A wonderful fragrance came from the cooking in the kitchen, and Leon sniffed the air curiously. All of a sudden, he lost all of his motivation for work and his stomach rumbled in protest. However, he pulled a face as he stared at his computer screen filled with words and codes; his work was unfinished so for now, he couldn’t enjoy the fragrant meal.
And so, he continued to tap away furiously on his keyboard. He felt like he was a machine doing everything mechanically. In fact, the job of a hacker was glorified by everyone but in all honesty, the work required a huge amount of patience.
Meanwhile, Heather prepared a whole meal in just a short time and she eyed her accomplishments with a pleased look. All in all, she had finished preparing everything earlier than expected. However, Leon hadn’t completed his work yet. As such, she quietly made her way to stand behind him.
She saw herself tip-toeing over to him and found her antics quite comical. As for Leon, his focused look during work was exceptionally attractive to her. Currently, his brows were knitted together and his eyes were dark and brooding, which looked quite captivating. His chiseled nose bridge resembled the groves of a valley and she was quite tempted to reach out and touch it.
All this while, Leon was engrossed in his work so he didn’t realize that Heather was standing behind him. It was only when he stopped what he was doing that he finally noticed her presence.
“Heather, don’t stand behind me without saying a word! It’s rather frightening, alright?” Leon was quite perplexed by her strange behavior of entering the room without even greeting him.
“I didn’t want to interrupt your work.” She came up with an excuse almost instantaneously. In order to shut him up, she immediately continued by saying, “Are you done with work? Dinner’s ready so let’s have the meal.”
Soon after that, Leon gulped his saliva and revealed a hungry expression. He was quite used to behaving without any regard for his image in front of her, and she couldn’t help but smile at his antics.
“I’m not quite done yet. Please don’t forget to keep the dishes warm because it won’t taste as good when it’s cold,” Leo said with a look of concern. This is her first time cooking for me so I want to taste piping hot dishes!
“Sure; I’ll wait for you,” she murmured and revealed a mysterious smile. Meanwhile, Leon faced his computer screen with a miserable look on his face.
The time passed by and Heather didn’t realize how long she had been standing there for, but she started to feel bored. Suddenly, Leon lazily stretched his back while yawning and said, “Everything is finally done!” Truth be told, he felt quite tired just then. My stamina has dropped so much after being away from the gym for quite some time.
As soon as Heather heard that, she immediately rushed forward; right in front of her on the computer screen, she saw a simple Word file. Come to think of it, Leon seems to be a big fan of the Word application. That’s quite rare in the hacker world.
She looked at the information and frowned—it was as if she had gone back to the past. There was indeed a close link between the Langstons and the Moriartys back then. It also looked like the severance of ties between them, and the Harts back then were not so simple after all. It was quite likely related to the Moriartys.
Leon had a worried expression on his face upon seeing Heather frowning so hard. It looked like they had uncovered a dark past and the information on Caleb was actually quite alarming. Just then, he stood up from his chair, feeling quite tired from being in a sitting-down position the whole afternoon.
“Relax, Heather. You should relax and breathe a little.” Leon showed concern as he looked at her somewhat serious expression.
“I can’t believe I knew nothing of this!” Heather said this with a resentful expression. Robert had never revealed all this to her and she really couldn’t comprehend his reason for hiding this.
Just then, Leon patted her on the shoulder. To him, this wasn’t a big deal so he didn’t understand why she was so upset. The older generation usually had their own secrets and he already had first-hand experience of that. Moreover, this was much more evident in large families like the Langstons so surely, she must be quite open to all this.
“Claris Langston—that’s my grand-aunt who passed away. Her name is quite similar…” Heather rubbed her tired eyes. She was quite perceptive to this and Claris’ name was something that irked her.
“It’s purely coincidental,” Leo hurriedly replied. He had noticed this too and it seemed quite odd to him.
“No; I don’t think it is a coincidence,” Heather mentioned quite insistently. Right now, she wanted to rush back home to talk things through with Robert. However, she suddenly recalled his face, pale and lacking pallor, and she immediately changed her mind.
“I want to know more about her.” Heather was determined to work out the whole situation, and something in her mind nagged at her to keep probing.
This time, she had a strong hunch that she was supposed to figure out everything that happened in the past. However, Leon’s expression turned immediately as soon as he heard her words. He was quite fearful of her now as he no longer had the energy to run another investigation on a different person in detail.
It suddenly dawned upon Heather and she awkwardly mentioned, “Let’s have dinner first. This isn’t urgent.” She realized that she was jumping ahead of herself without paying regard to Leon’s feelings.
“Heather, I think we should obtain information about the past from the actual party involved,” Leon suggested. “You won’t be able to gain the truth you’re after from a lifeless computer,” He said it while staring at his beloved computer.
She merely flicked a look at him without responding. He’s quite right about this. A computer isn’t going to be able to restore the truth of the past. I need to ask Grandpa about it. Grandaunt died in such suspicious circumstances after all, so it’s quite likely that the Moriartys had something to do with it. Everything seems connected to the Moriartys, so it is very likely that they hold crucial information about the past. Caleb must be quite a dangerous guy.
…
During dinner, Leon suddenly brought up an important point and it caused Heather’s heart to skip a beat.
“Heather, what if Caleb insists on entering into an arranged marriage with your family? How do you plan on handling this?” An arranged marriage with the Langstons means he’s after her hand in marriage! I’d rather she marry Matthias than Caleb. I can’t imagine someone as headstrong as her to submit to a vicious politician.
