Shadows Between Us (Stella and Sebastian) novel Chapter 129

Chapter 129

No one paid him any attention.

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Snowball slithered down from the landscape tree, its tail tip wrapped around a small basket. It nuzzled up to Stella, rubbing its big, round head against her affectionately.

Lucas wasn’t about to be outdone. He grabbed onto the hem of Stella’s shirt, tugging her over to show her the patch of ground he’d helped water..

His sun-kissed cheeks were rosy, and he looked up at her with a sweet, eager-to-please expression, clearly hoping for some praise.

Stella was speechless.

Sebastian looked grim as he headed inside in his electric wheelchair. Allan watched Sebastian retreat back, arching an eyebrow with a smirk, clearly amused.

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*****

In the study, Sebastian had been sitting in his wheelchair, barely moving, for a solid five minutes. Even Allan, who was just chilling against the doorframe, was getting tired of watching. “Dude, what the heck are you looking at?” Allan asked.

‘What’s so fascinating about that?’ Allan thought.

Allan sauntered over, snatched the file right out of Sebastian’s hands, and took a quick look.

Allan rolled his eyes.

Allan thought, ‘Wait, 30 million dollars for three years. So that’s how Stella ended up staying?’

Allan shot a sidelong glance at Sebastian, who was sitting in his wheelchair, giving off a dark, icy vibe. ‘Why did Sebastian pull this out after his trip to Edenbury Academy?’ Allan wondered.

“Sebastian, you-” Allan started, but Sebastian cut him off.

Sebastian said flatly, “She said she’ll leave Sandridge Island once the agreement is up.”

Allan was speechless.

‘Help, the gloomy energy pouring off Sebastian is about to fill the whole study!’ Allan thought.

“Uh, Sebastian-” Allan said.

Sebastian didn’t even look at him, his voice cold as ice. “She’s young. The Carter family is all trash, and she’s beautiful. What if she runs into some bad guys after she leaves the island?”

Allan was speechless.

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Remembering how Stella had once greeted an assassin with a kick that would end his family line, Allan decided it was smarter to just zip it.

If Stella really did run into some bad guys, Allan was honestly more worried about the bad guys than her.

Allan was about to say something, but Sebastian spoke up again, his tone icy. “Lucas will be devastated. In three years, he’ll be eight. Prime time for a kid to start acting out. What if he ends up getting into trouble because of this?”

Allan was speechless.

‘Eight years old? Rebellious phase? Seriously?’ Allan thought.

Before Allan could even process that, Sebastian continued, “Strictly speaking, Eggie is Stella’s. If she leaves, does that mean Eggie will have to be separated from its official father, Snowball? Snowball might be a python, but animal mental health matters, too.”

Allan sputtered, “Sebastian, just wait-”

Sebastian looked up at him, his eyes cold and lifeless, like he was staring straight through a corpse. “Wait for what?”

Allan paused for a moment, then asked, “And you?”

Sebastian gave a cold chuckle. “Me? What’s there to say?”

Allan held the agreement in one hand, his voice heavy with meaning. “You keep talking about how Stella’s leaving will affect everyone else. But what about you?”

Sebastian sat in silence for a while, lost in thought.

Still speaking in that icy tone, his flawless, statue-like face betraying no emotion, he replied to Allan, “Me? What impact could I possibly have?”

Allan did not say anything but thought, ‘These two are absolute masterminds!

‘Sebastian’s stubbornness is so strong. Archimedes could use it to move the Earth!’

Allan flashed a smile and handed the agreement back to Sebastian. “Mind if I ask you something?”

Sebastian shot him a sideways glance, his face completely expressionless.

“You’re thirty, right? Don’t tell me you’re still a virgin?” Allan meant it as a joke, but Sebastian just sat there in stone-faced silence.

Over the next thirty seconds, Allan’s face did a complete 180, from chill to panic, to shock, and finally to total indifference.

Nothing kills the vibe like a sudden, awkward silence.

Sebastian’s scowl deepened; if his dark mood could manifest, the whole room would be swarming with

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“Sebastian, you’re actually taking Stella’s money? Is this peak villainy or just a total lack of shame?” Allan’s voice got weaker under Sebastian’s icy glare.

But he rallied for one last shot. “Should we try to dig through the agreement and see if there’s a loophole or something?”

‘Maybe there’s a way to game the system?’ Allan thought.

Sebastian tilted his head, looking at Allan with a thoughtful and calculating gaze, as if already plotting his next

move.

Fifteen minutes later.

Allan said, “Dude, who wrote this thing? Were you that terrified Stella would stick around forever? You even slapped on a penalty section? If she didn’t leave, she would owe five times the money.”

