Sweet Subterfuge

Chapter 12

As Dylan had full discretion in handling the divorce, Larissa—despite being the plaintiff—had pretty much nothing to do.

Having two days of leave left, Larissa decided to visit a real estate agency so that she could rent a small apartment near the Regal Dynasty Hotel.

The hotel was located in one of the most prosperous locations in Covenford. The area surrounding it had high-end neighborhoods whose properties cost over ten thousand dollars per square foot. Vacant properties in the area were rare, and even if there were any, they were not available for rent to outsiders.

She could only settle for the next best thing and fixed the location range of her new home within the distance of three train stations, or a half-hour’s driving distance during non-peak hours.

The real estate agent led her around for the whole day to view several properties, but they either had noisy surroundings or were old buildings that lacked elevators.

In other words, none of them satisfied her needs.

Dragging her tired body back to the hotel, Larissa had just laid down on the bed when she got a call from Travis’ brother, Andrew Hardy.

Without even greeting her, he said, “I’m coming to Covenford with Kara next weekend. Book a flight and hotel for us.”

Andrew currently studied at a university in Bartham, and Kara Harper was his girlfriend of two years. Larissa had only interacted with him a few times during her marriage ceremony and this year’s new year celebrations. They were not really familiar with each other. She had never even met Kara before,

but frequently heard the Hardys talking about how she was the only daughter of some big shot in Bartham.

So, when Larissa got ordered around like that, she was a bit confused. It was not necessary to approach her for this sort of thing, right?

“You can get your brother to do it for you.”

It seemed that the Hardys had yet to tell him about the divorce between her and Travis. To prevent any complications, Larissa did not mention it either.

She was going to end the call when Andrew got angry.

“My bro’s so busy every day. How could he have time to book all these things for me!” He spoke very rudely. “As my sister-in-law, what’s wrong with giving me a hand? Besides, don’t you work in the Regal Dynasty? It shouldn’t be that hard for you to tell reception about it, right?”

In the few times that she was together with Andrew, he was always gaming on his phone, and he never said much. Hence, Larissa thought that he was an introverted, quiet guy. Who knew that the real him would be just as weird as his parents?

However, this was kind of understandable too.

“I can only book the hotel for you,” Larissa said after a moment’s thought. “Take care of the flight ticket yourself or ask your brother.”

Since he insisted on staying in the Regal Dynasty, she would not refuse the opportunity to do business.

“For fuck’s sake, stop being so fake. If you don’t want to help, then don’t! Forget the hotel, I’ll do it all myself!” Andrew hung up after yelling at her.

Larissa pursed her lips and threw her phone aside. She thought that this was the end of it when Andrew called her again the next day when she was out looking at properties.

“I’ll book the flight ticket myself. You do the hotel for me. I want an executive suite for two nights, Friday and Saturday. I’ll text you my details later. The contact number is the one I’m using right now.”

The real estate agent was still waiting for her. Not being in the mood to argue, Larissa agreed to this. Two minutes later, Andrew indeed texted her. The message only contained his details. There was not even a thank you.

By the time evening rolled around, Larissa was still unsuccessful.

When she passed by the reception, she remembered what Andrew told her to do, so she went to look for Livie.

“Reserve an executive suite for me for the next Friday and Saturday nights.”

“Booking for a friend?” Livie asked in passing.

“I guess so.” Larissa gave her Andrew’s details.

After entering it all into the system, Livie asked, “Do you want to use your employee discount for his room rate?”

“No,” Larissa answered without blinking.

Helping him book a room was already good enough. Using her employee discount? Forget it!

“Oh? Ms. Seymour?” Dylan’s voice sounded from behind her.

Larissa turned to see him with Kevan. They each had a suitcase with them.

“Mr. Shields, Mr. Rogers.” She greeted them first before asking, “Are you checking out?”

“Yes.” Dylan nodded before pointing at reception. “Are you finished?”

Larissa immediately gave them space. “Yes, yes, I am!” Then, she turned to instruct Livie. “Please help them check out.”

“Oh, right! Of course!” Livie gingerly accepted the room cards Dylan handed over and had the checkout procedure done within two minutes.

Larissa asked Dylan, “Are you leaving Covenford? Then my…” She was a little worried.

“We’re not leaving the city,” Dylan replied with a smile. “On the contrary, Mr. Rogers and I are planning to stay here.”

“What do you mean?” Larissa did not understand.

“Our actual purpose in Covenford is to establish a Microworks Corporation branch here. We originally wanted to go back to Bartham after everything had been dealt with, but the process was a lot more complicated than we thought and couldn’t be finished anytime soon. It may take a few years,” Dylan explained.

“Microworks Corporation?” Larissa was stunned. “THAT Microworks Corporation?”

Were they really talking about Microworks Corporation, that extraordinary company that only took ten years to become the top dog in the IT industry? The one very few people knew who its president was?

“Yes.” Dylan nodded. “That one.”

“But… What has Microworks Corporation got anything to do with you?” Larissa stared blankly at them. One was a mysterious executive of the Regal Dynasty, and the other was a lawyer who specialized in

handling divorce cases. No matter how she looked at it, they had no relations whatsoever to that company.

Dylan suddenly straightened up and adjusted his tie before clearing his throat.

“Allow me to introduce you,” he said formally. “He—” he pointed at Kevan, “is the founder and current president of Microworks Corporation. And I—” he then pointed at himself, “am his co-founder. I am also the company’s second-largest shareholder.”

If Larissa wore glasses, they definitely would have fallen to the floor by now.

“Oh, by the way, where have you been over the past two days?” Dylan quickly changed the subject. “I heard that you’ve been leaving early but coming back late.”

Perhaps it was due to the way she had developed a “revolutionary camaraderie” with Dylan, but she no longer treated him like a stranger. She said frankly, “I’ve been looking for a new place as I can no longer live in my old one. Although it’s convenient in terms of work to live in my private staff room, it’s rather troublesome in all other aspects.”

“You want to buy a new house?” Dylan asked. Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

Larissa smiled wryly. “Nah. I don’t have the money for that. I plan to rent for a while. Once the divorce is settled and I have enough money by then, I’ll take out a loan to buy a house.”

As one of the two top major cities in the country, housing prices skyrocketed really quickly. Even the suburban properties beyond Avenue 5 started from two thousand dollars per square foot.

With Larissa’s current savings, she probably could not even afford a restroom in Avenue 3.

“Do you have a house in mind?”

“No.” Larissa shook her head and could not help but complain. “I’ve seen more than ten houses and none of them were satisfactory at all.”

“In that case, you can rent mine,” Dylan said.