Chapter 343: Rebecca's New Man!

Luca had learned beforehand that Lisa’s internship would be ending soon, just as her summer vacation was drawing to a close.

After leaving Octaveo Pharmaceutical, he drove off in the white Maserati MC20 he’d bought for her, intending to pick her up from the hospital.

Halfway through the journey, he stopped at an intersection and waited for the traffic light to change.

While waiting, he casually glanced at the car beside him and noticed a beautiful woman sitting in the passenger seat.

Luca had seen more than his fair share of beautiful women. After all, Vivienne and the others were hardly ordinary beauties. Yet this particular woman caught his attention for an entirely different reason.

He knew her.

Rebecca Palmer, Arabella’s notoriously troublesome roommate.

His gaze shifted briefly to the golden emblem on the hood of the luxury car beside them, and he couldn’t help feeling impressed by her methods.

‘Well, well. She’s certainly getting better at catching rich men.’

Of course, Luca couldn’t care less about when Rebecca had found herself a new boyfriend or who the lucky man happened to be.

The moment the light turned green, he pressed down on the accelerator and drove off.

The Maserati’s engine roared, its powerful sound immediately drawing Rebecca’s attention.

She had been touching up her makeup using the small mirror in front of her when she suddenly looked up.

Turning toward the sound, she caught sight of the Maserati’s sleek rear end disappearing into the distance.

“Wow! Tristan, that was a Maserati! It’s gorgeous!”

Rebecca pointed excitedly at the departing car, her eyes practically sparkling with envy.

During her relationship with Tristan Caldwell, the most expensive gift he’d ever bought her was a handbag worth more than three thousand dollars.

To an ordinary woman, receiving such a luxurious gift after dating someone for barely a month might have seemed incredibly generous.

Unfortunately, Rebecca was far from ordinary in that regard.

She knew exactly how wealthy the man sitting beside her was. Tristan was a heir from one of San Fierro’s most powerful families. The Caldwell family occupied a position most people could only dream of reaching.

With a man like him, even a tiny fraction of what he possessed could provide her with a lifestyle beyond anything she’d previously known.

Yet despite his willingness to spend money on her, Tristan had never been particularly generous.

That Maserati she’d just seen, for instance, was worth well over a 400,000 dollars. A car like that was something Rebecca could only fantasize about receiving.

Still, she had no intention of giving up.

In front of Tristan, she carefully maintained the image of a pure, innocent woman who wasn’t particularly interested in material possessions.

Of course, she liked money. She simply couldn’t afford to make that fact too obvious.

A woman who appeared too eager to get her hands on a man’s wealth might enjoy a few expensive gifts, only to be discarded once he grew bored of her. Rebecca had no intention of making such a foolish mistake.

Her ambitions extended far beyond a brief romance followed by a generous breakup settlement.

In her eyes, Tristan was her ticket into the upper echelons of society.

And compared to Luca, the man Arabella had chosen, Tristan was hardly an inferior option. He came from an equally impressive family, and if Rebecca played her cards right, she could eventually become his legitimate wife.

Once that happened, she would no longer have to envy Arabella from a distance.

She could stand proudly before the woman and her lover, finally possessing the status and influence necessary to repay every humiliation she’d endured.

Rebecca’s eyes narrowed slightly as she imagined that day.

‘Just you wait, Arabella. One day, you’ll have to look up at me.’

…

Luca parked the Maserati in the parking lot of San Fierro Hospital before heading toward the outpatient building.

The hospital was bustling with activity. Patients and their families crowded the registration counters, while nurses hurried through the corridors, carrying files and attending to their duties.

Several doctors and nurses recognized Luca as he passed, but none of them approached him.

That was entirely intentional.

He and Director Williams had agreed beforehand that Luca’s visits shouldn’t interfere with the hospital’s daily operations. When doctors and nurses were busy treating patients, their attention needed to remain where it belonged.

There was little point in interrupting medical staff simply to exchange pleasantries with a visitor, regardless of how important that visitor might be.

After all, diverting their attention from patients for the sake of appearances would be a waste of valuable medical resources.

Luca preferred to keep things simple.

He passed through the outpatient department, asked two nurses for directions, and eventually found his way to the inpatient ward where Lisa was working.

Although she wore a surgical mask, he recognized her almost immediately.

She was following a tall, slender male doctor as he examined a patient. While the doctor asked questions and reviewed the patient’s condition, Lisa walked beside him, carefully recording the relevant information.

A slightly shorter female doctor accompanied them, dressed in a white coat similar to Lisa’s.

Judging by her age and the way she followed the senior doctor, she was probably another intern.

Luca stopped at a distance and observed his cousin for a moment.

She seemed completely absorbed in her work, and judging by the number of patients waiting to be seen, she probably wouldn’t finish anytime soon.

