“ELENA!”
Adrian practically shouted the moment he stepped into the elevator.
The other person who entered with him couldn’t help glancing sideways, looking at him as though he were some kind of lunatic.
Adrian had never been looked at that way in his life.
For a moment, his anger was so intense that his chest actually hurt.
“Elena, you listen to me—”
The call ended.
He immediately called back, but all he got was a busy tone.
Had Elena blocked him?
The cold elevator lights fell across his livid face. The curious, slightly disgusted gaze of the stranger beside him made him feel as though he were sitting on a bed of needles.
Adrian arrived at the floor where his family’s luxury apartment was located, still seething with anger.
The fingerprint lock beeped, and the door opened.
Inside the bright, spacious living room, Diana was sitting on the sofa in a silk lounge set, a sheet mask covering her face as she watched the financial news.
Hearing the door open, she turned her head.
“Adrian, you’re back? How was the party? Did you have a nice time talking to Victoria?”
Diana got up and walked over, concern visible in her well-maintained features.
She was extremely pleased that her son had managed to become friends with someone like Victoria Sterling.
After all, Victoria was the daughter of one of the most powerful financial families in the country.
Even if nothing romantic ever came of it, simply having her as a friend was an incredibly valuable connection.
And if something more did develop—
that would be even better.
Adrian didn’t answer.
His face dark, he slammed his phone down on the marble console in the entryway with a dull thud, then roughly tugged open the collar of his shirt.
Diana was startled by his reaction.
“What happened? Who upset you? Was something… not right at the Sterling estate?”
Her heart sank.
Surely her son hadn’t made some kind of mistake in front of Victoria.
“Who else could it be?”
Adrian walked over to the sofa and dropped heavily onto it.
“Elena!”
After hearing Adrian explain what had happened, Diana’s tense expression immediately relaxed, replaced by disdain and displeasure.
She sat down across from her son and picked up a wet wipe, casually wiping her hands.
“I knew it! That girl was never the type to behave herself!”
There was unmistakable contempt in Diana’s voice.
“Just look at her. She has that seductive look about her, with those big, watery eyes that always seem to be trying to charm whoever she looks at. And her family has nothing. I bet they practically emptied their entire savings just to send her to a dance academy.”
She scoffed.
“So of course she has to rely on that pretty face of hers to worm her way into wealthy circles, hoping to marry some rich man and jump straight into a completely different social class.”
Adrian remained silent, his face dark.
Diana had never liked Elena.
She immediately pressed on.
“I told you a long time ago. Girls like that are fine for having fun with, but you should never take them seriously.”
She leaned back slightly, her expression full of disapproval.
“What does she want from you by staying with you? It’s obviously our family’s money. She wants to use you to climb into a social class she could never reach on her own.”
The more she spoke, the more worked up she became, pouring out every grievance she had ever had against Elena.
Diana was an ordinary-looking woman herself. When she was young, she had relied on her own abilities and her family connections to help her husband build their small company into a successful business.
She had always taken great pride in her own capabilities.
Because of that, she had a particular disdain for women who, in her view, relied on their beauty to attract wealthy men and improve their social standing.
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The first time she had seen Elena, she had disliked her almost immediately.
In her eyes, a daughter-in-law like Elena could bring absolutely nothing of value to the family.
“Look at what she did tonight. She actually had the nerve to break up with you—and then block your number?” Diana said with an expression of knowing certainty. “That’s obviously just a game. She knows Victoria might have taken an interest in you, so she’s panicking. She’s trying to play hard to get and manipulate you.”
Diana leaned forward slightly, her tone becoming more emphatic.
“Adrian, listen to your mother. This is the perfect opportunity to cut her loose. Clean and simple. You’re old enough now to start dating someone serious. Someone like Victoria Sterling. Her family background, her upbringing, her abilities—what does Elena have that Victoria doesn’t? She’s better than Elena in every possible way.”
Adrian leaned back against the sofa, eyes closed, his brows drawn tightly together as he listened to his mother’s relentless criticism and encouragement to break up.
Some of what Diana said, he had to admit, was true.
Elena was indeed vain.
And her family really was poor.
But—
Elena was extraordinarily beautiful.
Beauty like hers was exceptionally rare.
If all she wanted was to find a wealthy man, it wouldn’t have been difficult for her at all.
Adrian also knew his own position.
There were more than a few wealthy heirs at their university whose families were far richer than his.
Yet Elena had turned down those men and pursued him instead.
That had given him an enormous sense of pride and satisfaction.
What did that prove?
It proved that his intelligence and abilities had won her over.
It proved that he was more attractive than those men who had nothing but their family backgrounds to offer.
Everyone knew it was difficult to have a universally recognized campus beauty or heartthrob at a university.
Unlike high school, universities had far larger student populations, with attractive men and women everywhere.
And Westbridge University was one of the most prestigious in the country.
When it came to looks, it certainly wasn’t lacking either.
Even so—
among all the striking young men and women around her, Elena had become the university’s undisputed campus beauty after a single dance performance at the annual school gala.
That alone was enough to show just how breathtaking she was.
