He replied modestly, “People just give me more credit than I deserve. I lose cases sometimes, too.”

Valeria jumped up like she’d been electrocuted. “I’m… I’m fine now! Suddenly totally fine. So weird, haha!”

“Attorney Maddox is famously multi-talented. Now he’s moonlighting as a doctor, too,” Aurora said with heavy sarcasm.

Then she looked at Valeria. “You sure you’re okay? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Valeria’s pupils contracted with fear as she shook her head frantically. “I’m fine! Totally fine!”

Whitney Stone walked over with a pale face to apologize. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Rhodes. My daughter was rude to your people. Please forgive us.”

“Get out,” Cassian said coldly.

“Get out. Now.”

Whitney helped Valeria hurry away. As they left, Ana could faintly hear Whitney saying, “Valeria, should we call Jasper to pick you up?”

“What’s the point? He’s been crazy busy lately, never comes home. I heard his company’s having some problems.”

Ana seemed to remember something and looked toward Cassian. Their eyes met, and his expression seemed to say, “What are you thinking?”

“Let’s go,” Ana said.

“I’m starving. Let’s find somewhere normal to eat,” Aurora said.

“Sounds good.”

This time Aurora didn’t try to torture anyone. They found a regular restaurant and finally got properly fed.

After dinner, everyone went their separate ways.

In the car, Ana suddenly thought of something and laughed.

She realized her reaction time was pretty slow—thinking back on what just happened still cracked her up.

“What’s so funny?” Cassian asked, turning to look at her.

“I’m laughing at myself for being such a bully. If you hadn’t been there today, Valeria wouldn’t have backed down so easily.”

Even knowing that, Ana would’ve confronted Valeria anyway. She’d been fed up with her for way too long!

Cassian had been wondering what Ana was thinking about—turns out it was just this.

He took her hand and said gently, “I’m here for you to lean on. So don’t hold back—use me ruthlessly.”

Ana looked at Cassian for a long moment before quietly saying, “I couldn’t bear to.”

Cassian felt like something had just slammed into his chest—the feeling of falling deeper in love!

When Ana and Cassian got back to her grandmother’s house, she was already asleep.

“Go take a shower,” Cassian whispered.

“Okay.”

C

Chapter 179

Her hair was still damp as Cassian took her hand and guided her to sit on the edge of the bed.

Watching Cassian’s silhouette, Ana’s mind involuntarily flashed back to the comic Aurora had shown her. Maybe it wasn't similar to the female lead’s, but she felt an overwhelming sense of identification. Her lower abdomen tightened suddenly, and her body seemed to rush to her face.