When the Contract Marriage Ended, He Stayed

Chapter 30: Who Dares to Make You Angry?

Hazel Hawthorne disliked flippant men, and Julian Sterling struck her as exactly that—the type to hit on any random person he saw. Besides, after marrying Aiden Xavier, she had become immune to handsome men. When she saw someone who looked like Julian, she naturally superimposed Aiden’s image onto them.

To sum it up in one sentence: handsome men were all scumbags, all flash and no substance. The more handsome a man was, the harder he was to control, and the more of a player he tended to be.

Hazel left the balcony, mentally blacklisting the spot. The company wasn’t her private domain, after all. She had to be more cautious to avoid unknowingly offending someone and getting stabbed in the back.

Hazel didn’t dwell on her encounter with Julian Sterling. She went to and from work as usual and spent her time at home alone as usual. The only difference was that Aiden Xavier had been showing up at home a lot more recently, which made her, a woman long accustomed to solitude, feel thoroughly uncomfortable.

Hazel thought carefully about when Aiden Xavier’s behavior had started to change.

It was probably after Fiona Forrest told them to have a child, and Aiden agreed without a second thought.

An inexplicable fear crept into Hazel. This fear stemmed from the possibility that Aiden was actually developing feelings for her.

Hazel hoped she and Aiden could eventually part on good terms, and she didn’t want any emotional entanglements with him. Deep down, she felt he had far too many romantic scandals. She couldn’t even count the number of women she’d had to deal with for him on both hands.

Falling in love with a man like Aiden Xavier would surely mean a lifetime of exhaustion.

Her father, Harrison Hawthorne, was a prime example. He had a mistress while he was married. The man her mother had loved her entire life ended up marrying that mistress less than a month after her mother passed away, and he even had a secret daughter with the woman.

She could never truly feel the pain of her mother’s betrayal, but she had witnessed firsthand a man’s heartlessness. It made her question the very idea of unwavering love.

She believed that steadfast, unwavering love existed in the world, but she also understood it was a one-in-a-million chance. Her mother hadn’t found it, and she didn’t believe she would either.

All Aiden Xavier saw was Hazel Hawthorne’s distance. Even when he appeared before her, she would only offer a faint smile, just like when they had first gotten married—polite and respectful, but with nothing to say to each other, merely maintaining the facade of a married couple.

reason for Hazel’s sudden

woman’s heart is a needle at the bottom of the sea. One second,

when it came to

wrong. Aiden sat in the living room, staring blankly at her retreating figure. When she didn’t look back, he suddenly felt a wave of disappointment wash over him. He didn’t

even less was why he had turned down a chance to be

The vast living room felt suffocating. The maids bustled about, pretending to be busy with their tasks, but they kept stealing glances at him, quickly looking away whenever they thought he

given the cold shoulder by his wife—lonely, desolate, and

up with a grim expression and left

just to be met with her cold shoulder.’ He knew Hazel was unhappy at the Sterling Group and had planned to ask if she wanted to work at his own company. But her indifferent attitude had wounded his

already a proactive gesture on his part. He couldn’t be expected to grovel and beg her to

leaving, Aiden drove straight

held in one hand and a glass of water in the other. He exuded an air of elegant laziness, a faint smile playing on his lips, which widened when he saw Aiden Xavier push the door open with a

gotten on our dear Young Master Xavier’s bad side?" Julian was all smiles, not looking in the least

a cool

water and asked in a teasing, punch-worthy tone, "Come on, tell me who it was. I’ll definitely help

has the

strange behavior, he frowned, briefly considering

say anything, Julian made a clever guess. "It couldn’t be your

Lowell was Aiden Xavier’s

exceptionally jarring to Aiden. He instantly recalled how Hazel also liked to use that term to describe Raina Lowell, yet his attitude

he was always

has nothing to do with Raina," Aiden

who else could

person

inspiration hit Julian. "Don’t tell