His dangerous lover

Chapter 5: Spring Cleaning

As soon as office hours ended, Richard returned home with a sullen expression.

He had always felt inferior to his brother Sean in terms of business savvy. If he wanted to take over the company smoothly, he needed to achieve a significant accomplishment to impress the directors.

Joseph, who had become the head of the Morgan Group at such a young age, was now Richard's hope for success. He wanted to take the chance to discuss several projects with him to boost his own reputation.

However, his hopes had been dashed—at least for the moment—and it was all that damned Rose’s fault.

How could she already cause him so much trouble when she had only just returned? Posting such pictures to make it look like she was being treated poorly… did she want him to endure being pointed at and spat on by nobodies, accused of bullying a young woman whose parents had both passed away?

Whether or not it was deliberate and Rose knew what she was doing, it still enraged him.

As soon as he entered the house, however, Richard marched straight to the second floor, not to confront Rose but to pound on Melissa's door.

“…!” Startled, Melissa shouted from inside the room, “Who is it?!”

Before even receiving an answer, she became angry, thinking that that wicked Rose must have come to harass her again.

She strode to the door and was about to swear upon opening it when she saw her father standing on the other side wearing an ugly expression. The curses she wanted to spew out got caught in her throat, and she fell silent.

In contrast, Richard roared at his daughter, "Give up the room now! Right this instant! How can you be so selfish, Melissa? Rose is your cousin! She’s been through a lot! If you’d rather not share a room with her, fine! But at least give her your room if she wants it! I really despair of what you’ll become when you’re still so small-minded at your age!”

"Absolutely not!" Melissa retorted unthinkingly, feeling wronged and angry. "I won’t give it to her! Why does she have to take my room when we have so many guest rooms in the house? That’s just too much!"

"You—!"

As Richard was already furious, Melissa's stubbornness and disrespect made him want to slap her.

Seeing him raise a hand, Melissa screamed in terror. Just then, her mother arrived after hearing the commotion. She quickly hid behind Amber to escape her father’s wrath.

"How did you raise your daughter?!” Richard roared at Amber next when he saw her. “The room must be given to Rose—now! Don't make any more trouble for me!"

But though he still looked and sounded angry, Richard gave a secret wink to his wife.

Then, he raised his voice even more so that he could be heard in other parts of the house, not just on the second floor.

"Rose is our family! She just came back after nearly drowning in the sea! As far as I’m concerned, everything she wants must be given to her! Especially since we’re all she has left to lean on!"

Amber understood what Richard was trying to do and whispered to the sobbing Melissa, "Be a good girl and let Rose stay in your room for now. It will be yours again eventually—and nobody will be able to take it away from you after that, I promise."

Melissa still didn't want to, but under her parents' coercion, she had no choice in the end but to give her room to Rose, the one she hated the most in the world.

When she finally gave her grudging agreement, she was gritting her teeth so hard that it was a wonder they didn’t shatter into pieces.

…

Soon after that, there was a knock on Rose’s door.

She had already heard everything, of course. How could she not when Richard had deliberately made his voice so loud?

Taking her time answering the door, she switched off the phone in her hand, which she had been using the entire day to see the developments on her post, as well as to exchange messages with the “good friends” who had been reaching out ever since news of her resurrection and return broke the previous day.

Needless to say, she didn’t give away to anyone that she actually remembered everything. Using her newly opened eyes, she simply wanted to judge who among the other people who used to surround her was worthy of trust.

Her old self would have been disappointed to know that most of her so-called friends were only acquaintances at best—hangers-on who only got close to her because she thought nothing of spending money to treat them to expensive meals or shopping trips.

After asking her how she was and only pretending to be interested in the answer, they moved on to wondering when she’d be well enough to go out with them again.

To shake the parasites off of her, she told them that she didn’t know what would happen to her from now on. Since she didn’t have her memories, wouldn’t everything be up to her uncle to decide?

Knowing how she was being treated by that said uncle, that effectively told the leeches that she was as good as a pauper now. There was nothing more they could suck out of her.

They thus gave their excuses one by one, wished her well half-heartedly, and then stopped all communication altogether.

