He had done it deliberately, clearly intending for her to realize who had been preparing those boxed lunches.
But honestly, who takes the time and effort to make boxed lunches for someone else unless there’s a deeper reason? If Sophia dug deeper into the underlying motivations, she would have to confront a fact she’d been avoiding: Scott Livinus liked her.
He was forcing her—forcing her to face the truth.
Sophia ate the rest of her meal with mixed emotions, finding it hard to enjoy.
After that, every glance at Livinus felt odd. She wanted to ask him directly but worried she might be overthinking things.
In hindsight, Livinus ’s actions had been obvious initially, but she had always dismissed the possibility.
How could someone as proud as Scott Livinus secretly like someone else? It just didn’t make sense to her.
“Livinus,” she said suddenly.
“Hmm?” Livinus leaned back in his chair, his expression calm, his lips curved in a faint, unreadable smile. “What is it?”
His gaze locked onto hers as if waiting for her to say more. Sophia had the distinct feeling that everything he did was calculated to draw her into his web. It was as if he had anticipated every step, meticulously laying a trap, and all she had to do was walk into it.
This man was terrifyingly deliberate.
“You…” Sophia began, but her words were interrupted by her ringing phone.
The voice on the other end was urgent. “Sophia, you need to come to the university. I think something’s seriously wrong with Anna.”
“Anna?” Sophia frowned, recalling her earlier concerns about Anna’s behavior. “I’ll be there right away.”
“What’s wrong?” Livinus asked.
“Something is going on at the university. They need me to come over.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Livinus picked up his car keys.
“I’ll drive you.”
Before she could refuse, he had already ushered her out the door. It left no room for her objections.
Sitting in the car, Sophia sighed. It seemed he had abandoned even the pretense of subtlety, making his intentions clearer with each passing day.
The way he was “warming the frog in water” was too blatant.
The university was about a 30-minute drive away. When they arrived at the gates, Sophia said, “I can go in by myself.”
Understanding her concerns, Scott Livinus didn’t press. “I’ll wait for you here.”
Sophia didn’t bother arguing and instead focused on what her colleague, Barbara, had said about Anna. What exactly was wrong with her behavior?
When Sophia arrived at the dormitory, Barbara hurried over, pulling her into the room. “Sophia, you need to check on Anna. Something’s seriously wrong.”
Sophia frowned as she saw Anna lying on her bed, trembling, muttering about ghosts, and claiming that someone was constantly speaking into her ear. Her expression was vacant, and her emotions were erratic.
“Sophia, could it be hysteria?”
Sophia furrowed her brows. It did seem similar. From a Modern medicine perspective, hysteria is a form of conversion disorder, where the patient has no actual neurological damage but exhibits strong self-suggestive behavior. The root issue lies in the conscious mind, and severe cases often involve hallucinations and heightened emotions. Claims of seeing ghosts were not uncommon among such patients.
“When did this start?”
“I’m not sure. It happened after she came back from the dorm across the hall. She had gone to visit Madeline.”
Madeline was Anna’s close friend, the same one Sophia had seen getting cozy with Nathan. At the time, Sophia had wanted to tell Anna about it but got sidetracked and eventually forgot. Could it be that Anna had discovered their relationship?
If Anna had a predisposition for hysteria, such a revelation could very well trigger an episode.
“What did Madeline say?”
“I don’t know. Madeline looked pale and distressed earlier. She was breathing heavily, and her eyes were red with tears. I thought she and Anna had argued, but the girls in Madeline’s dorm said that wasn’t the case. Apparently, Madeline received some bad news about her family, and her boyfriend called to comfort her. She was moved and started crying. But for some reason, when Anna returned, her condition deteriorated.”
Suddenly, a shout came from Madeline’s dormitory: “Something’s wrong with Madeline! Someone get the dorm supervisor!”
Sophia and Barbara rushed over, only to find Madeline collapsed on the dorm floor.
