Dangerous Desire The CEO’s Hidden Woman

Scarlett smiled wryly and said, “I really just want us to be left alone. I want him to stop hovering around and waltzing into our lives whenever he pleases. I’m not the kind of person who cares about revenge. All I want is for him to disappear. I want him and the rest of those people just to go away and let us live our lives. But they just won’t let me have that. They just won’t….”

“Scarlett, whose idea do you think it was in the first place?” Skyler asked, glancing at Jennifer angrily from the corner of her eyes. Jennifer had, after all, ruined their mother’s life. Skyler would never forget what grave damage she had caused their little family.

“Who else could it be?” Scarlett sneered. She turned around and said, “Let’s go and meet our stepmother.”

***

As Scarlett and Skyler walked down the stairs, everyone’s attention turned to them.

Jenifer looked up and saw them coming. She tried to welcome them kindly as if she was the owner of the villa and not them. It was absurd.

“There you are! Now, come here and have a seat!”Jennifer beamed.

Meanwhile, David had rested his eyes on Skyler, his oldest son. David thought that Skyler had grown into a handsome, tall, and well-educated man indeed. In truth, David had never wanted to give up on Skyler– it was Scarlett who he had lost all feeling for. Recently, David learned that Skyler had finished his studies in France. A doctoral candidate at such a young age! Skyler truly was his own, David thought.

Jeremy put his cellphone down and took a good look at Skyler and Scarlett. He heard about them, but unlike his father, he had his eyes on Scarlett.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

Scarlett sat down casually and said, “You are welcome. It’s my house, and I don’t need you to tell me to have a seat.”

Sitting next to Scarlett, Francis put his arms around her shoulder and said, “Please don’t mind her rudeness. As you know, Scarlett is just an outspoken and vocal girl.”

Upon hearing that, Jennifer felt coy and instantly said, “Oh, she hasn’t changed a bit since she was a little girl! We got used to her ways a long time ago. Our only hope is that you don’t mind it.”

“Oh, good!” Francis said as he leaned back with his long legs crossed and continued, “So, anyway. Word on the block is that your company is gearing up to go public. How’s that going? What’s the progress looking like?”

Jennifer twisted her hair around between her fingers and said, “Well, we are working on it. We’re trying our best, but we’re not sure that we can pull it off….”

“Well, the back-door listing risk is low, so I guess it should not be a problem.” Francis’s offhand comment made Jennifer’s eyes brighten in an instant.

“Could you help us…?” Jennifer wondered.

Before she finished what she wanted to say, Francis just raised his hand to stop her and said, “I’m a businessman. And I never mix emotions with business, so I hope you can understand that.”

“Well, I see you are a man of principle…” Jennifer said, clearly disappointed by his response.

After a while, David had finally mustered enough courage to converse with Skyler. “Skyler, I learned that you’d been a Ph. D. candidate. How are your studies going? Do you need my help? With anything?”

Having been focused on peeling the orange in his palm, Skyler looked up when he heard what he said and stared at him blankly, “How can you help me with my Ph. D.? Are you good at quantum physics?”

David felt awkward and stammered a little bit, “Well, maybe I could help you contact a good mentor… or something….”

Skyler frowned, “I have chosen my mentor, and he is terrific. So you don’t need to bother with any of that. Thank you.”

When Scarlett heard their exchange, she lowered her head to chuckle quietly. Francis pinched her cheeks lightly, indicating to her that she was rude to their guests.

Scarlett had no idea that Skyler could behave so coldly– he had obviously learned from the best! The student had now become the master. Hearing Skyler’s words, David had no recourse but silence. He realized he had no understanding of how to communicate with his own son appropriately.

***

After a while of silence, Jeremy suddenly piped up with a question for Scarlett. “Hey, sis, do you know how to race cars?”

Scarlett hadn’t realized that Jeremy was indeed trying to communicate with her. “Wait, are you talking to me?”

“Aren’t you my sister?” He asked, a completely blank expression on his face.

Jeremy looked like his father, so he also looked like Skyler and Scarlett. At only fifteen years old, he was already quite tall and handsome.

“Racing cars? Yes, I do.” Scarlett pouted her lips and said in a low voice.

As he heard the words come out of Scarlett’s mouth, Jeremy’s eyes sparkled, and a smile came upon his face. Excitedly, he said, “It would be so awesome if you could teach me how to race cars. I really admire people who can race. It would be super cool if you could show me your skills sometime.”

Because Scarlett wasn’t sure why Jeremy had decided to ask her such an odd question seemingly out of nowhere, she moved closer to Francis ever so slightly and said to Jeremy, “Are you kidding me? You’re just a kid. How can you expect to learn how to race? You’re too young for that kinda thing.”

David’s face turned angry, and he said, “Jeremy, behave yourself!”

“Dad, my sister is so amazing, why don’t you bring me to see her sooner? I’ve actually heard about her from my classmate’s brother… and she is very famous!” Jeremy said excitedly. Now that he had confirmed that the Scarlett he had heard about and his sister were the same people, he couldn’t control himself. He was acting like a little fanboy.

Scarlett became kind of awkward and looked up at Francis. “What’s with this kid anyway?” She seemed to be saying.