The Broke, Mute Boy I Saved Was a Bored Billionaire Chapter 09

The Broke, Mute Boy I Saved Was a Bored Billionaire Chapter 09

Bastien had lost a lot of weight.

The effortless confidence that once softened his features was gone, leaving his face sharp and hollow. Faint shadows bruised the skin beneath his eyes.

Interesting.

Apparently, the last three years had not been kind to him either.

“You’re… alive.”

His voice shook.

I gave a quiet laugh. “Disappointed?”

His throat worked. Then he stepped forward and seized my wrist.

“How can you say that?”

“When Mom told me she’d adopted you, I thought I’d heard her wrong. I wouldn’t even have come tonight if she hadn’t shown me your picture.”

His eyes were already turning red.

“Tress, how could you do this to me?”

I let him hold on and tilted my head as though genuinely confused.

“What’s wrong, little brother?”

“Stop calling me that!” he shouted. “Do you have any idea what the last three years have been like for me?”

—

He backed me into the shadows, barely holding himself together.

“Have you had enough fun yet?”

“Did you enjoy watching me lose my mind?”

I reached up, smoothing a crease from his collar the way I used to.

“But that’s exactly what you did to me.”

“You were the one who said we belonged to different worlds.”

Bastien yanked open his shirt, exposing the name Tressa tattooed over his heart.

“Tress, listen to me. I love you.”

“I didn’t understand it until you were gone, but you were the one I loved all along. I was too blind to see it.”

His grip tightened around my wrist.

“But it isn’t too late. We can start over. I swear I’ll treat you right this time.”

I smiled and leaned closer until my lips nearly brushed his ear.

“But I’m your sister now.”

“Do you really want everyone saying you’re sleeping with your own sister?”

His entire body went rigid. “Everyone knows we’re not related by blood.”

I stepped back with a soft laugh. “Still not happening.”

—

“I have lunch with Tavian Stroud tomorrow. Would you like to join us, little brother?”

Bastien’s eyes reddened further, giving him the look of a dog that had just been abandoned.

He looked ready to explode again, but I walked past him and met Dr. Rothwell as she approached.

I slipped my arm through hers.

“Mom, I’m meeting Tavian tomorrow, so I need a spa appointment tonight. I’m heading out.”

Rothwell Health Group had been trying to secure a partnership with Stroud Therapeutics for months.

Now that I had volunteered to meet its entitled heir, I knew Dr. Rothwell would play along.

She smiled knowingly. “Playing hard to get?”

I widened my eyes in feigned surprise. “You really do see through everything.”

Pride spread across her face. “I was playing games like this before you were old enough to recognize one.”

“Fine. I’ll help keep my idiot son interested.”

With her cooperation, I finally escaped Bastien.

As I walked away, I could feel his stare burning into my back.

It never left me.

—

The next day, Bastien showed up at the restaurant exactly as I expected.

A baseball cap and face mask hid most of him, but nothing could conceal the way his eyes stayed locked on our table.

I pretended not to notice and gave Tavian Stroud a sweet smile as he arrived.

He pulled out his chair and looked me over with open appraisal.

“You’re attractive enough. I heard you used to be with Bastien Rothwell.”

His mouth curled.

“Are you still a virgin? I don’t like used goods.”

I pressed my lips together as though humiliated and lowered my eyes. My lashes trembled just enough to make me look soft, harmless, and easy to intimidate.

I knew exactly how appealing I looked that way.

Tavian’s breathing grew heavier.

He reached across the table and touched my cheek. “Though for you, I might make an exception.”

I deliberately stayed still.

From the corner of my eye, I saw a chair scrape sharply across the floor.

“I hear Rothwell Health is looking for a partner on its new drug

—

program.” Tavian leaned closer. “Did Dr. Rothwell send you as a gesture of goodwill?”

Before I could answer, a dark figure charged across the restaurant.

Bastien’s fist slammed into Tavian’s face.

The table overturned, sending champagne flutes crashing across the floor.

“Get away from her!”

Bastien seized Tavian by the collar, his voice rough and feral.

The entire restaurant erupted into chaos.

I stayed exactly where I was, watching Tavian rage after taking the punch.

Then I smiled.

That afternoon, Stroud Therapeutics pulled out of its partnership talks with the Rothwells.

Dr. Rothwell stormed into my room.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

I blinked at her, tears gathering perfectly along my lashes.

“I was only trying to help the family secure the deal.”

“I had no idea Bastien would lose control like that.”

Her expression softened for a fraction of a second.

—

I immediately handed her a file.

“This is evidence that Stroud Therapeutics falsified clinical data. An investigative reporter I know uncovered it.”

“I held onto it because I knew Rothwell Health wanted the partnership.”

I smiled innocently.

“Can we use it now?”

Dr. Rothwell took the file. As she turned through the documents, the stiffness in her face gave way to satisfaction.

“You really were thinking of the family.”

I watched her hands move across the pages and laughed to myself.

After Veda broke things off with Bastien, Tavian had begun pursuing her.

She had kept him close without ever committing, giving herself the protection of the Stroud family while keeping Bastien from coming after her.

It was a clever arrangement.

Too bad I had no intention of letting her keep it.

Bastien came to see me that night.

His right hand was bandaged, and a bruise darkened the left side of his face.

“Tress,” he said hoarsely. “My father beat the hell out of me.”

—

I tilted my head. “And?”

Pain flashed across his face.

Then he dropped to his knees and rested his forehead against my thigh.

“Punish me however you want. Just not like this.”

I leaned down until barely any space remained between us.

“Like what?”

“Making you watch me with someone else?”

His breathing turned uneven.

“Bastien,” I said softly, “this is exactly how I felt when I watched you kiss Veda.”

Hope flared in his eyes.

“You still love me, don’t you?”

I only smiled.

I neither confirmed it nor denied it.

Because my plan still needed one final spark.