‘Man, this thing is watertight. It seriously does not leave Sebastian even a crack to escape,’ Allan thought.

Sebastian was speechless.

Sebastian’s face looked even more stormy.

‘Jake did that,’ Sebastian thought.

*****

Jake was still loitering outside Conrad’s hotel, bored to death, when he suddenly sneezed out of nowhere.

He just stood there with a blank stare, totally spacing out.

‘Am I coming down with something?’ Jake thought.

*****

Allan scratched his chin thoughtfully, a sly grin creeping onto his face. He shot Sebastian a mischievous look, waggling his eyebrows. “At this point, maybe there’s only one thing left to do. Didn’t you always want to play daddy for Stella?”

Sebastian looked at him, his eyes narrowing in thought. “So you’re saying…?”

Allan flashed a crooked and sleazy grin. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean…”

He was obviously just here for the drama, the messier the better.

Sebastian thought he understood. He said, “So… You mean I should adopt Stella?”

Allan was speechless and shocked.

Allan let out a sigh and stood up. He flashed a big fake smile and gave Sebastian a theatrical bow. “Man, go wash up and get some sleep already!”

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‘Seriously, Sebastian and Stella are a perfect pair. Stop ganging up on me!’ Allan thought, exasperated.

Sebastian glanced out at the still-bright sky, confused. “What?”

Night was falling, and the city lights were just starting to come on.

Celia and Jake still hadn’t come back.

‘Now that the annoying lady was nowhere to be seen,’ Snowball thought. It was chilling on the landscape tree, its tail tip swaying lazily.

In the little basket hanging from a branch, Eggie was copying Snowball’s chill pose, even draping a wing over the peregrine falcon’s belly and letting out a happy chirp.

*****

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, someone called out, “Levi, it’s almost eight o’clock.”

Levi, the director of the Jaffina Kinetic University Tech Research Institute, sat ramrod straight on the sofa, and his eyes were glued to the phone on the coffee table.

His assistants were scattered around nearby, while the security guard assigned to protect Levi stood by the window, alert and ready for anything.

Even though they’d flown in with Conrad and his crew, they weren’t part of the same faction.

They were here because they’d heard rumors that Caleb, the mayor of Haliville, might have some kind of secret connection to Lab 709, and they were hoping to get lucky.

For half a month, they’d been reaching out to Lab 709 through every channel they could think of, hoping to snag exclusive authorization for a set of research data. But for reasons unknown, Lab 709 hadn’t replied at all. (For more on this, see Chapter 105.)

Then, Levi got an email just now.

It said they’d be calling at eight tonight.

Everyone immediately dropped whatever they were doing and gathered to wait, feeling pretty lucky. After all, Levi was supposed to go see Caleb tomorrow, but now they could skip that whole hassle.

As it got closer to eight o’clock, Levi was still in his traditional outfit from earlier, arms folded and looking completely unfazed. He said, “Look at you all, so nervous!”

‘Always losing their cool at the slightest thing. No one has any poise!’ Levi thought.

The assistants were speechless.

‘Maybe you should check out your own leg. It’s shaking so much, and you look more nervous than anyone,’ the assistants thought.

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Right at eight o’clock, the phone rang.

The old man, who’d just been complaining about everyone else being nervous, suddenly got so excited he could barely breathe. He waved for everyone to quiet down, took a couple of deep breaths, and hurriedly pressed the speaker button.

The person on the other end spoke fluently in another language, exchanged a few formal pleasantries, and then got straight to the point.

Even after the call ended, Levi was still in a daze, his mind spinning.

He never imagined that getting through to the director of Lab 709 could be this easy.

“Am I dreaming?” Levi muttered, still in a daze.

This was a top-secret collaboration between the Kinetic University Tech Research Institute and the military, aiming to equip next-gen fighter jets with ultra-precise tracking, targeting, and defense systems. If successful, it would take the jets’ combat capabilities to a whole new level.

However, the entire project was currently stuck at the most critical step, which was Lab 709’s monopoly on a crucial set of data.

Ding. An email popped up with the director’s phone number.

With trembling hands, Levi punched in the number.

*****

On Sandridge Island, Stella stepped out of the bathroom after her shower, sipping water from a glass with one hand. The bedroom door was slightly ajar, and Lucas, who had been sprawled on the bed reading a picture book, was nowhere to be seen.

She picked up her phone and saw a message from Nimbus.

At the same time, her phone rang. The caller ID showed a number from Jaffina.

Stella raised an eyebrow and answered.

