Chapter 6
Panic hit me so suddenly it made my chest hurt.
“I’m fine,” I told Lucas in one breath. “Don’t tell my parents. I have to go find my boyfriend.”
Then I pulled free and ran after Xander.
When I caught up to him, I immediately cupped his face and checked him over.
There was a cut on his cheek.
Another on his shoulder.
He didn’t say a word the whole time.
He just stood there and let me look.
I sniffed hard, took his hand, and said, “Let’s go to the hospital.”
He finally reacted.
By pulling his hand away.
“No need.”
Only then did I glance up and see that the irritation meter I had finally lowered to ninety had already shot back to ninety-nine.
Did he think I had brought him trouble again?
Was he annoyed because he got hurt because of me?
That would make sense.
If I hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have had to fight anyone.
For the first time in my life, I looked at Xander’s cold side profile and honestly wondered whether my relentless attachment had always been a burden to him.
In the end, I dragged him to the hospital anyway.
He let me do it, but he was quiet the entire time.
After the doctor finished examining him and I confirmed that the injuries weren’t serious, I finally let out a breath.
I was just about to go back and sit beside him when someone stepped in front of me.
It was a very elegant woman.
She removed her sunglasses, looked me up and down, and asked, “You’re Harper Quinn?”
Confused, I nodded.
She led me to a pavilion outside and sat down before getting straight to the point.
“I’m Xander’s biological mother.”
My fingers tightened in my lap.
“He was switched at birth as a child,” she continued smoothly. “He has now officially returned to the Hale family.”
Then she handed me a business card.
The Hale family.
Of course I had heard of them.
The dread in my chest deepened.
And right on cue, she said, “Xander cannot stay with you forever. He has obligations to this family. He will eventually marry into another family as part of a proper alliance.”
Then she looked straight at me.
“So tell me. How much do you want to leave him?”
My mind went blank.
Beside the shock, the system was practically having a seizure in my head.
“Host! This is where you say, I don’t want money, I only want love! This is your moment! Remember the mission! If you complete it, you still get thirty million!”
Then Xander’s mother slid a card across the table.
“Sixty million,” she said coolly. “Enough?”
I stared at it.
She seemed almost amused by my silence.
“Not satisfied? Then ninety million.”
My heart stopped.
Ninety million.
Three times the mission reward.
The system actually choked.
“What is this? Is she wrecking the market? This is unfair competition!”
I couldn’t hear anything after that.
All I could think was that now that Xander had returned to the Hale family, the distance between him and me had become something I couldn’t even see the end of.
That night, when I brought Xander back to his apartment, I made a decision.
The second we walked in, before he could say anything, I rose on my toes and kissed him.
He didn’t dodge.
But when I tried to kiss him again, he turned his head sharply away.
His voice came out low and tense.
“Harper, what exactly do you take me for?”
Then he added before I could answer, “And let me make this clear. I’m not dyeing my hair black again. I’m not wearing those stupid glasses again either.”
So he was still angry about that.
I immediately nodded. “Okay. I know. I won’t make you do it.”
Later, I remembered the injuries on his arm and went into the kitchen to make him a late-night meal.
The result was… not great.
Xander looked down at the tip of my finger, which I had burned on the soup pot, then looked away again.
He gave a short laugh.
“Don’t think acting pitiful will make me stop being mad.”
Then he took a sip and grimaced. “This is bad. Don’t cook again.”
He rarely used such harsh words with me.
I tried coaxing him for a long time.
He still looked unhappy.
So I took a deep breath, looked at him seriously, and finally said the words I had been thinking about all day.
“I won’t do it again.”
He paused. “Do what?”
I lowered my eyes and said softly, “Let’s break up.”
He went completely still.
Then I smiled as steadily as I could and finished, “Congratulations, Xander. You’re free.”