Chapter 848

And he was more than happy to indulge her.

But looking back now, it wasn’t a quirk at all—it was a completely different person!

Her cold shoulder wasn’t some cute flirting tactic; it was because she literally didn’t know him!

So, who was the one actually stringing him along?

It wasn’t Jocelyn, nor was it Seraphina. It was the shared persona they had both crafted!

Xavier couldn’t help but wonder-was he actually dumber than Owen?

Why was Owen able to figure it out when he was completely blind to it? “Am I just an idiot?”

Xavier voiced his existential crisis aloud.

Owen stayed silent for a second before replying, “Are you not?”

“We went to the exact same schools from kindergarten all the way to high school!” Xavier snapped back.

How exactly was he the dumb one?

“I tested in. Your family paid your way in.”

Everyone in the Churchill family was naturally brilliant.

Owen barely cost his parents a dime in tuition growing up. There was a huge difference between a scholarship student and a legacy kid whose parents cut a massive check to get them into the same building.

Just because he was a wealthy heir like Xavier didn’t mean he was terrible at academics!

“You say that like you’re some kind of genius!” Xavier retorted, embarrassed and furious.

Owen chuckled. “Not at all. I’m actually the dumbest one in my family.”

It was the honest truth.

His oldest brother graduated from The Cabinda University, and his second brother graduated from Metropolitan University-both with the highest test scores in the entire country.

Norris was currently a math professor at The Cabinda University, while Phil was the heir to the family empire, holding a master’s degree in finance from a top-tier university abroad.

Even though Owen managed to get into The Cabinda University, his grades were purely average.

He didn’t even bother pursuing higher education. As soon as he got his bachelor’s, he fully embraced a life of slacking off.

Xavier practically wanted to strangle him.

“Fine, your family is incredible. You guys are untouchable, happy now?”

Owen didn’t see anything wrong with

that statement. He nodded

seriously. “Of course we’re incredible

Even my sister got the

top score in the national exams.”

What the hell?

Xavier, who had just been mouthing off out of spite, was genuinely stunned.

Even though he still had no idea how Claire was related to Owen, the fact that an academic genius’s entire family was filled with other geniuses completely shattered his ego.

“Right now, you look like a puffed-up blowfish, but whatever.”

“I never compare grades with anyone.”

“I just hope you never bring up Jocelyn’s name in front of me again. That’s all I ask.”

Owen casually set his terms while subtly flexing his family’s intellect.

He was truly sick of Xavier holding onto this one pointless grudge for so many years.

Jocelyn was a calculating schemer, and Owen despised her.

At this point, he didn’t even want to talk about Seraphina anymore.

Jocelyn was manipulative, but wasn’t Seraphina the same way?

Why did Owen never bother looking for Seraphina after the Thorne family sent her away?

Because he eventually realized she wasn’t entirely innocent either.

She had been using him, intentionally dropping hints that she wasn’t Jocelyn.

She hoped to leverage Owen’s influence to escape the Thorne family, or at the very least, force her parents to treat her fairly.

Owen wasn’t stupid. He had caught

onto her plan, but he was more than

willing to let himself be used int

meant pulling her out of that toxic swamp.

But Seraphina had completely wasted his devotion.

She shouldn’t have tried to have it both ways.

When Owen offered to help her leave the Thorne family for good, she hesitated.

She couldn’t bring herself to cut ties with her parents. Deep down, she still

desperately craved the same parental attention her sister received.

That wasn’t something Owen could control, but he quickly realized she was trying to

use his family’s power to strong-arm her parents into submission.

At that exact moment, Owen felt an overwhelming wave of disappointment, and his patience completely ran dry.