Reincarnated As the Enemy's Wife: Married the Rival, Bound by Revenge-Chapter 281: A Big Brother Uninterested in Money

She then discussed with Ralph the details of how to invest and how to talk with technical experts. The two of them hit it off and became partners.

Nicholas was infuriated as his assistant informed him of it.

When he offered to help, she had turned him down.

And now she was cooperating with another man?

Nicholas sat in his chair silently for quite a while after hearing the news.

And then there was a snap!

He had broken the pen in his hand!

Face cold, Nicholas left for Eva’s house without a word.

Eva had not spoken to Nicholas for days.

She had been too busy to speak to him, to be precise.

She’s been looking everywhere for investors and technical experts. Most of the time she was talking with someone on the phone, so it was normal that she missed Nicholas’s calls.

Moreover, she did have a grudge against him.

She thought, "You don’t have to go public with our relationship on your own initiative, but how could you deny I’m your girlfriend?"

It struck Eva that she wouldn’t have been so upset had she not seen him or heard him say that.

But when she had seen it with her own eyes, the pain she’d felt was excruciating.

Eva dwelt on it as she vexedly practiced piano at home.

However, at this moment, the sound of someone tapping at the keyboard of the combination lock came from the door.

She was instinctively on the alert.

Apart from the middle-aged woman living next-door who on occasions got the wrong place, Nicholas was the only one who would enter the password instead of knocking.

She quickly went to the door to block it.

Unexpectedly, before her hand could touch the door, Nicholas walked inside and stared at her coldly!

Obviously, he had seen her try to shut him out.

"What do you want?"

She frowned. "Why did you come to my house without telling me?" Tell her?

He needed to tell her before visiting her?

The very sound of it struck him as unpleasant.

"How could I find out if you’re hiding some other guy in here if I told you beforehand?"

Eva came to realize that Nicholas was in a foul mood.

What did he mean by hiding some other guy?

What was he talking about?

She pressed her lips together and said with faint annoyance, "I’ve been very busy recently and I’m very tired. If you’re here to fight, I’ll have to ask you to leave right now. Um..."

But Nicholas was thoroughly angered before she could finish her sentence.

He directly scooped her up under his armpit and went onto the bedroom without even closing the front door.

After walking into the bedroom, he threw her onto the soft bed without a word.

Nicholas quickly loosened his necktie one-handed, his face taut, the atmosphere very subdued.

He undid the upper three buttons of his shirt, instantly revealing his Adam’s apple. Hardly had Eva struggled to get up than he pushed her back with his big hand. "Get out..."

"Yell louder," he said hotly. "I left the door open, so if you want everybody in this building to hear you, be my guest."

Eva instantly shut her mouth.

But her cold eyes stared at him fixedly.

"Don’t make me hate you!"

That remark did carry some weight with him.

On hearing Eva’s words, Nicholas stopped.

But he paused for only a brief moment and then said, "Start hating me, then. "I’ll be the only one you hate."

He thought, "No matter whether it’s hatred or love, I’ll always be the only man in your heart."

The door of Eva’s bedroom was cater-cornered from the front door, so although the front door and the bedroom door were both open, nobody could see the two overlapping bodies on the bed from outside.

Eva did not dare make any loud sounds, for someone might walk past her apartment in the corridor.

But at this moment, Nicholas opened her coat with his hands.

...

She let out a scream.

As Nicholas kissed her more fiercely, she really panicked.

She really feared that Nicholas would force himself inside her right in this room.

Judging from what he was doing, it seemed he did want to do that.

"Nicholas! You... Let go of me! Mm..."

"It’s too late to beg for mercy."

If she had behaved herself from the moment they met, he might be able to restrain himself.

Now he just wanted to thrust himself inside her.

The front door was open, and so was the bedroom door.

Eva felt that she was going crazy.

She wanted to yell or rebuke him but didn’t dare do either of them, and she was also afraid that someone might see them.

