Of course, tastes differed from person to person. Just as Bert preferred soone like Catherine—plain and gentle, like a simple bowl of rice porridge—there might well be n who were drawn to soone as bold and intense as Riley.
When Catherine couldn’t get through to Riley, she switched to calling Duke instead.
"Duke, has Riley gone ho? I can’t get through to her no matter how many tis I try."
Duke frowned slightly when he heard that.
"She hasn’t co back yet. You can’t reach her at all?"
"No. Her phone’s been switched off every ti I called, so I thought I’d check with you to see if she’d already gone ho."
Worry was evident in Catherine’s voice. Duke tried to reassure her.
"I’ll try calling her again. Don’t worry too much—she’s probably off sowhere drinking and having fun again."
Duke knew Riley’s habits all too well. Sotis he honestly couldn’t understand how soone as carefree and wild as Riley had beco such close friends with Catherine. If his sister were as quiet and reserved as Catherine—staying ho, keeping to herself—he would have had far less to worry about over the years.
With Duke saying that, Catherine finally felt a little more at ease.
"If you hear from her, please let know."
Duke agreed and hung up. Catherine let out a long breath.
She thought about Ford, the man Riley had been with that evening. Since Riley had intended to introduce Ford to her, that ant at least that Ford was soone Riley considered decent. If Riley was drinking with him, then nothing bad should happen... right?
Bert drove Catherine ho. After a lingering kiss, the two of them said goodbye.
Yes—a kiss.
Catherine had only ant to say goodbye and get out of the car, but Bert had pulled her back into his arms and kissed her for a while. She felt terribly embarrassed—he was always hugging her, kissing her, every chance he got...
A trace of amusent colored his voice.
"See you tomorrow morning."
Thinking of how he planned to pick her up for work in the morning, Catherine felt bad about him having to go out of his way and tried to refuse.
"You don’t need to co get in the morning. Really. It’s not even on your way..."
Bert didn’t answer her directly. He only said calmly,
"Go on. Get inside."
From his tone, Catherine knew her protest had been completely ignored.
Just as she was about to get out of the car, Duke called again. Catherine stayed seated and answered.
Duke’s deep voice ca through the phone.
"Riley just texted . She said she drank too much and is staying over at a friend’s place, so you don’t need to worry."
Riley had pulled all-nighters away from ho before when she got drunk, so Duke—and the Du family parents—were used to it by now. Duke wasn’t overly worried about her safety either. In Burg Eltz, almost everyone knew Riley was Duke’s sister, and very few people dared to ss with her.
All things considered, Duke had connections on both sides of the line in Burg Eltz. His gym was fairly well known, and over the years his sister had caused more than her fair share of trouble. Cleaning up after her again and again, he’d naturally carved out his own place in the city.
Hearing this, Catherine finally felt relieved.
"Alright, I understand. Thank you, Duke."
Just as Catherine was about to hang up, Duke hesitated for a mont on the other end before carefully asking another question.
"Y-you’ve been doing okay lately, right?"
"Your father... and Lucca—have they been giving you a hard ti again?"
Duke truly cared about Catherine. In the beginning, he had liked her very much as well. But after being hit repeatedly—mostly thanks to his own sister—he had long since let go of any romantic feelings. Now, he was simply checking in on her from the standpoint of a friend.
Catherine smiled as she replied,
"I’m doing very well."
"That’s good. If you’re doing well, that’s all that matters. Then I’ll hang up—get so rest."
With that, Duke ended the call. Catherine put her phone away and turned to say goodbye to Bert.
"I’ll head in now."
Bert narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at her.
"I hear this Duke guy likes you too?"
Catherine was startled that he knew. She was certain she’d never ntioned Duke in front of him. What she didn’t know was that the very first ti Bert t Riley, Riley had already told him—quite frankly—that her brother also liked Catherine.
Bert snorted lightly.
"At least he has good taste."
Catherine, "..."
Alright, she’d received his complint—albeit in a very indirect way.
After Catherine got ho, Renata was sitting in the living room watching TV. Catherine poured herself a glass of water, walked over, and sat down to chat with her, asking what she had eaten for dinner.
Renata asked suddenly,
"The whole Lucca plagiarism scandal... that was Bert’s doing, wasn’t it?"
After an entire day of fernting, Lucca’s plagiarism had beco common knowledge. Even soone like Renata—who stayed ho most of the ti—had learned about it through the news. That alone showed how serious the matter was.
And once Lucca’s scandal broke, everyone imdiately associated it with Bert. After all, only Bert would co up with a move that ruthless—and that calculated.
Catherine didn’t deny it. She admitted it openly.
"Yes."
She didn’t feel Bert had played dirty behind the scenes. On the contrary—she felt it was imnsely satisfying.
After hearing her answer, Renata gritted her teeth and said,
"Good. He did exactly what needed to be done."
Catherine hadn’t expected Renata to feel the sa way and couldn’t help but smile. Renata went on,
"Soone like Lucca deserves an ending like that."
Ever since Catherine had been frad by Lucca and left with her reputation in ruins, Renata had hated Lucca to the core. But there had never been a suitable way for them to retaliate. With their finances and resources, they simply couldn’t go up against her.
But now, with Lucca exposed for plagiarism, her future was essentially destroyed.
What was more, the whistleblower had claid that even more explosive revelations would be released the following day.
It was easy to imagine how thoroughly Lucca would be rejected and despised by the design world.
Mother and daughter both believed that this was already the harshest punishnt Lucca could receive. But to Bert, this was far from enough.
For him, it was only the beginning.
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