The late spring night breeze seeped through her skin. Diana Bell shuddered, only then realizing she'd forgotten her coat.
The warmth and clamor of the crowd remained locked inside that brilliantly lit mansion; out here, the parking lot was sparse under a scattering of starlight. She had no desire to go back in. Her gaze swept over a row of luxury cars until she spotted Jasper Sterling's Koenigsegg—a pitch-black, crouching beast of a machine. It sat in its original spot, though the driver's seat was empty.
She waited beneath the lush canopy of a camphor tree. In the post-midnight sky, the darkness felt heavy and desolate, creating a transparent boundary that isolated her from the faint laughter echoing from the villa's front yard.
After an indefinite wait, steady footsteps crunched against the asphalt. Diana looked toward the sound and saw a tall, commanding silhouette emerging from the shadows. Jasper walked with one hand in his pocket, his long legs cutting through the fragmented moonlight. He carried an air of effortless indifference and innate nobility.
The moment he reached the car and pressed the key fob, a slender figure darted out from the shadows of the tree.
"Jasper."
Caught off guard, Jasper instinctively recoiled half a step, a low curse escaping his lips.
He extended a long arm to brace himself against the roof of the car, using the leverage to steady his nerves, which had been jolted by the sudden movement in the dead of night. His deep, sharp eyes—filmed with a hint of predatory irritation—pierced through the darkness to stare down the girl who had appeared like a ghost.
"Middle of the night and you're not home? What are you doing, running a stakeout to mug me?"
Diana thought to herself: Mug a martial arts fanatic like you with these thin arms of mine? Do I look like I have a death wish?
The night wind nipped at her collar. Her nose was flushed red from the cold, and she wasn't in the mood for word games. She pulled out her phone and flashed the screen at him. "That blueberry mousse you ate on the terrace... I made that by hand for my brother."
To prevent the man from denying it later, she had specifically pulled up the high-definition photo of the finished masterpiece.
Jasper lowered his gaze slightly, his eyes skimming the photo. On that perfectly chiseled face, she couldn't find a single trace of embarrassment or guilt for his "theft."
"So?" He arched an eyebrow, his tone laced with a rogue-like playfulness. "Did you lace your brother's cake with poison, and it just happened to end up in my stomach instead?"
Diana tucked her phone away, her frustration mounting. "Why on earth would I poison my brother?"
Jasper leaned leisurely against the car door. His gaze turned inscrutable, and he uttered four biting words: "Unrequited love, turned to hate?"
Diana's fingertips instinctively gripped the silk fabric of her skirt.
A chill raced up her spine and hit her brain like a physical blow. Her blood seemed to freeze in that instant, so much so that when she tried to retort, her throat failed to produce a sound.
There was likely no one in the world more malicious than Jasper Sterling. When others gossiped about her relationship with William Knight, they at least did it behind her back; Jasper, however, had no qualms about shredding the "paper window" of social decorum and shoving the ugly implications right in her face.
The wind cut like a blade across her cheeks, but Diana forced herself to suppress the urge to flee. She fought to maintain her fractured dignity.
"I didn't mean anything else. Since you ate the cake, I only hope you'll—for my sake—at least reconsider the collaboration on Snow's drone project."
She didn't dare ask for too much. A cake, no matter how much effort went into it, wasn't worth a multi-billion dollar investment from the Sterling Group. But it was a birthday gift she had meticulously prepared for William; since Jasper had eaten it, he owed her at least a shred of humanity.
Jasper went still.
He looked like a statue that had been hit with a pause button. If the shadows of the trees hadn't been swaying in the background, Diana would have thought the world had glitched.
Just as the eerie silence began to make her skin crawl and she prepared to speak, Jasper finally moved.
He straightened up and spoke with an incredibly solemn face: "I've considered it. The answer is no."
"..."
If silence had a shape, a flock of black crows would be circling Diana's head right now.
Her previously frozen blood was now boiling with rage at the man's sheer unreasonableness.
"Can't you at least give it a serious, professional evaluation?"
"A three-second decision is an eternity in the business world." Jasper showed zero self-awareness about his "debt." Instead, he sighed with the air of a victim. "Little Princess, you really are quite the handful."
