Chapter 79 Didn’t Treat Her Well Enough
Then, a sudden thought came to his mind—Miles realized they rarely shared such a warm embrace with one another. Most of the time, they would just end up getting straight to it most of the time, so sharing an intimate embrace like this was just rare.
Instead of laying Stella back on the bed, Miles continued to hold her and enjoyed the sweet scent that came from her hair.
Because of her petite frame, Stella appeared lean, but in fact, she was kind of fleshy, so it was a nice feeling to hold her closely.
Leaning against Miles, she looked like a little girl who was gentle and needed protection at the same time, which was a rather unusual sight for him.
Frankly, Stella was someone who appeared soft on the outside, but was actually strong on the inside. She would cry sometimes, but she rarely showed the weak side of her, as she was exactly the type that kept pressing through whenever things were rough for her.
This was the first time Miles ever felt she was like a precious little daughter to him. Drawing himself closer to her, he leaned his own forehead against hers.
As she was already fast asleep, she didn’t fight back, all gentle and submissive within his arms. Miles only felt this was such a precious moment that had to be cherished.
Admittedly, he was indeed a little too harsh on her in the past. He had always treated her as a woman, and most of the time, saw her as a woman in bed.
In fact, she was just a young lady in her early twenties. He was much older than her, and yet, he didn’t treat her well enough.
Staying in the same position for quite a while, Miles continued to hug Stella until he felt pins and needles in his arm, then he placed her down. Perhaps because of the soup she had finished just now, her fever seemed to have subsided and droplets of sweat could be seen on her forehead.
After covering her with a blanket, he continued to sit by her side throughout the night.
Unfortunately, there was only one bed in Stella’s house, so he didn’t have anywhere else to rest his head. Then again, the crucial reason for staying beside her was that he was worried that Stella would kick off the blanket while sleeping.
The dim light from the bedside lamp was shining upon Stella’s face, which appeared somewhat exhausted and feverish.
Surprising even himself, Miles didn’t sleep throughout the night, but he wasn’t feeling sleepy at all.
During daybreak, Stella’s fever seemed to have subsided. She got up and headed to the bathroom, and when she pushed the door open, she saw a man’s back.
Letting out a shriek, Stella closed her eyes with her hands and walked out of the bathroom. As she only caught a glimpse of the man’s back, she wasn’t sure who it was.
Sitting down on her bed, she was trying to figure out who that man was. Just then, a man’s face came to her mind—Miles Grant’s face.
A moment later, Miles walked out of the bathroom. “Have you forgotten that I was the one who sent you home last night? How ungrateful of you!” Walking toward her, he then placed his hand over her forehead. “No more fever. I should leave now then.”
As soon as he headed to the door, Stella’s voice sounded from behind him. “President Grant, are you a man who has a strong possessive desire?”
“Why do you say so?” The moment his hands reached for the door knob, Miles paused abruptly.
“Due to your strong possessive desire, you enjoyed taking a woman away from another man. Likewise, because of your possessive desire, you slept with a married woman! Tell me, is this a general trait of a president? Or is this applicable to all men?” Stella asked as she wondered why he would suddenly offer to send her home last night after being so mean to her the other day?
From the incident that happened in the boutique on the previous day, Stella could tell that Miles deliberately did it in front of Zane. Not long ago, he scolded her, but now, he was being nice to her all of a sudden. The only explanation she could come up with was that he had a strong possessive desire.
Somehow, she felt she didn’t know much about him.
With a snort, Miles didn’t reply and stormed off in a huff.
After Miles left, Zane came over. Zane mentioned that he tried to call her up last night, but her phone was turned off, so he came over now to pass her the loyalty card of the 5-star hotel. The creditor didn’t need the card, and since the card couldn’t be exchanged with cash, he thought of presenting it to Stella as a compensation; the card was of great value, after all. Furthermore, Stella had suffered significant losses because he had suddenly taken back the shop.
“Can I stay there everyday?” Stella asked while checking the card from the front to the back. The card did look pretty fancy.
“Of course not! You can stay there for 5 nights in a month,” said Zane with his arms crossed before him. He seemed very pleased and comfortable with his present relationship with Stella.
“Can I stay there tonight then?” asked Stella.
The reason why she had asked that question was because the weather was getting really hot these days, but the air conditioner in her house had malfunctioned. That night, she had set a timer and the air conditioner was supposed to switch off after an hour. Instead, it was turned on throughout the night. Perhaps the remote controller was not working, or there could be some other reason, but whatever it was, she woke up feeling rather lethargic the next day because of it. Also, there was the opening ceremony, so she was dead tired after the event.
“Sure!” replied Zane.
Once she had made up her mind, Stella went to stay at the hotel the next day.
Coincidentally, she bumped into Gabriella when she came out for dinner.
What a coincidence! Stella thought. Initially, she didn’t plan to speak to Gabriella, so she was surprised when Gabriella called out to her instead.
“Let me ask you something.” said Gabriella stealthily, as though she was trying to find out the truth about a certain gossip.
“What?” They were standing in the hotel corridor as they talked, and Stella didn’t understand what she meant.
“Is Kev still working with President Grant?” Gabriella finally voiced out her question.
Surprised, Stella thought, Why isn’t she asking me about her ex-boyfriend but another man? Doesn’t she care about Miles at all? The last time we met, she was acting this indifferently as well.
