Rachel’s pupils flickered with a trace of panic, but she quickly suppressed her emotions. She shifted her body slightly. “I’m done. You can go in.”

With that, Rachel lowered her head, ready to head back to her room. But before she could, Tyler blocked the doorway. Rachel nearly bumped into him. She looked up in confusion. “What is it?”

Tyler narrowed his eyes. He wanted to ask if she had gone to the bar tonight, if she was afraid something might really happen between him and Anne, and if that was why she showed up. Maybe she had suddenly realized she cared about him, even just a little.

Then again, knowing how stubborn Rachel was, if he asked her that directly, it would only scare her back into her shell. So in the end, Tyler let it go. “Nothing. I just came to check on you.”

“I’m fine. I just washed my face.”

“Then get some rest. Tomorrow morning at seven, we meet at the hotel entrance.”

“Okay.”

On the surface, the two of them seemed fine. But inside, both had unasked questions. Tyler packed up and went to shower. Rachel sat on the bed, suddenly wide awake. She felt like something was stuck in her chest. She didn’t know why, but it was uncomfortable. Just then, Cecilia sent her a message.

[How did the business talk go?]

[It’s a long story. I guess it went okay, but I don’t know if we’ll actually land the deal.]

Cecilia replied with a shocked emoji.

[What’s that supposed to mean? Can you close it or not? Is this woman really that hard to deal with? Don’t tell me even you and Mr. Hunt couldn’t handle her.]

Cecilia had always seen Rachel and Tyler as untouchable. If one of them stepped in, it was a guaranteed success. If both of them did, failure was unthinkable. In all the years Cecilia had been with Rachel, this was her first time hearing Rachel sound uncertain.

Rachel gave her a rough rundown of what happened between Tyler and Anne. Cecilia immediately fired back a string of shocked emojis.

[You’ve got to be kidding me! Tyler and Anne? Come on, a guy like Mr. Hunt would never be with her over something like that. That’s just not realistic. You’ve been around him long enough. Don’t you know him? He’s the type that, if he wants to be with someone, it’s because he likes them. Not because of some external reason.]

Rachel froze when she read that. It felt like there was a hidden meaning in Cecilia’s words. She sent back two question marks. [What do you mean by that?]

Cecilia replied with a little knock-on-the-head emoji. [Oh my god! You still don’t get it? I’m saying, Tyler likes you!]

Rachel’s doubts didn’t go away. [Yeah, right. Like he actually does! If he did, he wouldn’t have gone out drinking alone with her. And everything I just told you was real. I heard it myself.]

[I don’t know the exact details of what happened with Tyler, but there’s one thing I know for sure, and that’s you’ve fallen for him.]

When Rachel read that, her heart skipped a beat. Those words kept echoing in her chest. How could that be? Did she like Tyler? But she had always told herself this was just a contract. Given the kind of ties she had with the Lewis family, if she really got together with Tyler…