Wrapped in His Arms (Julie and Lucian) novel Chapter 9

But the sound of the voicemail sobered him up a little.

Julie had blocked his number.

How could she?

What now?

Then, he heard knocking on the door, followed by Doris Bivins' voice.

"Mr. Peyton, Mrs. Peyton had me bring the hangover tea over."

Zayn became extremely annoyed. Facing the door, he shouted, "Leave!"

Doris turned her head toward Martha helplessly.

Martha stretched her arm out to Doris. "Leave it to me. It's already late. You may rest now."

With the hangover tea in her hands, Martha opened the door and entered the room. When she saw Zayn lying on the bed with the clothes he had worn earlier, she reprimanded, "Get up. You can sleep after you've showered. Look at how sloppy you're being." 

He retorted sarcastically, "Yeah, yeah. What you want is a puppet for a son, someone who's soft-spoken and subservient. That's not me."

Looking at how miserable her son was, Martha sighed and could only switch to a gentler tone. "Why don't you drink the hangover tea first? You're going to continue feeling terrible if you don't."

Zayn got up reluctantly and stretched out his arm to take the mug from Martha.

The mug had just reached Zayn's mouth when Martha began her speech again. "Zayn, why do you think a marriage of alliance is common among affluent families? They're marrying within the circle because they have to prioritize the family's legacy.

"I just don't want to see you marrying some girl who wouldn't benefit you in any way and watch you regret it in the future."

Zayn paused for a moment without saying anything.

Martha continued, "In terms of family background and education, Anna is the perfect match for our family. I don't see why you have any reason not to date her. And if the two of you do end up getting married, I won't even stop you from taking Megan or Lily as your mistress. It's common among wealthy families. As long as the main marriage remains intact, extramarital affairs are often overlooked."

Hearing this, Zayn sneered, "Just like my father, huh?"

Martha's face froze. 

Zayn continued dismissively, "Don't worry. I'll go on the blind date. It's late. You should go to bed."

…

Julie returned to the dorm and saw that Amaya was already packing her things. She briefly glanced at her luggage. "Are you moving out?"

Amaya nodded. "Yeah. It'll be more convenient for me to go to work. Besides, now that I'm already in my fourth year, I don't have many assignments either."  

While she was talking, her gaze fell on the coat that was hanging from Julie's wrist. She rolled her eyes and gave her a look that said, "I knew it."

"You and Zayn are on good terms again?"

Julie was taken aback momentarily before she calmly replied, "Nope."

Amaya pointed at the coat that was on her wrist. "What's with that, then?"

Julie was stunned for a moment. She thought of Lucian and how he had gotten married. Her heart skipped a beat.

"Jules, still here with me? Did you hear what I said?" Amaya gave Julie a light nudge on the arm.

Julie snapped out of her daze. "It belongs to a guy I used to know."

When Amaya heard this, she immediately perked up with interest. "What guy? I bet he's no ordinary guy."

Julie was stunned for a while. "What?"

Amaya pointed at the coat. "This is a very expensive tailor-made coat that costs over a million dollars."

Julie was somewhat surprised. "It costs that much?"

Initially, she planned to keep the coat as she thought that it would not hurt Blaine to lose one. But she never expected it to be this expensive.

Amaya caught her expression and asked, "Don't tell me you didn't know."

Julie nodded awkwardly.

Amaya smirked slyly. "How about… you get to know this guy first?"

Puzzled, Julie said, "Huh?"

"Don't you see? It's a coat that's over a million dollars and he just gave it to you like it's nothing. He must have feelings for you."

When Julie heard this, she became conflicted.

Even though she might not be particularly close with Blaine, she had heard of his scandalous affairs before. She was concerned that Blaine actually had feelings for her. Julie would not let it happen.

She had to return the coat to him as soon as possible and make things clear to him.