Chapter 365

"That's just not going to happen this time."

When Timothy heard Penelope promise Mrs. Higgins she'd get her son's score up by another fifty points by the end of the semester, he just shook his head. "Impossible."

"Yeah, I agree,” Norton added. "Before, you were betting he was in a rebellious phase, intentionally tanking his grades to piss off his parents. We already forced him to show his true potential. There's nothing left to squeeze out."

Penelope didn't say a word. She just smiled, lifted a heavy bag onto the table, and pulled out two thick stacks of cash. As their eyes lit up, she pushed the money toward them.

Both men were suckers for cash and couldn't resist reaching out, but Penelope pressed her hands down on the stacks, raising an eyebrow at them.

Timothy rolled his eyes. "I knew there was a catch. Your money is never easy to earn."

"Isn't it?"

"Fifty points!” Norton grumbled. "The finals are in two months. Unless the kid's a secret genius, there's no way we can pull that off."

“But if you agree right now, this ten grand is yours. Isn't that right?"

"You never mentioned any extra conditions when we first made the deal!"

"We don't have a contract," Penelope said smoothly. "If I decided our verbal agreement was void, you wouldn't get a dime of this."

"You're a shark!" Timothy accused.

"Brothers, Penny is just sacrificing her own good name to teach you a valuable lesson," Theodore chimed in, huffing with mock indignation. "The world is a cruel place!"

While Theodore was fuming, Timothy quickly accepted reality. "Fine. What if we tutor him, but he doesn't improve by fifty points on the final exam?"

Penelope slid the stacks of cash

toward them, a sly grin on her face. "My agreement with his mother

also

rise

verbal. If we can't do it, we can't

do it. But the

sines

partnership

between our two companies is a

signed, sealed contract. There's no

backing out of that."

Norton's eyes widened. "So this is the kind of person you are! And here I was, thinking you were all righteous and kind.”

Penelope tapped the stack of money in front of him. "And what kind of person is that?"

Norton glanced at the thick pile of bills. He wanted to run his mouth, but he didn't dare. A huge grin spread across his face instead. “Penelope is, of course, the kindest, most upright, and absolute best person in the entire world!"

Penelope nodded, satisfied, and pushed the cash to him before turning her gaze to Timothy. "And what do you think of me?"

Timothy snatched his stack first. "A total villain."

Penelope shot him a glare. “Look, just do your best tutoring Mrs. Higgins's son. I never found out if he's a genius or not, but I know for a fact he's no idiot."

When she was doing her research on Mrs. Higgins, she'd focused on her son. She noticed that while hisz classmates' grades fluctuated wildly his were remarkably stable, which made her suspect he was controlling his scores. Her son loved to skateboard, so Penelope had Norton challenge him to a competition. After stoking his

competitive fire, Norton used a special trick to win.

Nhen the boy begged Norton to teach him, Norton made his demand: raise his midterm exam scores by fifty points. Once he agreed, Timothy swooped in with targeted tutoring to quickly boost his grades.

That first move had been a clever gambit, but getting another fifty points by the

finals would require actual, dedicated studying.

But it didn't matter. Helping Mrs.

Higgins's son was just a way to get her foot in the door-a chance to sit down and talk business with the Higgins Group Whether they

the partnership or not"

ultimately depended on her company's capabilities, the professionalism of their project team, and whether their proposal was impressive enough.

And yet, after all the effort she'd expended just to get this opportunity, Yvonne had waltzed right in and gotten a meeting with Mrs. Higgins, all thanks to her mother pulling a few strings.