The Love I Begged For Was Never Real novel Chapter 232

Nora grabbed the sketchbook off the desk and flipped to one of the pages.

"If you have so much free time to audit my phone, maybe you should spend it figuring out how to deal with Julian."

She let out a cold scoff, forcefully dragging the subject away. "After all, I just walked out of the Pierce Group building. Julian is incredibly invested in Giselle's birthday present."

The moment the Pierce Group was mentioned, Gideon's attention successfully diverted.

His hand hovered in the air, his gaze lingering on the arm Nora was hiding behind her back.

Eventually, he pulled his hand away.

"Julian made you redraw it?"

Gideon frowned, his tone laced with a knowing certainty.

Nora leaned back in her chair and let out a sharp, sarcastic laugh.

"Why ask a question you already know the answer to?"

She crossed her arms, firing back without hesitation.

"Last night in the study, you proclaimed that this draft would get rejected the second I handed it over. And today, Julian parroted your exact lecture word for word. The unspoken synergy you two share in protecting Giselle's tastes is truly breathtaking."

Gideon's frown deepened at her barbed mockery.

He looked at her pale complexion and the heavy exhaustion lingering in her eyes, a sudden wave of irritation washing over him.

He remembered how stubbornly she had fought him over the design in the study last night.

He had only tried to warn her to change it so she wouldn't waste her time, but she refused to appreciate it, insisting on taking that draft to Julian only to hit a brick wall.

"I told you last night, the angles on those designs were too sharp."

Gideon sighed, softening his tone slightly in an attempt to reason with her.

"I just don't want to see you working yourself to death. If modifying the design is too difficult, I can go talk to Julian..."

The second his fingertips brushed her skin, Nora violently yanked her arm away as if she had been burned.

"Don't touch me!" she snapped, swatting his hand aside.

Gideon's hand froze in midair.

He stared at the undisguised disgust and rejection in her eyes, freezing in place. A flicker of shock flashed through his dark pupils, followed by a suffocating tightness in his chest.

He had only wanted to tell her she didn't have to carry all this pressure alone, yet she was dodging him like a plague.

Nora was about to keep going.

But a concerned voice from her mother suddenly floated through the door.

"Nora? Gideon? Are you two in there?"