Chapter 97 Did I Read Your Mind?
The date and timestamp in Yulia and Stella’s chat history was a coincidence. They seemed to have chatted on the day of the party, where Miles had danced with Gabriella.
Did Stella see me dancing with Gabriella from Yulia’s phone?
Stelle once told Miles that she had learned about Gabriella’s existence from his mother. Therefore, without further ado, Miles made an international call to his mother, Adele. “Mom, did you bring up Gabriella to Stella?”
Even though Adele had told Stella not to inform Miles about their meeting, she did not feel the need to lie when her son confronted her.
“That divorced woman? Yes, I met with her before, and I told her about Gabriella. After that, I heard that she left you.”
Miles lost all interest in the call after hearing that, hanging up very soon.
By now, he had almost pieced the puzzle of the timeline. Kevin told Adele about Gabriella Nolan, whom he had been using to get rid of Yvonne North for Jasmine’s sake. Since then, whenever Adele was unhappy with Miles’s girl, she would use Gabriella to drive a wedge and ruin the relationship. This time, Adele had used Gabriella’s photo in her attack again, mostly because she thought that Stella was similar to Gabriella.
The meeting between Adele and Stella led to a misunderstanding—Stella had mistakenly thought of herself as Gabriella’s replacement, and she promptly broke up with Miles. On the same day, Miles overheard Kevin’s phone conversation, during which Kevin had talked about Stella sleeping with other men.
All these events are not a coincidence! Kevin Moore…
Miles flicked his cigarette butt out of the car window. Before this, I never saw the need to deal with him. But things are different now.
“President Grant, look, my cousin even allowed me to pursue you. How would you like me to do it?” Yulia was bold in her approach and attempted to flirt with him.
“I don’t care,” he fired back, and his thoughts floated elsewhere, paying no attention to her at all.
After Stella was back in Murdough, she busied herself with work at the store. When she finally had the time to rest, she started planning her finances and extra income. Matthew is right! It is hard to grow your wealth by hustling, and investment is the easier way.
Aside from opening a store, she wanted to allocate the rest of her savings to another portfolio. Perhaps growing up in an entrepreneurial family had greatly influenced her, for she was adept at managing her finances. Still, she had no clue about stocks and did not know what investment to make.
Every time she encountered a problem, she would bring it to Matthew because he was a reliable figure in her life.
“I’m only good at technical stuff. To be honest, I’m not an expert in investing. However, Miles is an expert in this field. Why don’t you consult him?” Matthew trod carefully.
Frowning, she was frustrated to hear Miles being mentioned again. Again? What does this have to do with him? Can’t I live without him in my life for once?
Reluctant to talk to Miles, she decided to stop asking altogether.
She placed her phone on the table. Moments later, she heard the ping of a WhatsApp notification, and it turned out to be a message from Miles. ‘I heard that you wanted to invest, but you know nothing about stocks.’
‘Yeah.’ She gave him a short reply to indicate her lack of interest.
‘I’ll be in Murdough two days later. I can teach you about investing.’
She was a little shocked by his response. Why is he always visiting Murdough? This city is not his harem!
Two days later, he sent his itinerary to her. He would arrive in Murdough for a meeting and meet up with her at her store during his trip. Upon scanning through his schedule, she agreed to it.
To her surprise, a day before Miles’s visit, she received an invitation from Zane’s mother, her ex-mother-in-law, to meet up. However, she had no clue about the reason behind the meeting.
“Stella, do you have a boyfriend?” Lizbeth asked her, and to which, she shook her head.
“If you’re still single, why don’t you consider getting back with Zane?” Lizbeth sounded very enthusiastic, a stark contrast to her hostile attitude toward Stella and Zane’s relationship in the past. One could say that Lizbeth’s harsh demeanor had mellowed after she went through a grave illness and was nursed back to health by Stella.
Stella could not bring herself to tell Lizbeth that she would not accept Zane anymore. She could not tolerate some of Zane’s actions in the past. On top of that, the trauma from their unhappy marriage had utterly ruined any chances of reconciliation. Hence, she shook her head regrettably at Lizbeth’s suggestion.
“Before this, Zane made a trip to America and met up with you. Didn’t you get along well with each other?” The persistent Lizbeth kept on persuading Stella. However, Stella merely smiled wryly and thought to herself, To say that we get along well is an overstatement. I only brought him grocery shopping.
In the middle of the uncomfortable meeting, her phone suddenly buzzed. It was a text from Miles. ‘I’ve arrived.’
There was a distance between the cafe she was in and her store, so she started feeling anxious about running late. Since she would not give in to Lizbeth’s persuasion and knowing that she would never accept Zane again, she refused to waste her time and wanted to leave.
“I’m sorry, but something came up. I have to go.” Stella offered a quick explanation, paid the bill in a great hurry, and left in a cab.
