Chapter 66

After Rachel left, she headed to the mall. She remembered that William said he wanted to accompany her to the mall to buy her father a gift.

Out of basic courtesy, she texted him, "[Do you have time now? If not, I can go alone.]"

William replied rather quickly. "[Rachel, I’m still in a meeting. Head over first and use my card. Take it as a gift from me to our father.]"

Rachel knew William too well to understand that his words meant he didn’t have the time to come over.

She kept her phone, looking placid. She didn’t have her hopes up anyway.

Rachel didn’t have a good relationship with her family. Aside from her father, who treated her slightly better, everyone saw her as a jinx—she was a pariah in the house.

At the thought of this being their last meeting, Rachel figured that just one gift for her father might not be sufficient. She decided to buy one for everyone.

By the time she was done, William hadn’t texted her at all. Since she had time, she bought some outfits for herself and paid for them with William’s card.

She was practically forced to do it, since William’s dream woman liked all of her clothes. She considered herself a clean freak and refused to touch something someone else had put their hands on.

Very soon, William received a text.

He was busy consoling Samantha, who was like a cat on hot bricks because she couldn’t secure an appointment with Tyler. Her eyes were red and bloodshot from all the crying as she looked piteously at William.

“William, think of a solution for me! Rachel still hasn’t managed to secure an appointment. How could she fail? She could get in Mr. Hunt’s car, so she should be quite close to him.”

William’s brows were tightly knitted, and he didn’t even hear what Samantha was saying. He thought he must have made a mistake, but after checking it twice, he confirmed that the figure was indeed 500,000.

Samantha was still hanging on his arm, whining in a coquettish tone she was confident would melt William’s heart.

“William…”

“Hang on, I need to send a text.”

William’s fingers flew across his screen as he typed a few words and sent them to Rachel.

"[Rachel, did you use my card to buy stuff?]"

Rachel couldn’t suppress a cold laugh when she saw William’s text.

As she had expected, no man could ignore anything to do with money. Regardless of how busy they were, money matters would command their attention without fail.

She typed a reply in the gentlest of tones she could manage.

"[Yeah. Since it has been such a long time since I visited them, I thought that one gift for our father didn’t seem genuine enough, so I bought a gift for everyone, too. I threw away all my clothes before and have to buy some new ones. Otherwise, how would I be able to attend gatherings with you?]"

Rachel’s reply was impeccable, leaving no room for William to find any fault with it.

Before he could send her a reply, she followed up with another text

"[Can’t bear to part with your money?]"

"[No. It’s just that when I saw the sum, I thought someone stole my card. Go ahead and buy anything you want.]"

As William put his phone aside, Samantha caught a glimpse of his text.

“Is Rachel out shopping?”

“Yeah, she’s out shopping for clothes and things for her family.”

“Doesn’t Rachel have enough outfits in her wardrobe?”

“She threw away many of them before, saying that they were out of style,” William said casually as he bowed his head to peruse the details of the Project Oasis proposal.

Samantha sniffed and said gloomily, “William, could Rachel have found out about me trying on her clothes? Maybe she threw out all of them in a fit of anger?”

William’s hand froze in mid–air as he flipped a page, his eyes darkening.

“Probably not. What’s more, Rachel isn’t the type to throw her clothes away just because someone else tried them on.”

“I must be overthinking. I was worried she might be upset that I went to your house and deliberately threw her clothes away out of spite,” Samantha muttered.