novelnext Chapter 306 - 304: Who Is Investigating Her
Chapter 306 - 304: Who Is Investigating Her
Mia Grant was stunned at first. When she processed it, the corner of her mouth twitched. "Are you nuts?"
Across from them, Felix Sinclair’s grip on his chopsticks tightened when he heard their conversation.
He looked up at Ian Sinclair, trying to warn him with his eyes not to do anything reckless.
Ian Sinclair didn’t even look at him.
Or perhaps he noticed out of the corner of his eye, but he had no intention of stopping.
He hadn’t sought out Mia Grant ever since Felix had that talk with him last time.
He had been thinking constantly these past few days.
’Felix’s words weren’t without reason.’
’But is Mia Grant really not Mia Grant?’
’Of course, that’s not what he was really concerned about.’
’If she isn’t, she isn’t.’
He had carefully thought back. From the moment he started noticing and liking Mia Grant until now, it should have always been *her*.
A person’s habits and subconscious reactions don’t lie.
So, what he was curious about was, if she wasn’t Mia Grant, then who was she?
What was her name? Where did she come from? Why was she here? And, as Felix had mentioned, would she... leave someday?
"When did I ever owe you two hundred yuan?"
Mia Grant didn’t fall for it.
Ian Sinclair pulled out an IOU. "See? It’s in black and white. You even left a thumbprint."
"..." Mia Grant took the piece of paper and studied it carefully.
She had imitated the signature after the borrower’s name so many times that she recognized the original owner’s handwriting at a single glance.
’The original Mia Grant borrowed money from Ian Sinclair?’
Mia Grant was completely baffled.
’Whatever.’
Too lazy to overthink it, Mia Grant transferred the money directly via WeChat Pay.
"I transferred two hundred and fifty to you. The extra fifty can be the interest."
Ian Sinclair grinned, accepted the payment, and ground his canines together. "Sure."
After the meal, Mia Grant picked up her tray, ready to leave.
"Oh, right."
Ian Sinclair called out to her again.
"Now what, you troublemaker?" Mia Grant turned around, annoyed.
"You..."
For some reason, Ian Sinclair’s voice suddenly trailed off. Two seconds later, he asked with a smile, "Are you free tonight? I’ll take you out somewhere fun."
"I’m busy." Mia Grant shot him a look and turned to leave.
As soon as she was gone, Ian Sinclair kicked Felix Sinclair hard under the table. "Why did you just step on my foot?"
"You talk too much."
Felix Sinclair methodically picked at his food. Mia Grant had eaten some snacks that morning and wasn’t very hungry, so she hadn’t eaten much. Before leaving, she’d pushed the untouched food from Ian’s plate over to Felix.
Ian Sinclair rubbed his nose sheepishly. "So, you know who she is?"
"She is Mia Grant."
"..."
Ian Sinclair closed his eyes, then snapped them open a few seconds later. "Talking to you is such a waste of time."
Felix Sinclair suddenly put down his chopsticks.
"Who she was before doesn’t matter. Don’t miss the point. If she were going to say something, she would have told you long ago. Since she’s never brought it up, it means her past is something she doesn’t want to talk about."
"She’s very smart and perceptive. Your reckless probing will do nothing but throw her into a panic."
"I just want to know who she is. I don’t have any ill intentions," Ian Sinclair grumbled under his breath. "Forget it."
’I’m done thinking about it.’
"Any progress on your end?"
"No." Felix Sinclair picked up his chopsticks again. "This isn’t playing house, where you can cook a full meal in three seconds."
"I’m already prepared for the long haul."
"From now on, stop probing. In time, she’ll slowly open up."
"I don’t want to probe, either. I’m just terrified she’ll suddenly disappear." Ian Sinclair wanted to smoke a cigarette, but Felix’s glare stopped him cold.
He sighed. "And you’re not getting any results on your end anytime soon."
"Meanwhile, she could vanish at any moment."
"If she really disappears, we won’t even know how to find her."
"Only to realize, in the end, that we know nothing about her at all."
Felix Sinclair lowered his gaze, silently staring at the food on his plate as his stomach churned.
He picked up a piece of braised pork and forced it into his mouth.
He chewed twice, fighting back the urge to gag, and practically swallowed it whole.
He expressionlessly raised his water glass, washing down the sickeningly sweet taste in his mouth, and replied, "Whatever."
’He’d decided long ago, anyway. No matter where she went, he would go with her.’
’If he couldn’t find her, he would wait for her at the finish line.’
’That was the worst-case scenario.’
’If it really came to that, then he wouldn’t hope to see her again so soon.’
’He hoped their reunion would come later. Much, much later.’
’He had already seen her in her prime, at her most beautiful.’
’He hoped that by then, she would have lots and lots of white hair. And even with many more wrinkles on her face, her smile would still be radiant.’
’It would be best if she were surrounded by children and grandchildren.’
「—」
After waking up from her nap, Mia Grant noticed a missed call on her phone.
It was a local Jynsia number.
After a moment’s thought, she called it back.
The call connected, and an unfamiliar voice on the other end asked, "Is this Mia Grant?"
"This is she. And you are?"
"I’m your high school homeroom teacher! Has it been so long that you can’t recognize my voice? Hahahaha."
It dawned on Mia Grant. "Sorry, Ms. Murray. I just woke up and was a bit out of it."
"Is there something I can help you with?"
"Ah, yes. I’ve sorted out those photos you asked for a couple of days ago. I tried calling your old number, but no one answered. I checked the school records, found this number, and decided to call you here."
"Should I send them to your email, or somewhere else?"
"Photos?" Mia Grant sat up. "What photos?"
"The ones you called about a few days ago, asking the head of the department for your old school photos. He only found some of them in the archives."
"The department head asked if I had any. I had some group photos of you and other classmates saved on my old phone. I was going to send them to you that day, but the phone wouldn’t turn on since I hadn’t used it in so long. It took a few days to get it repaired, but I just got it working today and found the pictures."
"..."
"What’s wrong? You don’t need them anymore?"
"Ah, no, that’s not it." Mia Grant snapped back to reality. "I’ll add you on WeChat. Please send them to me there."
After hanging up, Mia Grant stared blankly at her bed curtains for a while.
Ms. Murray had already accepted her friend request and was sending over a dozen or so photos one after another.
Hearing the notification chimes, Mia Grant picked up her phone and scrolled up through the chat history.
They were all photos from various school activities.
Open classes, evening galas, a mishmash of all sorts of events.
They were all candid shots Ms. Murray had taken to fulfill her duties for the school administration.
The usable ones had all been uploaded to the school’s system and were in the archives. The unusable ones stayed on her phone, never deleted.
These were the leftovers.
There was nothing wrong with the photos. They were all group shots, and you had to zoom in to even find her in them.
But what she couldn’t understand was who was investigating her.
After thinking for a moment, she sent a message to Ms. Murray. "Thank you, Ms. Murray. I remember high school had already started when the department head was contacted, right? This must have been a lot of trouble for you."
Ms. Murray replied, "No trouble at all. That day happened to be a Saturday, so I wasn’t working anyway."
’Saturday.’
Mia Grant quickly opened her calendar.
That day, it seemed she had only contacted Hayes Hughes.
It was supposedly about Serena Grant.
’No, that’s not right.’
Mia Grant’s head snapped up. ’Zero... Kian Keller!’