If word got out about this, how would she live with the shame? There were neighbors all around.

Nicholas was kissing her when suddenly a clatter of footstep came from the doorway.

It was only then that Eva caught on.

She thought, "Crap!"

Stella seemed to have said that she would come here to have a lesson later today. Eva had been so occupied with the Smart Piano project that she almost forgot all about it.

Stella was the little girl she’d brought back from the training institute a few weeks ago.

The girl had passed the eighth grade test, and had even been invited to play the piano by several troupes of young artists.

Stella had participated in two or three shows and the audience liked her pretty much. She had brought some extra income to her family.

Stella’s grandfather was very grateful after hearing about it. He knew that his family owed all this to Eva.

The old man insisted that Eva accept the box of tea he had preserved for many years.

Stella noticed that the door of Eva’s apartment was open, but there seemed to be

nobody inside.

The little girl was well-bred. Not having been given the permission, she did not enter unbidden. Instead, she stood at the door, the box of tea in her hand.

"Miss Loraine, are you in?"

In the bedroom, Eva’s jacket had been thrown to the ground by Nicholas. She was clad in only underwear.

"You’re not gonna answer your student’s question?" he whispered beside her ear.

Eva cleared her throat and was just about to say something when Nicholas gave her a pinch on the waist with moderate strength and she was nearly reduced to screaming.

Angered by the man’s wickedness, she returned the compliment by pinching him with all her might.

She pinched him hard, but Nicholas didn’t even frown.

"You still dare resist?

"Do you want your student to see us making out?"

Eva bit her lip.

"Let go of me!"

"Tell me, why would you rather seek help from Ralph than turn to me? If your answer satisfies me, I will let you go. Otherwise..."

He left his sentence hanging, a wicked smile on his face.

But the meaning of that wicked smile was manifest!

If she didn’t give him a satisfactory explanation, this lunatic might really do that in

front of her student...

"When did I ask Ralph for help?"

"I’m just cooperating with him," Eva said angrily. "How to split the profits is very clear on the contract!"

Eva knew that if she had sought help from Nicholas, the latter would definitely have pulled out all the stops and handled everything for her without hesitation.

It was impossible for Nicholas to sign a contract with her. He would just take care of everything and let her take all the money.

That struck Eva as inappropriate. It would make her efforts unfulfilling. Also, she was not inclined to put Nicholas to the trouble.

So she had chosen to cooperate with Ralph.

It was not because she trusted Ralph more that she had chosen to cooperate with him. It was solely because she felt that he probably wanted to do something like that

as well, and that he should have thought of the same thing before.

On the other hand, Eva was not trying to produce Smart Pianos purely for charity.

In the past, she had paid scant attention to the importance of money, but ever since she’d started a relationship with Nicholas and seen how extravagant his life was, she’d realized the wealth gap between them.

She wanted to stand side by side with him, and she had to work hard to make more money to slowly keep up with him.

When in college, she had been ridiculed at Nicholas’s birthday party because of her inability to give him a decent gift, and she didn’t want to remain too poor to give him anything befitting his social status, or to be deemed unworthy of him!

...

The great efforts she’d put into it had been the very reason why she’d felt upset when hearing Nicholas deny that she was his girlfriend.

After she answered, Nicholas finally let her go.

Eva readjusted her clothes and walked out of the door.

Stella, still holding the jar of tea, blinked at the sight of Eva.

"Miss Loraine, this is the tea my grandfather asked me to bring you."

"Thank you..."

At this moment, Stella’s face suddenly changed slightly.

She saw a handsome languid man walking out of the bedroom.

Having noticed Stella’s facial expression, Eva turned around and, naturally, spotted Nicholas walking out.

"Why did you come out?"

"To see your student,"

Nicholas said airily.

Then his long legs carried him up to Eva and the girl.

"What’s your name?"

"M - My name is Stella Galan. Nice to meet you, sir."

