No More Waiting, She Chooses Love novel Chapter 742

My nose crinkled as Ernest tapped it twice with his finger. "Can't you just play dumb for once?"

I shook my head side to side with a playful grin. "No dodging. Be honest with me."

Ernest gently held my face, stopping my movements. "Stop that, or you'll make yourself dizzy."

"Then tell me why," I insisted, looking directly into his eyes.

Ernest had a tell; his eyes would lose focus when he was lying. Oddly enough, I hadn't noticed it when he claimed he didn't love me.

"You know who's really behind the accident, don't you?" he said, fiddling with my eyelashes.

His words confirmed my suspicions that he knew the truth.

"Licia, your lashes are as long as they were when you were a child," he tried to divert the conversation.

Ignoring his attempt, I voiced my own theory. "You're saying you got hurt to make a point to Allen."

"Yes," Ernest admitted. "I couldn't let Allen find out I was pretending to be Phipps."

"But Dustin knows," I blurted out, then remembered that Dustin wasn't truly aligned with Allen. So even if Dustin knew Ernest's real identity, he hadn't told Allen.

"And who exactly is Phipps?" I pressed, recalling Ernest's earlier vague mentions. Now that Phipps seemed pivotal, I couldn't ignore it.

"The ringleader, you know?" Ernest's revelation left me stunned.

Of course, I understood, but I hadn't imagined Ernest played the ringleader. No wonder he could uncover secrets about Deborah at the Sapphire Lounge so easily.

"And here I thought Phipps was just an ordinary male model, not the mastermind of vice," I was genuinely taken aback.