My Alpha Didn’t Want Me… Until I Disappeared Chapter 05

My Alpha Didn’t Want Me… Until I Disappeared Chapter 05

It was Julian.

Before returning to New York, I had envisioned running into old acquaintances many times.

Therefore, the gaze I directed at him was completely calm and unbothered.

Six years of hardship were more than enough to teach me how to handle anything with composure.

Julian stood frozen in place, panting heavily. He looked disheveled and covered in dust, as if he had rushed over from a great distance.

He stared at me, and I looked right back at him without the slightest hesitation.

The intense emotion swirling in his eyes felt faintly familiar.

I felt like I had seen it somewhere before.

But I couldn’t quite place it.

Regardless, I understood a core business principle: customer service comes first.

I stood up at a measured pace and greeted him politely.

“Hello, sir.”

Hearing my formal, distant greeting, Julian seemed to snap out of it, shedding his frantic demeanor.

He tightly grabbed my wrist as if terrified I might vanish. “Juniper, we need to talk.”

I didn’t agree, keeping a professional smile on my face.

“We do need to talk. The Sterling Group is hosting the next Fashion Week, and our boutique’s new fall designs are ready. Since you’re here…”

He cut me off.

“Juniper, you know perfectly well that’s not what I want to talk about.”

The corporate smile faded from my face.

After a long, heavy silence, I spoke quietly.

“Julian, you did nothing wrong back then. You simply didn’t love me. Our relationship was purely transactional. There are no misunderstandings to clear up.”

The spark in his eyes instantly died. After a long pause, he murmured.

“I’m sorry.”

Sorry?

I didn’t know if he was apologizing for humiliating me by throwing away the scarf, or for something else entirely. But none of it mattered anymore.

I didn’t know, and I didn’t care to know.

Just as I was about to call an assistant over to take over the service, I noticed that Blair had already slipped away quietly.

Julian’s voice trembled as he spoke again. “How is your father’s health?”

“He passed away. He died the exact day I dropped out of college.”

I suddenly remembered that Julian had met my father once.

There was a period when a severe flu swept through New York.

I caught a terrible fever.

I was burning up, completely losing consciousness.

When I finally managed to open my eyes, my father had a rare, playful smirk on his pale, sickly face. “You were calling out a name just now.”

“Who is Julian? Don’t tell me our Juniper is finally dating someone?”

Embarrassed, I pulled the blanket over my head.

In my hazy mind, I traced the contours of his face over and over.

Until I heard a gentle voice calling my name from outside the covers.

“Juniper, don’t sleep. Get up and eat something.”

“Are you feeling any better today?”

Immediately after, the blanket was gently peeled back. I looked up and saw the very person I had been missing standing right beside my hospital bed.

He smiled warmly and greeted my father. “Sir, I’m Julian, Juniper’s boyfriend.”

When facing my father, Julian never displayed an ounce of his wealthy heir arrogance.

When my father brought out some cured meats from our hometown to feed him, I had been incredibly anxious.

Julian had an incredibly picky palate; even Michelin-starred meals rarely impressed him, let alone heavily salted regional food.

Yet Julian didn’t show a hint of disgust.

He even gave a thumbs-up, claiming it was delicious.

Before he left for the night, my father had insisted on packing a massive plastic bag full of our hometown specialties for him.

But later, when I went over to his house exactly as he requested.

I saw that very same plastic bag sitting inside the kitchen trash can.

At that exact moment, I understood a fundamental truth.

The young master had received an excellent upbringing. Even if he despised something, he would still show me respect in front of my father.

My father never knew about the transactional arrangement between Julian and me.

He genuinely believed Julian and I were in a healthy, loving relationship.

Sometimes when he saw me out with Julian on the street, my father would always Venmo me a few hundred dollars.

“I can tell Julian is a good kid. Treat each other well, and buy whatever you want to eat.”

“With him looking after you, I don’t have any worries left.”

I had thought it was just a typical, sentimental comment.

I never expected that after returning home from dropping out of university, my neighbor would come bursting into our house, screaming in pure terror.

“Juniper! Your father just jumped into the river!”