It had been a long time since Lara had been described as a little girl, but she didn’t let her reaction show. Nikolai probably had no idea that his casual remark was making her heart race like crazy.
He had always been a dim little boy in Lara’s eyes; she knew that she was no match for Matthias, and she understood that there was a certain distance between her and Nikolai as well.
All of a sudden, Lara felt a little miserable—was there no other man left for her in this world? Why did she have to waste her time on this pair of cousins? At that moment, Lara couldn’t help but criticize herself for her poor choices.
“You’re the one who’s acting like a little boy, Nikolai. It feels like you’ll never grow up,” Lara replied. Her words stunned him momentarily, and he had the urge to refute her claims.
“Are you saying that I’m still a child?” Nikolai seemed quite unhappy with her opinion, for he had clearly improved tremendously in the past few years. Thus, he was unsatisfied to hear that from her.
Lara could make out the discontentment in his tone, so she didn’t linger on the topic and brushed it off with a smile. On the other hand, Nikolai stared at Lara in confusion; for the very first time, he was reconsidering who he was in this woman’s eyes.
Even though Lara had moved on from the topic, Nikolai still couldn’t let it go. He said again, “Have you always thought of me as someone who’s super childish?” He didn’t realize that Lara was praising him, and he thought that it was an insult.
“No.” Lara wasn’t sure why Nikolai was exceptionally impulsive today, so much that a sentence as simple as that could trigger him immensely. It was pretty unbelievable indeed.
“I’m sorry, I was being too emotional.” Nikolai saw the shift in Lara’s expression and knew at once that it wasn’t a good time to keep prodding on. Otherwise, the two of them might end up in a quarrel again.
Nikolai was always like this—even though he was stubborn at times, he knew just when to stop. His sharp attitude immediately put out Lara’s flames of frustration.
“Stop apologizing to me. You’ll make me feel guilty.” Lara didn’t want to hear his apology, for it made her feel like she was constantly bullying him.
“All right, let’s not talk about this anymore.” Nikolai didn’t know why they were being so fussy with each other today. In fact, their meaningless bickering made them seem a little dumb.
Lara nodded. Both of them had just become unemployed, so there was no need to hurt each other with words. Thus, she turned and stared at the road ahead. Right now, her heart was still racing from Nikolai’s earlier words, and she wondered if he was feeling the same.
Their car ride wasn’t a long one, but Lara was a little exhausted from it as her emotions were running wild inside. For a split second, she even had doubts if she’d actually fallen for Nikolai. Am I really falling for another man? she asked herself. If that wasn’t the case, why was she seeing him in a different light all of a sudden?
Perhaps Lara couldn’t bring herself to admit that she had unknowingly developed feelings for Nikolai after working together with him for some time. These two were blind as a bat when it came to such matters, for they were still inexperienced in dealing with romantic relationships.
Meanwhile, Nikolai couldn’t stop stealing peeks at Lara from the driver’s seat. He didn’t understand why either, and he simply wanted to look at her for no good reason—even a glance or two wasn’t enough.
An unfamiliar possessive feeling rose up in his chest all of a sudden. Nikolai thought that he was going crazy, and he just noticed that Lara had such a beautiful side profile. The unanticipated speeding up of his heart made him restless all of a sudden like an anxious little boy.
“Just turn left over here.” Lara smiled at Nikolai, wanting to give him the prettiest smile she had.
The moment one noticed a change in their friendship, they would end up being more conscious of their appearance. Lara recalled countless times in the past where Nikolai had seen her sluggish state, and feelings of embarrassment washed over her.
Most of the time, fuel needed to be lit in order to trigger a romantic relationship; a sudden epiphany could make two people realize their importance in each other’s hearts. Matthias, who had been a long-time observer, gave them such an opportunity to spark their relationship. After all, Nikolai’s overly impulsive moment led them to expose their feelings for each other. Even though Matthias had to endure a round of his cousin’s vicious scolding, he wasn’t mad about it. In fact, he was even a little grateful.
Love was blind, and it could even be destructive at times. Along with that, it could also complete a person. Matthias didn’t know if he was ruined in the hands of Heather or if she had completed him, though. Whatever it was, he hoped that love could bring Lara and Nikolai happiness.
Meanwhile, Matthias was stuck in an endless loop of day-to-day working life. He stopped for a moment and thought about his future—now that he had lost both his most trusted assistants, he was sure that tomorrow would be a boring day. To be honest, he was already quite bored as of now.
Matthias studied the CCTV footage on his monitor, but he couldn’t spot Lara nor Nikolai. He was truly not qualified to be a businessman—how could he make such a choice? If he really were to lose Lara and Nikolai at a time like this, it’d greatly affect his plans for the future.
In truth, he had become like this all because of love. Needless to say, emotions were a businessman’s biggest enemy. Matthias rose from his seat and stared at his reflection on the glass window, looking awfully haggard at that moment.
“Look at you—you look nothing like a corporate big shot,” he muttered to himself. He didn’t know if he was doing the right thing, but since he had already done it, he might as well carry on without leaving any regrets.
He would return to his villa after getting off work, but his life would still be as dull as ever. Now that Evan was no longer serving him, there would be less fun at home—in fact, the house would even lack a certain liveliness to it.
Matthias was truly all alone. From now on, he could only fight his battles by himself; he’d even lost his beloved Heather. Perhaps this isn’t so bad, though. Just then, a devilish smile crept up on his face.
