Chapter 69: Chapter 69: Nervous

The very instant Jessie Sterling heard the phone start to ring, Victor Morgan picked up on the other end.

“Hello, Jessie.”

Victor Morgan’s deep, cool voice came from the other end of the line. If you weren’t listening carefully, you would miss the faint, almost imperceptible trace of anxiety and annoyance mixed within it.

The anxiety was naturally because of Jessie, but the annoyance…

Victor had heard Brianna Hudson’s name before, but he’d never paid it any mind. To him, a good-for-nothing rich brat who had accomplished nothing wasn’t even worth remembering.

But today, the name “Brianna Hudson” had made quite an impression on him.

“Are you hurt?”

That was Victor’s second question.

A sweet feeling bloomed in Jessie’s heart. The fact that Victor had answered her call instantly made her feel as if he had been sitting by his phone, just waiting for her to call.

’Who doesn’t want to be favored and cared for?’

At that thought, Jessie couldn’t help but smile.

“I’m fine, I’m doing great!” she said, her voice light and cheerful.

Victor had already heard the full story of what happened that evening from the bodyguards and Lynn Jennings, but he couldn’t truly rest easy until he heard Jessie say she was okay with her own voice.

“Were you scared?” Victor asked, his voice softening.

Jessie picked at the ceramic tiles on the hospital wall, as if trying to trace the fine crackle glaze with her finger. Listening to the gentle voice in her ear, she felt as if a soft feather were brushing against her heart.

“It was okay. I’m not that much of a coward,” Jessie said with a grin, then asked tentatively, “You’re not mad, are you?”

Victor seemed taken aback by her question. “Mad?” His tone was laced with confusion.

A sheepish look appeared on Jessie’s face. “I didn’t mean to scare you guys on purpose. I thought you’d be mad and forbid me from ever riding again…”

She still felt a little guilty as she said this.

She could be willful at times, but she never wanted to make her family worry about her.

On the other end of the line, Victor couldn’t help but shake his head. A look of fond resignation crossed his face. “Since it wasn’t on purpose, why would I be mad? But next time, wait for me to get back, and I’ll go riding with you.”

Jessie was the type to take a mile if you gave her an inch. “Does that mean I can still race?”

Victor: “…”

After a moment’s thought, he relented. “You can.” Before Jessie could cheer, he added, “But before every race, I’ll have someone perform an inspection first. That should be okay, right?”

He really didn’t want to live in fear every time his wife got into some antics with others. After all, Victor knew perfectly well that he didn’t have enough time in his daily life to always be by Jessie’s side.

And Jessie wasn’t his accessory, forced to act according to his will.

Jessie squatted in the corner, clutching her phone and smiling happily. “Alright, I was just messing with you! I don’t even like racing that much; I usually just ride for fun. Brianna Hudson was the one who provoked me today. Hmph, of course I couldn’t let her get too smug!”

Victor sat in his chair, the corners of his lips twitching into a resigned smile. ’Isn’t she just like a little kid?’

“Oh, right! Do you know about the bet I made with Brianna Hudson today? The stakes for the race?” Jessie’s excited, jubilant voice came through the phone again.

Victor had never had anyone like her in his life. She should have been a little coward, scared to the point of tears, yet at times she seemed so strong, almost brazenly resilient.

Just like right now.

“Hm?” Victor feigned a bit of curiosity. “What were they?”

Jessie: “Haha, I won all of her shares in Sanctum!”

A genuine smile finally appeared on Victor’s face. It wasn’t because he was happy that Jessie had gotten the Sanctum shares. Rather, it was because the way Jessie was talking to him right now reminded him of a little kid coming home from kindergarten, holding a gold star and begging for praise, wanting to be lifted up high. It was just too cute.

He couldn’t help but chuckle.

“That’s impressive,” Victor said. He knew of Sanctum, of course; it was part of Mrs. Hudson’s dowry. Mrs. Hudson was quite a powerhouse in the business world. To take a half-dead hotel chain from mid-range to high-end in a short period of time, and to successfully establish the brand on the mainland, required both vision and skill.

Jessie nodded, though it was a shame Victor couldn’t see her puffing her chest out like a proud little peacock.

“You bet! Once I get the shares, I’ll be a Sanctum shareholder too. From now on, when you guys travel for business and want to stay at a Sanctum, just drop my name!” Jessie declared magnanimously.

The smile in Victor’s eyes deepened. “Can I do that too?”

“Of course,” Jessie said without a second thought. “You’re my husband, why couldn’t you?”

Only after the words left her mouth did Jessie realize what she had just said.

Instantly, in the unnoticed corner of the fire escape, she felt her face turn beet red.

“Ah, I have to go, my brother is here to pick me up. Bye!”

Without waiting for Victor to respond, Jessie rushed out her last sentence and abruptly hung up.

“AHH—”

In the corner, Jessie held her head in her hands and let out a scream. ’My brain must have short-circuited just now!’

’Otherwise, how could I have said something like “You’re my husband” to Victor so naturally?’

Biting her lip, Jessie was a bundle of anxiety, shame, and frustration.

’Victor hasn’t even said anything like that! How could I be the first one to say it? I’ve totally lost this round!’

As for Victor, who had just been hung up on, he wasn’t the least bit angry or upset. Jessie’s “husband” had been crystal clear, and he had heard it loud and clear. Victor laughed out loud.

However, thinking about Jessie’s bet with Brianna Hudson, and considering Brianna’s current situation, Victor thought for a moment before calling his secretarial office back home.

He didn’t particularly care about the Sanctum shares, but since it was something Jessie had won fair and square, he wasn’t about to be some saint and suggest they call off the bet just because Brianna was injured.

Someone needed to give the Hudson family a little nudge, to make them proactively deliver the shares to Jessie.

Besides, he still hadn’t held Brianna accountable for frightening Jessie in the first place.

Jessie, of course, had no idea what Victor was doing for her behind the scenes. The day after she returned to Southaven, Quincy Sterling told her to come to the company to sign the share transfer agreement.

“So soon?!” Jessie hadn’t expected the Hudson family to be so efficient. She drove to the parking garage at the Sterling Bank headquarters, used the facial recognition scanner to take the elevator straight to the forty-eighth floor, and walked into Quincy Sterling’s office. Picking up the transfer agreement from the desk, she exclaimed in surprise.

There was another person in Quincy Sterling’s office as well.

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