"It was really just an accident."
Jasmine Sinclair tilted her head and gave her big brother a sweet smile. It was a smile so pure and guileless, she looked like the type who would happily help count the money if someone sold her.
Seeing that Caleb Sinclair’s expression hadn’t softened, Jasmine Sinclair pointed to the half-finished milk tea on the coffee table and said coaxingly, "Big Brother, look, Rosalyn even bought me milk tea to apologize. She’s my best friend, how could she have done it on purpose? She just got too into character and accidentally used too much force."
’That milk tea was indeed bought by Rosalyn Sullivan, but she traded Aiden Hayes’s WhatsApp number for it. And it was a cheap one at that.’
’Aiden Hayes isn’t worth much either, trading his WhatsApp for a single cup of milk tea. What a cheapskate.’
’Speaking of which, Rosalyn Sullivan really loves stealing men. First my fiancé, and now she’s going after my childhood friend.’
’If I hadn’t read the original novel and known how jealous Rosalyn Sullivan was of Jasmine Sinclair, I would’ve suspected she was actually in love with her. Otherwise, why does she only hit on the men around Jasmine Sinclair instead of going after others?’
’With Rosalyn Sullivan’s innocent-girl act, it would be easy for her to hook a rich heir. Why insist on messing around with the men orbiting Jasmine Sinclair? Her ambition is just too small.’
"Caleb Sinclair, you’d better watch your sister closely. She’s so naive and foolish. Don’t want her getting snatched away one day."
Ethan Payne chuckled lightly. His gaze inadvertently swept over the faint pink lipstick stain on the milk tea straw, and his eyes deepened.
"Don’t you worry. My Jasmine is not like your Yara. She may not be the brightest, but she wouldn’t run off with someone over a home-cooked meal."
The moment Caleb Sinclair said this, the atmosphere in the entire office dropped to a freezing point. Ethan Payne’s eyes instantly turned cold.
His thoughts drifted back to the day he went looking for Yara Sawyer at that rundown little building. In a dilapidated old apartment with peeling walls, Yara was holding a plate of unappetizing-looking scrambled eggs. Her eyes shone with a brilliant light he had never seen before, and her smile was happier than when she received the high-end custom jewelry he had given her.
With tears of emotion in her eyes, she had said to him, "Brother, look. Dylan Sinclair made this scrambled eggs for me. He makes me feel the warmth of a home. He really loves me, and I love him too. His family is also very good to me. I don’t care that he doesn’t have money. As long as I’m with him, I’m happy. Brother, please, let us be together."
For a plate of scrambled eggs and so-called love, she abandoned the parents who raised her for fifteen years and him, the brother who had cherished her in the palm of his hand since childhood, willing to squeeze into a cramped studio apartment with that punk.
She had to squeeze onto the bus for work, and after getting off, she had to take care of his entire family. She couldn’t even bear to buy a piece of cake for her own birthday. She even gave the associate chief physician position—the one Mother had pulled strings to get for her—to Dylan Sinclair. This was the so-called love she spoke of. Utterly ridiculous.
"Cough... cough..."
Jasmine Sinclair’s sudden, violent coughing broke the oppressive atmosphere and instantly pulled Ethan Payne back from his thoughts.
He composed his expression and looked at the girl coughing incessantly beside him. He saw her bent over, frowning and clutching her chest. Her thin shoulders trembled with each cough, making her look just like a lily swaying in the wind—beautiful and fragile. It gave him the urge to snap her in half and keep her for himself.
’Jasmine Sinclair had been overwhelmed by the thick smell of smoke the moment she pushed open the door. To seduce Ethan Payne and not ruin the ambiguous atmosphere, she had been holding it in. Now, she had finally reached her limit. Coupled with the suffocating tension from before, she couldn’t help but let out a cough, and once it started, she couldn’t stop. It felt like she was about to cough up a lung.’
’Ever since Yara Sawyer moved in with Dylan Sinclair, that lunatic Ethan Payne had been smoking at least two packs of cigarettes and downing several bottles of whiskey a day. He was basically lovesick to the point of wanting to die.’
As if he hadn’t heard the girl coughing beside him, Ethan Payne actually pulled another cigarette from the pack. A silver lighter went CLICK, the flame momentarily illuminating the gloom in his eyes. He lit the cigarette between his fingers and took a deep drag.
Looking at the corners of the girl’s eyes, red from coughing, a perverse sense of pleasure inexplicably rose in Ethan Payne’s heart. He leaned back lazily on the sofa and loosened the tie at his neck.
’The gray-white smoke all drifted toward Jasmine Sinclair, making her cough even more violently. Her chest felt tight and uncomfortable. If she weren’t trying to maintain her persona, she would have snatched that cigarette and pressed it against Ethan Payne’s sexy Adam’s apple to "take good care" of him.’
’Jasmine Sinclair felt she was becoming more and more twisted. First, she wanted to put someone on a dog leash, now she wanted to burn someone’s Adam’s apple. Was she being assimilated by these mad dogs?’
"Stop smoking. You’re choking our Jasmine."
Caleb Sinclair snatched the cigarette from Ethan Payne’s hand, forcefully stubbed it out in the ashtray, and then turned on the room’s ventilation system.
’He’s still smoking, even though he can see our Jasmine coughing like this. It’s true that if it’s not your own sister, you don’t feel the pain. If Yara Sawyer were here, Ethan Payne absolutely wouldn’t be smoking.’
As the smell of smoke in the office gradually dissipated, Jasmine Sinclair finally stopped coughing.
’This damn dog of a man is a real piece of work. He clearly saw how badly I was coughing, but he still smoked. He must have done it on purpose. Serves him right for being the second male lead who can never get the girl.’
"I know Yara’s been disobedient lately, but you can’t keep smoking like this. Do you have a death wish?"
Caleb Sinclair knew Ethan Payne was upset about Yara Sawyer, so he tried to console him. "Yara was just too sheltered by you growing up. That’s why she was so easily swayed by a few sweet words. Once she’s had a taste of the real world and suffered enough, she’ll naturally come back."
Ethan Payne didn’t say anything. He wanted to smoke again, but when he saw the corners of Jasmine Sinclair’s eyes, still red from coughing, he actually suppressed the urge.
「Late at night」
A black Maybach moved like a ghost through the streets. The air inside the car was filled with a mixture of cedar and tobacco. Jasmine Sinclair sat primly in the genuine leather passenger seat, her hands clutching the seatbelt across her chest as she secretly sized up the man driving beside her.
The neon lights from outside cast fragmented shadows across Ethan Payne’s sharply defined profile. His long fingers rested on the steering wheel, the prominent curve of his wrist bone exuding a tantalizing sexiness.
’Jasmine Sinclair had to admit, this mad dog possessed a physical appearance tempting enough to seduce her. As expected of the psycho second male lead written by Jessica Adler, that certified face-judger. When it came to looks, he was absolutely flawless.’
’In the book, Ethan Payne was a thoroughbred mad dog. He wasn’t like the pure-love supporting male characters in some novels who restrain their taboo feelings. His madness was plain to see. From a young age, he displayed a strong possessiveness over Yara Sawyer. Any boy who got close to her would inevitably be subjected to a "friendly" chat with him in secret.’
’He even bankrupted a boy’s family just for asking for Yara Sawyer’s contact information. Gradually, no other boys dared to approach her anymore. If Ethan Payne hadn’t gone abroad to study later on, Dylan Sinclair never would have had the chance to seduce Yara Sawyer, and there wouldn’t have been the subsequent rebellious romance between the pure school belle and the handsome, rogue-like campus king.’