No longer a pushover (Noelle and Cedric)

Lucas responded without hesitation. After all, everyone in the Liddell family listened to Donovan; no one dared to go against him-not even Noelle.

He remembered how terrified Noelle was of Donovan. She would never have the nerve to defy him.

Frank was furious. "Do you even hear yourself? At this rate, you're just going to push Noelle further away!"

Lucas didn't seem to understand-Noelle wasn't being difficult just because she was upset.

"But what else can I do? We still don't have a proper gunner. If she doesn't show up tomorrow, we're definitely going to lose!"

Lucas couldn't stand the idea of losing the game. It only hit him now: he had already lost Noelle's support.noveldrama

"Even so, you can't force Noelle to join the match! Is the match more important than your sister? What you're doing will only make you lose her. Think about it, will you?" Reluctantly, Lucas lowered his head and muttered, "Can't Noelle just cut me some slack for once? She knows how much this match means to me, yet she keeps using it against me." "It doesn't matter if you lose the match, Lucas. But if you pressure her by dragging Donovan into this, you'll lose her for good. Is the match really more important than your sister?" With that, Frank closed his eyes, refusing to say more. Every time he talked to Lucas, it just made him angrier. Now, he finally understood what Noelle had been dealing with all this time. Lucas froze, and his thoughts were in chaos. After a moment, he left the ward and found James waiting outside.

"Frank knows where Noelle is staying, doesn't he?" he asked.

"Why do you want to know, Mr. Liddell?" James replied cautiously.

"To make things right." Lucas finally admitted to himself that Noelle was no longer the sister he used to know. That was the truth he had been avoiding.

After a brief pause, James gave him an address, hoping Lucas truly understood the weight of his actions.

Lucas went straight to Noelle's apartment, but the address didn't include her unit number.

He waited downstairs for a long

time until Noelle finished her livestream. It was only then that he sent her message. When he opened the chat window, though, he saw that Noelle had already removed him from her friend list.

Frank's words finally hit him-had he been so terribly wrong all along?

Lucas sent a friend request with a message: "Noelle, I'm waiting downstairs. We've been at odds for so long; let's talk."

Noelle had just finished her

livestream when she noticed the request. She opened it and saw Lucas's profile. It was obvious he was panicking because the finals were the next day.

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She glanced at it briefly and ignored the request. Upon leaving the study, she noticed Cedric on the balcony speaking on the phone. Under the dim light, his side profile exuded a mature and effortless charm

She held her cup and slowly approached him, catching the gentle expression on his face and the warmth in his voice.

Her thoughts drifted to the woman Cedric had been in contact with. Was he talking to her now?

The idea made her mood sink. She took a sip of her lemonade to steady herself when another notification lit up her phone.

Opening the app, she saw Lucas's follow-up message: "I'll wait here until you come down. If the paparazzi spot me, your address won't stay private."

Noelle felt annoyed. She knew Lucas frequently appeared in entertainment headlines and was often followed by paparazzi.

However, she didn't want her peaceful life disrupted. After thinking it over, she decided to go downstairs.

"Where are you going?"

As Noelle was changing her shoes at the entrance, Cedric's voice came from behind her. She looked up to see him stepping back from the balcony, his tall figure filling the space.