“Hello, is that the director of Lab 709? My name is Levi, director of the Kinetic University Tech Research Institute in Jaffina, Clusia…” The voice on the other end was deep and shaky, speaking a foreign language with a careful tone and a whole lot of respect.

Stella stayed cool, taking another sip of water as if nothing could faze her.

‘Where have I heard that voice before? It rings a bell! Stella wondered.

“Yeah, go on,” she said.

Levi was stunned on the other end of the line.

Levi wondered, ‘Is there something wrong with my hearing?

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‘How can a voice sound that young?

‘Wait a second, is that Clusian?

‘Hold up, that’s not a foreign language.

‘Wait, the director of Lab 709 is Clusian?

‘And she’s a woman?’

Levi froze for a couple of seconds.

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Stella didn’t rush him since the door was nudged open by a big, round, white head. Snowball was slowly crawling in, balancing a plate of sliced fruit on its head. When it saw Stella looking at it, it happily wagged the tip of its tail.

Stella was speechless.

After a nudge from his assistant, Levi cleared his throat and finally found his voice. With everyone staring in shock, he switched to Clusian and got straight to the point. “If you have time, we can fly to Monterra to discuss things in person.”

“No need,” Stella’s cold voice came through the phone, making Levi’s heart jump into his throat. He tensed up, worried she might turn him down.

“I-I’m actually in Haliville right now. If you need me, I can book the earliest flight tomorrow morning—” Levi stammered.

Stella cut him off. “I already said no.”

Stella realized they were both in Haliville. ‘So he’s actually in the same city as me right now?’ she mused.

Stella was lost in thought while Snowball plopped its big head on the table, mouth wide open, tail tip smacking the floor.

Stella was speechless.

She chucked a piece of melon into Snowball’s mouth, then said, taking her time, “Give me three minutes.”

Stella popped open her own super-thin laptop with one hand and scanned through Nimbus’s email at lightning speed, getting the gist in seconds.

Meanwhile, Levi was clutching his phone so hard it looked like he might crush it, cold sweat pouring down

his back.

She might be young, but her vibe was so intense, it freaked him out even over the phone.

Every second of those three minutes dragged on like a year.

“How long are you staying in Haliville?” Stella’s icy voice finally came through after three minutes.

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Levi blurted out, “About a week.”

“Just stay by your phone,” Stella said coolly, then hung up without another word.

Levi just stared at his phone, stunned.

‘So… did she just say yes, or not?’ Levi thought.

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Snowball cocked its big, round head, looking absolutely adorable as it watched Stella, who was still deep in thought after hanging up. It nudged up against her, the cool, scaly touch bringing Stella back to earth.

She dialed up Caleb.

Caleb picked up right away. “Ms. Carter, what’s up?”

From the background noise, it was clear he’d just gotten home and was grabbing a bite to eat.

Stella asked in her usual laid-back way, “You have Central Military Command’s contact info, right?”

Caleb instantly got nervous. “Ms. Carter, is something wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing urgent, just…” Stella explained everything, idly stroking Snowball.

As Caleb listened, his face grew more serious, realizing this was no small matter. “Understood, I’ll reach out right away.”

Stella hung up, still as chill as ever, as if nothing had happened. She stretched lazily, her gaze drifting to the picture book spread out on the bed. She paused for a second.

‘So where did Lucas run off to?’ Stella wondered.

Upstairs in the bedroom, a grown-up and a kid sat facing each other, both frozen stiff like statues.

Lucas, with his chubby pale cheeks puffed out like a squirrel with its cheeks full, stared at the three-year contract on the table, arms crossed just like a little adult.

Lucas poked Sebastian.

Big Ben said, “Lucas is so cute, Stella would definitely pack him up and take him along if she ever leaves!”

Lucas cupped his chubby little cheeks, looking absolutely adorable.

Sebastian was speechless.

Lucas shot Sebastian a sideways glance, his eyes full of disdain.

Lucas poked Sebastian again, not letting up.

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Big Ben added, “Sebastian, you’re not cute at all! Stella would never want you!”

Lucas gave a little dismissive wave, his face full of adorable disdain.

Sebastian was still speechless.

Sebastian said coldly, “She gets so many love letters that her hands get tired.”

Lucas’s smile froze on his lips.

Sebastian muttered, voice low and menacing, “She might end up liking some random guy.”

Lucas’s eyes went wide in disbelief.

Sebastian’s eyes went cold and dark. “As soon as the three years are up, she’ll be gone.”

Lucas was shocked.

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Sebastian watched as Lucas started storming around the sofa in circles, letting out a cold laugh. “So-”

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