?Chapter 172:

    Katelyn looked up as she saw Vincent approaching after his meeting. She instinctively stood, appearing anxious and unsettled. All along, she had been pondering what to say when facing Vincent. Now, overwhelmed by guilt, she couldn’t stop ming herself.

    Katelyn then apologized, saying, “I’m sorry, Mr. Adams. I’ve dragged you into this again. I promise to find out who the paparazzi were that took those photos.”

    Vincent casually ced several documents he was holding on the table. He seemed unfazed by the public’s reaction. Instead, his attention was on Katelyn’s pale face.

    “Are you feeling better?” he asked.

    Caught off guard by his off-topic question, Katelyn was stunned. She searched Vincent’s face for any sign of anger but found none. The public opinion outside was extreme, yet he remained concerned about her health. This only deepened Katelyn’s sense of guilt.

    She nervously clutched the hem of her blouse and nodded. “I think it’s best for our future to send the designs through email. We should avoid meeting in private to prevent this kind of issue from recurring. I will also return the advance you paid me aspensation for this scandal.”

    After some thought, that seemed like the best course of action to her. Vincent was wealthy and influential. Repaying him was the least she could do to apologize.

    Vincent sat on the sofa with his slender legs slightly curled. Though his movements were rxed and simple, he unintentionally conveyed a sense of dignity. He still hadn’t addressed her previousments, instead revisiting a question from the night before.

    “Do you have ustrophobia?”

    It was yet another seemingly unrted question. Katelyn felt disconnected, as though they were not quitemunicating effectively. She bit her lip. Vincent had asked this after witnessing her distress the previous evening.

    She ran her fingers through her hair and took a deep breath. This was the first time she had openly acknowledged a deep-seated trauma she had hidden for years.

    “When I was a child, my parents—I mean, Mr. and Mrs. Bailey—were always busy. They frequently went on business trips, leaving me in the care of different babysitters. I was just six years old at the time. To avoid looking after me, the sitter locked me in the attic. That week was the darkest time of my life.”

    Many people carry psychological scars from traumatic or intense experiences in their childhood. For Katelyn, at the tender age of six, being locked in the attic for an entire week became a nightmare that cast a shadow over her entire life. She even took psychology courses in college, hoping to heal her emotional wounds.

    Vincent nodded, signaling her to continue. “And then?”

    “Eventually, they returned home and discovered what had happened. Mrs. Bailey immediately dismissed the sitter and gave up a lot of her work to spend time with me.” At this memory, Katelyn felt a pang of bitterness.

    Although Sharon had recently done many things to hurt Katelyn, her first memory of Sharon was that she had once been a good mother. Sharon had once treated Katelyn like a princess, only toter push her away harshly. With these conflicting emotions swirling inside her, Katelyn felt overwhelmed.

    “I see,” Vincent said, tapping his fingers gently on his knees. “The elevator outage was an ident, but the real problem was that the backup power didn’t kick in right away. I’ll get to the bottom of this and provide you with an exnation.”

    With those words, Vincent stood and picked up the documents, clearly ready to return to work. He had not once mentioned the public fallout from the scandal, which only added to Katelyn’s growing unease. She gripped the fabric of her blouse tightly, not caring that it wrinkled.

    With mixed emotions, she looked at Vincent’s tall figure.

    “Mr. Adams,” she started, her voice low. The root of the issue was her, and that was why Katelyn couldn’t stop feeling guilty.

    Yet, she was puzzled by Vincent’s silence, especially since he hadn’tmented on thepensation she offered. She worried it might be insufficientpared to his loss. Regrettably, she couldn’t think of a better solution.

    At her words, Vincent abruptly stopped and turned to face her.

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