The Moment I Stepped Into His World as the Fake Girlfriend, I Became the Real Prize novel Chapter 59

Almost reflexively, Sterling crouched down in front of the girl, reaching out to cup her little face for inspection.

"Does it hurt a lot?"

He furrowed his brows, his tone unreadable.

They were so close that he could see the fine peach fuzz on her cheeks.

But precisely because of that proximity, the handprint on her delicate right cheek looked even more jarring.

When his thumb brushed lightly against it, causing her to wince and shrink back, the temperature around Sterling plummeted entirely!

At that moment, he hadn't yet realized that he no longer harbored any aversion to touching Elena.

After all, before this, with the sole exception of Lydia, he had always maintained a strict distance from women.

The one who did realize this was Lydia. The moment she walked in and saw Sterling fussing over the girl, the creeping insecurity in her chest instantly magnified.

"Mhm, it hurts so, so much. It hurts so bad I feel like crying."

Elena admitted with a pitiful pout, her gaze casually drifting past the young man to land on Lydia at the door.

Truth be told, her only reason for coming to campus was to help Sterling win over his crush.

But what could she do? Since Lydia's best friend brought a whole crew to bully her, she might as well return the favor by making Lydia just a little uncomfortable.

After all, she was no punching bag, and she absolutely refused to act like one!

So in the very next second, she lifted herself up slightly, wrapping her arms tightly around the young man in a deep embrace. Fully committing to her victim act, she whimpered, "Babe, what took you so long~"

"You have no idea. A bunch of girls cornered me out of nowhere. They dumped freezing water all over me and slapped me! I was practically terrified to death!"

Resting her chin on his shoulder, her eyes swept over the group one by one. "I had no choice. I had to pretend to be fierce and try to scare them off first. Otherwise, I can't even imagine how bad things would have gotten!"

As soon as she finished speaking, she noticed Lorelei standing in the back and paused for a second.

Sterling paused. Watching her lower her head to sniff the flowers, a smile lighting up her features once again.

The branch Lydia had rejected had somehow become a treasure in her hands.

Whatever. She got slapped, so he wouldn't deduct her pay after all.

In that fleeting moment, that was what the young man thought.

"Who slapped her face?"

With that, he stood up and slowly turned around to face Sasha and the other girls.

Beneath his calm tone lay an unmistakable edge of interrogation.

Sensing the shift, Sasha's stomach dropped, a heavy sense of foreboding washing over her.

At that moment, Lydia glanced down at the crouching girl and asked publicly, "Sasha, tell the truth. Did you... did you slap Ms. Larkin?"