Brinley stared on at the red racing model, almost gasping in shock.

How on earth did Austin come to own that? And why was it displayed so prominently in the center of his collection?

"You like these racing models?" Austin's voice drifted over, carrying a hint of nonchalance. "I picked these up back when I was obsessed with racing. They have just been sitting there since then; I never really got around to tossing them out."

Snapping herself back to the present, Brinley forced down the wave of emotions threatening to rise,struggling to keep her tone calm. "You...you used to race?"

"Yeah, there was a period when I was fascinated by it." With a casual flick of his wrist, Austin closed the drawer. "But once I took charge of the company, I stopped racing. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing. Just... these models are so finely crafted."Brinley stared straight into Austin's eyes, searching their depths for a trace of memory.

Throughout her years on the track, she had encountered countless opponents. Their eyes had always burned with passion, shrewd calculation, and stubborn defiance.

Austin's eyes, however, were calm and unfathomable, like a deep well that revealed nothing at all.

"Bought them on a whim." He reached for a file on the desk, clearly uninterested in elaborating. "Are you into racing,too?"

"A little," Brinley replied. "The thrill of speed has always drawn me in."

But her words trailed off as she glanced down,fearful of revealing too much.

Could it be that he already knew who she really was? Was he deliberately showing her his interest in racing?
"The faster you go, the more dangerous it gets,"Austin remarked, his tone as detached as if he were dissecting a quarterly report.
"True." Brinley no longer felt like keeping the conversation going. She stood, took the empty milk cup in hand, and said, "You should get some rest;don't stay up too late."
"Alright." Austin's eyes followed her brisk exit, a flicker of curiosity crossing his face, but he made no move to stop her.
Brinley all but rushed out of the study, and by the time she reached her room, her palms had been damp with sweat.
Leaning against the door, she replayed the sight of those racing models and Austin's unnervingly calm tone when speaking about them. Her mind whirled with thoughts.
That red race car was the very one she had driven to victory-a championship model produced in fewer than fifty units worldwide.

It was such a coincidence that he owned one.

Back then, she had competed under the alias "Rosara," hailed as the queen of racing drivers,winning multiple titles and gathering an enormous following. If Austin truly admired racing, it would make sense for him to collect a model of her championship car.

In the days that followed, Brinley found herself increasingly drawn to watching him.

At dinner, whenever racing was mentioned on the sports news, he always had sharp, precise insights.

He could break down a racer's split-second miscalculation, identify an engine failure, or point out technical detailsthat even engineers might overlook.

Brinley's doubts only grew, pushing her to test him.

That Friday night, Austin finished work earlier than ###Chapter 44 Are You Into Racing, Too +120 Points at inost
usual. They sat side by side in the living room, the television tuned to a racing broadcast.
A replay of a classic race came on, and Brinley's breath stalled when the camera panned over the stands.
The footage was from her final race before retirement, and in the corner of the crowd, a hooded figure bore an unsettling resemblance to Austin.
She clenched the cushion tightly, her eyes flicking to him despite herself.
Austin was quietly peeling an orange, his face softened by the glow of the screen, seemingly unaware of her unease.
"That racer was incredible," Brinley remarked, her voice carrying a forced lightness. "Her last race was unforgettable."
Austin held a slice of orange to her lips, answering evenly, "She was good."
"You watched it?" she asked. "I saw a replay with a client," he said smoothly,brushing her lips with his fingertips as he offered the fruit."Is it sweet?"

Pulled back into the moment, Brinley felt her cheeks grow hot. She bit into the orange and muttered,"Yeah."

The broadcast droned on, but her mind drifted elsewhere.

She studied Austin's profile, thinking he was like a book written in a code she couldn't crack, each page holding something hidden.

She decided to test him. Leaving a racetrack design where he would easily see it, she waited. He glanced once before casually commenting, "That curve's drawn the wrong way. It's dangerous and can cause accidents."

"How do you know that?" Brinley asked, forcing her voice to stay steady.

Austin paused with his glass in hand, answering without hesitation, "From virtual racing simulations.
Angles like that, when reversed, always cause skids."

Brinley frowned slightly. Virtual racing?

His expression was so straightforward that she suddenly felt foolish for doubting him.

Maybe she really was reading too much into it.Perhaps his knowledge came only from old hobbies and simulation games.

Choosing not to push further, she turned her focus back to work.

They had been notified that the CloudVista Estates project would be suspended for quite some time.

It had originally been designed as a major undertaking that demanded the combined effort of the entire company. But with such a long delay ahead, waiting it out simply wasn't practical.

She decided that they should shift their focus and take on other projects. When news broke that the government had announced a tender for a racing-themed real estate project, Brinley was right in the middle of a project kickoff meeting.
All the key staff had been called in.
On the conference room screen, the post-mortem analysis of their last failed commercial complex was still up, while Brinley absentmindedly rolled the stylus between her fingers, her brow tightly drawn.
"Brinley, take a look at this!" Corbin rushed in,holding up his phone. "The government just posted a tender for a racing-themed real estate project. It's a huge opportunity. Should we go after it?"