An ordinary thug indeed couldn’t beat Leah Sterling.
For certain reasons, she had started practicing judo and kickboxing in the ninth grade.
To her surprise, she was quite talented, especially in judo.
By the time she reached high school, she was actually good enough to participate in the provincial team selection trials.
Due to an unexpected accident, she couldn’t continue.
Otherwise, she might have actually had a chance to make the national team.
Because of this, although her high school classmates targeted her verbally, they never bullied her physically.
Was it because they didn’t want to?
No, it was because they simply couldn’t beat her in a fight.
However, as soon as Leah said this, Adrian Hawthorne, who was standing at the door, furrowed his brows even tighter.
Leah pursed her lips.
“It’s too dark.
I couldn’t see anything or find the circuit breaker, so I wanted to borrow some light from the hallway.”
“Where’s your phone?”
“I forgot where I put it for a second,” Leah replied honestly.
Adrian cast a sideways glance at her with his long, narrow eyes, then picked up his phone to dial her number.
The motion-sensor lights in the hallway went out again.
The only illumination left came from Adrian’s phone screen, which displayed Leah’s number.
The saved contact name read: *Wife*.
Leah was speechless.
It wasn’t her first time realizing she was saved as “Wife” in Adrian’s phone.
But at this moment, with the two of them standing in the dark hallway staring at the same glowing screen, seeing that specific contact name was undeniably a bit awkward.
Yet, an even more awkward situation was about to follow.
The hallway was so quiet that even without the speakerphone on, the voice coming from the receiver was crystal clear.
“Sorry, the subscriber you dialed is busy now, please redial later…”
Adrian looked at Leah.
“Leah Sterling, did you block my number?”
Hearing his questioning tone, realization dawned on Leah’s face.
Earlier, when Adrian had used Charlotte Quinn’s project investment to threaten her, she had been so angry that she blocked his number.
When she called him from the cafe later on, she had completely forgotten about the block.
Only now did it suddenly hit her.
Leah gently bit her lip.
Instead of answering, she said, “I’ll go downstairs and ask property management to come up and take a look…”
Adrian let out a low chuckle, though it was hard to tell if he was laughing out of anger.
Just as Leah was about to walk past him, he grabbed her wrist.
“Adrian…” Leah looked up at him.
She saw that his brows were still tightly knit; he was clearly still displeased about being blocked.
However, while holding her with one hand, he turned on his phone’s flashlight with the other and shined it toward the upper cabinet in the entryway.
His long fingers flicked open the cover of the circuit breaker box inside the cabinet.
CLICK!
The switch was pushed up, and the apartment was instantly flooded with bright light.
Adrian walked inside, spotted Leah’s phone on the sofa, picked it up, and handed it to her.
“Take me off the blacklist.”
Leah complied.
“What did you change the passcode to?” Adrian asked.
Thinking of the thirty million early-stage investment for Charlotte, Leah silently swallowed her pride.
She told him an eight-digit number, then paused and added, “I’ll just text it to you later.”
But Adrian accurately repeated the number back to her.
“No need.
I memorized it.” He looked at Leah.
“What date is this?”
It was obviously an important date; otherwise, Leah wouldn’t have used it for the door passcode.
Yet, it wasn’t her birthday.
Leah glanced up at him and replied indifferently, “It’s just a random set of numbers.
It doesn’t mean anything.”
Adrian stared at her intently.
He probably didn’t believe her, but he didn’t press the matter further.
He walked further inside and noticed a workstation on one side of the living room.
One side of the workstation was a drafting area, scattered with a few blueprints—all Leah’s design sketches.
The other side held a pottery wheel, still stained with clay.
Beside the workstation sat an electric kiln and a drying machine.
Everything was actually organized quite neatly, but compared to the high-end decor of this top-floor duplex in Seaview Manor, it looked exceptionally out of place.
Leah walked in and saw Adrian staring at her workspace.
“You just play with mud here?” Adrian asked.
Leah was speechless.
It was called pottery!
But a man who only cared about money and business would never understand.
She paused and explained, “I’ll clean it up when I’m done.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Adrian said, looking at her.
“This is your apartment.”
Since he had already given it to her, Adrian had no intention of dictating what she did with it.
Leah hadn’t expected him to say that.
Just as she was about to think that this man had suddenly become much more reasonable, she watched Adrian walk over to the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Facing the night view of the ocean outside, he continued, “Since you like it here, we’ll just live here.”
Leah blinked, realizing his meaning seemed to be…
“Adrian Hawthorne, you aren’t planning to move in here too, are you?” Leah asked immediately, sensing the direction this was heading.
Adrian’s dark, narrow eyes swept over her with a half-smile.
It didn’t look like mockery, but rather an amused, teasing glint.
“What else?
Leah, we aren’t divorced yet.”
As he spoke, he took off his suit jacket and raised a hand to loosen his tie.
His entire demeanor instantly shifted from restrained and ascetic to unbridled and dangerously alluring.
Adrian sat down casually on the sofa, stretching out his incredibly long legs.
His voice carried the same faint, teasing smirk.
“Of course I’m going to live with my wife.”
He looked at the little ornaments on the surrounding cabinets and the coral fleece blanket printed with Patrick Star on the sofa.
They clearly clashed terribly with the apartment’s interior design.
Yet, Adrian let out a long breath, suddenly feeling that this was finally right.
For the past few days at The Verdant, even though it was the house he had always lived in, everything had felt off.
But in stark contrast to Adrian’s comfort, Leah bit her lip, feeling completely on pins and needles.
She felt as though she had shot herself in the foot.
If she had known this would happen, she wouldn’t have dismantled the guest room bed when she moved in!
She had figured that since she was getting divorced and living alone, there was no need for a guest room.
If Charlotte ever came over to spend the night, the two-meter king-size bed in the master bedroom was more than enough for the two of them.
So, she had simply asked the handymen to dismantle the bed, intending to rearrange the room later as her personal studio.
Well, look at the situation now.
Adrian’s intention was clearly to move in!
Leah decided to try a tactical retreat and spoke up proactively.
“Adrian, why don’t you just move back to The Verdant?”
Adrian’s gaze drifted over.
He lightly raised an angular eyebrow, an imposing sharpness in his eyes.
“There’s no guest room here.
You couldn’t possibly want to share the master bedroom with me,” Leah said.
Adrian had looked down on her for years.
Even after five years of marriage, they had never shared a room.
Leah instinctively believed she could use this fact to make him back off.
To her surprise, Adrian just looked at her.
“I don’t see why not.”
Leah was stunned.
“But…”
“Didn’t my mother complain that we weren’t sleeping in the same room?” Adrian asked.
Leah’s pupils contracted sharply.
This man was definitely doing this on purpose!
She abruptly stood up.
“Let’s go back to The Verdant!
It’s closer to the Hawthorne Group anyway.
It’ll be more convenient for your commute.”
Adrian remained noncommittal to her suggestion, only asking in a low voice, “And you?”
Leah bit her lip and braced herself.
“I’ll go too.”