Chapter 1675: After what she’s done, he’s still willing to help.

Meanwhile...

Max and Kiara drove past where Hugo and Ginnie were still standing. He drove carefully, staring at the two. Even when they had already passed them, Max still glanced at the side mirror and smiled.

"Heh," he snickered, feeling a bit accomplished.

Kiara, on the other hand, just stared at him from the front passenger seat.

"So, what’s that all about?" she asked, snapping him out of whatever thoughts were running in his mind.

Max glanced at her briefly and then shifted his focus to the road. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" she repeated. "Max, you just dragged me out with you using the excuse of business talks. And now, you’re smiling after leaving those two together."

"It’s really nothing!" he intoned. "And hey, I dragged you out because I do want to talk business with you. I’m expanding my business, and the dropshipping industry is growing very fast."

Kiara blinked. "I still don’t believe you, Max."

"Tch." He clicked his tongue, giving her a side-eye. "I still like you better when we were teens. Back then, you talked less."

"Back then, I held back a lot of things," she corrected. "Now, I see bull and I call it out."

He frowned, but wasn’t surprised by her. He had met Kiara a couple of times in business settings or at exhibits where she tried to expand her business. All casual meetings, and he’d discovered how much this former classmate of his had changed over the years.

Well, he did change too.

"You held back a lot of things too, back then," she pointed out, making his brows rise.

Max shot her a quick glance, only to see her smile.

"I’m glad it seemed you broke free from your own shackles, Max," she muttered. ’It’s a shame he couldn’t turn back time and play more, instead of giving it up altogether.’

Max peeled his eyes from her and set them on the windshield.

For a while, silence dominated the car as neither of them spoke. His thoughts of successfully giving Ginnie and Hugo some time to develop their feelings for each other were gone the second Kiara mentioned that.

He forgot that he went to the same school as this girl and they’d known each other since his earliest memories.

"You too," he said after a long silence. "I’m glad you left."

Kiara chuckled shallowly. "Me too."

"Short hair, huh?"

"Ginnie said it suits me," Kiara touched her short hair, smiling. "It’s... lighter. Easy to maintain."

"But you liked it long, didn’t you?"

She frowned a little. "Who said I liked it that way?"

Max didn’t answer, but he knew she liked her long hair better. Just not that long, but she did like it in a sense. However, when one likes something with some pressure on the side, sometimes the very thing one liked becomes something they hate.

Another wave of silence fell over them as neither of them talked for a few minutes. Kiara just leaned back, staring at the window on her side while he kept his focus on the road.

"I heard the news." After a while, his quiet voice broke the silence. "About Cassandra... and this thing they were saying she was doing."

Kiara slowly turned to him. "You don’t believe the news?"

"I don’t believe in anything in general, really," he shrugged. "But even though I don’t really like Cassandra because she’s two-faced, I don’t think it’s true. Don’t get me wrong. I just don’t believe it, not because I think she’s incapable of doing that, but because she’d get caught right away."

Kiara frowned. "Max, Cassandra didn’t do anything wrong with you."

"Not to me directly, but I know her," he said, giving her a side-eye. "Don’t tell me you’re still denying that Cassandra isn’t capable of borderline criminality?"

"Cassandra isn’t perfect, Max," she argued. "Sure, she crossed the line a few times, but they’re not that harmful."

Max shook his head. "This is why she’s like this."

"Max."

"Cassandra did something horrible that Finn couldn’t even describe how betrayed he felt," Max continued, his voice cold.

"What do you mean?"

He gave her a quick look, only to scoff faintly as he huffed. "See? You have no idea."

"Max, what do you mean? What did Cassandra do?"

"I want to break it to you, but honestly? I think you should ask her directly," he said. "If she truly sees you as a friend, she’ll be brave enough to confess what she’s done. However, if she didn’t come clean, I think you’d better start reevaluating your friendship with her."

He paused, his expression stern. "I’m saying this because I still see you as a good friend, Kiara. And I hate to see you beat yourself up over someone who might not deserve your kindness and understanding."

Silence followed his remarks as Kiara just stared at him. Max didn’t say more as he quietly drove her to the location she told him.

---

Max and Kiara didn’t even try to break the silence with random or light topics. It was pure silence until he started pulling over in front of a modern home in the Skyline Plaza.

Looking at the entrance through the windshield, he shook his head.

"I don’t think I will ever understand you or Finn," he remarked, making Kiara raise her brows.

Kiara barely unlocked her seatbelt when he said that. She turned to him, confused.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked.

"Seriously? You don’t know?" he cocked his head to the side. "This home is Finn’s."

"What? But Hugo said..." Kiara trailed off, her mouth falling slightly.

Hugo said his brother-in-law had lent them this home to stay in. However, Hugo didn’t have one sister. Nina was also his sister, and the entire Bennet family acknowledged that. Besides, Kiara was still puzzled that Penny was actually married when she didn’t think there were articles about that. Even if there were such articles, she probably didn’t believe them.

"Man..." Max sighed and shook his head. "After what she’s done, he’s still willing to help."

He then gave Kiara a look. "Why don’t you tell that to her and see if she’s going to be remorseful about it?"

Kiara pressed her lips, tempted to argue with him for talking to Cassandra like that. However, she chose to stay quiet because just like how she knew Cassandra, she also knew Max. And Max wasn’t the type to dislike someone like this without reason.