The Mocked Miss’s Hidden Crowns novel Chapter 1949

After forcibly pulling herself together, Stella dressed for the day and stepped out of her bedroom. The guest room door was wide open. The room was totally empty, the bed immaculately made.

She wandered into the living room to find a hot breakfast waiting on the dining table. Next to the plate sat a sticky note: *Thanks for taking me in, Stella. Make sure you eat your breakfast.*

Tracing the sharp, masculine scrawl with her fingertip, Stella carefully folded the little slip of paper and tucked it away in her drawer, guarding it like it was a priceless treasure.

After finishing the meal, she sat down at her desk, intending to type up all the notes from Roger's tutoring session.

Before she could start, her phone buzzed with an incoming file from him. It was a perfectly organized summary of everything they had covered, complete with crucial details she had completely missed.

As she scrolled through the meticulous document, Stella pinched her lower lip, a scowl slowly taking over her features. With his dominant hand out of commission, there was zero chance he had drafted this entirely this morning.

That meant... when he initially sent her the impossibly dense reading material, he had already anticipated exactly which parts she would struggle with. He had deliberately withheld the study guide just so he could use it as an excuse to invite himself over. Charlotte always complained that Anthony was a manipulative fox, but honestly, Roger was just as devious.

Across the city, Roger was sitting behind the desk in his office, swiftly clearing out his massive backlog of paperwork. Veronica remained frozen at her workstation, her gaze practically burning a hole through the glass wall separating them.

After failing to secure a ride home with him last night, she had woken up at dawn to camp out near the Gates estate, hoping to orchestrate a "chance" encounter. But Roger never showed.

From the intel she had gathered, he didn't own any private real estate in Cabinda. Combine that with his legendary germaphobia, and there was absolutely no way he would willingly stay in a hotel.

So where exactly had he slept last night?

Thinking back to the mystery woman on the voice memo, Veronica's eyes turned terrifyingly cold.

After a tense silence, she whipped out her phone and dialed her most well-connected friend in the city.

"To get Roger, I'm willing to walk through hell," Veronica replied, her knuckles turning white as she glared obsessively at Roger through the glass. Her tone was absolute. "I've been in love with him for ten years. I refuse to sit back and watch some little tramp steal him away from me."

"But the Gates family—"

"Janice." Veronica aggressively cut her off. "Relax. I've done my homework. I know exactly how to manipulate Samantha into adoring me." And once Samantha was on her side, the ring was practically on her finger.

"Fine," Janice sighed in defeat. "I'll have the intel to you by tomorrow."

Meanwhile, at Kingswood University. Stella stepped out of her afternoon lecture to a call from Charlotte.

"Shirley's departure date is locked in," Charlotte announced over the line. She was lounging on the sofa, her slightly swollen pregnant belly resting comfortably as she simultaneously barked orders at Anthony, who was frantically grading papers for her. "She flies out to The Apex University next week. We're doing a big farewell dinner for her tomorrow night."