The playboy crush

ng in his good looks. Derrari hadn't helped matters either. He had laughed to his fill when he heard of what had happened, but that wasn't what really bothered him. He coul

by bringing up images of Lara's tearful face, his subconscious mind never ceasing to remind him that he was to blame for it. After futile attempts at trying not to care, he finally threw in the towel. He had gone back to the bar and requested an audience with the owner, who had helped him source the CCTV footage from the night. Upon sighting her, he directed the man to zoom in on her and had her picture saved on his phone. Tipping the man handsomely for his help, he thanked him and employed his private investigator to find out what exactly was the deal with her and why her life would be ruined over the fact that George cancelled the deal between them. ★★★ Lara counted the money she had with her with a heavy heart as she approached the place texted to her by George's henchman to make the rendezvous. She grumbled at how crazy it was. Someone else had taken up the loan; someone else had died over it; and she was stuck paying a loan she had never obtained. She had known her father from childhood to be a good-for-nothing and irresponsible fellow. He never took part in taking care of the household or funding her education. All he ever did was splurge the little he was able to get on drinking, gambling, and chasing after 'chicken-legged and pork-hipped ladies'. If only her mom had listened to her advice and divorced him, she could have lived and as well spared her the misery of toiling around, trying to pay a debt she couldn't dream of paying up— if ever—with the menial jobs, from which she earned meager incomes, she had, but she said she loved him, and he would come around someday to his senses. Well, even with her dead, he hadn't come back to his senses. She sniffed and held back tears at the memory of her mom's death. The bastard of a man, whom she called her husband, was the reason why she had died. Still suffering from the shock of his elopement with a younger woman, the loan sharks had come to inform her about the loan he had obtained before his elopement, with her as collateral. She was in high school then. Her mom had broken into hysterical sobs at the thought of losing her daughter following the loss of her husband. Her mom had worked virtually all day and night to save up enough to sustain both of them, ensured she did not drop out of school, and had given her all into working off her bones to raise money for the loan as well as for their upkeep. She had also taken up part-time jobs after school to assist her mom in shouldering the burden. However, her mom eventually died from stress and exertion a year after her graduation from high school. "How much do you have there?" One of George's henchmen demanded, taking the envelope in her hand. "Ten thousand dollars," she replied flatly. She paid on a three-month basis. She received an hourly wage from the jobs she shuffled together—five, to be exact—working overtime occasionally. Adding up her savings and the tips from her friends, she had been able to save up that much. She wouldn't think about how much her father had cost her with his useless act. If she had invested all the money she had been handing over to George and his henchmen from the time she took up the burden of paying up th