out. Do you know how many years of hard work it takes to get into Capital University?”
Paige stood there, smiling without saying a word.
“And me, I put my heart and soul into helping you. I begged the Elite Club seniors to make an exception for you, but you stabbed me in the back,” Rachel’s voice choked up.
Hearing this, Paige smiled and walked step by step towards Rachel. “Heart and soul? Yeah, if you hadn’t been so ‘helpful’, I wouldn’t have dealt with Nancy so harshly.”
Rachel’s eyes widened in shock. “What do you mean?”
Paige continued to walk closer.
Rachel instinctively backed up until she was against the tree, with no more room to retreat.
“Who encouraged Nancy to steal the painting? I know exactly what you said to her that day.”
Rachel immediately denied it. “I never encouraged Nancy. Don’t accuse me falsely.”
“You didn’t need to encourage her openly. You just needed to exploit everyone’s dark side,” Paige said with a smile. “Like on the day of the law school exam, you wanted to sabotage my performance and get me kicked out. You showed up and loudly invited me to join the Elite Club. You knew they would cause trouble during the exam, making it impossible for me to focus.”
Rachel frowned. “Joss, don’t project your thoughts onto others. I never had such intentions.”
“Shh,” Paige raised her finger to her lips, smiling politely. “Could you please stay quiet while I’m talking?”
“Later, when I aced the exam and got an S+, you must have been seething with hatred, but you still pretended to invite me to the Elite Club,” Paige continued. “And it just so happened that Carl and his friends arrived to mock me. You must have enjoyed that, didn’t you?”
Rachel’s eyes filled with tears. “You do wrong, stab me in the back, and now you accuse me? That’s too much.”
“Once is a coincidence, but twice or thrice? Do you really think everyone is an idiot?” Paige laughed scornfully.
“You…”
“Honestly, until then, I only knew you were different from your father. You didn’t want to pull me into killing Enrico, nor did you want to restore family ties. But I couldn’t figure out where your hostility towards me came from,” Paige said calmly, “Until that night at the banquet, I finally understood.”
“You don’t see Enrico as just a brother, do you? You love him, don’t you?” Paige cut straight to the point without any pretense.
Rachel looked at her almost in horror, but quickly turned her face away, trying hard to control her trembling lips. “You’re talking nonsense. He’s my brother. How could I have any other feelings for him?”
Paige laughed. “When Enrico and I were messing around in the pool, I saw your eyes redden. It’s different from now; you’re faking it now. But then, you were genuinely heartbroken.”
At that moment, when she had just glanced back, she had clearly caught Rachel’s pained expression. No sister would look like that just because her brother was with another woman.
“I don’t,” Rachel vehemently denied.
Paige let her continue to deny it. “On one hand, you want to be friends with me, inviting me to the Gustins’ banquet, hoping to see Enrico and ease your longing. On the other hand, you hate me. You don’t want me to have a good time, so you incite the Elite Club members, Carl, and Nancy to repeatedly humiliate me, and try to make Enrico misunderstand my relationship with Bryan.”
Rachel clutched her chest and coughed violently.
“Unfortunately, your plans backfired. I established Peak Club and won people over,” Paige said, lifting her hand to pat Rachel’s back, smiling. “It’s a shame, you’ll probably never shake off this cough.”
Rachel looked at her, coughing even harder, her eyes red with anger. “You’re cursing me. That’s too much.”