The Billionaire's Restraint

Chapter 4:

It was a deep male voice, carrying a rare chill on a summer day. Liliana felt a tingling sensation on her scalp, her voice unconsciously stiffening, “Hello, Mr. William.”

“You still remember my voice, Ms. Watts,” Justin responded.

Liliana had no intention of talking to him. “Mr. William, when will Lucia’s documents be sent? The school requires the leave of absence procedure to be completed within two weeks.”

“I just arrived at your office. Ms. Watts, your colleague, said they didn’t know when you’d be back, so I had to call you.” Justin said, pausing briefly, and explained, “Lucia gave me your number.”

According to school regulations, teaching assistants must work on time. However, because of frequent incidents, teaching assistants often ran around, and the school couldn’t strictly enforce attendance. Therefore, Liliana often handled personal matters during work hours.

She tried to negotiate, “I’m sorry, I’m outside right now. How about this? You can leave the documents in my office first, okay?”

“No,” he firmly refused.

Justin added, “Tomorrow I have to go on a business trip and won’t be in Tomasso for a while. Ms. Watts, I suggest you come back right now. I’ll wait for you at the school.”

When he said these words, his tone was not at all polite, but Liliana didn’t want to argue with a student’s family member, especially since this was her responsibility. After thinking for a moment, she replied, “Please wait for me for half an hour. I’ll be there shortly.”

When she drove back and parked behind the office building, it had been exactly half an hour. As soon as she got out of the car, a man in a black suit stepped out of a black car parked by the road and held the door open, calling out to her, “Mr. William is waiting for you here.”

The car looked extremely expensive, and the muscular man appeared to be a bodyguard. Definitely not an ordinary person. She felt surprised and hesitated before approaching. The tinted window slowly rolled down, revealing a handsome face.

Justin looked at her and said, “Ms. Watts, you’re right on time.”

Liliana cautiously observed him. On closer inspection, he didn’t look exactly like the criminal. Serenity emanated from his refined features, delicate face, and calm eyes. The indifferent look in his eyes and the elegance of his demeanor showed a good upbringing, with no trace of the sinister severity.

“Sorry for calling you back; I have to leave the country tomorrow and won’t be back for a while, so I wanted to complete Lucia’s paperwork today.” Justin signaled his assistant to hand Liliana a folder. “Please check if everything is in order.”

She checked the documents inside and said, “You need to come with me to get the signatures from the administrators, then we can submit them to the academic office.”

Justin nodded, and his assistant quickly stepped forward to hold the car door open for him. Liliana noticed he was dressed formally today, in a well-tailored suit, exuding an air of sophistication, reminiscent of someone featured on the cover of a major financial magazine. Seeing her look, he casually explained, “I just finished a meeting.”

He followed her into the office, making small talk as they walked. “Ms. Watts, you look very young. Did you just graduate from university?”

In fact, she was 27, having graduated with her master’s degree over four years ago. But she wasn’t interested in talking to him, so she politely smiled and replied, “No.”

She walked quickly, almost running up the stairs, noticing he couldn’t keep up. Surprised, she turned back to find him still at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at her indifferently, “Ms. Watts, there’s no need to rush.”

Liliana felt embarrassed, realizing her behavior was excessive. But she was indeed terrified of him. Even though she knew this man had nothing to do with the criminal, just hearing his voice or seeing him triggered her fear. It took all her effort to speak to him without screaming or running away.

She stood silently, waiting at the turn of the stairs for him.

Justin leisurely walked up, and as he passed her, he suddenly said, “I’m curious why you’re so afraid of me.”

“You misunderstood,” she lowered her head, avoiding his gaze, pausing before explaining, “I have urgent matters to attend to, so I’m in a hurry.”

“Oh, I see,” he nodded slightly. “Sorry, Ms. Watts, for calling you back and causing you to miss your work.”

She forced a smile, “It’s alright, it’s my responsibility.”

Everything went smoothly. The director was at home, and Justin had prepared all the documents, so the director just signed them. Liliana then led Justin out of the office, saying, “Now we need to take this to the academic office for verification.”

When they left the building, Justin’s car was already waiting by the road. He turned to her and politely asked, “Is the academic office far from here? Should we take the car to save time?”

The academic office was far from the institute, but she didn’t want to walk side by side with him, let alone sit in the same car. She hesitated before coming up with a suitable plan. “You can drive straight along this road, take a left at the second intersection, and you’ll see the academic office. I’ll drive my car there too, as I need to run some errands afterward. It’ll save time.”

Justin didn’t object, so Liliana went behind the building to get her car. When she arrived at the academic office, Justin was already waiting outside, his presence attracting curious glances from the students.

She hurriedly approached and softly invited, “Let’s go, Mr. William.”

With her guidance, the process was straightforward. The young lady at the academic office couldn’t take her eyes off Justin. While handling the paperwork, she pulled Liliana aside and whispered, “Who is that guy? He’s so handsome.”

Justin seemed to notice and glanced their way, a slight smile on his lips. The charming smile made the young lady wish she could pounce on him, clinging to Liliana’s arm. “Quick, do you have his contact number? Give it to me.”

Liliana, amused and exasperated, remembered she had his number from the call. But she couldn’t just give it to someone without his permission; it didn’t seem appropriate.

Her colleague pleaded, “Please, my dear beauty, you’re married. You must give this chance to someone single like me.”

“He’s my student’s cousin. I don’t know him well either. Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

After speaking, she suddenly came up with an idea and suggested to her colleague, “How about I take advantage of my job and ask him to leave his contact information? Once I have it, I’ll call him. I don’t need you to teach me the rest, right?”

According to the regulations, the Institute approves the application first, and then the advisor contacts the student. Her colleague grimaced and asked her, “Is it appropriate?”

She smiled and nudged her colleague. “What’s inappropriate about it? Just think of it as helping me out.”

Over there, Justin had completed all the relevant procedures, turned around, and looked at Liliana, seriously asking her colleague standing next to her, “Anything else?”

Her colleague stammered, “Ah, could you please leave your contact number?”

Justin smiled, wrote a mobile number on a piece of paper, and handed it over.

Leaving the administration building, Liliana hurriedly bid farewell to Justin, not shaking hands or even caring about his reaction. She quickly turned and headed towards the car parked by the roadside. As she unlocked it, she discovered the left tire was flat, not knowing when it had gone flat.

The tire was completely flat, and there was no other option but to change the spare tire. It was clearly fine when she drove here, so how did it go flat so quickly? Frustrated, she kicked the tire.

Justin’s car approached from a distance and stopped behind her. He leaned out the window and asked, “What’s wrong, Ms. Watts?”

She experienced a momentary surprise and turned around to hide, saying, “It’s nothing.”

He tilted his head, glancing at the flat tire, then looked back at her. “Ms. Watts, do you need to go somewhere? I can have my driver take you.”

“No need.” Liliana immediately refused. Seeing Justin frown, she felt she had rejected him too bluntly. So, she explained, “I still have things to handle in class. You go ahead, I’ll come later.”

Clearly, she was lying; she had just said she had urgent matters outside when in the office. But he didn’t expose her, only smiling faintly and politely saying, “Alright then, see you later, Ms. Watts.”

He signaled to the driver, and the car quickly disappeared from the campus.

Liliana remained by the roadside until she could no longer see his car before rolling up her sleeves to change the tire herself. The technical department of the Institute had no shortage of enthusiastic male students. Soon enough, a few male students passing by approached to help, and she unhesitatingly directed two of them to assist her in changing the tire.

She didn’t return to the old school or go home, but drove to the Tomasso City Police Department.