Chapter 113: A little secret

His eyes instantly dilated to the size of dinner plates.

Holy mother of god... THREE MILLION Dollars?!

Sean suddenly recalled that Victoria had just demanded his bank details a split second ago, and his head snapped back up to stare at Victoria in sheer, unadulterated disbelief.

"President Sterling... did you just wire this money to me?!"

"Mhm."

Victoria nodded indifferently, slipping her phone away. "A token of appreciation from me as your sister-in-law."

A brilliant, lightning-fast realization struck Sean: President Sterling must have sent this massive cash drop simply because I addressed her as ’sister-in-law’ just now!

"Thank you so much, President Sterling—oh, no, sister-in-law!" Sean beamed, his face lighting up with wild, uncontrollable joy.

Admittedly, he had recently managed to rake in a decent payout through his financial ventures alongside his godfather. However, after helping his adoptive father purchase a new family home, his liquid bank balance had instantly plummeted back down to absolute zero.

Three million dollars was an astronomical, life-changing fortune for an ordinary college student!

Though he knew deep down that this cash gift was ultimately a downstream favor courtesy of his godfather’s romantic capital, Sean realized with crystal clarity: I must tightly glue myself to my godfather’s coattails for the rest of my natural life!

Following my godfather guarantees I’ll always have prime steak on my plate!

Victoria glanced sideways, her dark eyes narrowing slightly. "You can leave now."

To Victoria’s possessive eyes, Sean standing in the doorway felt remarkably like an annoying, glaring third wheel interrupting her private time.

"Understood, President Sterling! I won’t disturb you and Brother Julian a second longer!" Sean chirped happily, turning on his heel and sprinting out the front door like his life depended on it, closing it gently behind him.

Julian: "..."

Don’t just abandon me here, you coward...!

It’s completely over now. Sean is gone, and this time, there is zero escape route left.

"My Julian..." Victoria’s lips were still glistening with moisture from their interrupted kiss.

Her crimson lips brushed lightly against Julian’s jawline. "Now that the annoying third wheel has cleared out, we can comfortably resume where we left off."

Julian let out a heavy sigh, trying to put up a weak defense. "Victoria... I actually have afternoon university classes to attend."

Victoria murmured softly against his skin, "It’s completely fine—I can easily handle taking care of Julian’s absence."

Without breaking physical contact, Victoria casually lifted her smartphone with one hand and dialed a familiar, direct speed-dial number.

On the other end of the line, Principal Smith picked up almost instantly, his voice dripping with nervous, sycophantic respect: "President Sterling! What an unexpected honor—how may I be of service to you today?"

Julian stood paralyzed, listening to the muffled audio leaking from the phone speaker.

Isn’t that the voice of the university principal?!

Good grief... who on earth possesses the sheer audacity to casually call the university president directly just to handle a student skipping class like it’s a casual grocery run?!

Victoria spoke smoothly into the receiver: "My Julian is going to spend the entire afternoon resting here with me and simply does not have the spare time to sit through lectures today. So, Principal Smith... I am formally requesting a personal leave of absence for him."

Principal Smith didn’t hesitate for a fraction of a second. "Please do not worry about a thing, President Sterling! Julian Vance is formally granted an indefinite leave of absence—he can take off as many days as he desires!"

"Very well. Thank you for your cooperation, Principal smith," Victoria said flatly.

"It is never any trouble at all!" Principal Zhang chuckled warmly over the line. "President Sterling, please do not ever hesitate to command me if you require anything else whatsoever!"

As the primary controlling shareholder of Capital University, Victoria Sterling was a deity he needed to proactively worship and keep endlessly happy.

Victoria tapped the screen, terminating the call. She looked up at Julian with a victorious, angelic smile.

"There, Julian. I’ve already officially arranged your absence with the administration, so you don’t need to waste any mental energy worrying about skipping classes."

Victoria’s slender, warm fingers landed once again directly over Julian’s chest, tracing circles against his shirt.

Julian let out a long, resigned breath.

Since Victoria had already bulldozed all administrative obstacles out of the way, it was glaringly obvious that she was fully determined to spend the afternoon deeply engaged in "intimate bonding" inside the master suite of this private villa.

Victoria always seemed to experience an explosive surge of wild, unpredictable energy every single time she dragged him into a brand-new, unfamiliar environment.

By the end of the day, she was undoubtedly going to exhaust him to the bone.

Julian strongly suspected that this woman was a literal succubus sent from the underworld specifically to drain his life force.

Just which mortal man on earth could permanently survive Victoria Sterling’s daily, relentless romantic torment?!

" Julian..." Victoria purred softly, rising slightly onto her toes to press her lips to his ear. "Do you want to know a little secret? When I decided to acquire controlling shares in Capital University... aside from utilizing that corporate leverage to shield and protect Julian from harm, do you know what my other primary motivation was?"

Julian blinked, looking down at her with genuine, academic curiosity. "What was it?"

Victoria pinned Julian firmly against the velvet living room sofa, crawling over him with a predatory, wicked smirk.

"It was simply this..."

She whispered directly into his mouth, her eyes gleaming with dark, playful amusement. "...Acquiring this power means I can legally and casually force the university administration to grant you a leave of absence any time I want, so we can lock ourselves away and do incredibly intimate things together without interruption."

Of course, there was another underlying motivation—and by far the most obsessively crucial one—that Victoria consciously decided to keep hidden from Julian: She simply wanted to keep him locked tightly within her line of sight where no one else could ever steal him away.