In the beginning, Hunter had agreed to help Evelyn on account of their long-time friendship. More importantly, when he first laid eyes on Vivian, he found that her sophisticated air appealed to him greatly. Since the stars have aligned thus perfectly, why not?
When Hunter had really gotten to know Vivian, he felt his curious attraction toward her growing exponentially. No other woman had managed to ignite such a feeling of warmth within him as she did. His attraction to Vivian quickly evolved into affection. Hunter had thus already resolved to be honest with Vivian about his intensifying feelings.
Now that she had found out about it of her own accord, it was a relief for him in some sense. He no longer had to fret over how best to confess his love for her.
“Yes, it was Evelyn who first asked me to pursue you. She wanted to stop you from getting back together with your ex-husband.” Hunter admitted honestly.
“So I reckoned,” Vivian replied coldly.
Vivian knew that Evelyn surely had her own motives for introducing other men to her. And it had turned out to be exactly as Vivian guessed.
“Vivian, are you angry with me?” Hunter asked cautiously. This was why he had agonized over confessing the truth of the entire matter to Vivian. He was terrified that in her fury, she’d cut off all ties with him, and he’d lose her for good.
However, Vivian’s sense of fairness prevented her from heaping all the blame on Hunter. He was clearly only a pawn in this entire operation. She shook her head.
“There’s no reason for me to be angry with you. You did nothing wrong, after all. This is between Evelyn and me. It has nothing to do with you,” Vivian replied shortly.
“As long as you don’t blame me,” Hunter said, heaving a long sigh of relief. He turned a beaming face towards her. “It would have been most dreadful if you decided to cut off all ties with me because of this. If you did, I’d be crying in a corner right now.”
Vivian did not return Hunter’s smile. Her face remained blank.
She certainly wasn’t planning on doing anything to Hunter, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t find him despicable. In fact, Vivian had always found playboys like him to be rather loathsome.
Even though she was determined not to have anything to do with him, Vivian couldn’t resist saying scornfully, “Have you ever heard of the word ‘revenge’? Aren’t you afraid of getting your comeuppance when you toy with women’s feelings like this?”
Hunter merely smiled.
Strictly speaking, he hadn’t led anyone on. Relationships required the cooperation of both parties involved, after all. Hunter had never bullied any woman into doing anything they weren’t willing to do. His relationships were mostly a cooperative effort, with both parties reaping individual benefits.
He could never explain that to Vivian, of course. She would detest him even more and assume that he was making up more excuses for himself.
Looking at Hunter’s hapless smile, Vivian felt a tinge of guilt for sticking her fingers into matters that were not hers to interfere with. As long as she didn’t get entangled into one, Hunter’s messy affairs were his own business.
“Don’t waste any more time on me. Nothing can happen between us,” Vivian declared. “You can decide if you want to tell Evelyn what transpired between us today. Also, please tell her that she doesn’t have to resort to such underhanded tricks in the future. No one else thinks as highly of the man she likes as Evelyn herself does!”
Wasn’t Finnick the one Evelyn wanted? What a joke! Did she think that anyone else would be interested in a phony like that?
“Sorry, perhaps you should tell Evelyn that yourself. I don’t plan on telling her about what happened here today,” Hunter said, shrugging casually.
He was secretly pleased. From what Vivian had resentfully spat out, Hunter gathered that she had no intention of rekindling any romance with her ex-husband. Hunter was yet another step closer to his conquest. He had no plans of giving up on Vivian just like that.
“Why not?” Vivian regarded Hunter with suspicion. Hunter had been co-conspirators with Evelyn. There was no way that Vivian would believe anything he said in its entirety.
Looking at Vivian’s defensive posture, Hunter sighed helplessly.
“Vivian, I swear that everything I say is the truth. I admit that I got closer to you in the beginning because of Evelyn. But after getting to know you, I realized that I’d genuinely fallen for you. Why else would I have confessed everything? I hope you can find it in your heart to believe me.”
