Kiss My Revenge The Heiress Strikes Back novel Chapter 173

Miranda played along. "So, why exactly are you here?"

Elian was momentarily speechless. This girl never played by the rules.

"Hey, wait up! Why'd you leave me behind?"

Jasper's voice interrupted them as he hurriedly approached. Spotting Elian without his mask, Jasper decided to drop the pretense too. "Elian, seriously? That’s not cool. Miranda's my guest. How could you two just took off without me?"

Elian frowned and replied in a nonchalant tone, "You could always call Sebastian, asking him to pick you up."

Miranda observed the dynamic between Elian, Sebastian, and Jasper. It was clear they were in some kind of a triangle.

Back at the villa, Miranda went straight to the lab to reprocess the piece of stone she'd acquired. The thing piqued Crystal’s interest the moment she spotted it. “What’s that thing?”

Crystal, clutching a bag of chips, eyed the stone with curiosity.

Miranda answered, "Good stuff."

Crystal squinted at the stone for a while. "Doesn't look like much."

Miranda shrugged it off and changed the subject, asking, "How's your paper coming along?"

Crystal brightened up at the mention. "Almost ready to publish, on the journal you suggested. Oh, and I've cultivated some new plant specimens from your medicinal garden. They're even better than the last batch."

Miranda was pleased. Since Crystal started helping out, her garden flourished. She spent substantial time on her plants, and was expressly interested in them; in order to nurture those herbs, she even took a course in agriculture.

Miranda teased purposefully, "Having the future medical genius as my gardener – isn’t that a bit of a waste?"

Crystal raised an eyebrow. "What? Tired of me already? There’s no love anymore? Thinking of replacing me?"

Miranda paused, "What?"

Crystal huffed softly, "Only I can be your gardener. If you dare replace me, I'll poison you."

With that, Crystal walked off with a playful air of indignation.

Miranda felt puzzled. She hadn’t realized Crystal enjoyed gardening so much.

As for why Elian was at that place earlier, he never got the chance to explain, thanks to Jasper's interruption. But Miranda could guess. Elian was usually quite the peacock, always making a grand entrance, much like Logan. Yet, this time, he'd gone incognito. Him appearing to that place had to be about either a person or an object.

If for an object, nothing seemed to require his attendance, let alone playing a masquerade. Thus, there was only one reason, for someone.

Miranda had initially only instructed Marion to recruit the Shadow Reapers. But apparently, Vortex Esports' team had come along as well.

Marion replied, his voice laced with delight, "I asked around. Turns out they left because they were fed up with Lysander and his sister. You should have seen the drama unfold when we announced their signing. Vortex Esports was furious, and we managed to stir up quite the online buzz by throwing some shades on that siblings. It's a free ride on the publicity train."

Miranda sighed to herself, "The best business strategy is often the simplest."

"The company’s finances are healthy enough now to sustain itself, so under the definite profit earning circumstance, your personal funds can stay untouched for now.” Marion continued, “However, I've got my eye on a few investment opportunities and am thinking to invest. I wanted to see what you think."

Opening the car, Miranda got in. "Handle the business as you see fit. For legal matters, consult Maximus, and for finances, talk to me. Oh, and when you get a chance, dig into the Hawke family's main branch for me."

Marion smirked. "Okay, but you'll need to give me a raise. You do know that a lot of headhunters have been after me lately, right?"

Miranda raised an eyebrow. "Thinking of jumping ship?"

Marion was about to respond when Miranda's cold reply stopped her short.

"I’ll break your legs if you do."

After hanging up, Marion glanced at his phone, his lips twitching slightly. So, the raise conversation was conveniently skipped, huh?