"This is your own doing!" Lina detached the hand that was pinching Adrian's chin.
It hurt.
The more she grew impatient, the colder Adrian seemed to become.
Suddenly, the man grabbed her arm.
"Ah!"
Lina felt a sharp pain in her upper arm and let out a startled cry.
Why did it hurt so much?
Lina tried to break away, but Adrian stubbornly pinched the pain spot even harder.
Beside her ear, Adrian said in a mischievous tone, "Do you have such a bad memory that you've already forgotten the oath you swore only three days ago?"
Lina was completely stunned.
She swore an oath three days ago?
Why would she swear an oath?
With his deep, commanding voice, Adrian opened up her dusty memories from years ago, memories she had long dismissed as unimportant.
That day, an uncle with good relations with both the Black and Gray families visited her father.
He unintentionally brought up that the Black family intended to marry into the Gray family, without specifying which Miss Gray was the intended bride.
At that moment, Lina was peeling an apple and said casually in response, "It won't be me! If you make me marry Adrian, I would rather die!"
Tia did not hear her complaints but noticed she was sitting on the edge of the chair.
Walking past Lina from behind, she deliberately kicked the only weight-bearing leg of the chair. As expected, Lina tumbled off.
The apple-slicing knife scratched Lina's arm.
The Gray family didn't care about Lina, so a minor injury, more or less, didn't matter. But Vivian, who never shied away from a spectacle, exaggerated and spread the incident.
She said that at the mere mention of Adrian's name, Lina felt such disgust that she wanted to die.
And it wasn't just talk—she had really tried to hurt herself. Lina would have truly cut off her own arm if Tia hadn't stepped in to stop her. She had wanted to cut her arm because Adrian had grabbed it when he couldn't see the way!
Due to his eye condition, Adrian's status in the Black family had fallen drastically. This incident made him a laughingstock of the entire family.
They sneered at him openly and implicitly, saying even a nobody would look down upon such a person. They wondered why he had the audacity to continue freeloading in the Black family.
Lina remembered that because of this incident, the Gray family offended Adrian. When the Gray family later encountered a crisis, not only did Adrian not help them, but he even contributed to their downfall.
Lina's mother, who already disliked her, resented her even more after that.
She firmly believed Lina was a troublemaker, thinking the family would never have peace as long as she was around!
Lina had no time to explain to Adrian because she suddenly remembered something even more critical.
Evan would come to the Gray family tomorrow and formally propose a marriage.
She couldn't let that happen!
She no longer wanted anything to do with that jerk, Evan!
Whenever she thought about his insincere behaviour, snooping on her health data behind her back, scheming to manipulate her health, only for him to eventually wield a scalpel at her…
Lina truly wanted to vomit in disgust!
The door at the end of the corridor opened, and a handsome man in a white coat appeared.
Lina quickly retreated. "You come over and support Adrian, I have other things to do!" With that, she quickly disappeared into the emergency exit.
"Nathan," Adrian walked over, glanced at the emergency exit, turned his back, and said, "Let's go in."
Adrian's expression was dark. He did not lean on Nathan's shoulder and walked in alone.
At the entrance of Apex Corporation on the thirteenth floor.
Lina straightened her clothes, smoothed her hair, and smiled brightly.
"Hello, I'm Lina from Crestline Enterprises. I'm looking for Mr. Daniel."
The receptionist glanced at Lina casually and dialed the secretarial department's number, but quickly hung up.
"Mr. Daniel is not here. You can make an appointment, but the earliest available slot is next month."
When Lina stood at the company door, she remembered how she had signed the contract with Mr. Daniel.
While others used their physique or altered features to sign contracts, Lina relied on her fist.
Even Mr. Daniel, who had seen the world, had signed the contract tremblingly after seeing Lina crush a glass with her bare hands.
Only a few hours had passed, and he was already avoiding her like the plague, probably concocting excuses to break the contract.
Lina picked up her cell phone, placed it against her ear, and exclaimed loudly, "Miss Selina, listen to me! Mr. Daniel really isn't in the company!"
Suddenly, the office door opened, revealing Mr. Daniel's startled face. Lina waved her phone at him and walked toward him with a smile.
"Mr. Daniel, do you have some time to chat with me?"
Mr. Daniel angrily returned to his office, his face twitching in agitation. He shot the receptionist a harsh stare before retreating.
Lina closed the door, pulled out the contract, and placed it on the desk. "I'm sorry for the disturbance, Mr. Daniel. I need to confirm the next steps with you."
"You investigated me?" Mr. Daniel said, his eyes bulging, and flung the documents onto the floor.
Looking at the scattered documents, Lina remained unruffled, her radiant smile unshaken.
Many things in her past weren't disastrous, but her impulsive and stubborn demeanor had ruined them all.
Reborn in this life, she was determined to stay humble and patient, to live a flamboyantly beautiful life full of rainbows.
"I was just joking around with you earlier," Lina stated, pulling out a carbon pen, extending it, and placing it on the table. "As long as you collaborate with our company, I assure you that Miss Selina will stop pestering you."
Mr. Daniel wasn't exactly the ideal son-in-law, always suffering in silence, looking at his wife and father-in-law, and occasionally going out to relax.
After voicing his complaints a few times, Miss Selina had expected more from him.
Mr. Daniel was as good as useless after leaving his father-in-law's house, not daring to make a big fuss. To his surprise, Miss Selina actually called him and pressured him to get a divorce.
"You can really handle her?" Mr. Daniel leaned in. "She's pregnant!"
"If I say it, I will definitely do it." Lina smiled sweetly, her gaze exceptionally firm.
In her previous life, Miss Selina had completely fallen out with Mr. Daniel. When becoming his official wife failed, she accused him of forcing her into womanhood. During one of the court hearings, she purposely infuriated Mr. Daniel, and when the two were scuffling, she miscarried.
The public severely criticized Mr. Daniel for this incident. They accused him of being too cruel to Miss Selina, as it was his own child after all.
Not only did he pay a hefty sum as compensation after the incident, but he was ultimately kicked out of the house by his wife.
At that time, Lina also felt Mr. Daniel was a jerk. But when she saw the consultation records at Dr. Brown's clinic, she realized the child Miss Selina was carrying was not his at all.
Mr. Daniel quickly moved around his desk, picking up all the files from the floor and stacking them neatly on the table.
"As long as you can handle her, any future collaborations with your company, I'll only negotiate with you!"
The future? Mr. Daniel was likely the type to remember the reward but forget the punishment, and would probably make the same mistake.
Lina was not hoping for the future; she only wanted to secure this current deal.
"Then please proceed with the first payment, Mr. Daniel."
Lina placed the contract in front of him, ready for his signature. Mr. Daniel picked up the pen and hesitated slightly. "Even if I sign this check, it can still be frozen. I'll give you three days. First, get Miss Selina to abort the child!"
"Do you think that if she doesn't have the child, she won't bother you anymore?" Lina laughed and shook her head.
"When you were together, Miss Selina was always the one who booked the room, wasn't she?"
"…" Mr. Daniel was flabbergasted. "You mean… she recorded us?"
Lina simply shrugged.
After a long while, Mr. Daniel finally swallowed. "Then how are you going to help me? By retrieving the recordings? What if she has a backup?"
"Fight fire with fire." Lina's smile was extraordinarily brilliant.