Chapter 41

Caroline’s eyes fluttered open to see Kirk smirking at her. “What are you doing?” he asked, amused.

Immediately, her face flushed red. “N–nothing!”

“But you closed your eyes just now-”

“I was… I just couldn’t make myself look at the tie.” In her haste, she told him the first excuse she could come up with. She looked around the spot she was standing in, trying to think of a way to get out of this predicament.

Suddenly, the painting he’d given her popped into her mind, and she mumbled, “I–I have to keep the painting somewhere… I’m going back to my room.” With that, she darted out of the dining room and into her room, closing the door with a bang.

Kirk watched her the entire time. As he stared at the closed door of her bedroom, the smile in his eyes faded and was replaced with his usual icy look.

He’d almost lost control of himself… and he’d never done that in front of a woman before!

Maybe Sean was right. Maybe he did like Caroline a bit. But that didn’t mean that it was love!

Caroline returned to her room and hid under her blanket. She hid, as if she could delude herself into thinking that her racing heart said nothing about what she’d felt back there.

She covered her face with her hands when she recalled what had happened and immediately felt the urge to dig a hole and bury herself in it. What the heck happened?

It was as if she’d been bewitched.

Right! Bewitched!

She’d definitely reacted like that because Kirk was too handsome! She definitely wasn’t in love with him! Absolutely not!

Just then, her phone rang, making her jump out of her skin. She glanced at the screen. It was Gwen.

She answered the call and started ranting. “You scared me! Why are you even calling me at this hour?”

Instantly, Gwen smelled something fishy. “Oh? Why can’t I call you now? Don’t tell me that you were doing something… naughty!”

Caroline’s heart leaped into her mouth. Her mind replayed the scene where she was tying Kirk’s “Carol, you sound very guilty now.”

“Nonsense. Say another word, and I’ll head over to beat your ass.” Caroline buried herself deeper into the depths of her blankets. “Why are you calling?”

“Ehe! You’re the one who knows me best!” Gwen started sounding suspicious. “Are you online?”

“Why?”

Gwen’s unrestrained chortle came from the other end of the line. “When I switched on my phone today, I got thousands of messages and notifications about Brie!

“I thought that it was the Collins family trying to get positive publicity, but when I clicked the notifications, the news was all about Brie and her people cornering us at the auction house!”

Caroline remembered the journalists who had appeared out of nowhere at that time. “Weren’t those reporters hired by her?”

“Who knows? It’s strange, though. The journalist who reported this was professional enough. He blurred both our faces.”

Caroline froze. Logically speaking, this would serve as a hot headline. Since the journalist exposed Brie’s act, why didn’t he expose both Caroline and Gwen too?

Was Eddy behind this? Was it because he wanted to spare himself from embarrassment? But Eddy would give anything to see Caroline humiliated.

Caroline immediately searched for the source of the news. The media agent who posted it first was owned by the Morrisons.

She sank into deep thought for a moment before dialing the number of the manager in charge of Morrison Corp’s media department.

“Mr. Sander, I’d like to ask about the news regarding Ms. Collins today. Why did and my friend’s face in the pictures?”

you blur my face…

“Oh. It was Mr. Eddy’s second uncle,” Mr. Sander answered. “He asked us to do that.”

Caroline froze. It was Eddy’s second uncle?