Chapter 14

Chloe stared at me for a moment, then smiled faintly. “Do you drink?”

I froze, then nodded.

My mom always said one thing: if you can’t drink, you can forget about getting investments.

She’d told this to the celebrities and influencers at her company.

Chloe took a bottle of liquor and two glasses from the cabinet, filling the glasses with ice.

“Happy Birthday.”

Our glasses clinked, a crisp sound.

I downed the contents of my glass in one go, then the bitter taste made me cough uncontrollably, my face flushing red.

Chloe burst out laughing beside me. It was the first time I’d seen her so happy.

“That’s *your* idea of drinking? Who drinks like that?”

I wiped my mouth, tears in my eyes. “That’s how I saw them drink at my mom’s corporate events.”

At that, Chloe’s smile faded, replaced by a trace of worry.

“Asher, aren’t you supposed to be applying for college soon?”

My heart sank. Was she trying to get rid of me?

“Yeah,” I mumbled.

“I’ll find you a school. Don’t mess up your college entrance exams.”

Chloe looked at me seriously, not joking.

I shook my head. “I don’t want to.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to leave you.”

Chloe’s eyes showed a hint of surprise, and perhaps some delight.

“Are you drunk?” She pinched my cheek. My face felt even hotter.

I looked at my empty glass again, then smiled foolishly, shaking my head.

I don’t know where the courage came from, but I asked, “Chloe, are you only keeping me here to get money from my mom?”

Chloe chuckled, taking a sip of her drink.

“Keeping you won’t make your mom pay.”

“Then you…”

Chloe leaned her face closer. She seemed to be swaying, no, everything around me was swaying.

“Didn’t you hear it clearly today?”

“You’re *my* person.”

Huh?

I didn’t react for a moment; the change was too sudden.

“What, you don’t want to be?”

Chloe looked at me sideways, her eyes twinkling with amusement.

My heart started beating uncontrollably fast. “Chloe, I think I’ve fallen for you.”

“Since when?” Chloe didn’t seem surprised, just asked calmly.

“I don’t know.”

I shook my head. “Maybe when you took such good care of me when I had a fever in the middle of the night, or when you stood up for me today, or perhaps just in some random moment we spent together…”

“Don’t you think I’m a bad person?” Chloe continued to ask.

A bad person?

Compared to the people I usually saw at parties, Chloe didn’t seem like a bad person at all.

She only ever yelled at me; she never hurt me.

“I think if you weren’t so fierce, you’d probably be a good person,” I said with a silly grin.

“Ungrateful brat!”

Chloe rolled her eyes, but her voice was much softer.

And then.

I seemed to hear Chloe say something, and then my mind went blank, losing consciousness.

When I woke up again, I smelled a faint, familiar scent beside me.

This wasn’t the sofa I usually slept on, and the blanket smelled like a girl’s room.

But Chloe was gone. On the table was a bowl of beef noodles, without cilantro.

Where had she gone?

As I was eating my noodles, Jasmine pushed the door open and came in front of me.

“Little Asher, your dad’s here to pick you up!”

I froze. My long-lost dad?

“I don’t want the money; I want to keep him.” Chloe, who had been silent, suddenly spoke.

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I followed Jasmine to the wooden cabin at the vineyard, where Chloe was sitting opposite a middle-aged man.