?Chapter 964:


    Ellis didn’t hesitate. He slipped an arm around Freya’s waist, his voice warm but resolute. “Freya—my girlfriend. She’s the woman I want by my side for the rest of my life. She means everything to me.”


    Then, he nced at Freya with a reassuring smile before introducing ire in the same breath. “And this is ire Harper. Her father’s an old friend of my dad’s.”


    Freya was about to offer a polite greeting, but ire jumped in, her voice tight. “You forgot we grew up together.”


    Ellis sidestepped herment, his gaze steady. “How did you get my address?”


    “Your parents told me,” ire admitted, meeting his eyes with open honesty.


    A faint line creased Ellis’s brow. Why had his parents handed out his address so easily?


    “Eli, why did you block me?” ire’s voice was sharp with disbelief. “I thought we were friends.”


    He met her eyes, his voice even. “Our parents might be close, but that doesn’t make us obligated to be.” He added, “If there’s nothing else, we’ll be going.”


    “Wait.” ire’s determination broke through her hesitation; she hadn’te all this way to leave empty-handed.


    Both Ellis and Freya paused, waiting.


    ire pressed her lips together, searching Freya’s face. “Freya Briggs, do you want to tell Ellis yourself, or should I?”


    Freya blinked in confusion. “Tell him what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”


    “Spare me the act.” ire’s tone sharpened.


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    Freya’s brows drew together, genuinely bewildered.


    Ellis, sensing ire’s hostility, instinctively tightened his hold on Freya’s hand, a frosty edge creeping into his expression. “ire.” His voice alone sent a chill through her, and ire finally noticed just how protective he was of Freya—an intimacy she’d never seen before.


    ire squared her shoulders, refusing to back down. “I know you hate it when I talk about your girlfriend, but let me ask you this—do you actually know who Freya Briggs really is?”


    In the beginning, Freya’s name rang a distant bell for ire—just a faint flicker of recognition.


    Then it clicked. Freya had just been all over the news for divorcing Kristian and supposedly walking away with a jaw-dropping settlement. Ellis started to intervene, but Freya cut him off with a calm, “Let her finish.”


    “She used to be married to Kristian Shaw,” ire dered, eager to air every rumor she’d heard. “The divorce left her with over a billion. I mean, that says it all, doesn’t it? She’s obviously after money—yours now, since you’re the next target.”


    “My name is Freya Briggs,” Freya replied, her tone steady and unimpressed.


    ire just shrugged. “Yeah, I know.”


    “Briggs—as in Briggs Group,” Freya rified, her voice cool, refusing to entertain the usation any longer.


    The revtion blindsided ire.


    Suddenly, the snark vanished and her tongue tripped over itself.


    “That’s old news to me,” Ellis replied,cing his fingers through Freya’s. He addressed ire with unhurried confidence. “But let’s get something straight.”


    ire looked dazed, still trying to process what she’d just learned. “What do you mean?”


    “My apartment, my job—they’re both thanks to her,” Ellis replied, his voice light with a hint of mockery. “So, if anyone here is chasing money, I guess that’d be me, not Freya.”


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