He recalled his mother’s words of the past. “You have a long way ahead of you, Matthias. You’ll meet someone you love and who loves you back; she’ll complete you and also ruin you. When that happens, don’t repeat my mistake.”
Indeed, his mother had been ruined by love. Matthias thought about his own family history, and it probably wouldn’t take long for him to meet the same fate as well. After all, he knew that he would live a life of destruction ever since he was a little boy; even if he didn’t meet Heather, he would’ve stepped on this path of no return anyway.
“I’ll make them pay their price, Mom. I’ll avenge you for sure,” Matthias said as he stared fixedly at his own reflection in the window. He looked a lot like his mother, and it seemed as though he could see her standing before him.
His mother never wanted him to drown in hate, but considering his young age when those things had happened to him, how could he not? His mother simply wanted Matthias to learn to accept the past and live his own life. Unfortunately, he still chose the path of destruction in the end—he didn’t want to fulfill anyone else’s wishes.
At that moment, the Locke Group was already hanging by a thread since Matthias’ various tactics had garnered a lot of negative attention from the public. Moreover, he even openly challenged the Hart Family. As a result, the Locke Family successfully became an unwanted guest in Bradfort City.
Matthias had worked hard to move all of the Locke Group’s forces here, and all of that was for this day to come. He was unsure of what else the head of the family had up his sleeves, but he would definitely make the Locke Group suffer huge losses this time.
Matthias was waiting for the right moment to strike while trying to get to the bottom of the Locke Group’s hidden forces. At the same time, he was constantly provoking many influential parties in Bradfort. Essentially, Matthias was taking one step at a time to force the Locke Group into a dead end, and he was never loyal to the company to begin with.
Back then, there was a long period of time where he wanted to become an international business tycoon through the Locke Group’s name; it wasn’t until he met Heather did he remember his original goal.
If Matthias were to grow the Locke Group and become a successful businessman in the process, he would’ve brought glory to his name. However, he wouldn’t be able to forgive himself. The Lockes had killed his mother; Matthias wanted them to pay for what they did, and there was no better price to pay than the Locke Group itself.
As soon as the company fell, those good-for-nothings from the Locke Family would experience what it was like to live in hell. Naturally, Matthias couldn’t wait for that day to come.
He used to be brainwashed by the typical businessman mindset until Heather stirred his emotions once again, reminding him that he was capable of feeling things. He often felt like he was staring at himself when he looked at the woman—they weren’t purely businesspeople. In fact, not even Tony was considered a true businessman.
Their judgement would often be affected by their feelings; if they had to make a choice between emotions and profit, they would even unhesitantly pick the former over the other. Nevertheless, Matthias didn’t feel like it was a weakness at all. He was willing to accept this side of himself; the world had many other business tycoons to deal with, so the fact that he wasn’t one wouldn’t make a difference.
However, the more he wished to fulfill his wish of destroying the Locke Group, the more he had to pretend to care about the company. He had to express his concern more than anyone else in order to trick them.
In the end, he even had to trick himself. Thus, from Heather’s point of view, there was a huge possibility that Matthias would pick the Locke Group over her. At that moment, Matthias suddenly realized something—he finally understood that Heather’s scornful attitude toward him back then was directed toward the Locke Group.
Nonetheless, now that he was in a dire situation, Matthias didn’t have a choice anymore. He didn’t even have the courage to stand before Heather to tell her the whole truth.
He had driven away his most trusted companions, and he had lost Heather as well. Everything he was doing was according to the Locke Family’s wishes. Although he was a step closer to gaining their trust, he didn’t know if he should be mourning or celebrating.
Troubled by his thoughts, he pushed away the stack of documents on his desk, but even so, he couldn’t calm his disturbed state of mind. Just then, he suddenly remembered about Ether who had left his villa in a hurry—he still owed her an explanation.
Since he wasn’t in the mood to work, he decided to visit her. Matthias didn’t want to owe anyone anything, especially when it was a woman. He recalled that the woman’s body was a little cold to the touch; for a split second, his mind brought him back to the night where he and Heather had cuddled to sleep.
Matthias suddenly felt like a lowly idiot and a failure. The unanticipated reminder made his reason for visiting Ether seem so ridiculous. Did he intend to explain things to her, or did he simply want to search for a sign of Heather on that woman’s body in desperation?
Whatever it was, Matthias left the presidential office and headed straight to the Caliph Nightclub. He didn’t know how he was going to apologize to Ether, but perhaps he could make her leave the club forever. After all, Ether wasn’t suitable to be mingling around in a place that served to entertain men.
Indeed, it was in a man’s nature to free a damsel in distress, and Matthias was no exception. Even though he wasn’t very close to that woman, he didn’t want her to keep working at a place like that.
From an outsider’s perspective, it might seem like Matthias was always surrounded by beautiful women. In reality, he couldn’t be bothered by those women around him. If not for professional purposes, he never made contact with women in private.
Nevertheless, what he had with Ether was an unforeseen connection; it was the first time Matthias wasn’t as irked by a woman like her. Still, he was vaguely aware that he was simply using her as a source of emotional support.
With nobody around him at the moment, Matthias needed a friend; more accurately, he needed someone to listen to him. As such, he naturally thought of Ether, the woman who would appear in front of him from time to time. He didn’t think he was an exceptionally noble person, and he didn’t feel like she was lowly either.
Matthias no longer felt like suppressing his feelings. Since he finally had something he wanted to do, he was going to do it. He was even considering giving Ether a new identity; after all, life was too short not to go crazy once in a while!