Very pleased with Stella’s polite manners, Nicholas nodded. "I’m Eva’s husband." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"Nicholas, you..."

Eva had an urge to swear, but the artless little girl had obviously believed his words.

"Oh..." Stella bobbed her head.

"Well, nice to meet you, Miss Loraine’s husband."

"Good girl."

Nicholas stroked the little girl’s head and then made toward the door. "You guys may get on with the lesson. I’ll buy you milk tea when it’s over."

Eva was reduced to speechlessness.

This nuisance meant that he would come back later!

However, Nicholas did not come back.

His assistant told her that he had something else to attend to.

But surprisingly, Nicholas had his assistant buy two cups of milk tea for them.

Stella had never tasted this kind of milk tea before. She took a tentative sip of it. It was sweet, thick and warm. Delight appeared in her eyes.

Eva, however, stared unseeingly at the milk tea.

Why hadn’t he explained it to her?

He had told Stella that he was her husband, but when at the company, he had denied being in a romantic relationship with her.

Having put up with it for a long time, Eva decided not to swallow it.

After sending Stella home, she resumed work on the project of Smart Pianos.

Ralph had hooked up with a couple of investors.

An investor was Party A, a sponsor.

She had initiated the project, and the investors would invest money in it. That was pretty much how things worked.

Later today, she would meet two of the investors to discuss the details with them.

In the afternoon, Eva and Ralph met one of the investors.

The results of the negotiations were rather unsatisfactory. The money that the investor was willing to invest was less than half of what Eva and Ralph had expected to get.

It was a heavy blow to Eva’s and Ralph’s confidence.

Without enough money, they wouldn’t be able to launch the project, and all the planning was nothing but empty words.

The two of them were mentally drained, but they had to figure out something else.

At night, they had a meeting with another investor.

The investor was from a building material company. It was said that their company was providing materials for many large construction sites in Zoravia and Hiltonan. He was loaded, but he had no acquaintance with arts. In short, his boss was not interested in piano or music.

That was the very reason why Eva and Ralph had little expectation for this company.

The news that the investor wanted to meet them in a karaoke bar disillusioned Eva further.

A karaoke bar was a place to drink and sing. What could they possibly achieve during the negotiations?

However, Eva and Ralph still went there.

It was after she got there that she came to realize that all her speculations were wrong.

In the karaoke bar, there weren’t glaring neon lights or hookers or bands of middle-aged men.

There were wine and wine glasses on the table, but they were untouched and very clean.

There was no smell of cigarette in the box either.

At the sight of Eva, the president of the company promptly rose to his feet. His manners were very friendly.

"Miss Loraine, I have heard a lot about you."

Eva had learned that the owner of the building materials company was a moneybags.

The most astonishing part was that he was surprisingly approachable.

Theoretically speaking, he was the richest of all the investors Ralph had contacted.

But, having talked with all of them, Eva found that he was the most amiable one.

The negotiated all night. The man’s offer was very generous and sincere.

Not only did his investment far exceed her expectations, but the share of the profit he wanted was very small.

This man was virtually doing charity work!

Eva was worried that something fishy was going on.

She and Ralph left the box on the pretext of having to use the bathroom.

In the corridor, she asked Ralph.

"Is this investor reliable?"

Ralph replied, "I ran a thorough background check on him before contacting him. I’m 99% percent sure he’s reliable."

"This is so strange..."

Businessmen made investment for profit, didn’t they? But this bigwig didn’t seem to want to make money at all!

When Ralph and Eva were wondering in confusion in the corridor, The tycoon in the box made a phone call. "Hello? Mr. Lesser?

"Yeah, yeah, I did exactly as Mr. Brown said.

"Okay, I’ll do my best to get them to cooperate with our company."

The one talking on the phone with the rich bigwig was Nicholas’s assistant. "Do as

Mr. Brown tells you to do and your service won’t go unrewarded." "Haha, thanks. It’s a great honor to be of service to Mr. Brown..." Just then, the door of the box opened.