?Chapter 1061:


    Was Ethan this foolish?


    Across town, Ethan was in full-on panic mode. What the hell had he just sent?


    While he was still kicking himself, his phone buzzed with a new message. “Brains are great—too bad you’ve never had any.” Ethan called him instantly.


    Ellis picked up, sounding perfectly bored.


    “You knew?” Ethan demanded, half-shouting. “This whole time?!”


    “Come on,” Ellis said coolly. “Who else would do something that stupid?” The blownded hard. Then he added, just to twist the knife, “Maybe I should talk to Alyssa. Convince her to think twice beforemitting.”


    “Why?” Ethan snapped.


    “You know. Intelligence is hereditary. You really wanna pass that on?”


    “Shit!” Ethan was ready to throw his phone.


    Alyssa, sitting on the couch next to him, looked over with those bright, clear eyes of hers. “You do know they’re just messing with you, right?”


    “Of course,” Ethan said quickly. Yeah. No. He’d had no clue.


    But there was no way he could admit that, not in front of her. Thest thing he needed was Alyssa thinking he was actually as dumb as Ellis made him sound.


    “I knew,” he added, forcing a confident smile. “They were bored. Just figured I’d y along. Didn’t expect them to take it so seriously.”


    Alyssa gave him a long, knowing look.


    She’d seen enough to know the truth. He wasn’tpletely hopeless… but sometimes he really pushed it. Especially when he got worked up.


    Throughout their time together, he had always thought she was interested in Bruce. What a fool.


    Alyssa didn’t say anything else, just picked up the remote and turned on the TV.


    Meanwhile, Ellis keptnding punches over text. “Don’t assume everyone’s as dim as you. Alyssa’s smarter than you, too.” He got under Ethan’s skin this time.


    Ethan stared at the screen, fuming. This guy was relentless. One day. One day, he’d get him back.


    He fired back with a snarky reply. “Well, she’s my future wife, so yeah—of course she’s smart.”


    Then he smirked and added, “But does Freya know your nickname yet? Want me to give her a little heads-up?”


    “Go ahead.”


    “Watch me.”


    He hung up, feeling like he finally had the upper hand.


    Ellis was already ahead of him. Without even blinking, he reached for Freya’s phone, found the contactbeled “Zoe,” and quietly blocked and deleted it.


    Ethan tried to send Freya another message—only to discover he’d been removed from her contacts.


    He stared at the screen, furious. Every time he thought he’d managed to get one over on Ellis… it somehow came back to bite him harder. Now, blocked and outmaneuvered, he had no real way to retaliate.


    Ellis, on the other hand, had already moved on. He wasn’t wasting energy on Ethan’s games. What he was focused on was Freya. And how she nned to spend the rest of the weekend—with him.


    Once he went back to Lambert Group,ing home every day would be off the table.


    The traffic was torturous. To put it mildly, he could leave during afternoon rush hour and not make it back until breakfast the next day.


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