Whenever Adrian went out with his girlfriend, he secretly enjoyed the envious looks other men cast in his direction.
Of course, if Victoria really did show an interest in him, that would be an entirely different matter.
After all, Victoria was intelligent, capable, and came from an extraordinary family.
But for now, Victoria seemed to regard him as nothing more than a friend.
He had no intention of breaking up with Elena yet.
Yes, Elena had brought up breaking up several times before.
Every time, it had been over some trivial matter. She would lose her temper, and eventually either come crying back to him or send him a message trying to make peace after he had ignored her for a few days.
Adrian enjoyed the feeling of having a breathtakingly beautiful woman so attached to him.
He was convinced Elena couldn’t live without him.
Tonight’s incident had been somewhat strange, but if Elena really had been pushed into the pool and humiliated in front of everyone, it wasn’t surprising that she had finally snapped.
After all, she had probably never been treated like that before.
A flicker of hesitation crossed Adrian’s mind.
He considered asking Charlotte what had happened, or contacting one of the other wealthy students who had been there.
But—
the Whitmore family was powerful as well, and Adrian had no desire to offend Charlotte.
Besides, if Elena had suffered, hadn’t she already hit Charlotte back?
If he brought it up now, wouldn’t it make him look as though he were trying to stand up for Elena?
“Mom, enough.”
Diana was still going on beside him.
Adrian irritably cut her off.
“She said she wants to break up, but I don’t believe she can actually bring herself to do it. Besides, which of the wealthy heirs at school doesn’t know she’s with me? She’s not going to leave me that easily.”
Diana frowned.
“You two haven’t—”
“We haven’t,” Adrian said with a dismissive shrug. “I’ve always thought she was too stupid, so I never wanted to take things that far. Other people just don’t know that.”
Diana pressed her lips together.
“I don’t approve of you sleeping with her either. If a girl like that ever got pregnant, she’d definitely use the child to blackmail our family. You’re still young, so you don’t understand. Those precautions aren’t one hundred percent effective. There’s always a chance something could go wrong.”
“Okay, Mom. Anyway, she can’t leave me.”
Adrian suddenly felt a headache coming on.
He was twenty-one years old. Naturally, he had no interest in listening to his mother give him a lecture about sex.
“By the way, what about that technology park project in the eastern district? Did the bank approve the loan?”
Diana’s expression immediately brightened, and a smile spread across her face.
“It did! And it’s largely thanks to that risk-assessment model you helped optimize a while ago. The bank took one look at it and said it was extremely professional. The approval process went much faster because of it.”
She sounded increasingly proud.
“And that supply-chain optimization algorithm you built for the company? We ran a trial last month, and it cut our costs by almost five percent. Your father looked fantastic at the board meeting because of it!”
Adrian’s expression eased slightly.
“Yeah. There’s still room to optimize the algorithm. I’ll adjust the parameters when I get the chance. I expect I can bring the costs down by another two percent.”
His tone had returned to its usual calm and self-assured manner.
“And the paper I co-authored with my advisor on high-frequency trading signal detection has already been accepted by a top-tier journal. Several leading hedge funds have contacted me about acquiring the algorithm outright or inviting me to join them after graduation.”
“Really?”
Diana’s face lit up.
“That’s wonderful! Adrian, you’re your mother’s pride and joy!”
She looked delighted.
“How much are those hedge funds offering? Tell me. I’ll help you figure out what’s best…”
At the Sterling family’s vacation estate.
Elena hung up the phone and slipped it back into her pocket.
The living room was so quiet that even the slightest movement seemed audible.
Richard remained in the same position as before, his fingertips resting against his chin as he watched her with leisurely composure.
His face still revealed no obvious emotion.
But deep within those dark, unfathomable eyes, there seemed to be the faintest hint of amusement.
It was so subtle that Elena almost wondered if she had imagined it.
Heat crept into her cheeks.
She wasn’t sure whether it was because the confrontation had taken more out of her than she expected—or because she had just put on that entire performance right in front of the man himself.
Elena knew her own personality well.
There was no way she could keep pretending to be timid and weak forever.
And putting on an act in front of a man as shrewd as Richard had its limits.
A little could be entertaining.
Too much would only become irritating.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Sterling. I’ve taken up enough of your time.”
Elena let out a quiet sigh.
“I’m sorry you had to listen to all that nonsense. I’ll leave right away. I only came over to thank you. I’ll wash these clothes and send them back once I get home.”
Richard glanced at her.
“No one has ever returned something I gave them.”
Elena blinked.
“Okay. Then thank you for the clothes and shoes. I’ll take my leave now.”
Richard neither agreed nor disagreed.
“How are you planning to get home?”
Elena blinked.
“…An Uber?”
She suddenly remembered that she was in the city, and the trip back to her university dormitory wasn’t exactly short.
She checked her account balance on her phone, just in case she couldn’t afford the ride.
The original Elena’s family wasn’t well-off. Adrian had given her money before, but she had spent most of it on expensive cosmetics, clothes, and handbags. She rarely saved anything.
Five seconds later, Elena looked up awkwardly.
“…Could you lend me fifty dollars?”