Chapter 44: Investigate His Son!
Chapter 44: Investigate His Son!
Justin had a puzzled look in his deep-set eyes. Why was she instead asking about his son after coming up to him?
Without any change in his expression, he replied casually, "He’s gone back first. Is something the matter?"
The operation had lasted for six hours and it was already 1 am in the morning. Pete had originally planned to stick it out, but he was still young after all and couldn’t endure it.
Thus, Justin had sent someone to take him home first.
He’s left?
Nora immediately lost interest. She retracted her gaze and reverted to her lazy stance. "No, it’s nothing. Why are you still here?"
Justin slowly stood up straight and looked at her intently. The beauty mark at his eye looked a little more bewitching under the light and his voice was low and alluring as he replied, "I’m waiting for you."
"…"
It was late at night. Moonlight shone through the windows onto the quiet hallway. The man was now a little close to her after he straightened his back, making the atmosphere seem somewhat amorous.
In this instant, Nora even formed the misconception that the man was flirting with her.
She shook her head slightly to get rid of the distracting thoughts in her mind. Then, she chuckled softly and said, "It’s understandable that the patient’s family is worried about her. Don’t worry, Mrs. Hunt will be fine."
She took out her cell phone and checked her text messages. "The Andersons have sent someone to pick me up. I’m going off first."
The woman turned around neatly after saying that. When she walked, it was as if she was too lazy to even lift her legs. The way she walked was definitely not an elegant one; in fact, it even felt a little lazy. However, she wasn’t slow and her back view actually felt intriguing.
Justin, who was a step late, followed after her.
He didn’t doubt the skills of the person he had found. He trusted that she had done a good job.
Besides, it was exactly because he intended to personally send her home to the Andersons that he had waited here.
But unexpectedly, right after he turned the corner, he saw the woman holding her cell phone and making a call. Her voice was a little low as she said, "Look up Justin for me."
Justin was puzzled.
He stopped in his tracks. There was genuinely some puzzlement and perplexity in his usually cold and tough countenance at this moment.
After so many years of immersion in the world of commerce, he could almost see through everyone’s thoughts by now. Yet that woman was the only person who seemed covered in a magical veil. Her form was vague and charming, and he couldn’t see through her at all.
For example, wasn’t she a little too fickle? She had been cool and indifferent toward him both the night before and just now, yet she was getting someone to investigate him a moment later?
He didn’t go after her again and neither did Nora notice the man behind her. After another turn, she continued and said a second line: "I want all the information about his son."
On the other end of the phone call, Solo’s mind was full of question marks. "Why are you looking up his son? Oh, I see, you want to be his stepmother, right? Heh, I told you Justin is a first-class beauty, didn’t I? Sure enough, you can’t control yourself anymore after seeing him, right? Say, is he especially handsome?"
The
Was he handsome?
The way he looked on the sofa the night before, when he was obviously drugged yet still highly restraining himself, was indeed rather alluring.
She replied dispassionately, "He’s passable."
Solo whistled and said, "Tsk, in all these years that I’ve known you, there are only a rare few that you even deem passable. I think the two of you have a chance! Are you planning to—"
Nora interrupted him and said, "I hope to see the information in my mailbox when I wake up."
Solo replied, "… Alright."
After hanging up, she got into the car that the Andersons had sent to pick her up. Not in the mood to admire New York’s night scenery, she closed her eyes and fell asleep in a daze.
"Miss Smith? Miss Smith?"
When a dazed Nora opened her eyes, she found that she had already arrived at the Andersons. The car had stopped at the porch and the small three-story villa was brightly lit. It was obvious that the occupants were still awake.
Nora yawned and glanced at the time as she got out of the car and found that it was already two o’clock in the morning.
The Andersons’ villa was decorated in a simple European style. As soon as she entered, she was greeted with a simple and refreshing aura.
Four people sat on the sofa. An old lady who was nearly 80 years old was seated in the middle. The years had left their marks of vicissitude on her visage and her eyes looked ahead of her blankly. She asked, "Is she here? Why do I hear the car?"
Melissa, who was sitting on the left, smiled gently and said, "She’s here!"
The elderly Mrs. Anderson immediately stood up excitedly. She stretched out her arm in front of her and grabbed about as she called out, "Nora? You’re Nora, right? Do you look like your mother?"
A young lady sat on her right. She looked to be in her early twenties and resembled Melissa a little, and there was some gracefulness in her large eyes. She held the elderly Mrs. Anderson’s arm and said, "Grandma, Nora is a spitting image of her mother. She looks just like her."
Melissa laughed and said, "You make it sound like you’ve met your aunt before."
Back then, when the Andersons’ eldest daughter had run away from home, Melissa hadn’t wedded Simon yet. Even after the wedding, she saw more photos of Nora’s mother than her actual person.
Sheril Anderson stuck out her tongue and replied, "Although I’ve never met her before, we’re connected by blood. I felt a sense of kinship with Nora the moment I saw her!"
"Meh, what a fawner." The young man sitting across from the three of them was likely a college student. His handsome face was full of wildness and unruliness.
Sheril ignored him and took a brisk step forward instead. Then, she gently pulled Nora over to Mrs. Anderson and placed her hand on the old lady’s.
Nora was actually taken aback a little.
She grew up with the Smiths. When she was a child, she had always been ridiculed for being obese. Moreover, because of her poor health, she didn’t go out much and had stayed in her bedroom all the time.
Initially, she still went downstairs for her three daily meals, but later on, Wendy got someone to bring her food upstairs, so she didn’t even have to leave her bedroom to eat anymore.
When she was a child, she was a lonely person. She used to envy how happy a family the three of them looked. Whenever she saw Angela latching onto Henry and wheedling, she would also hope for love from her family.
But the way Henry looked at her with disgust every time made Nora gradually lose that desire.
Thus, she placed her focus in other places instead, such as computer hacking, medicine, martial arts, and so on.
Therefore, she was rarely this intimate with people.
However, the disgust that she had imagined didn’t come. The elderly lady’s hands were a little soft because of her loose skin, but the dry heat of her palms seemed to penetrate the distant disguise she had put on.
"Nora…"
The old lady was so worked up that her hands were shaking. "You’ve had such a hard time all these years!"
"…"
Seeing that Nora didn’t know what to do, Melissa said, "Mom, Nora is back now. It’s already two in the morning. Why don’t we go to bed first? We can talk tomorrow instead."
"Okay, okay…" Mrs. Anderson wiped her tears and said, "Nora, you must be tired, too. Go to bed for now."
Melissa got Sheril to take the old lady back to her bedroom while Nora followed her upstairs. Melissa said, "We’ve kept your mother’s room intact all these years. Now that you’re back, you can take her room. Cherry is already asleep."
"Okay."
"By the way, Nora, I didn’t tell anyone that Mr. Hunt asked you to go to the hospital to perform an operation on his grandmother. I was afraid that they would be worried."
Nora didn’t want to reveal her identity, either. She only wanted to stay here quietly for a few days. Once Mrs. Hunt woke up, she would return to California to look for her son.
She nodded.
As she was simply too tired, she didn’t even take a good look at the room and went straight to bed.
The next day, as soon as she woke up, she saw Melissa in a panic outside her door. She said, "Nora, something’s gone wrong in the hospital!"