Rose didn’t feel that it was a loss. She actually found it nice, spending time “cleaning house” like this.

But it didn’t end there. The more nefarious ones among her old circle tried to take advantage of her supposed amnesia to claim that they had a much deeper relationship with her.

Many of the male ones said that they were pretty much dating her before all of these bad things happened in her life. Now that she was back after disappearing for so long and then falling to the sea, did she want to take up where they had left off?

…Or had she already allowed herself to be “stolen away” by the rich guy who had saved her?

To them, Rose pleaded ignorance, confusion, and tiredness before politely ending the conversation herself. Even though she wanted to, she didn’t block them to avoid arousing too much suspicion. She’d just never talk to them again unless it ever proved necessary.

She doubted that very much.

As for the female ones who claimed to be her best friends in the world, all they were interested in asking about was also Joseph Morgan.

At first, they only tried to gauge the same thing as the men.

What happened between her and Joseph was like something out of a romance novel, after all. Did that spark anything in her? The guy was not only rich and young, but he was also incredibly hot. Surely her amnesia hadn’t affected her judgment of such things?

It didn’t, as it happened.

She didn’t even have amnesia to begin with.

But still… even if they asked her that…

Joseph and her…?

She shook her head and kept trying to get the thought out of her mind each time it was brought up.

The man was her savior and benefactor. Nothing more.

Besides, even if she wanted to entertain such thoughts—which she didn’t—there were still two problems.

First, she had no time to indulge in such things. She had to put all of her focus and effort into avenging her parents.

And second, would Joseph even be interested in her? From everything she had now learned about the man, it seemed he could take his pick of anyone he wanted. Perhaps he was even the type who did not settle for just one partner at a time.

It was really useless to even think about this.

When Rose wouldn’t give them a concrete answer, her “best friends” cruelly joked that it was just as well if she wasn’t interested. She wasn’t the type of girl that would suit a man like Joseph Morgan anyway.

Instead, one of them just came out and said it: could she find the chance to introduce her to him?

When she was asked such a question, a hard coldness appeared in Rose’s eyes. Before she could even think about what she was doing, she answered, “The man saved my life. I don’t want to repay him by wasting his time on shallow and meaningless things.”

The carefully crafted insult hit its target.

“So you are interested, after all,” the other woman replied. “You could have just said so, Rose. You didn’t have to be such a b***h about it. Now you’re making me wish you’d just died.”

Snorting softly, Rose didn’t reply anymore.

At the rate this was going, she didn’t expect to have even just one “friend” left by day’s end.

Whatever. She didn’t need them anyway. Her current goals were more than enough to keep her company.

With a dark light still flashing behind her eyes, Rose finally opened her door and smiled at Richard.

"Uncle," she greeted sweetly. “Welcome home.”

Though Richard was already smiling as well, making himself appear like a kind and loving elder, he was disarmed by Rose’s smile and greeting.

"I haven’t been welcomed back so warmly in a while,” he said in genuine appreciation. “Thank you, Rose. You really are so kind and sensitive. As for my Melissa…” He sighed. “I must beg you for forgiveness on her behalf. Even though you’re around the same age, she is still young at heart and not as sensible. I have already reprimanded her for her behavior. If you still want it, come. Her bedroom should be more comfortable for you while you’re recovering—and I think it’s for the best that you have it to yourself."

"Really, Uncle?” Rose replied, still smiling as if nothing nefarious had ever happened between them. “I kind of feel bad for my cousin… I really only wanted us to room together and keep each other company. But since you think this is for the best… thank you. I gladly accept the offer."

The older man smiled and put an arm over Rose’s shoulders to lead her away.

“Don’t mention it, dear niece,” he said kindly as they walked together to Melissa’s room. “Let’s get you settled in.”

If someone were to look at this scene from the outside, all they would see was a heartwarming interaction between family members.

No one would be able to suspect that Richard was not the kind and loving uncle he was pretending to be—the same one Rose had been fooled into believing he was nearly her entire life.

But the thing was, not even a practiced liar like Richard would be able to guess it now: Rose was not the same person she used to be either.