Chapter 36-3

“Your relationship with Heath.” Claire blinked with surprise. “You too? I didn’t know you and Ava cared so much about the women Heath went out with.” Then she sighed. “Heath and I are over, Logan. I think you should respect that decision.” “I respect it.” He said, and Claire looked at him in confusion. “I do. Breaking off a relationship may involve many reasons, and I could clearly understand why you wouldn’t want to be with Heath any longer. After all, I was with you for nearly seven years. I’ve seen your reactions to the men you dated.” She nodded her head, unsurprised. “Then why are you here?” Slowly, Logan approached Claire’s desk. However, his movements were more comparable to a predator’s stalking rather than a human’s walking. “Where is Julia?” Claire stiffened and Logan quickly took note of that. “If you came back looking for Julia, I’m sure you could’ve used other means instead of coming to me.” Logan ignored her words. “Where is Julia?” he repeated the question. She realized that he wasn’t going to drop the question, so she sighed and answered. “She’s somewhere in the hotel. It’s not like I keep track of where she is.” “You’re conspiring together, aren’t you?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Claire always wore a controlled mask well whenever she needed to. So Logan decided to pull out his phone and flashed the photo of her and Kane to her face. The general manager stared at the image, but her facial expression never changed. After looking it over once, she glanced at Logan. “And?” “I should’ve realized that Julia would eventually break. She’s more fragile than she looks. And you’re just the type that she admires.” Logan went into the deal with Julia knowing that she and Claire would somehow click together. Claire was capable of making others trust her even when they shouldn’t. “She told you things. I know she did. But I don’t want or care to know what it was that she told you.” “Then what is it you do want?” Logan leaned his hands on Claire’s desk and looked down her nose at him. “Kane.” He said, confusing her. “There’s actually nothing between the two of you, is there?” Claire’s eyebrow twitched, and that was her answer. There wasn’t. “The pictures. They were taken on purpose, weren’t they?” Her eyes widened just the slightest. “You wanted to be caught. The purpose of those photos were to inflame emotions. You wanted them to cause misunderstandings. You wanted Heath to misinterpret them.” She didn’t answer, but Logan saw the way her eyelids slightly fluttered when she blinked. “And what made you think that?” “The angle of the photos…” Logan stared at it on his phone again. “The photos were taken from the door. However, the quality of them and the way you two are the midpoint of the pictures show that the door was wide open when they was taken. You and Kane are not blind nor stupid. You would’ve seen whoever was at the doorway the moment they appeared.” His explanation shocked Claire and she stared at him with wide eyes. But then she suddenly clicked her tongue and sighed heavily. “Fine.” She leaned the side of her head on her fist. “You’re right. They was taken on purpose. Observant old man.” Logan narrowed his eyes at her. “Why did you purposely want Heath to misunderstand?” “Why are you asking me that? From what it seems, you already know the answer, don’t you?” He clenched his jaw. “Were you really that desperate to break things off with him?” Claire blinked slowly, but when she opened her eyes, they were focused out the window. She didn’t look at Logan and her expression was calm and nonchalant, even though he had caught onto her plan. She didn’t care. Claire didn’t care that Logan knew she wanted to get rid of his son. In fact, in her point of view, it probably would make things easier if he knew. That way, Logan would take his own actions to tear them apart even more. Logan’s hands clenched the edge of the desk as he asked, “Just tell me one more thing.” His voice had gone lower, the same as before. Claire had noticed as well because her whole body stiffened. “Did you ever love my son?” Claire looked into his eyes in surprise, but after one second, her eyes casted down—as if in shame. He clenched his jaw and his knuckles turned ghostly-white against the desk. “At least you didn’t want him because of his money or power. You never cared for those things in the first place.” Logan chuckled darkly and Claire stared at him with eyes full of unease. “If you had tried to use him, I might not have found the strength in me to let you live a comfortable life.” “Life?” Claire said in confusion. “You…are you threatening me?” Her face full of utter shock and fear amused Logan. He let an unnerving smile spread across his lips. “What do you think?” She didn’t answer. “My son has been through much, but you’re the first he’s actually cared so much about.” Logan let his eyes fall to the cup of pens on her desk. “It infuriates me that he would allow himself to fall so deeply for someone like you. Or should I be mad about the part where you tricked us?” Claire watched with wide eyes as he reached for a pen and took one into his hand. Then he stared at the tip with rapture. “What are you doing?” Claire asked breathlessly. “What are you thinking?” “I thought I couldn’t feel this way again, Claire.” Logan chuckled again and stared deep into her eyes. “You should feel proud that you’ve pulled something out of me that’s been dormant for all these years.” Logan saw the way her body stiffened before she slowly rolled her chair back. She was trying to get further away from him. He snapped the edge of the desk and raised his hand for her to see. Bits of wood was in the palm of his hand, but he opened it and let the splinters fall onto her desk. Claire clenched the arms of her chair and he saw how pale her skin was. “Logan.” Her voice trembled. “I should at least thank you for the nice memories you’ve left him, right?” The room was silent as the two of them stared at each other. Then he raised his hand with the pen in it and slammed in down onto the desk. “No!” someone screamed. Logan watched with wide eyes as someone crawled out from under the general manager’s desk. The woman latched onto Claire’s shoulders and pulled her into a hug before whipping her head to look at Logan in the eyes. “Don’t you dare touch Claire!” He immediately recognized the girl. “Tori Jones?” Logan said in confusion. Claire closed her eyes and sighed with a grimace. “It’s ruined.”