Chapter 818: Austin Returns Home
In a few years, Austin had shot up tall and lean, with features that were just straight-up perfect.
Right now, he was chilling in the hallway, backlit so his face was all shadowy, eyes deep and mysterious.
He stared at his phone for what felt like forever, then finally made a call.
The call connected fast. Before the other person could even say anything, Austin jumped in, "Where'd you hear that from?"
A weird dude's voice came from the other end.
The guy said, "Where do you think? Even though you're not in Country D or at school, I've always been here! Our roommate Loren Schneider, the Computer Science whiz, right? He started interning at IntelliMerge Technologies ages ago. This afternoon, their company chat was blowing up with pics of their president Charles and Hannah. Loren saw them and sent them to me. I was gonna send them to you, but poof, the pics vanished. If I hadn't seen them myself, I'd think I was trippin'. They disappeared just like that."
Austin smirked coldly, "Got it, thanks!"
He wasn't about to doubt his roommate.
The person Loren saw was definitely his fiancée, Hannah.
Hannah had told him ages ago she wanted to find an internship, but he hadn't given the green light. Didn't expect her to sneak off to Charles's company of all places.
The guy on the other end was like, "So, that really was Hannah?"
At first, he thought he might've mixed her up with someone else.
That chick just looked a lot like Hannah.
The pic was taken from a weird angle, from a distance, and wasn't a close-up. When he zoomed in, it got all blurry, so he wasn't sure at first.
Austin said, "Yeah, it was her! She told me before she went."
Austin didn't deny it.
"Alright then! Just wanted to give you a heads-up. You figure out what to do. I gotta hit the lab now, so I'm out." The guy said.
"Okay! Thanks, man." Austin replied.
"No worries, bro! Just don't think I'm sticking my nose in too much." The guy said.
Austin laughed, "Nah, you're good! If anything comes up, hit me up!"
"Cool!" The guy replied.
After hanging up, Austin gripped his phone so tight his knuckles went white, veins popping on the back of his hand.
Austin thought, 'Violet met Charles? Did Charles recognize her? If he did, everything I've done would be blown.'
As soon as that thought hit, he shook it off.
No way! Charles definitely didn't recognize her.
He'd set everything up perfectly, no loose ends. So many years had passed, and Violet's looks had changed. She wasn't the chubby-cheeked girl anymore.
If Charles knew Hannah was Violet, the news would've already hit Country Z.
He would've gotten calls from Carter and the crew.
But he hadn't heard a peep, which meant Charles didn't know Hannah was Violet.
So, no need to freak out and risk blowing his cover.
Back then, he'd thought of a bunch of places to hide Violet and finally picked Country D.
He never thought Charles would end up setting up HQ in Country D.
And Violet just happened to land in Charles's company.
His worst nightmare had come true.
He'd planned to find an excuse to take Violet abroad after she graduated, get hitched, and settle down.
He'd been so careful for so long.
And yet, here they were.
Lost in thought, someone tapped his shoulder.
His buddy said, "Austin, the professor wants you. Let's roll!"
Without a second thought, Austin shoved his phone into his pants pocket and headed for the door, saying, "I'm outta this research project. Tell the professor for me. Got a family emergency, gotta get back to Country D ASAP."
His buddy caught up and grabbed his arm, all panicked, "Dude, you're the main guy on this project. If you bail, what are we supposed to do? The professor's gonna flip."
Austin couldn't care less.
"Tell the professor to pick someone else. I gotta go now. Apologize for me! Oh, and pack my stuff and bring it back, will ya?"
His buddy was like, "What? You're not even taking your luggage?"
Austin replied, "Nope, no time! Sorry for the hassle!"
With that, he shook off his buddy's hand, sped up, and walked away without looking back, ignoring his buddy's calls.
His buddy yelled, "Austin, Austin, you can't just leave! What about the project? Austin!"
No matter how much he tried, he couldn't get Austin to stay.
It was a huge research project, and he just bailed like that. The professor was gonna be livid.
After leaving the research institute, Austin grabbed a taxi straight to the airport. On the way, he pulled out his phone and started booking a flight.
Since he left, the professor and students had been blowing up his phone, but he just hung up on all of them. Eventually, he turned his phone off.
Nothing was gonna stop him from going back to find Violet.
Nothing. Not even the professor.
Meanwhile, Hannah had no clue Austin was already on a flight back to Country D. After work, she said goodbye to Charles, grabbed her bag, and hit the company cafeteria for dinner before heading home.
Stella was already waiting for her at the apartment.
Seeing her come in, Stella quickly asked about her day at work.
When she heard that Charles had promoted Hannah to executive assistant, her eyes nearly popped out of her head.
Stella asked, "Wait, Charles stood up for you against Mr. Cunningham and then promoted you to executive assistant? And he even had lunch with you in the cafeteria?"
If she remembered right, Charles always had Wyatt bring his lunch to him.
He almost never ate in the cafeteria.
She'd once asked him why.
Charles said he didn't want the employees to feel pressured and lose their appetite. And yet, Charles broke his rule for Hannah.
Something was definitely up.
Hannah didn't notice anything weird. She flopped on the couch and stretched out lazily.
"Yeah! You always said Charles was so strict and always punished you. I thought he was hard to get along with, but he's actually pretty chill! You totally ruined his rep."
Stella was so shocked she almost choked on her spit.
"You're the first to say he's a good guy!"
Hannah was confused.
The first? He really was nice! Why did people think he was so strict?
Stella sighed, "That's why you two are a perfect match. He's only nice to you, and only you think he's a good guy."
Not wanting to hear more, Hannah glared at her, got up from the couch, grabbed her pajamas from the closet, and headed to the bathroom.
"You're always talking about this! I'm done. I'm taking a shower! You have no idea how uncomfortable it is to wear a suit."
Stella looked at the closed bathroom door and laughed.
Charles was so good to Hannah; he must like her.
Charles finally got it.
Stella had to help Charles.
Otherwise, Charles would be single forever.
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