Chapter 18
A chilling coldness hit her face, startling Evelyn so much that her hand shook, and her phone dropped straight to the floor.
"Are you misunderstanding something?"
Evelyn's soft voice emerged as her big eyes blinked gently, conveying an unconscious charm.
Benjamin clenched his jaw, his eyes fixed on the road ahead.
"What were you just doing? Do I need to remind you?"
What did she do?
Her expression grew even more confused, but her desire to please him had never changed.
He didn't like her playing with her phone?
"I won't use my phone anymore. Want to chat instead?" Evelyn had made up her mind to never play with her phone in front of him again. "I was just checking social media. It had nothing to do with any man."
Right now, the hottest topic online is Matthew.
The corner of his mouth twitched, his voice terrifyingly cold: "Saw him getting trashed online and felt bad for him?"
"How could that be?"
Evelyn immediately expressed her disgust for Matthew, listing every fault she could think of about him, and didn't forget to add at the end:
"He's just an adopted son of the Thomas family, yet he dares to accuse me of fighting him for the family fortune. Fighting? The Thomas family's assets were mine to begin with!"
She muttered the last part, clearly dissatisfied.
Benjamin's anger subsided slightly, but his tone remained harsh.
"Really? Wasn't it Ms. Thomas who was so noble before, personally announcing at the board meeting that she would transfer all her shares to Matthew?"
Not only that, to help Matthew establish himself at the Thomas Group, Evelyn had even persuaded Preston and her parents to back him up.
The more Evelyn thought about it, the guiltier she felt.
Evelyn's eyes couldn't help darting around nervously, cursing herself harshly in her mind.
But this guilty look took on a different meaning in Benjamin's eyes.
He stared coldly ahead, his gaze frighteningly icy.
"Benjamin..."
Unable to bear the strange atmosphere in the car any longer, she picked up her phone and tentatively said, "Should I drive?"
Worried about being rejected, she quickly added, "You had some wine earlier. Even though white wine isn't strong, it's still alcohol. Let me drive."
Benjamin responded with a cold laugh.
Far from being pleased by her concern, Benjamin's heart grew even colder.
"When did I drink? Done checking up on him, finally remembered to put on a show for me?"
She had indeed done many wrong things and truly wanted to make amends. Why wouldn't he believe her at all and say such hurtful things?
Evelyn's eyes began to sting.
It was her own doing, her own mistakes. She couldn't blame anyone, especially not Benjamin.
Evelyn didn't want her tears to fall. Her right hand pinched her arm hard.
But her restrained yet wronged appearance, reflected in the light from the car window, looked even more pitiful and truly heartbreaking.
Yet his heartache for her instantly turned into a sword piercing his own heart.
After a sharp sound of brakes, Benjamin unbuckled the passenger seat belt and suddenly grabbed her wrist, pulling her into his arms.
"What are you doing?" Evelyn was startled and instinctively pushed him. "You're still driving!"
Evelyn's lower back pressed against the steering wheel as she knelt over him in an extremely intimate position. Panic flashed in her eyes, mixed with deep fear.
"Let me go!"
Evelyn's anxious, trembling voice sounded terrified to the extreme as she pushed him away despite getting hurt.
"Evelyn!"
He gripped her chin, forcing her to look at him.
"Didn't you want to distance yourself from Matthew? What's this? When it comes to being intimate with me, your fiancé, you show your true colors and can't keep up the act?"
His anger reminded her of things from her past life—those filthy men forcing her to do the most degrading things, stripping away all dignity.
"No, I don't want to!"
Everything before her eyes became blurry, leaving only despair.
Evelyn's struggling gradually weakened, but that despair was carved into her bones.
Forget about Benjamin having no intention of doing anything to her—even if he did have such thoughts, they would vanish instantly.
"I'm not that shameless. I didn't touch you when you were drugged, let alone now."
He pushed her back into the passenger seat and got out of the car.
The frightened Evelyn naturally didn't chase after him. She curled up in her seat, arms wrapped tightly around herself, still pleading:
"No, please, let me go... I'm a young lady of the Thomas family. I can give you money..."
Memories from her past life burned into her soul like a nightmare.
Intimate contact with men was something she simply couldn't accept when conscious. Even the slightest suggestive movement would send her into panic.
After who knows how long, she slowly calmed down.
Evelyn wiped the tears from her face, opened her phone showing Matthew's twisted expression in a wheelchair, and quickly typed a line.
[What does the Thomas family fortune have to do with an adopted son?]
After posting this online, Evelyn said harshly, "I will get my revenge!"
Benjamin sat on the sofa, tilting his head back to drink, when he heard a special notification sound on his phone.
He opened it to see Evelyn's just-posted Facebook message, his eyes narrowing.
Before he could react further, his phone rang. He casually answered and put it on speaker, tossing it aside as Samuel's voice came through.
"Once you make a move, the results are remarkable. Evelyn is kicking someone when they're down while showing her loyalty to you."
"More like she's putting on an act." Benjamin scoffed, his bleak mood transmitting through the phone.
Samuel, who was leaning against the floor-to-ceiling window of his hotel room overlooking Emerald City's night view, raised an eyebrow.
He had no intention of comforting Benjamin. Instead, he laughed even more cheerfully.
"You don't sound too happy. Don't tell me you posted that Facebook message and she got mad at you?"
"No."
"Right, if you really made a move, you'd crush Matthew to dust. No need to play such simple games. So what's the problem?"
Getting no answer, Samuel didn't mind and continued: "Evelyn's acting? Isn't it a bit too convincing? She even got you to break Matthew's leg. Going to such lengths, what's she after?"
Samuel's casual tone made a cold gleam flash in Benjamin's eyes.
Suddenly, a noise at the door made him look up. It was Evelyn walking in.
Only after regaining consciousness did she realize the car was already parked in the villa's parking area.
"Benjamin," she was obviously still nervous, but gathered her courage to look at him. "I have something I want to tell you."
He didn't answer, just watched her quietly.
Samuel's teasing laugh came through the phone: "Looks like I called at a bad time and interrupted you two. I'm out, disappearing right now."
Evelyn had already mustered all her courage, and suddenly hearing an unexpected voice seemed to startle her, leaving her instantly at a loss.