Captivation: Want Nothing But You novel Chapter 97

Carson slowed his car and narrowed his eyes at the man.He remembered seeing him before, it was just taking him a little while to remember his name.

"Isn't he one of the children from the Jimenez family? What is his name again?" he murmured to himself.

The man in question was Roger.He came to stand in front of Rachel with a warm smile, and said in a gentle voice, "Long time no see, Rachel."

Rachel looked up at him in confusion.She had a feeling she knew who he was; she just couldn't remember.

"You're…" she trailed off as a gust of strong wind blew, splashing raindrops against her face and clothes.

She blinked away the water and in that instance, she remembered.

"Roger, right?" she said with a small frown.

There had always been a saying in the business world of Apliaria, "When a Sullivan met a Jimenez, there was bound to be a tug-of-war."

Both families were powerful, with years of deep history and solid foundations.

Roger was the perfect idea of what a successor of the Jimenez family should be.

Even though Roger and Victor had very little dealings with each other, people often compared the two families.

It wasn't because they were rivals; it was because of the different paths in life that each had taken.

Victor had been an illegitimate child, born out of wedlock.

His mother had passed away when he was very young, leaving him in the care of his grandmother.

When he'd been growing up, he was very rarely seen at social occasions held by the upper-class families.

At the age of 14, he'd been sent to study abroad.

In direct contrast, Roger was seen as a golden child.

Growing up, he'd had the best of the best in everything.He'd had the best education, the best care, and a good family life.

He'd been a valued, respected member of society, and by the time he'd become a man, people always referred to him as a perfect gentleman.

Roger and Rachel knew each other because they'd attended the same high school.

They'd taken the Senior High School Entrance Examination in the same year, around about the same time, and Rachel had scored 0.5 points higher than Roger.

She was the highest ranked student in Apliaria that year.She could have attended any school she liked; including the first-rank senior high school.

And she probably would have, if it hadn't been for Alice.

Alice had applied too late and was put on the waiting list, behind the last applicant to the school.

Caroline and Alice tried just about everything to get her into the school.

They even went so far as to play on Rachel's emotions and persuade her to give up her place to Alice.

In the end, Rachel had agreed.

She gave up her spot and chose to attend the second best high school in Apliaria.

When Roger had heard that someone had scored higher on the test than he had, he was naturally curious as to who this person was.

He wanted to get to know the girl who had beaten him.

That was why he ended up following Rachel to the second best school.

He could also have gone to the best school, but his curiosity about her got the better of him.

His decision to attend the second best school caused quite a lot of scandal at the time.

There was much talk that the best school in Apliaria was, perhaps, not as good as it was made out to be.

That was how the two of them became schoolmates.

While they weren't in the same class, they knew enough about each other to end up in a friendly, ongoing competition for first place.

It became a regular thing for them to take turns in sharing the top spot at the school; this was also when they started talking to each other more.

"Have I changed so much that you don't recognize me?" Roger asked, chuckling lightly.

Rachel smiled at him, but it was more out of courtesy than anything else.

Roger was Rachel's friend, not Shelia's.

"I thought you'd gone abroad.Seeing you here is quite unexpected," she said.

"I got back a few days ago," Roger said.

He glanced at the bags she was carrying and tipped his chin towards them.

"Why did you buy so much food? Are you heading home now? Would you like me to give you a ride?"

Rachel raised her eyebrows at Roger, looking a little confused at his proposition.She couldn't understand his enthusiasm.

From as much as she could recall from Rachel's memories, they hadn't seen each other for so many years; in fact they barely knew each other that well, but here he was offering her a ride with great concern.

It made no sense to her.

To top it off, the original Rachel knew Roger; not her.

"No, thank you.I'll be alright on my own," she politely declined his offer.

"Surely you can't carry all these things on your own, right? And it's quite inconvenient for you now, isn't it?"

Inconvenient? Rachel immediately narrowed her eyes at him.He didn't have to say what he meant; she already knew.

"And what do you mean by that?" she said sharply.

She watched as Roger's eyes widened in realization and horror.

He'd spoken without thinking, and now it was too late for him to fix his mistake.