Ficorpio
Chapter 1
At the gala.
My fiancé’s assistant came out of nowhere and knocked my shawl to the floor.
“Why should Mr. Sterling have to carry that for you? Do you not have hands? Apologize to him!”
The young woman bared her teeth at me.
Recklessly adorable.
Everyone around us froze.
Adrian tried to soothe me. “She was only standing up for me. Don’t be angry.”
There really was no point in being angry.
I picked up the shawl and smiled with perfect composure.
“The shawl is one hundred and sixty thousand. Card or cash?”
Her face went white at once.
“What kind of shawl costs a hundred and sixty thousand? Are you trying to scam me?”
“Loro Piana vicuna.” I paused, then offered helpfully, “If you’ve never heard of it, you’re welcome to find someone who knows luxury goods and have it authenticated.”
Her eyes reddened.
As if I had humiliated her.
Adrian Sterling frowned.
He suggested we speak outside first.
It was my birthday today, but I was not in a particularly good mood.
We stood beside the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The young woman apologized to me. “I’m sorry. If I’d known that thing cost a hundred and sixty thousand, I never would have thrown it aside…”
She bit her lip, then tried to defend herself. “But you shouldn’t have made someone else carry your things in the first place…”
Oh.
I turned and told my assistant to find a card reader.
The young woman’s eyes went wide.
She could no longer even keep up the pretense of youthful impulsiveness.
She snatched my shawl, shook it open, and shouted, “It isn’t even damaged! You can still wear it. Why should I have to pay?”
“Because you touched it,” I said. “And I don’t like that.”
The words had barely left my mouth when Adrian’s brows drew together.
“Claire, that’s enough.”
He stopped me.
The young woman immediately found her courage again.
Even the way she looked at me gained a touch of stubborn defiance.
Of course the shawl had not truly been ruined by being dropped.
But on my birthday, being publicly slapped in the face by someone who had come out of nowhere?
No one would be happy about that.
My gaze settled on Adrian Sterling’s face.
“I don’t recall sending invitation cards to anyone outside our business circle. So how, exactly, did this naive little sweetheart get in?”
Silence fell around us.
Adrian rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Claire, this was my fault…”
Before he could finish, the young woman’s eyes reddened again.
“It wasn’t his fault! I insisted on following him in! Don’t make things difficult for Mr. Sterling!”
I narrowed my eyes.
“Miss Harper, you do know Adrian Sterling and I are engaged, don’t you?”
Her face flushed scarlet.
Still, she forced her spine straight and argued as if principle itself were standing behind her.
Chapter 2
“Even if you’re engaged, that makes you equals. You shouldn’t make Mr. Sterling handle your personal problems for you.”
Fine.
She did have a backbone.
I turned to my assistant. “Pull the security footage. Find out exactly how much this young lady has eaten and drunk tonight, then charge her according to value.”
My assistant nodded and left to handle it.
The girl froze. All that reckless courage drained out of her at once.
Helpless, she looked toward Adrian Sterling.
“Mr. Sterling…”
When the bill came back, her legs nearly gave out. She swayed where she stood, face empty with shock.
“How…? I only had a little. Eighteen thousand? I—I…”
She couldn’t even finish a sentence.
I kindly corrected her. “One hundred seventy-eight thousand. And that doesn’t include the shawl you knocked down while defending someone else’s honor.”
The last of the color vanished from her face.
Apparently, justice was harder to perform when it came with an invoice.
I motioned for my assistant to hand her the bill. “Aren’t you the principled one? Equals, remember? Surely you wouldn’t eat and drink at someone else’s expense.”
She was frightened stiff.
She didn’t move. She didn’t dare take the bill.
Adrian reached out, pinched the invoice between two fingers, glanced at it, and tore it into four neat pieces.
“I’ll pay for her.”
The girl’s eyes lit up instantly.
Adrian put an arm around me, amused. “She’s a young girl who’s barely stepped into society. Claire, why bother getting angry with her?”
In the glass beside us, I caught the reflection.
He made a small gesture at her.
She bit her lip, then ran off in a hurry.
I looked at him.
“It’s my birthday today. You’re paying double for what she ruined. Three hundred fifty-six thousand. Now.”
He paused.
Then he laughed under his breath and opened his banking app. A moment later, five hundred twenty thousand landed in my account.
“Fine. Consider the rest an apology.”
Before we returned to the hall, I gave him a sidelong look.
“You’ve made me very unhappy today.”
Adrian Sterling and I had never been a simple strategic marriage alliance.
We grew up together. Childhood sweethearts, as people liked to say.
Back then, my family had only just begun hinting that they were open to an alliance between our families.
Adrian booked an overnight flight home from overseas and appeared at my front door. The moment he stepped inside, he got straight to the point.
“Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, if it’s marriage you want, I’m willing.”
My parents hesitated.
A strategic marriage was still a strategic marriage.
After the wedding, two people could keep up appearances and live separate lives, each doing as they pleased, then perform the happy couple routine when the occasion required it.
But if real feelings were involved…
To prove his sincerity, Adrian had prepared everything in advance: a full inventory of the assets he held at the time.
Chapter 3
“Half of this can be transferred into Claire’s name whenever she wants. In addition, the Bennetts can take part in the overseas project in Y.”
My parents fell silent.
The project Adrian mentioned had profits in the ten-figure range. Being allowed in meant the Bennett family would make at least nine figures from it.
That level of sincerity…
No family in our circle would have called it insufficient.
As for me, I flipped to the last page of the documents and closed the file.
“I can agree to the marriage,” I said. “But on one condition. If you fall for someone else outside this arrangement, you don’t interfere with my freedom either.”
“Of course.”
He caught my hand where it rested on the coffee table, his eyes burning with conviction.
“Claire, trust me. That day will never come for us.”
The day after my birthday, Adrian Sterling asked me to come by his office.
A beautifully wrapped gift box was waiting for me on the coffee table.
“Claire,” he said, “this is for you.”
Inside was a Colombo shawl, linen-colored, with a soft fringe along the edges.
Adrian laid his hand gently over the back of mine.
“I’m sorry about yesterday. The person I brought with me ruined your evening.
“I only meant to let someone from the company see how these events work. I didn’t expect the girl to be so reckless and cause a scene.
“I wanted to make it up to you last night, but I was afraid you were still angry. Afraid you’d say something about punishing me…”
His voice trembled slightly.
“Claire, I won’t do that again.”
I said nothing.
A knock sounded at the office door.
The same impulsive young woman from yesterday came in carrying coffee.
Her head was bowed. Her manner was painstakingly respectful.
My gaze landed on the name badge pinned to her chest.
Intern Assistant: Jenna Harper.
“Mr. Sterling, Ms… Ms. Weston. Coffee.”
Her voice was thick, as if she had been crying.
When she brought my cup over, somehow, she stumbled. More than half the coffee splashed straight into the gift box.
Panic flooded her face.
“Ms… Ms. Weston… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to.”
I stayed where I was.
Adrian, however, shot to his feet.
“What the hell is wrong with you? You can’t even carry a cup of coffee? If you can’t do this job, then don’t do it at all.”
Jenna shrank under the scolding.
Tears dropped one after another onto the carpet.
I saw Adrian’s body go faintly rigid for a split second.
The air in the office tightened.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose, then waved her away impatiently.
“Useless. Get out.”
The girl’s face flushed scarlet.
She turned and left as if she had lost her soul.
Only then did I lift my eyes.