Half an hour later, she finally arrived at her store. The moment she stepped in, her staff came up to inform her, “Boss, there’s a hot guy waiting for you in your office!”
Each of the girls winked playfully at Stella, not knowing that the hot guy was the man who had slept in their store earlier.
Stella entered her office, where she immediately saw Miles seated with his legs crossed and smoking.
“Miss Johansson, you must have adapted to life in the metropolis. Even running late is not a big deal to you anymore,” he joked in a lazy and relaxed manner when she was hanging up her bag. Her hands froze when she detected the sarcasm in his tone.
Although she was living in Murdough, her life was nowhere near luxurious. In fact, she still lived in a rental. It was true that Hollowcrest City was not as sprawling as Murdough, but it was a prosperous city on its own. Miles was at the top of the billionaire ranking and had a net worth of whopping tens of billions, way ahead of the second wealthy figure on the list. With that money, he could travel anywhere he wanted at any time.
Therefore, she was sure that Miles came all the way here just to make sarcastic jabs at her. But why? Just because I arrived late?
Without replying to his sarcasm, she turned around and started preparing tea.
“Are you thinking of investing?” Seeing that she did not respond to him, he finally got into the main topic of the day.
“Yes. But I’m not sure what to invest in. I know that I shouldn’t just keep the cash in my hand, and it’s easier to grow my wealth by investing.” She took a seat across from him. “President Xenon told me that you’re the expert. That’s why—”
“How about investing in Miles Conglomerate?”
Stella was totally confused by his intention and stared at him with a puzzled look.
“Do you not trust me, or do you lack trust in my company?” As a seasoned investor, he understood her concerns.
“No, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m surprised at the fact that I still end up investing in your company. I feel like I have fallen into a trap.” In fact, she was still considering her options. But he definitely did not ask her to invest in Miles Conglomerate on a whim. He must have planned for this early on, and she felt that she was fooled again.
“The dividend yield is twenty percent, so you ought to think it over.” Miles knew that she would be clueless about investment ratios and jargon, so he appealed to her with the direct result. He was confident that she could make the best decision for herself.
When she was deep in thoughts, he suddenly changed the topic of conversation. “Where did you go just now?”
“Mrs. Levitt asked to meet. She wanted me to get back with Zane.” It was a relatively simple question that she answered without hesitation.
During their conversation, Miles had leaned back slightly into the sofa. After hearing her answer, he leaned toward the coffee table to put out his cigarette in the ashtray. She heard a faint scoff from him, and he said in a relaxed tone, “Looks like you are quite popular.”
Her eyes were focused on the ashtray. Though she was not a smoker herself, she always kept an ashtray in her office because the need might arise when a guest visited. Unexpectedly, Miles was the first guest to use the ashtray.
“I’m the only man you have slept with. Right?” His question came out of nowhere.
At that time, she was pouring some tea for herself, but his sudden question disrupted her pace, making her rather anxious. How did he know? The teacup in front of her was shallow, and it didn’t take long for the tea to overflow.
“Your tea has overflowed.” In the middle of her daze, she heard his voice drifting into her ear.
“Huh?”
“Why did you panic? Did I read your mind?” He sounded calm and relaxed as he toyed with her.
Miles was the expert at playing with her feelings. He loved to tether on the edge, not to take a step further nor freeing her. Just like that, he tugged at her heart, attracting her and making her fall for him over and over.
Wishing to avoid the topic, she diverted the conversation. “I observed that most of our female customers aren’t working. A lot of them are day-trading and investing. That gave me the idea to invest, as it would be a good way to accrue wealth. I can’t risk putting all my eggs in a basket,” she addressed him with a serious look.
“As a woman, to be on top, you have to either be born to wealth or get yourself a man.” He made another bizarre remark that she did not understand. She stared at him with questions. Since he knows about my average family background, is he hinting that I’d have a better shot at marrying into wealth?
Noticing her blank look, he leaned forward, and his hot breath tickled her ears. In a seductive tone, he asked her, “Why? Aren’t you interested in woman-on-top?”
She turned beet red right after hearing that. Just now, she was thinking hard about the meaning behind his remark but never had she imagined that he had remarked just to highlight ‘woman-on-top’.
His comments made her furious and speechless, for she had wanted to discuss serious matters with him, only to see him joking around. Feeling ashamed and frustrated, she stuttered, “Y-You!”
“Ah, well, when we were sleeping together, we rarely did it in the cowgirl position. Most of the time, I took the initiative while you hid away shyly.” Still planted on the sofa, he narrowed his eyes and smoked again.
Miles Grant, you’re a beast. I thought we would discuss investment, but you kept jumping around indecent topics, from the number of men I’ve slept with to ‘woman-on-top’!
She understood that he had a high libido, and it had been some time since their last intimacy. If he could not sleep with her, he definitely could not stand the torture. Maybe he was sleeping with other women to satisfy his needs.