“No way!” Heather rejected this notion insistently. I would never agree to this arranged marriage! Sometimes, there were just some people which you knew things could never work out with.
Caleb was definitely not the other half that Heather sought. The future she envisioned with her beloved was them working together to develop their own corporation. Furthermore, she had no intentions of getting involved in a political storm.
“Actually, you shouldn’t feel too pessimistic about this situation with this arranged marriage. Besides, he didn’t specify that he wanted to marry you, and you’re not the only woman in your family.” Leon maintained a positive outlook as usual, and he tended to emphasize on the good side of things.
“I’m the only one who’s close to his age.” Heather suddenly recalled Everly, who had just turned twenty not long ago and was still quite childish in her ways. If Everly stood next to Caleb right now, they would look like such a mismatch due to their large age gap.
“You have to stop thinking of it this way. Don’t assume that Caleb’s fixated upon you. Perhaps that’s just overthinking on your part?” Leon tried to comfort Heather by providing her with quite a far-fetched excuse.
Meanwhile, she shot him an annoyed look. He’s trying to show concern but those words don’t make a difference at all!
“It doesn’t matter who Caleb eventually decides on. No matter what happens, no one from the Langstons will marry into the Moriarty family!” she announced firmly. She could sense that the Moriartys harbored a grudge against their family, so there was a high chance that whoever married Caleb would lead a miserable life.
She recalled the moment of her dining together with Caleb and she could clearly sense his intense dislike toward her family. Although he sounded sincere in his words regarding the Langstons as family friends, clearly he did not mean it. In fact, his behavior was terrifyingly dark and sinister.
“Heather, you need an official boyfriend right away,” Leon came up with this suggestion after considering the situation for quite some time. He had already gone through Matthias’ background carefully and obviously knew about the speculations on their relationship.
Right now, Heather was in quite a tough situation. If Matthias took on the role as her protector, then perhaps Caleb would change his mind about setting his eyes on her.
She glared at Leon furiously upon hearing his words. Why is he bringing up Matthias all of a sudden? He must be trying to create more trouble!
Upon seeing her expression, he hastily appeased her with a smile. “Heather, this meal you prepared is really great! It’s so tasty! I reckon it’s almost comparable with my mom’s cooking.” Truth be told, Leon was quite skillful at changing the topic.
After hearing that, Heather’s expression finally softened. However, she was feeling rather dejected and she didn’t have the appetite to eat, so she picked at her food. What an irony—I can’t even finish the meal I prepared!
“Should I meet up with Caleb privately?” she then asked with a torn expression. I think I should go and talk to him in person.
“No way! You’ll be playing with fire,” Leo immediately discouraged her from proceeding with such a dangerous plan.
In the end, she consoled herself by muttering, “I guess you are right. I might not be the one he has decided to marry.”
“Then there’s completely no reason for you to meet with him!” Leon stared at her with an incredulous look. Why is she somehow turning dumber with each passing moment? I really wish I could crack her brain open to figure out what’s going on in there!
“There are some things that I think he might be willing to tell me.” Heather countered and she was keen to find out the truth from Caleb. Her sixth sense told her that he would be quite willing to reveal to her the secrets from the past.
However, Leon hurriedly shook his head. “Heather, why don’t you reconsider my suggestion? The rumors about you and Matthias spread like wildfire previously and everyone seems to be under the assumption that you two are a couple. Why don’t you make use of this relationship to fend against Caleb?” Leon decided to be frank about his opinion. At least Matthias and her look like a good match when they stand next to each other. At this moment, Leon was, in fact, quite supportive of Matthias and Heather to get together with each other.
“Make use of Matthias to fend against Caleb?” Heather couldn’t bring herself to do this. Matthias had done the exact same thing and made use of me previously. Do I have to resort to the same tactics too?
“Do you have a better solution?” Leon retorted while he ate as he was famished.
Meanwhile, he looked at the spread of food in front of him and reckoned he could finish three helpings of it. He felt quite warm and fuzzy as soon as he realized that all of this was specially prepared by Heather. Moreover, her presence as they enjoyed this meal made him feel like they were family to each other.
“You should be aware of how hostile my relationship with Matthias is, so it’s practically impossible for him to agree to work together with me for this.” She thought of the tense relationship between her and Matthias and came to the conclusion that seeking help right now was evidently an impossible task.
“Heather, are you really that dense or…” However, he couldn’t quite bring himself to finish his sentence. Her EQ isn’t that low, but why can’t she see his true feelings?
“Why are you mumbling about? What do you want to say?” Heather had no patience for his hemming and hawing; she would rather he mentioned what was on his mind directly.
“Why don’t we place a bet?” Leon offered playfully. “I reckon Matthias will definitely help you fend against Caleb willingly,” he said with a confident smile.
“You don’t understand him at all.” Heather shook her head. Why does Leon keep bringing Matthias into our conversation?
“Well, Heather, perhaps you are the one who doesn’t understand males.” Leon was anxious beyond himself on behalf of Matthias. Is Heather really that dense?
She, on the other hand, was quite lost right now.“I don’t want to continue this topic,” she muttered, feeling a headache coming on as soon as someone mentioned Matthias.
Upon hearing that, Leon smiled cunningly and he said, “Ask him out after dinner!” I must be the coolest guy ever, he thought to himself. I mean, I’m pushing my crush into another guy’s arms!
