Free Web NovelChapter 3: Uncomfortable Truth
The crowd outside the Grand Regent Hotel stayed frozen long after Liam lowered the bouquet. Whispers spread like wildfire.
"What just happened? Did he really confess to Olivia’s mother? Is he out of his mind? He’s doing that right in front of Olivia."
Victoria took a slow breath, forcing herself composed under dozens of curious eyes.
She thought for a second how to handle this maturely without spoiling nothing...
"Liam." Her voice was steady as she added; "Walk with me for a moment."
She didn’t wait for an answer before turning toward the parking area. Liam followed, already picturing the class group chat exploding before the afternoon was over.
Someone had certainly filmed it. Good. The more unforgettable, the better.
Behind him, Ethan scratched his head. "He’s either the bravest man I’ve ever met or the craziest."
"He’s just trying to attract attention," Damien muttered, glaring at Liam’s retreating back.
Olivia said nothing. She stood rooted to the spot, her face burning. Only minutes ago she’d been rehearsing the gentlest possible way to turn him down.
Now she wasn’t even the one he’d confessed to, and the realization stung far more than she wanted to admit. She stomped her foot and fled before anyone could catch her expression.
Victoria unlocked her silver Mercedes. "Get in."
Liam took the passenger in silence. Soft music drifted from the speakers as the car pulled away, the city moving past the windows as though nothing unusual had happened at all. Inside the car, the quiet felt heavier than it should have.
"I’ve known you for nearly two years," Victoria finally said, eyes on the road. "You’ve always been polite. Respectful."
She paused and glanced at him warmly; "So what happened today?"
There was no anger in her voice. Only confusion.
’I knew you’d ask that,’ Liam thought. It was a bit embarrassing to ask her out in that situation but the money was worth it... Not only that, Liam had always been attracted to mature women, milfs are the best!
"I deserve an explanation," she said.He looked out the window for a moment before answering.
"When I was younger, I thought I admired Olivia. I confused it with something it wasn’t." He let that settle before continuing.
"Every time I visited your house, the person I remembered afterward wasn’t her. It was you. You always asked if I’d eaten. You remembered my birthday. You treated me like family before I’d done anything to earn it."
Victoria’s hands tightened slightly on the wheel.
"I didn’t understand what that meant back then," he said. "I do now."
She didn’t answer right away. She couldn’t deny that she’d always been kind to the quiet, awkward boy who used to sit at her kitchen table doing homework while Olivia complained about hers.
But kindness wasn’t the same as love, and some part of her needed him to understand the difference.
Underneath the sincerity in his voice, Liam was doing math. Compared to fifty thousand dollars and whatever came after it, a little embarrassment cost him nothing.
He’d learned that lesson the hard way, over ten years of counting every dollar twice. If composure was the price of opportunity, he’d pay it without blinking. Let everyone else feel the awkwardness instead.
Victoria pulled into a quiet café tucked off the main street, the afternoon crowd thin enough for a private conversation. They took a table by the window, and after the coffee arrived and the waitress stepped away, she folded her hands.
"Liam. I appreciate the honesty. But admiration and romance aren’t always the same thing. You’ve only just become an adult. Life has a way of changing how you see people."
I know."Then why confess in front of everyone?"He smiled. "Because I wanted you to know I wasn’t joking."
Victoria studied him. He didn’t sound like an impulsive eighteen-year-old. He spoke slowly, patiently, like someone much older who’d had a long time to think this through.
It unsettled her more than the confession itself had.
"Liam, do you know about the Age-gap relationship?"
He almost laughed. "I’ve read about it. But I don’t think that’s what this is." He turned the coffee cup slowly in his hands. "Plenty of men twice my age date women half theirs, and nobody calls it a complex. Age is just a number people bring up when they want an easy reason to say no."
Victoria opened her mouth, then closed it. She was a divorced woman, free by every legal and moral measure that mattered.
He was already past eighteen, so he’s also, undeniably, an adult. She searched for the angle that would make his feelings improper and came up empty.
The thought unsettled her more than his confession had.
Before she could find something to say, the mechanical voice returned, silent to everyone but him.
[Mission Complete.]
[Impact Rating: A.]
[Reward Approved.]
[Funding Source Arranged.]
[Based on your past experience, the system has generated a legitimate source for this reward.]
[Your spare-time study of computer programming has been retroactively credited as a developed skill. Three weeks ago, you resolved a critical system failure for Andrew Lawson, CEO of Lawson Technologies.]
[As compensation, Mr. Lawson has authorized a bonus of $50,000, collectible tomorrow evening at VIP Suite 999, Grand Regent Hotel, during a private business dinner. Twelve attendees expected, including...]
[Skill Integration Complete: Computer Programming.]
[New Feature Unlocked: Opportunity Scan.]
Liam kept his expression perfectly still while privately cursing the system as cheap. ’Couldn’t it just deposit the money and skip the elaborate cover story?’
Still, a system that manufactured its own alibi was better than no system at all, and he wasn’t about to complain to the only thing standing between him and a second chance.
Victoria noticed the faint smile tugging at his mouth. "What are you smiling about?"
"Just thinking," Liam said, lifting his cup. "Today turned out differently than I expected."
"That," Victoria said, shaking her head, "is the understatement of the year."
For the first time since leaving the hotel, they both laughed.
