Chapter 17
Chapter 17:
“You—” Gerard’s face twisted in anger, his temper boiling over. This wasn’t the same Noelle he was used to. The quiet girl who always tried to please everyone? Gone. In her place stood a woman who clearly wasn’t going to back down.
Gerard shot a glance at Maxton, who stood silently beside him, before straightening his back and speaking again, as though offering one last chance. “Noelle, if you admit your mistakes and come home, maybe the family can still accept you. But if you insist on continuing down this path p>
“I’ll keep going down this path,” Noelle cut in coolly, not even bothering to let him finish. She turned to walk away without hesitation.
Gerard quickly stepped in front of her, blocking her way, his eyes burning with fury. “Noelle Moss! What kind of attitude is that? Have you completely forgotten how to respect your own brother p>
Respect? For the past two years, he had never once treated her like a sister. But now he wanted her to play the role of the respectful sibling? What a joke.
“Gerard,” she said, her tone sharp and unbothered, “I’m no longer part of your Moss family. You have no right to demand anything from me p>
She glanced down at the arm barring her path, her eyes icy. “Move. Don’t make me say it again p>
𝘗𝘋𝗙ѕ 𝗈𝗇
Gerard’s expression darkened with fury. Just as he was about to explode, a voice broke the tension. “Noelle p>
It was Maxton.
Noelle slowly turned her head, meeting his eyes filled with contempt.
Once, a look like that from Maxton would have made her heart sink. She would have assumed she’d done something wrong and spent hours trying to figure out how to fix it—how to earn even a shred of approval.
But that was before. After everything she had been through—after being ignored and pushed aside—she didn’t flinch anymore.
Noelle glanced at Maxton, her expression indifferent. Then she spoke lightly. “Mr. Moss, what is it that you want p>
Mr. Moss.
The title hit him harder than he expected.
The Noelle he used to know had always called him Maxton, her voice soft and careful, always following behind him like she was trying not to be a burden.
And back then, he had hated it. He felt irritated every time she said his name, as if she wasn’t good enough to speak it. Only Willa, he had thought, deserved that closeness.
But now? Hearing Noelle call him Mr. Moss in that calm, distant tone felt wrong. Cold. Foreign. And for some reason, it didn’t sit right with him.
He pushed that feeling aside and kept his tone sharp. “When you left the house that day, was it someone from the Martin family who came to pick you up p>
Noelle raised an eyebrow, then let out a short, quiet laugh. So that was what this was about.
Of course. Maxton was the current CEO of Moss Corporation. To him, the Martin family wasn’t just a name—it was a valuable connection worth pursuing.