Chapter 997 Why Stop Pretending
Johnnie moved closer, and Gabriella laughed. "I'm tired, I want to sleep."
Johnnie raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you say we could continue after business?"
Gabriella replied, "When did I say that?"
"In the bathroom," Johnnie said.
Gabriella gave him a look. "I said we could talk after business."
"Yeah, let's talk now. With our bodies," Johnnie said, leaning in for a kiss.
Gabriella moaned softly and closed her eyes.
But then Johnnie stopped. "Did you really not enjoy it?"
Gabriella laughed. Men couldn't handle teasing.
"Yeah, what should we do about it?"
Johnnie squinted. "Did you know Marlowe was me?"
Gabriella laughed. "Why pretend, Marlowe?"
Johnnie smiled. "You're too smart. Let me out of your blacklist later."
"No way, use a new account. I like chatting with Marlowe," Gabriella said.
"Why?"
"Because she acts like a simp."
Johnnie's gaze was intense. "You want me to simp for you? As you wish."
Johnnie leaned in. Gabriella's breath hitched, her body tensed. Waves of pleasure surged through her. She thought this must be love, irresistible, just following her heart.
At the Royal Palace, Miguel partied late and returned to his room.
The next morning, he ran into Rafael. "Morning, Rafael. Heading out?"
"Yeah, unlike you, I can't party every night," Rafael replied.
Miguel grinned. "You're more capable than me."
Rafael waved. "I'm off."
Miguel thought of seeing Gabriella at the nightclub and called out, "By the way, Rafael, I saw Gabriella with Johnnie last night. Even though you have an agreement with her, I don't want a woman with a messy private life."
Rafael paused. "You saw Gabriella with Johnnie?"
"Yeah, they were holding hands, very close," Miguel said.
A playful look flashed in Rafael's eyes.
"Really? Gabriella knows how to have fun. Don't worry; the confidential documents are in hand, and she has no more value."
"As for our deal, if she wants me to keep my promise, I can brush her off. You don't have to marry her."
Miguel felt relieved. "Good, then I'm relieved."
Rafael stroked his chin, curious. "But it's strange, it's been ten days, and she hasn't asked me to keep my promise?"
Miguel thought. "Maybe she knows her place. She knows she's not good enough for me, so she's too embarrassed to ask."
Rafael nodded. "Makes sense. Alright, I'm heading out."
Miguel asked, "Rafael, going to your secret base now?"
Rafael replied, "Of course. With the documents, I need to make progress before Mateo. I don't want Dad to consider him as the heir."
Miguel praised, "You're smart, Rafael. Bet Mateo never saw this coming."
Pride flashed in Rafael's eyes. "Mateo, a bastard, thinks he can take the throne? Overestimating himself. Alright, I'm off."
Just as he was about to leave, his phone rang.
Rafael saw it was the base manager. "Hello?"
"Rafael, something terrible happened. The base exploded, all our equipment is destroyed, and there are heavy casualties."
"What? How could this happen?" Rafael's face changed dramatically.
"We're not sure yet," the manager said. "We followed the steps in the confidential documents exactly. But today, just as we reached a critical point, the machine issued an abnormal alarm, and then the lab exploded."
Rafael's face was grim, his heart tightening. "Find the cause immediately. If you can't, you don't need to live!" He hung up, looking extremely gloomy.
"Miguel, what happened?" Miguel asked.
"The base is in trouble."
It was over! Rafael had set up the base secretly to outdo Mateo. Now, an unexpected situation occurred. If Tomas found out, it would be hard to resolve.
"How did it happen? What do we do now?" Miguel asked urgently.
"Don't make noise, let me think." Rafael's face was dark as he turned back to the palace, pacing back and forth.
Soon, the base manager called again. "Rafael, I've checked everything. All our operations were compliant, no mistakes. The problem must be with the confidential documents."
Rafael's first reaction was disbelief. "The confidential documents have a problem? Impossible!"
The documents involved maritime technology research. Mateo was also conducting experiments with no issues, so why did his side have problems?
"But if it's not the documents, I can't think of any other mistakes," the manager said. He hesitated and asked, "Rafael, could the documents be fake?"
"Nonsense!" Rafael scolded. "Do you know how much effort I put into getting those documents? How could they be fake?"
"Sorry, Rafael, I was just guessing," the manager said.
Rafael's mind was in turmoil. "Don't worry about that for now. Just handle the aftermath. Remember, if something happens to me, no one will protect you or your families!"
He was using their vulnerabilities to threaten them, making them find someone to take the blame. No one could know the base was set up by Rafael.
"I understand."
Hanging up, Rafael angrily threw his phone onto the couch. Setting up this secret base had drained all his finances. Now all his efforts were ruined. He wondered how this happened.
'Could the documents be fake?' The manager's words flashed through his mind. Rafael squinted, deep in thought. 'I don't want to believe the documents had a problem, but what if? Could Gabriella have tricked me? Did she give me fake documents to fool me?'
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