Chapter 859
Wait, with the semester starting so soon, shouldn’t Norris be heading back to the faculty housing or his own apartment?
Why was he still lingering at the estate?
“Owen, it’s one thing for you to goof off, but what were you thinking taking Claire to a street race?”
Norris fired off the interrogation the second he opened his mouth.
Owen choked. “Norris, it was a total misunderstanding. I didn’t—”
“I’m not listening to you.” Norris turned his attention entirely to Claire. “Claire, tell me what happened.”
“Owen’s imaginary romantic rival ran into us during dinner and tried to start some drama,” Claire summarized perfectly.
Owen winced. Wait, Claire, is that really how we’re spinning this?
“Are you dating someone again?” Norris demanded, glaring at his brother.
“No.” Owen was too busy trying to get his start-up off the ground to even think about dating.
“Then what the hell is going on?” Who was this imaginary rival?
Norris was completely lost.
Owen shot Claire a desperate look. “Don’t confuse him! What do you mean, my imaginary rival? Since when have I ever considered Xavier Vance a rival?”
Was that guy even worthy?
Norris connected the dots. So, it was Xavier Vance.
Hang on, wasn’t Xavier the childhood friend Owen had completely fallen out with?
Why were they suddenly tangled up in each other’s drama again?
The Churchill Family and The Vance Family were actually quite close and shared plenty of business ties.
The older generation never really cared about the petty squabbles between the kids.
After all, the kids weren’t the ones calling the shots in either family.
Besides, neither Owen nor Xavier were set to inherit their respective empires, so their feud wouldn’t even dent corporate relations.
“My mistake. Xavier considers Owen his imaginary rival.”
Claire realized that explaining their messy history was going to be a nightmare, so she tossed the ball back to Owen, silently urging him to handle his own brother.
Owen sighed in defeat and quickly rattled off an explanation to clear up the confusion.
Norris finally got the picture. The Vance kid was a hopeless romantic idiot, and his own brother was just plain stupid.
He actually dragged Claire into danger over some stupid autographed book.
If he really wanted that book, there were a million other ways to get it. Did this idiot have zero common sense?
“Dragging Claire into a dangerous situation like this…”
Before Norris could even finish, Owen threw his hands up in total surrender. “I know
I messed up! I swear I’ll never do it again.”
“Norris, please don’t be mad. I really didn’t think it through, and I honestly didn’t plan on putting Claire in any danger.”
“I should have stopped her when she made that bet with Buzz. That’s on me!”
Norris’s brow furrowed aggressively. “Who the hell is Buzz?”
Owen slapped a hand over his mouth, but it was too late.
He hadn’t realized Norris didn’t about the second race. He’d
assumed his brother was funous because he’d let Claire get behind the wheel against Buzz.
“Well, Claire saw someone getting picked on and stepped in…” Owen mumbled out
a heavily edited version of the events.
Even with Owen leaving out the terrifying details, Norris could easily imagine exactly how reckless it had been.
“You are absolutely forbidden from pulling a dangerous stunt like that again.”
“If something like that happens, you call the police.”
“And until the cops arrive, you let Owen handle it.”
“You have to be careful out there, okay?”
Norris obviously had wildly different standards for his brother versus his sister.
Before Claire could even nod, Owen rolled his eyes. “So Claire gets treated like royalty, and I’m just expendable meat, right?”
Norris shot him a withering look. “Claire is actually well-behaved. I’m just happy when you aren’t out there causing disasters.”
“If she were well-behaved, she wouldn’t be out street racing.”
Owen completely threw Claire under the bus without an ounce of
1.nes
hesitation. “Norris, you have no idea. She actually a better driver than I am.”