But the humiliation didn’t end there.
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In less than two minutes, several bodyguards came out of nowhere, hoisted the tear–streaked Michelle, and swiftly dragged her out of the vi.
The whole process was so seamless and quick that Natasha and Michelle were both left stunned, unable to react.
Alexei’s soft chuckle came through the phone. “Five minutes. Looks like I get to keep my ce here for now.”
Natasha thought, ‘Fine, you win.’
“Aren’t
you even going to ask what happened? What if you got the wrong person? What if I was the one picking on her?” Natasha asked. <fn5731> The source of th?s content is Find?Novel</fn5731>
Alexei’s tone was indifferent. “It doesn’t matter who’s right or wrong. As long as she gave you
trouble, it’s on her.”
She thought, ‘It was a little unfair, but still…‘
“Alexei, what am I supposed to do? Being your favorite actually feels pretty good,” Natasha said.
Alexei chuckled. “The future Mrs. Turner deserves a few special privileges.”
Thinking of the woman who had appeared out of nowhere, a dark glint shed in his eyes.
Alexei said, “I’ll look into it. You did the right thing bying to me. If anyone bothers you again, and you don’t want to deal with them, just kick them out.
“Don’t let anyone push you around. Natasha, that’s your home, your territory. Be a little
mean.”
His overbearing yet caring words were nothing like the rumors about the big bad boss who could make people wish they were dead with just a few words.
Shawn, seeing right through everything, stood nearby with a file in hand, quietly smiling,
The morning’s drama didn’t affect Natasha at all.
But when Alexei came home that night, he still made sure to tell her the whole story.
5:20 pm S
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Unity had a close friend, Rhea Pena, who was just as aplished as she was on the cello. That friend was also incredibly gifted in dancing.
The two of them were both prodigies and gorgeous to boot, so people used to call them the twin stars of the arts.
Later, when Unity married into the Turner family, she disappeared from the spotlight.
Rhea, not knowing the real story, tried to convince her to return <i>to </i>the stage several times. but never seeded.
For a while, the two of them stopped speaking to each other.
When Unity’s parents passed away, she was gravely ill and bedridden. Dereck just kept avoiding everything.
It was Rhea who handled all the funeral arrangements from start to finish.
But unfortunately, Dereck kept Unity from seeing Rhea. Rhea thought Unity was being cold to her, so she stopped caring about her altogether.
After Unity died, Rhea eventually learned through the grapevine about her life in the Turner family.
Rhea showed up at the Turner family more than once, and even gave Dereck a piece of her
mind.
If the Turner family hadn’t stopped her, Rhea would’ve just taken Alexei and left.
When Alexei was a kid, Rhea quietly supported him many times behind the scenes.
Alexei exined, “Michelle is Rhea’s older brother’s daughter.
‘Rhea never married because she devoted her whole life to dance. She always treated Michelle as if she were her child.”
He paused. “I met Michelle a couple of times ages ago. The so–called engagement was just Rhea’s wishful thinking because she felt our families were close.
“I respect Rhea, but she won’t have any say in my decisions.”
As for Daron, Alexei honestly had no idea when Michelle had ever tried to get close to him.
“Michelle only came back to the country because someone from the Turner family put her up to it,” Alexei said.
5:20 pm D
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The person behind all this knew about his connection to Rhea. With Michelle hyping things up, they figured she’d get some kind of special treatment from him.
Unfortunately, she never even crossed Alexei’s mind.
Natasha didn’t doubt a word he said because Alexei always made her feel safe.
The Turner family was honestlyughable. Too chicken to go up against Alexei themselves, so they just sent others to do their dirty work.
But they probably never expected Michelle to be such a pushover.
She got kicked out the moment she showed up.
Instead of fighting with Alexei, Natasha and he ended up understanding each other even
more.
“What’s that Rhea’s full name?” Natasha asked.
“Rhea Pena,” Alexei replied.
Natasha looked at him in surprise.
Alexei’s eyes flickered. “You know her, too?”
Natasha nodded.
“If it hadn’t been for that ident, I might have be Ms. Pena’s protégée,” she said.
Before she ever started painting, Natasha used to dance.
Back then, Rhea was the top dancer in the country, admired by every dance student.
Natasha had been fortunate enough to receive guidance from Rhea. Rhea had even hinted at taking her on as a protégée,
At the time<i>, </i>there were several other students, including Olivia, who were also hoping to be Rhea’s protégée.
Rhea wanted to select the best among them to be herst protégée, To keep things fair, she decided to hold an open audition.
Unfortunately, Natashater injured her foot. While it didn’t affect her daily life, she just couldn’t handle the grueling dance training anymore.
She had no choice but to say goodbye to her dance career.
5:20 <b>pm </b>
She didn’t go to the audition that day.
Nobody really knew why, but that year, Rhea didn’t end up picking anyone.
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After Natasha dropped out, Olivia, who had been the frontrunner, was pretty down for a long
time.
The rk family even whisked her off to a famous travel stop for a vacation to lift her spirits.
Now that Natasha had found a new direction in life, the regret wasn’t as strong as it used to <ol><li>be. </li></ol>
However, hearing that name out of nowhere still left her momentarily spaced out.
Alexei took her hand. “So, if things had followed their original course, you and I might have crossed paths back then.”
Natasha smiled, her eyes curving. “Looks like it.”
She found it hard to picture what they would’ve been like if they’d met all those years ago.
“I’ll take you to meet Rhea sometime, but before that, we need to send a little payback to the person pulling the strings behind the scenes,” Alexei said.
Before he could even start looking for someone to settle the score with, those restless pests couldn’t wait to jump out.
Maybe they’d just been living toofortably.
But at least it saved him the trouble of figuring out who to make an example of next.
He nced at Natasha. “Scared?”
Natasha said, “Honestly, I’m kind of getting used to stirring up trouble like this.”
The two of them exchanged a smile.
Alexei took Natasha to a charity auction.
This was the first time the two of them had officially appeared together since the birthday
party.
As soon as they walked in, their stunning looks caught nearly everyone’s eye in the room.
To her surprise, Natasha actually spotted Olivia and Lucas there as well.
5:20 pm &
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Then again, it made sense. Even if Lucas wasn’t happy about it, the two of them were already engaged.
To save face, Emmanuel and Andrew had arranged for them to show up together at public charity events as the family’s representatives.
When Lucas saw Natasha walk in arm–in–arm with Alexei, he instinctively pulled his arm out of Olivia’s hold.
Brushed off, Olivia lowered her gaze, her expression unreadable.
Natasha didn’t give them so much as a single look the entire time.
Her sights tonight were set on someone else. These two hadn’t even reached their moment in the spotlight yet.
The best thing about being with Alexei was that she could look down on everyone else in the room without a care.
If she didn’t feel like mingling, no one would daree near her.
They were escorted straight to a private room.
Natasha spread out all the snacks in front of her, her eyes wide with curiosity.
“So, who exactly are we here to see?” she asked.
She’d just spotted more than one member of the Turner family earlier.
They all just came over to greet them, but Alexei was indifferent to them.
Even the most shameless twins from the Turner family didn’t have the guts to tag along into the private room.
When Alexei wasn’t at home, his intimidating aura would keep people at bay.
Natasha sized up Alexei, who was leisurely making coffee, and admitted that this handsome
gur
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