章 16: It's not Tiffany

By the time Eveline returned home, she had been feeling a lot better. However, the moment she walked inside the house, Jonathan's voice startled her out of her trance.

"Eve, my child? What happened to you?" Jonathan rushed to her and embraced her fragile body.

The moment he learned about Eveline through Belle, he had been patiently waiting for her arrival.

Jonathan was puzzled as to why it was taking Eveline so long to get home, but he was relieved as soon as he heard the car pull up to the mansion's gates.

"Are you still feeling the pain? Do you want to call our family doctor?" Jonathan inquired as he keenly observed Eveline's appearance.

She indeed looked tired and her eyes were red as if she had been crying the entire time.

"Please tell Dad," Eveline smiled, feeling a wave of satisfaction wash over her frail heart as she realized how concerned Jonathan was for her.

'What if the one you loved never cared for you? There are still a lot of people who genuinely love and appreciate you. Eveline, you have your father.' Her unconscious thoughts spoke and she broadened her smile.

"I just need some rest, Dad; I am fine." Evelien attempted to convince Jonathan, but he did not seem to be persuaded by her words because they did not match her appearance.

"Are you sure? You are aware that we can speak," he inquired.

Eveline nodded in assurance before Jonathan finally let her go to her room.

Despite her fatigue, Eveline felt much better than she had earlier.

"Young Miss, I made some tea with chamomile. Enjoy it once you have showered." Susan walked in carrying the tea for her and placed it on the side table next to her bed before retreating.

Eveline sighed before heading into the bathroom and taking a warm water bath to soothe her body ache.

She got out, quickly changed, and took a seat on the bed, sipping the tea Susan had brought her. While enjoying the herbal flavor of the tea, she scanned the comments under the post.

Even though Eveline did not bother to look closely at the pictures, she could tell how close they were by reading the comments.

Some comments were

"How did Tiffany manage to take these clear pictures, though?" Eveline wondered how it was possible to get such clear pictures even at a distance.

Gritting her teeth, Eveline clicked on the ID that had been posted in the photos and was shocked to find that it belonged to one of her classmates.

"Alex? How is that possible?" Eveline looked at the profile photo, puzzled, and then she reached out to contact him by sending him a personal message on the app.

Eveline had been certain that Tiffany had taken those photos because she had previously used the same method to discredit Eveline in the eyes of Gabriel and the entire college. However, after seeing who had actually posted them, Eveline realized that her situation had become more complicated.

Eveline knew some students were divided into groups when it came to liking her. A few people genuinely admired her, while others detested her—not because she was well-liked, but rather because she was close to their college crush, Gabriel. However, when someone revealed that she liked him, things became much worse.

Eveline saw the boy online, so she waited for him to respond, but as soon as he saw her text, he abruptly disconnected, leaving her speechless.

She wanted to confront him, but after reading her text, he just ignored her and disconnected.

"What the fuck," Eveline's lips tightened as stopped herself from cursing loudly.

She couldn't believe he simply ignored her and went offline.

Eveline clenched her jaw, threw her phone away, drank the tea all at once, and wiped the stain off her lips.

She needed to be clear that she no longer had feelings for Gabriel and that he was just a friend—more specifically, her father's friend's son.

Eveline wanted to cut ties with Gabriel in all ways but she couldn't knowing how much his parents admired her. Their love remained unwavering and they treated her like family despite being accused.

There were occasions when Richard and Gabriel argued over his son's preference to work long hours in the office while ignoring his wife. And Belle would encourage her to get into her son's good book by guiding her. However, it would all be for nothing since Gabriel was unable to show her his feelings or listen to his parents.

Eveline paused, let out a long breath, sighed, and brushed away all the bothersome thoughts.

"I can not break off my relationship with Gabriel entirely, but I can clear the air revolving around our relationship," Eveline said, making a mental note of what she was pursuing.

While Eveline was planning on putting an end to this crush, Gabriel had isolated himself in his room, ignoring the rant of the person present alone.

"Finally the post has been taken down, but what should we do about the one who uploaded it? Should we just spare him without confrontation" Stefan asked tossing his phone aside and turning to look at Gabriel who hadn't said a word yet.

Gabriel was silent however his body was boiling in rage. The moment he found the culprit behind those photos he wanted to go and beat the shit out of him. But he somehow forced himself to sit in one place.

Gabriel had never cared what people thought of him, however Eveline, was someone who was close to him and anyone voicing a demeaning word against her would make him lose his cool.

The reason why Gabriel turned a blind eye to her feelings was because he wanted her to focus on studies rather than wasting her time on him. He knew she had goals however because of him, she was loosing focus on them.

But after she announced having crush on him publicly, he was irked only to latter learnt that she was been misunderstood.

"No, I would like to have a long conversation with him personally"