Betrayed and Dumped She Rose Stronger Than Ever novel Chapter 142

Rebecca completely misread the situation. She thought he was there to talk her out of the fight, so she dropped her fork and glared at him, all bristling nerves. “If you came here to convince me to give up, you’re wasting your time. I’m not scared of going up against NovaStack Cloud.”

Paul pressed his lips together. “That’s not why I’m here. You’ve got it wrong.”

“Then what do you want?” she shot back.

Paul didn’t answer right away. The silence just made Rebecca more suspicious. Remembering how this lunch came about, her stomach turned. “So you made Judy bring me here on purpose?”

She grabbed a napkin and wiped her mouth, then tossed it down on the table. She pushed back her chair, ready to leave.

Paul moved to block her path, looking her straight in the eye.

“Move,” Rebecca said, her voice ice-cold.

He hesitated, then finally said, “I just wanted to ask if you need a lawyer.”

Rebecca blinked, thrown off. That wasn’t what she expected. Why was he asking her that? Shouldn’t he be hoping she’d mess up in court without any help?

Still trying to process it, she heard him add, “Larson Group has the top labor lawyers in the country. If you need someone, I can get them to help you.”

Rebecca just stared at him for a few seconds. Was he serious? He wanted to send his own company’s lawyers to help her fight NovaStack Cloud?

She shook her head slowly. “No, thanks. I can handle this on my own.”

She stood up to leave again. This time, Paul stepped aside and watched her walk out of the restaurant.

A few minutes later, Judy came back from the bathroom. “Hey, where’s Rebecca?”

Luckily, Rebecca was still at her usual spot.

“Rebecca, I’m really sorry! I swear I didn’t mean to ambush you with my brother at lunch. It just happened out of nowhere.” Judy almost looked like she was about to drop to her knees and beg for forgiveness. She’d worked hard to get this close to Rebecca and she didn’t want to blow it.

Rebecca had calmed down by then. She still didn’t get why Paul said those weird things, but she didn’t sense anything mean-spirited behind it.

“It’s fine. I’m not mad at you,” Rebecca said, giving Judy’s cheek a gentle pinch.

“Oh, thank goodness. This is… um…” Judy fumbled her words, then managed, “I brought you your lunch.”

She figured something must’ve happened between Rebecca and Paul. Otherwise, why else would Rebecca leave without eating? Maybe Paul wasn’t all that, after all. The family always made him out to be some kind of genius, but when it came to girls, he was seriously clueless. Honestly, Judy thought she could do better. At least she had the guts to go after what she wanted.

Meanwhile, Caleb was finishing up a project for his professor and hurrying toward the library, counting days in his head. The grad school entrance exam was only about three weeks away. After that, it’d be Christmas, and he was already planning to tell Rebecca how he felt on Christmas Day. Today, he was on his way to see her for their usual math tutoring and to lock in some time together for later.