Rather than interrupting her, he took out his phone and sent her a quick message to let her know he’d arrived.

With that taken care of, he wandered through the hospital, looking around as he waited for her to finish.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much to do.

He eventually found himself standing in a corridor, playing Uno on his phone.

Just as he was getting bored, a tall, beautiful woman approached him.

“Luca?”

Hearing someone call his name, he lifted his head from his phone.

The moment he recognized the woman, he put his phone away and greeted her with a polite nod.

“Miss Stephanie. It’s been a while.”

The woman standing before him was Stephanie Hart.

She had come to the hospital to confirm something she’d suspected for nearly two weeks: she was pregnant with Jack Denim’s child.

By now, she was almost certain of it.

In truth, the appointment was less about confirming the pregnancy and more about deciding what to do about it.

She had already made up her mind to terminate it.

“It’s been a long time,” Stephanie replied softly.

Strangely enough, the moment she saw Luca, the nausea that had been bothering her throughout the day seemed to ease a little.

Looking at him now, she couldn’t help thinking about the past.

‘No wonder the daughter of the Windsor family fell for him.’

Luca was so much better than Vincent Denim in almost every way she could imagine.

If only she’d met Luca before getting involved with Vincent, perhaps her life would have turned out very differently.

Maybe she could have been one of the women standing by Luca’s side today.

The thought stirred a faint ache in her heart.

But Stephanie knew better than to indulge in impossible fantasies. Too much had happened between her and the people around Luca, and she had no reason to believe there was any place for her in his life as a romantic partner.

Even if Luca had developed some affection for her, she would feel too ashamed to pursue it.

“Mr. Hale, what brings you here?”

Despite knowing that Luca probably hadn’t come to the hospital for her, a small glimmer of hope still appeared in her heart.

It wasn’t necessarily that she expected him to fall in love with her.

By this point, even knowing that he cared about her in some way would have been enough to bring her comfort.

Unfortunately, Luca wasn’t capable of reading minds.

He had no idea what was going through her head, so he simply raised a hand and pointed in the direction Lisa had gone.

“My cousin is doing her internship here. She’s supposed to finish soon, so I came to pick her up and take her home.”

Lisa had been extremely busy throughout her summer internship, and San Fierro Hospital was quite a distance from the villa.

Since she started working there, even after their parents arrived in San Fierro, Lisa had only managed to visit the villa once.

Now that her internship was nearly over, their parents had insisted that she return home rather than continue living around the hospital.

Hearing Luca’s explanation, Stephanie felt a brief flicker of disappointment.

However, she quickly composed herself.

She had feelings for him, but she also understood that there was little chance of those feelings ever being returned in the way she wanted.

‘Since there’s no possibility between us, why should I expect anything more?’

She silently reminded herself not to hope for too much.

Then Luca suddenly remembered something.

“By the way, has Miss Stones contacted you?”

Stephanie blinked in surprise.

Only then did Luca recall that when he had left Capital City, he had apparently brought another woman along with him.

Alani Stones, the former heiress of the Stones Group, was currently staying at the San Fierro Grand Hotel.

Somehow, with everything that had happened over the past few days, he’d completely forgotten about her.

Fortunately, he’d run into Stephanie while picking up Lisa. Otherwise, he might have left Alani waiting at the hotel for much longer than intended.

“Yes,” Stephanie replied with a nod. “We’ve already spoken and met in person. I’ll be going to the UK with her.”

When Stephanie learned that Luca had arranged for Alani to study at Hernandez Finances before eventually taking up the position of general manager for its North American region, she had been deeply impressed.

It wasn’t merely a generous offer. It was an opportunity to build a career and gain valuable business experience under the umbrella of a company with substantial resources.

After hearing the details, Stephanie had immediately decided to accompany Alani.

Although the Hart family was relatively small compared to the major families in Capital City, it was still a respectable business family by the standards of many other cities.

Stephanie had grown up around business discussions and had learned quite a bit about how companies operated. She wasn’t an expert, but she understood enough to recognize a valuable opportunity when she saw one.

Luca had promised her a substantial sum of money, enough to support her comfortably abroad for the rest of her life if she chose to live modestly.

But that wasn’t what she wanted.

She had no desire to spend the rest of her life depending on Luca’s generosity, living comfortably while contributing nothing of her own.

She wanted to stand on her own feet.

She wanted to earn her own money, develop her abilities, and build a future through her own efforts rather than relying entirely on someone else’s wealth.

Going to the UK with Alani would give her the chance to do exactly that.

“All right,” Luca said, nodding in approval.

He had no shortage of money or connections, and he was certainly not the sort of person who would discourage someone from trying to improve herself.

If Stephanie wanted to become independent and establish a career of her own, he was more than happy to support her decision.