Julian Grant put down his phone and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah," he nodded. He hadn't given the marriage alliance with Jessie Sterling much thought before. One doesn't get their hopes up or feel anxious about a foregone conclusion.
Keith Reese said, "Actually, this is pretty good. Weren't you against it anyway? Now that you're back, Arya Thorne is here too. I heard you two are still in touch? Last week I saw on her social media that you two had a meal together?"
If this were before, Julian might have been able to laugh it off. But then he remembered that Jessie Sterling had decisively rejected the marriage proposal between their families that night, all because she'd heard from somewhere that he had met with Arya Thorne.
Julian Grant didn't believe that the Sterling family's decision to pivot and form an alliance with the Morgan family was solely due to her father's arbitrary command.
Jessie Sterling had always been a bit spoiled and doted on by her family. If she said no to something, Uncle Sterling would never force her.
So, when it came down to it, the matter was simply that Jessie Sterling had been unwilling.
"It's impossible between her and me." Julian Grant couldn't help but frown when Keith Reese mentioned Arya Thorne.
Keith said, "Why is it impossible? I heard she hasn't had a boyfriend in the two years since you broke up. Maybe the talented Arya has been wholeheartedly waiting for you to return."
Julian Grant picked up the glass in front of him and downed it in one gulp.
Seeing this, Keith Reese quickly reached out to stop him, but he was a step too late.
"That's hard liquor, man! Take it easy. You can't drink that like it's whiskey," Keith Reese cautioned, exasperated.
It was unclear if Julian Grant had even heard him. He leaned back against his chair. When he and Arya Thorne broke up, he never once considered getting back together or rekindling old flames.
'But what's the use of telling Keith all this now?'
Jessie Sterling slept all the way until dusk.
Because of Julian Grant, she had put her phone on silent before she went to sleep. Victor Morgan sent her a message after his meeting, but Jessie didn't see it.
When she heard the sound of the door opening, Jessie Sterling woke with a start.
After all, she wasn't in her own home in Southaven where she had lived for years. Any slight disturbance outside would easily wake her.
Jessie Sterling sat up in bed, her eyes still hazy from sleep.
The moment she clearly saw who it was, Jessie instantly became wide awake.
Victor Morgan hadn't expected Jessie to still be sleeping when he arrived. He had called her on his way, but she hadn't answered. He just assumed she was already up and getting ready, so he'd simply texted her his arrival time.
"My apologies." Victor Morgan's hand was still on the doorknob. Sitting on the marital bed, Jessie looked even smaller. She was hugging the blanket, revealing two snow-white, slender arms. Her long, seaweed-like hair cascaded over her shoulders. The sight was innocently pure, yet exceptionally alluring. "I'll step out," Victor said.
Jessie finally snapped out of it. "Wait!"
Hearing Victor say he would leave, Jessie subconsciously called out to him, "It's okay, you can come in."
'This room is so big. What would it look like if I kicked him out?'
As she was thinking this, Jessie slowly got out of bed.
For her nap, she had grabbed a two-piece silk pajama set from the walk-in closet. Now, Jessie picked up the matching robe, draped it over herself, and casually tried to make conversation. "Did Mrs. Morgan stock the closet with all these clothes? They're really comfortable."
Since the owners hadn't officially moved in yet, there weren't many clothes in the walk-in closet, but for Jessie, it was convenient to have something to change into.
Besides, she genuinely felt that Mrs. Morgan's taste was very similar to her own.
As Jessie said this, she had already walked into the adjacent closet and didn't see the expression on Victor Morgan's face.
"No."
As Jessie was in the walk-in closet, taking off the golden-yellow silk pajamas, she heard Victor's reply from outside.
"I bought them."
Jessie's hand, in the middle of changing into a denim dress, froze in mid-air.
Jessie: "..."
Looking down at the pajamas she had just taken off, still warm with her body heat, she suddenly felt her own temperature begin to rise.
'What?'
'I must have misheard. He bought all of this for me?'
The outcome was so unexpected that for a long moment, Jessie didn't know how to react.
By the time she walked out of the walk-in closet, her face was still tinged with a light pink.
"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Jessie muttered as she came out.
Victor Morgan looked at her small, makeup-free face, fresh from her nap, and couldn't help but think she looked even younger this way. Hearing her words, his brow twitched slightly. "Say what? That I bought the pajamas?"
Without waiting for Jessie to answer, Victor continued, "I thought you knew."
Jessie: "How would I know!?"
She looked up, her large eyes filled with shock.
Victor's fingers twitched slightly. "Even for my mother, buying you something like this would be too intimate."
'How could I possibly let someone else buy pajamas for my own fiancée?'
'That kind of thing is completely out of the question.'
Perhaps it was because Victor had said it so naturally, but Jessie's face suddenly turned bright red.
She was so taken aback by his words that she didn't know what to say. Inwardly, however, she desperately wanted to retort, 'So it isn't intimate for a grown man like you to be buying pajamas for me?'
It was obvious she hadn't yet adapted to the role she was about to step into, but Victor Morgan was already settling in.
That evening, Victor Morgan took Jessie Sterling to a Japanese restaurant. On the way, he asked her what else they needed for the house, and Jessie counted off a few items on her fingers.
"Is that all?" Victor asked.
"Mhm," Jessie nodded. "I'll bring over my clothes, bags, and jewelry from my home in Southaven later."
Victor: "You're going to New York next month?"
The sudden change in topic caught Jessie off guard for a moment. She nodded. "Yeah, there's a fashion show I want to check out."
Just then, Victor pulled into a parking space. At her words, he took a card from his briefcase and handed it to her.
"Just leave your things in Southaven. It's not like we won't go back after we get married." Victor had no intention of restricting Jessie to Aethelburg. Besides, his fiancée was still very young and had been pampered her whole life. He'd heard that while studying abroad, she had practically wanted to go home every week—she was quite the homebody. He had no expectation for her to handle household chores—they had a housekeeper for that. He could manage his work by himself and didn't need his wife to be a "virtuous helpmate." However Jessie had lived before was how she would continue to live after their marriage. "As for anything else you want to buy, use this card. Buy it and keep it at the house."