His tone was lazy, yet it carried a finality that pushed her miles away.
Diana felt defeated. The cake was already in his stomach; she couldn't exactly make him spit it out. Besides, given his personality, if he actually did, she'd be the one left feeling nauseated.
"Fine. Forget it," she said with a self-mocking smile, realizing she had been desperate enough to seek help from the wrong person.
"Forget it? Just like that?" Jasper wasn't planning on letting her off easy.
He kept his hands in his pockets, tilting his head to look at her with amusement. "My stomach is quite delicate. After eating that cake of unknown origin, I'm feeling a bit... turbulent. I'll have to book a full check-up tomorrow. If anything goes wrong, you'd better be ready to take responsibility."
"...What?" Diana stood frozen, wondering if she was hallucinating.
She quickly reviewed the baking process in her head—the ingredients were all top-shelf imports; there was no way they were bad.
"In light of your brother's reputation, I won't bill you for the medical fees," Jasper said, adopting a pose of great magnanimity. "But remember to tell William that he owes me a huge favor."
Nearby, a young couple walked out of the villa, laughing and playing. As their engine drifted into the distance, the parking lot plunged back into a dead silence.
Another gust of cold wind blew, fluttering Diana's thin black dress.
Not only had she failed to secure the deal for Aurora Brooks, but she had also been bitten back by this man. She had tried to resolve the crisis without involving William, but the result was a lost cake and a mysterious "debt" pinned on William's tab.
An uncontrollable wave of grievance surged through her. Her heart felt like a sponge soaked in bitter water, so heavy she could barely breathe.
Aurora's failing health, Alexander Stone's caustic face, and the image of William with that radiant actress... every emotion converged in that moment, slamming against her tear ducts.
Diana lowered her head, her eyes burning red as her vision blurred into a watery mess.
"If you don't want to help, then fine. I'm sorry for wasting your time."
Her voice was as thin as a mosquito's hum. Having said her piece, she turned and ran into the depths of the night without looking back.
In the moment she turned, Jasper clearly caught the shimmer of shattered tears in her eyes.
In the darkness, she looked exceptionally fragile. Under the shroud of her black dress, that tender slenderness reminded him of a weeping willow branch that would snap at the slightest touch. The wind was so strong, and she ran with such a stumble, as if the ink-black night might swallow her whole at any second.
Jasper leaned back against his car door, sinking into a rare few seconds of self-reflection: Did I bully the girl a bit too hard?
"Mr. Sterling is actually that kind of person?" Aurora sat on the hospital bed, her face full of disbelief.
Her impression of Jasper Sterling was still stuck on last year's High-End Industry Summit.
That day, the world's top minds had gathered. Aurora, a fledgling entrepreneur, had managed to sneak in to pitch her liquid hydrogen drones to investors. Jasper had been standing nearby. After hearing just a few sentences, he had signaled his subordinate to take her contact information, which was how Snow got its foot in the door with the Sterling Group.
Since then, middle management had handled the talks. What Aurora remembered most was Jasper being surrounded by academicians and chairmen—his face cold as frost, utterly indifferent to the flattery surrounding him.
He was the definition of unattainable.
Though Diana hadn't wanted to trouble William, William had ultimately used his connections to move Aurora to a top-floor VIP suite.
Following her chemotherapy, Aurora's face was pale with a hint of bruising, her eyes weary. The anti-emetics had finally given her enough strength to talk. After hearing Diana's ordeal, she couldn't help but shake her head. "I always thought he was a lonely genius of the business world. I didn't expect him to be... such a jerk in private."
"I was too naive," Diana sat by the bed, her expression gloomy. "He's my brother's friend. He has no obligation to show 'the sister' any respect."
Having faced reality, the frown between her brows deepened. "It seems that, in the end, there's no way to avoid involving my brother."
"No, don't go begging William," Aurora grabbed her hand, offering a bitter smile. "Jasper Sterling is temperamental. If he wanted to give William face, you wouldn't have even needed to ask. Since he ate your cake and still didn't budge, his stance is clear. In the adult world, there's no need for us to keep trying to squeeze blood from a stone."