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A Graduation Gift novel Chapter 444

Joel was pissed and irritated. Ivy always asked him to get down in the dirty business. And now she condescendingly accused him of doing those same things, conveying utter disdain.

"You are the one who messed with him in the first place. How is it my fault now?"

Joel asked, annoyed and didn't even wait for her to respond before turning around and leaving.

Seeing her brother walk away like that frustrated Ivy extremely.

Their parents died a long time ago, when they were very young. They had to start working at a very young age, to sustain their sophisticated lifestyle. Now their life was finally stable and they didn't need to worry about basic livelihood. Ivy, though, felt like she had come to a deadlock.

She just didn't know how to keep going anymore. But what was done couldn't be undone. Truth of the matter was, she was at a loss.

Suddenly, her eyes shifted to her right. She noticed a USB flash drive next to her computer. An idea unfurled in her head, making her heart beat faster.

She had to do it. Only that could make Clark trust her.

This USB flash drive was stolen by Adrian. Ivy ran and grabbed it, clutching it tightly, as if it was a piece of precious jewelry.

She took a deep breath, and composed herself. Finally, she took her phone out and called Clark.

"Clark, I've got what you wanted. Do you want me to bring it to you?"

Ivy tried her best to stay calm on the phone.

But on the other side of the phone, Clark simply squinted as a broad smile spread across his lips.

"Okay, why don't you come over to my place and give it to me?"

And with that being his only sentence, he hung up on her. He turned to Arthur cheerfully, as if he knew all along this was going to happen.

"See? I got what I wanted without lifting a finger."

After Joel slammed the door behind him, he called the girl he met last time. He really wanted a good company right now.

"Hey...I was wondering if you would like to have dinner with me tonight? My treat!"

Honestly, he was only looking to date someone to overcome his frustration.

Luckily for him, she said yes. He sped up and arrived at the school within a few minutes. Her eyes lit up the moment they landed on the man.

They headed for a cozy restaurant nearby. Hand in hand, they walked in together and took a table near the entrance. What they didn't notice was Cassandra and Rufus were also present there, sitting all the way in the other corner.

Rufus cut his steak into smaller pieces, poured some sauce on it and served the pieces to Cassandra.

"Here is your steak, madam.

Are you satisfied with the service?"

Rufus asked jokingly, lifting his eye brows, his attention focused solely on Cassandra.

Cassandra smiled sweetly, taking some steak in her plate.

A waiter brought them a dried meat floss cake, which Rufus had ordered specially for Cassandra.

"I know how much you love these cakes. They make really good ones here. Their head baker is a French professional. Take a bite and tell me if you like it."

Rufus smiled at her with empathetic eyes. He felt sorry for her. She had lost a lot of weight lately and needed to eat more so she didn't look so weak.

"You've ordered too much food, Rufus. I cannot eat all of this!"

Cassandra said, looking at the cake and blushing with embarrassment. Although she truly loved these cakes, her stomach was too full to devour the delicacy right now.

"I remember how much you like dried floss meat cake, too!

Why don't you have some?"

Cassandra passed the cake to Rufus.

"What? I never eat dried meat floss cake. I don't like it ever since I was a child. We can ask them to pack it if you're full. You can take it home and eat it, in case you're hungry later,"

Rufus said as he started to eat his steak. But what he had just said startled Cassandra.

"What's wrong, honey?"

Rufus noticed her surprised face and asked with an earnest concern.

"No… nothing."

She was lost and confused. She didn't know where she could even begin to explain.

He simply gave her a smile, held out to squeeze her hand a few times reassuring himself that nothing was wrong, and continued eating.

But Cassandra was overwhelmed with a mix of weird feelings.

"Order whatever you like, Courtney. I remember how much you love the cakes in this restaurant."

Whitney looked at her daughter lovingly. Courtney's long hair covered her shoulders, falling smoothly, like black velvet.

She was doing much better now and had almost recovered fully. It made Whitney extremely glad to see her daughter living normally. It had been so long since she was struggling. She deserved to get some peace.

Courtney smiled back at her and started to order. At the same time, a man came walking to the table next to them, and sat in front of the girl. Courtney got dumbstruck the moment she saw his face.

Joel had just come back from the bathroom. Smiling, he sat down in front of the girl.

"The steak isn't ready yet?"

Joel asked, looking at her beautiful, adorable face.

"Yeah...It's been so long! I'm starving..."

she said sweetly, putting down her phone.

Whitney noticed how pale her daughter's face had suddenly become.

"Courtney, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

she asked, nervous and worried. Courtney clenched her fists tightly, her face gloomy and eyelids twitching. Whitney grabbed her fists anxiously. Something was terribly wrong.

Her eyes looked horrified. Slowly, Courtney stood up and walked towards Joel, with her gaze fixed on him.

The man realized he was being stared at. He turned around and spotted Courtney, who seemed to have appeared by his side suddenly. He didn't know what was wrong.

"Hi, young lady. Do I know you?"

Joel asked, completely clueless. He seemed to have completely forgotten Courtney.

"You...don't remember me?"

Courtney asked, slowly. The past started to come back to her as she stared at his face, which had retained in memory for what seemed like forever.

She had been tortured by all those painful memories and nightmares. All that time, she had hidden her feelings. At last, she couldn't suppress it anymore and resorted to injuring herself as a form of coping mechanism, hurting not only herself but also her family.

Fortunately, she was rescued. Gradually, she understood hurting herself wasn't worth the man who had so heartlessly left her. She decided to forget him, and not to waste her time thinking about him.

But here she was, face-to-face with him again. All the haunting memories came back to her, rendering her still like a dead man.

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