Sebastian glanced over, his tone light. “Get her out of here. I don’t want to see her again.”
Kelly’s fists clenched tight. As a favored heiress, this was the first time her pride and dignity had been so ruthlessly trampled by a man.
Her resentment couldn’t be directed at him, so she lashed out at Serena with a look sharp enough to flay skin.
Zayden politely escorted her out. Kelly lifted her chin with pride. “Mister, do you know who Serena is?”
Sebastian barely spared her a glance.
“She used to be the real heiress of the Reed family, but because of her terrible behavior—hurting her own siblings—even her biological parents couldn’t stand her and kicked her out. My aunt took her in out of pity. But she never repented—fighting classmates, cheating on exams—she’s done it all…”
“That’s fine.”
“What?”
“I’m not a good person either.”
Kelly stood there, stunned.
Once she was finally “escorted” out, Sebastian turned to Serena. “I’ve hurt my siblings too.”
He said it so casually, as if he was stating a simple fact, as if they were the same kind of people.
Serena’s porcelain-white face caught the light. “Don’t slander me. I’ll sue you for defamation.”
Sebastian was speechless.
Zayden had recently been conducting an experiment—testing Sebastian’s blood profile near different women versus near Serena.
The results were shocking. Whenever Sebastian was near other women, his neutrophils and hemoglobin spiked, while his lymphocytes dropped to various degrees.
He stared at Serena again and again but couldn’t figure out what made her so special. “Serena, are you sure you didn’t drug Mr. Hayes?”
Serena ignored him. She glanced at Sebastian’s complexion. He’d clearly taken that antihistamine again. “Do you want me to give you acupuncture?”
If the toxins built up too much, a sudden flare-up could be fatal.
Losing a $500,000-a-month client would be unfortunate.
Zayden jumped in at once. “No! You can’t go sticking needles into Mr. Hayes. If anything goes wrong, you can’t afford the consequences!”
Serena gave him a cool look. “The way you’re talking, I almost thought you were the one treating him.”
Serena didn’t pick up on his humor. She reached out and began unbuttoning his shirt.
Her warm, soft fingers brushed against his chest through the thin fabric. The sensation was oddly pleasant.
Sebastian let his eyes close slightly, feeling oddly relaxed.
Zayden watched as the little monster peeled off Sebastian’s shirt, exposing his sculpted torso—especially the eight-pack abs, perfectly shaped and not overly bulky. It was enough to make anyone drool.
Even as a guy, Zayden was jealous.
In Ardenos, any woman who saw Sebastian practically lost her mind. He was like a walking dispenser of pheromones—no female could resist him. Some males couldn’t either. But the man himself was as cold and chaste as they came. No one could get to him.
And yet here he was, shirtless in front of a girl who didn’t even bat an eye. Not even a flicker of admiration crossed her face.
Zayden was a little annoyed. It felt like his superior aesthetic taste had been insulted. “Hey, don’t you think Mr. Hayes has an amazing body?”
Serena answered calmly, “No matter how good the skin looks, it’s still just wrapping organs.”
“How could it be the same? Some people’s livers are full of fat, some lungs are pitch-black. But Mr. Hayes’s are definitely clean and beautiful. I’m just waiting for the day he needs surgery so I can open him up and take a look…”

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