The next morning, Jim and Curtis headed to Howard's room together. They wanted to invite him to join them for breakfast so that they could talk.However, there was no response from him, even though they had knocked on his door for a long time.Curtis was alarmed. He knocked the door down with force. They rushed into the room to see that it was empty, with only a note left addressed to Yvonne.Soon, Yvonne received the note. She read it and furrowed her brows. "Howard left.""Did he say where he was going?" Jim asked anxiously.Yvonne shook her head. "He only told me to take care of Jade. He said he had to do something important."At that moment, Yvonne thought about what Howard had said to her in the garden the day before. It turned out that the important thing he had mentioned wasn’t taking care of Jade but something else, which he wasn’t planning on telling her.If she had sensed something was wrong back then, she would have forced Howard to tell her. It was too bad that she

Chuck had long predicted that Yvonne would call him. He pretended to be stunned. "Leonard and Claude had something to do with Jade's incident? Ms. Miller, stop pulling my leg! Jade turned out this way because of Mark, right?"Yvonne was silent."Why are you calling me anyway? Did something happen? Or did Leonard and Claude come looking for you?" Chuck sounded frightened. "I've been good at Hope. I only treated Jade because Howard kept begging me to. I didn't do anything other than that. Don't accuse me of anything.""Chuck, stop playing games with me," Yvonne said coldly. "Howard left Hope after talking to you. Who would believe you?""Howard left Hope?" Chuck was bewildered. "Where has he gone? Shouldn't he be staying by Jade's side?""Chuck," Yvonne said warningly and impatiently.Chuck sounded as if he had been wronged. "Ms. Miller, I know nothing about this. What are you trying to make me say? Others might not know, but you should know better. I work for Leonard and

Three days later, Leonard and Claude invited Mark and Yvonne to their manor the following Wednesday. It was supposedly a meeting for the Principals.This was exactly what Yvonne had wanted. Although she didn't know why they had suddenly invited her, it gave her an opportunity to look for Howard. She immediately accepted their invitation.Before heading over, she took some time to spend the day with Jade. Other than her daily check-up, she spent the time talking with Jade, trying to make sure Jade spent less time sleeping.Before this, Jade had already found Yvonne familiar. After spending more time together, she started trusting Yvonne more and more.That day, Yvonne casually mentioned, "Jade, I might need to leave Hope for a few days—"Before she could finish her sentence, Jade grabbed Yvonne's hand. "Where are you going? Are you abandoning me like my father?""No." Yvonne grabbed Jade's hand and said gently, "Your father didn't abandon you. He loves you the most in the enti

After exchanging pleasantries, Leonard arranged for the household staff to take Yvonne and Stephen back to their rooms to rest.Once they left, Claude went up to Leonard. "Leonard, what on earth are you trying to do?"Since that day, Leonard still hadn't shared his plan with Claude. Claude had been dying to know what he was up to. "Mark has destroyed our business, yet you're trying to be the mediator. Do you think he'll take you up on it?""What do you know?" Leonard side-eyed Claude. "If we don't come up with an excuse to get Mark to come to our territory, are you going to wait to fall into his trap?"Claude was at a loss for words. "I-It sure is better that he comes to our territory."Leonard retracted his gaze. "Just follow my lead. At least, we have to find out why Mark is doing this to us."…Mark was nowhere to be seen, even during dinner that night.Seeing how the food was getting cold, Leonard awkwardly picked up his cutlery. "Let's not wait. Let's eat."Claude was

At the same time, Claude was lecturing Jane in the study. "You're getting more and more disobedient!"Before Yvonne and the others had arrived, Claude had found an excuse to get Jane to leave the manor. He had never thought that she would disobey him and return to meddle in his affairs."You're just pissing me off to death! Are you happy now?""No," Jane muttered. "You didn't tell me the truth. You're the one at fault—""What's wrong? The only wrong thing I did was to let you get to know Stephen Anderson!" Claude was furious. "I really don't know what the hell is going on with you. How could you fall for a divorced man with a child?""He's a great guy—""Enough." Leonard's head hurt from listening to them argue. He curtly stopped their argument. "Jane's appearance tonight might not be a bad thing." Leonard furrowed his brows. He thought back about what Mark had said and continued, "I think Mark knows that we had something to do with Jade's incident."Claude's eyes widene