Belated Moonlight: He Regretted Only After I Left-Chapter 69: Why Are You Taking Off Your Clothes?
Stella Sterling hastily withdrew her gaze, her cheeks burning intensely. She didn’t dare glance towards Shane Donovan and stumbled over her words, "Bro, I... I’m fine... I just saw a big cockroach, scared me to death... It’s already run away, um, I’ve got things to do here, won’t talk anymore, I’ll hang up first..."
Saying this, before Aidan Sterling could respond, she already hung up the phone.
"Shane Donovan! You- you, why are you undressing?!"
Only to see Shane Donovan still standing by the desk, his long fingers resting on the third button of his shirt, his cold white collarbone and a small patch of firm chest faintly visible under the light.
He slightly raised an eyebrow, a very faint curve on the corner of his lips, pointing to a small medical kit that had somehow been placed at the corner of the desk.
"Applying medicine." He said concisely, his tone so calm as if the person who was undressing in front of her just now wasn’t him.
"..."
Stella was choked, only now noticing the brown leather medicine box, inside neatly arranged with iodine, cotton swabs, and gauze.
But...
But applying medicine is applying medicine, did he have to...
Did he have to undress in front of her now?!
Stella glared at him angrily—clearly on purpose!
"What? Want to help me apply the medicine?"
Shane Donovan unhurriedly made a move to unbutton the third button...
Stella’s breath hitched, she turned around abruptly, and quickly walked towards the study door. "You can do it yourself!"
She threw down these words, turned without looking back, opened the study door, and quickly ran out.
"Bang!"
The study door slammed shut behind her.
Stella practically ran all the way downstairs, and when she reached the courtyard, the cool evening breeze hit her, finally cooling down the temperature of her cheeks and earlobes a bit.
She stopped, leaning against a tall magnolia tree in the courtyard, panting slightly, and raised her hand to slap her still burning cheeks vigorously, trying to cool down with the coolness of her palm.
But... the scene from the study just now couldn’t help but flash in her mind—
The man’s long fingers resting on a button, the unhurried movement, the cold white skin gradually revealed under the unbuttoned shirt, the clear collarbone lines...
"Ah—!" Stella let out a low cry, shaking her head vigorously, as if trying to shake these messy "yellow waste materials" completely out of her mind.
What was she thinking about!
Stop!
Form is emptiness.
Emptiness is form...
And just as Stella was muttering these calming mantras to herself, a certain image in her mind suddenly came to a clear standstill—
The position on Shane Donovan’s left chest, near the heart, seemed to have a faintly visible, pale pink... scar?
Stella’s head-shaking action abruptly paused, her brows slightly furrowed.
That scar...
The position...
She pressed her lips together.
Jasper Hawthorne also has a scar on his chest, one that was caused by a knife wound while saving her back in the day...
But why would Shane Donovan also have a scar on his chest?
Is it a coincidence?
Or...
As soon as this thought emerged, she dismissed it immediately.
How could it be?
She must have seen it wrong.
Stella took a deep breath, thoroughly tossing this inexplicable doubt out of her mind.
Now isn’t the time to think about these things. The pressing issue at hand is thinking about how to resolve this engagement mess!
...
Inside the study.
Listening to the hurried footsteps escaping outside the door, Shane Donovan couldn’t help but curve his lips into a somewhat amused smile.
He lowered his head, glanced at the faint pale pink scar near his heart, a look deep and inscrutable.
His mind couldn’t help but drift back to that winter night five years ago—a dim alley, the cold edge of a knife, and... the feeling of warm blood splattering on his face...
The doctor had mentioned back then that if the knife had gone an inch deeper, it would have severed the major artery...
Fortunately, Stella was unharmed.
Shane Donovan pressed his lips together, called the family doctor in to disinfect and dress his wound.
The sting of the medicine touching the wound made him frown slightly but he didn’t say much, as if he didn’t feel the pain.
After taking care of the wound, he picked up the clean shirt tossed aside, put it on carefully, buttoning it one by one, covering the old scar, and reverting back to the usual aloof and commanding figure of the Donovan family head.
He walked to the window, lifted a corner of the heavy curtain, and looked down.
In the courtyard, under the magnolia tree, that slender figure was pacing back and forth anxiously, occasionally raising her hand to slap her cheeks, looking both annoyed and at a loss.
A hint of softness flashed in the depth of Shane Donovan’s eyes. His fingertips unconsciously traced the window ledge as he recalled a summer ten years ago, in the back garden of the Sterling home, the silhouette of a girl holding a book on the swing...
He originally thought he wouldn’t have a chance to be by her side again.
But fate—
Hadn’t been unkind to him after all...
...
Meanwhile, at The Sterling Group.
Aidan Sterling looked at the phone his little sister had just hung up, his brow furrowed, fingertip unconsciously rubbing the edge of his phone.
Cockroach?
Where could there be such a big cockroach in Riveria during late autumn?
That girl’s habit of raising her tone unconsciously when telling a lie hadn’t changed from childhood.
He irritably loosened his tie, just about to call back when the study door was knocked on.
"Come in."
Mr. Sterling, Theodore Sterling, walked in with a phone call still ongoing, his expression somewhat subtle, gesturing for silence.
"...Yes, Elder Donovan, you speak."
Theodore Sterling’s tone was respectful, and listening to the strong voice on the other end, his eyebrows gradually relaxed, even a hint of a smile appeared.
Aidan Sterling’s sense of foreboding surged sharply.
"Yes, it’s a good thing the kids are fond of each other... Stella is indeed a bit willful... Okay... Hahaha... Then for the engagement arrangements, we’ll coordinate fully with you..."
He stood there, listening to his father’s words of agreement here and there, only feeling a chill rising from his feet straight to the top of his head.
Elder Donovan?
There was only one person in The Kaelon Circle who could make his father speak in such a tone!
The call lasted nearly ten minutes.
Theodore Sterling hung up, turning to look at his son whose face had turned ashen. "It was Mr. Donovan. He said Stella is currently at the Donovan family mansion, together with Shane."
He paused, giving Aidan a meaningful look, "The rumors in the financial news today, the female lead is Stella. Elder Donovan implies the two kids are in a genuine relationship and plan to get married. To quell the rumors and for Stella’s reputation, they plan to hold the engagement banquet as soon as possible, scheduled for next month."
Every word was like an ice pick, hammering hard into Aidan’s eardrum.
He felt his blood freeze at that moment, and then in the next instant, it seemed to burn fiercely.
"I don’t agree!" Aidan abruptly raised his head, his voice hoarse, his eyes filled with uncontrollable, alarming redness, "I absolutely don’t agree with this marriage!"
The smile on Theodore Sterling’s face faded, his brows furrowing, "Reason?"
