The Man Who Waited vs. The Man Who Wasted novel Chapter 176

It felt exactly like a trashy soap opera scene where the cheating wife was about to get caught.

When Maria had gone to answer the doorbell and looked through the peephole to see Adrian standing in the hall, she had run faster than she had in thirty years.

Maria knew perfectly well that if Adrian walked into the apartment in the middle of the night and found a strange man standing in Jocelyn's bedroom, there would be absolutely no way to explain it away.

Although Jocelyn firmly lived by the motto 'the innocent have nothing to hide', right now, avoiding a massive, explosive confrontation was the smartest play.

But they couldn't exactly shove the incredibly dignified CEO of Vanguard Tech into a closet like a cheap gigolo.

Jocelyn looked at Julian, completely mortified.

Julian, however, remained entirely unfazed. "Where is the most tactically sound location to conceal myself?"

The apartment had an open-concept floor plan. The moment you walked through the front door, you could see practically the entire living space.

Hiding a six-foot-tall man was going to be a challenge.

"The kitchen," Jocelyn blurted out.

Adrian despised the smell of cooking grease and food prep. The man had never lifted a finger around the house in his life. He wouldn't set foot in a kitchen if his life depended on it.

Maria frantically shoved Julian toward the kitchen and pulled the heavy sliding doors shut behind him.

The second Maria unlocked the front door, Adrian pushed his way inside, his face dark with irritation.

"What took you so long to open the door?!"

Maria crossed her arms, entirely unbothered by his attitude. "Mr. Lowell, do you have any idea what time it is? It's the middle of the night! People are sleeping!"

Adrian reeked of expensive scotch.

"Go fix me something for this hangover. And get me some aspirin. I’m going to take a shower."

He arrogantly started walking straight toward the master bedroom.

Maria immediately jumped in front of him, blocking his path.

"Mr. Lowell, Miss Jocelyn is very sick and she is already asleep. Please do not go in there and disturb her."

Adrian's face turned to stone.

"Maria, have you forgotten that I legally own this property?"

"The owner of this property is now Jocelyn Lowell," Maria snapped back. "Technically, you're trespassing."

Adrian let out a dark, humorless chuckle.

"You know, I've noticed you're starting to talk exactly like her. I guess the servant really does take after the master."

"Thank God I take after Miss Jocelyn," Maria shot back. "If I acted like you, I'd die of embarrassment."

Surprisingly, Adrian didn't explode. He simply shoved Maria out of the way and stalked into the bedroom.

When Adrian walked in and saw Jocelyn lying in bed still fully dressed in her day clothes, he frowned in confusion.

Jocelyn stayed completely silent.

She didn't need to ask what the crisis was.

Because she was the one who caused it.

"The core training data for the aviation AI model we've been pouring billions into... it's been entirely wiped out."

"My tech department has spent the last forty-eight hours trying to recover the data, but it's completely hopeless. Even my lead programmers have hit a brick wall."

"It looks like launching this AI is going to be physically impossible."

Jocelyn didn't say a word.

Adrian pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took two deep, ragged drags. He looked utterly defeated and exhausted.

"I despise the smell of smoke," Jocelyn said flatly. "Put it out."

Miraculously, Adrian actually reached over and crushed the cigarette into a nearby ashtray.

He was acting so compliant it was genuinely unnerving.

"The entire strategic plan was riding on this launch," Adrian muttered. "Once that model hit the market, Momentum AI would have become the undisputed king of the tech industry. And now..."

Now, he had absolutely nothing to show for it.

And worse, someone currently had a knife pressed directly to his throat.