Scarlet didn\u2019t have a good impression of Blaine. Out of sheer politeness, she murmured a quick \u201cthank you\u201d and tried to pull her hand away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Blaine merely loosened his grip. As she retracted her arm, his palm slid lingeringly down her forearm, tracing her wrist and down to her palm. His fingers eventually brushed against her fingertips.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The hair on the back of Scarlet\u2019s neck stood on end. She recoiled instantly and frowned. \u201cWhat\u2019re you doing?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just trying to support you. What\u2019s wrong?\u201d Blaine replied with an innocent expression. If not for the skin\u2013crawling sensation still clinging to her arm, Scarlet might have wondered if she was overreacting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy aren\u2019t you wearing your ring?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Years of wearing a wedding band had left an indelible mark. Despite Scarlet\u2019s fair complexion, there was a faint, pale indentation at the base of her ring finger.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet instinctively curled her fingers into a fist and snapped, \u201cThat\u2019s none of your business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone knows about your divorce from William. I heard the Jameson and Cooper families are going to be bound by marriage. William and Nicole are already preparing for their engagement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet was stunned. Deep down, she wasn\u2019t surprised. She had always known William and Nicole would end up together. However, she hadn\u2019t expected it to happen so quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even if William was impatient, did the Cooper family no longer care about their reputation? The divorce wasn\u2019t even finalized, and the two families were already rushing to celebrate a new union.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet realized she was the roadblock. Then again, it didn\u2019t really matter anymore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI belong to the Benson family. Whatever you said has nothing to do with me.\u201d Scarlet wasn\u2019t in the mood to deal with Blaine. She turned to leave, only to have him brace his arm against the wall, blocking her path.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDidn\u2019t he guard you like his most precious possession previously? Nobody was allowed to touch you. Why did he abandon- you so fast?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know who you are. Please step aside \u201cScarlet immediately pivoted and escaped from the other side. Blaine didn\u2019t\u00a0<\/p>\n
chase after her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When she reached the private room, she glanced back and saw Blaine was still standing there, his gaze fixed on her with an intensity that made her skin crawl.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Inside, Scarlet\u2019s colleagues were in high spirits. They pulled her into the center of the room, thrusting a microphone into her hand. Scarlet sang a few lines, but the moment she found an opening, she slipped away to a corner\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, Scarlet pulled a bottle of sanitizer from her bag and scrubbed her hands and arms repeatedly. She didn\u2019t leave the room again until the party ended at 11:00 pm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Everyone left the karaoke room. Mandy drove two others home, while Scarlet shared a cab with another coworker whose apartment was in the same direction.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After dropping her colleague off, the driver headed toward Laurel Heights. Suddenly, he let out a hum and said, \u201cHas the car behind been following us?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Scarlet turned around. The headlights of the trailing car were blindingly bright, but she could make out the silhouette of a black Mercedes. The license plate didn\u2019t look familiar.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you sure?\u201d she asked\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI noticed a Mercedes behind us when we left the karaoke place. I figured we were just heading the same way. But we took\u00a0<\/p>\n
Play now\u00a0<\/p>\n
X CLOSE\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 79\u00a0<\/p>\n
2\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
that long detour back from your friend\u2019s place\u2013there\u2019s no way they\u2019d still be behind us by coincidence, right? Then again, I didn\u2019t catch the car plate number. Maybe it\u2019s just a similar car.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There were many black Mercedes on the road, so it wasn\u2019t unusual to see two similar cars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The trauma of being kidnapped as a child left Scarlet feeling insecure, especially after seeing Blaine earlier. \u201cTurn around at the next intersection and see what happens,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gossip<\/p>\n
Scarlet didn\u2019t have a good impression of Blaine. Out of sheer politeness, she murmured a quick \u201cthank you\u201d and tried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-end-of-the-contractstart-of-his-obsession"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13594,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13556\/revisions\/13594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}