Chapter 6 Plagiarism

Esteban frowned at once. It turned out that Katherine was as vain as her family. Now that her cousin and her ex-boyfriend were gone, she was trying to come up with a way to take advantage of him.

His kind grandmother must've fallen for Katherine's humble appearance. But he wouldn't make the same mistake. He was determined to prove to his grandmother that Katherine was the kind of person who just wanted to ride on his coattails.

"Yes, I've paid for this apartment in full. But since then, the company has experienced some financial setbacks. Truth be told, one of my business partners ran away with the money, and now, the company's short of funds. This apartment will be auctioned off soon. We'll only live here temporarily." As he spoke, Esteban feigned a look of embarrassment.

"Oh, I see." After thinking for a while, Katherine put on a bright smile in an effort to comfort him. "It's okay. Good thing I saved a bit of money and bought an apartment, but it's a little small. If it's alright with you, we can move into my apartment in the future."

Esteban was slightly stunned. It never occurred to him that Katherine would react like this. He narrowed his eyes, studying her expression cautiously.

Was she playing cat and mouse with him?

But she looked and sounded sincere; at least, she didn't seem to be pretending. Esteban began to doubt his judgment.

After studying her for a while, he cleared his throat and said dryly, "The company can hold on for a little while longer. Let's wait and see how things play out."

"Okay." Katherine didn't say anything more and simply nodded.

Esteban led Katherine to the door of a spare bedroom and said, "You can live here from now on. After all, we've only just met, and we don't have any feelings for each other. Let's treat each other as roommates first. We'll figure out the rest as we go."

Katherine was very satisfied with Esteban's decision, so she agreed without hesitation. "Sounds good!"

"By the way, you can do whatever you want in the living room, kitchen, et cetera, but you can't enter the study. Do you understand?" Esteban added.

Katherine nodded again. "Don't worry. I'm not the kind of person who would pry like that. I hope you can do the same for me and respect my privacy."

It didn't take long at all for the two to reach an agreement regarding their living arrangements. Soon, they retreated to their respective rooms to rest.

The following day, Katherine rose with the sun to prepare breakfast. She wanted to cook up something nice for Esteban to thank him for helping her.

When Esteban got up, he found a plate of crispy fried eggs and a glass of milk waiting for him on the dining table. To be honest, the food didn't look very appetizing.

He couldn't help but frown and looked into the kitchen subconsciously, only to see that Katherine was still busy cooking.

She seemed to sense his stare because she quickly glanced at him from over her shoulder to say, "You can eat ahead. I'm still frying some bacon. It'll be ready soon."

After saying that, Katherine continued what she was doing.

Esteban seldom lived in this apartment, and the few times he did come here, he was always alone. Thus, a strange feeling surged up in his heart when he looked at the scene in front of him.

A few minutes later, Katherine emerged from the kitchen with a plate of piping hot bacon. Esteban was still standing there in a daze. Just as she was about to say something to bring him back down to earth, her phone suddenly rang.

Seeing that it was the company calling, Katherine answered it without hesitation.

"Katherine, where are you? You have to come to the office right now. Something went wrong!"

Her colleague didn't even wait for a response from Katherine and hung up the phone.

Katherine had a bad feeling about this. She didn't have time to delay, so she hurried out without eating anything.

Esteban frowned slightly, seeing that she left without so much as saying goodbye.

Looking at the food on the table, Esteban had no appetite and was about to call the cleaner to throw it away.

But just as he dialed the number, he suddenly recalled how Katherine was so busy cooking in the kitchen just now. Without thinking, he hung up the phone, walked to the table, and tasted the fried eggs.

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. He didn't expect the plain breakfast to taste good.

--

Soon, Katherine arrived at the company thanks to her trusty electric bicycle.

As soon as she entered the building, the people in the company kept looking at her strangely.

When she arrived at the design department's office, she found that it was in chaos.

"What on earth is going on?" Standing at the door and surveying the scene in front of her, she frowned.

"Katherine, you're finally here! Did you see the design draft Cilice Design released today? We're so dead!" Her colleague, Olivia Flores, pulled her into the office anxiously.

Katherine's frown deepened. "What does Cilice Design have to do with us?"

Olivia showed her the design draft Cilice Design had released and briefly explained the situation. "The design draft we were supposed to release today at ten o'clock is so similar to what Cilice Design released this morning. If we post our design now, people will think we plagiarized them."