Upon hearing that name, Stella felt that it didn’t seem to ring a bell. A while later, she figured that Gabriella was probably referring to Kevin Moore. In the company, he was more known as Mr. Moore instead of his nickname, so it was understandable when Stella couldn’t catch on at first.
“Kevin? I think he’s still there. What about him?” asked Stella in return.
“Oh! Oh… It’s nothing. Goodbye then.” After waving goodbye at Stella, Gabriella ran off sneakily.
Based on their past encounters, Stella felt that there was really nothing in common between her and Gabriella in terms of personality. They were practically the total opposite of each other, so she wondered whether it was just because they both looked alike.
Without giving things further thought, Stella went to grab a meal.
Meanwhile, Miles went back to Hollowcrest City after leaving Murdough. As soon as he entered the office, he called Kevin over.
When Kevin entered the office, Miles just lit a cigarette and placed the lighter down on the table with a loud thud.
“President Grant, you called for me?” asked Kevin while standing there.
“How did Stella get to know Gabriella?” questioned Miles.
That day, when Stella asked him about his ex-girlfriend, he said which one, but in fact, he was actually asking about Stella’s situation. However, based on Stella’s reaction, it seemed like she wasn’t referring to herself. If his deduction was correct, she must have been referring to Gabriella. “You’ve met Stella?” Kevin replied, sounding like a lackey when he said that.
“Don’t change the subject!” Knitting his eyebrows together, Miles demanded, “Was it you who told her about it?”
“Of course not! President Grant, there must be a misunderstanding. Stella and I shared a relationship as mentor and mentee, so why would I do such a thing?” said Kevin.
“Besides you, who else knows about this?” Miles questioned once again.
“I’m not sure how she knows about this… Oh! Your good friend—Mr. Xenon! He knows Gabriella too.” Kevin acted as though he had just realized it.
“Matthew?” With his eyes narrowed, Miles said, “You may leave now.”
If it wasn’t Kevin, then it has to be Matthew for sure. Frowning, Miles wondered why Matthew would do such a thing.
The moment Kevin walked out of President Grant’s office, he wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. While trying to calm his heart that was thumping wildly, he thought, Seriously, I didn’t expect Miles to meet Stella again. Maybe they didn’t meet by coincidence? After all, Solaria is a big country, so it certainly isn’t that easy to bump into someone. He must have arranged to meet up with her! Whew! My dear daughter, I almost blew our cover.
After working hours, Kevin headed to the hospital. In one of the wards, a young lady was lying on the bed with an oxygen mask over her nose. She seemed like she was in a coma for quite some time.
Gazing at his daughter, Kevin held her hand and said, “My precious daughter, I’ve succeeded once again! President Grant is still single.”
On the other hand, after spending a few days in the hotel, Stella received a call from Zane, asking her whether he could go over to her place to fix the air-conditioner for her.
Upon thinking about it, Stella reckoned that she had nothing valuable in her house in Murdough, and she already had her ID card and everything important with her, so it should be okay. Though Zane was not as well-off compared to the past, he still had more than a hundred thousand in his hands, so he certainly wouldn’t rob or steal any of her stuff.
Besides that, her boutique’s business seemed rather busy lately, so after considering it, she said yes.
That day, Zane dropped by Stella’s office to collect the house keys from her.
Once the electrician was done fixing the air-conditioner, Zane set up a hidden camera at a corner which Stella wouldn’t notice. He wasn’t a stalker, but he had other purposes for it.
At night, when Stella returned from work, Zane had not left, as he had been waiting to give her back the keys.
Feeling exhausted, Stella took off her high heels and jumped straight onto her bed, eager to sleep.
“Are you tired?” asked Zane. “Did you go to the boutique straight after work? Isn’t it too tiring for you to work and manage the boutique at the same time?”
Stella felt she could fall asleep the next second, so she wasn’t paying attention to what Zane was saying.
“Let me massage your leg for you.” Kneeling down before her, Zane gently massaged her feet and said, “Back when we were still together, you had never experienced such a tiring life. I feel sorry for you now.”
Upon hearing that, Stella had to admit that she had never thought it was this challenging to start her own business. Ever since she had owed Miles so much money, she had been living her life everyday as though she was fighting a war.
Lying face down on the bed, Stella tilted her head to one side, and tears began to fall as his words had touched her heart.
When Zane noticed her reaction, he wasn’t all that surprised, for he knew all along that Stella was a woman who was emotional and easily moved. Hence, he continued sitting on the bed and started giving her shoulders a massage without saying anything further.
Since Stella was still so absorbed in her thoughts, she didn’t react when Zane sat down on her bed.
As Zane was massaging her shoulders, he slowly leaned closer and was about to plant a kiss on her neck.
Just then, Stella tilted her head and sat up immediately when she saw what he was doing. “Zane, what are you doing?”
Acting as though nothing had happened, Zane said, “Nothing. I just thought of those days when you were still my wife. Back then, I always complained about you not being a virgin, but now that I’ve come to think of it, there aren’t many virgins now in this world. Do consider it if you still wish to get back together with me. About what happened just now… Well, I just couldn’t help myself.”
After he had spoken, he stood up and left, looking like he was determined to not be a nuisance to her.
In fact, Zane was not the type who would pester anyone, but when he saw Miles, who came all the way to Murdough and was still in contact with Stella, he got anxious.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. So what if I am to send out the video? It’s not like I’ve stepped over the line.
