Chapter 89: Chapter 89: Adults’ Secret

If Jessie Sterling had felt even the slightest hesitation, it vanished the moment she saw that the event Zoe Marx mentioned was being held in Aethelburg.

Jessie cheerfully showed the message to Lynn Jennings. “Oh, that’s actually pretty close!”

Lynn Jennings gave her a wry smile. “You’re right. This way, you won’t need me to come rescue you. If you get upset in there, you can just give President Morgan a call, can’t you? He’ll definitely get there faster than I would.”

Jessie gave her shoulder a light push. “What are you talking about!”

The afternoon was still young, so Jessie bought two tickets for an orchestral concert, planning to drag Lynn along. But before they could even leave the mall, Lynn’s phone rang.

Lynn glanced at the caller ID and answered without trying to hide it from Jessie.

“Hello?”

Whatever the person on the other end said, Lynn’s expression turned odd. She even glanced over at Jessie. “…How is that possible? She’s right here beside me. Are you kidding me?”

Jessie watched Lynn curiously, wondering what was going on.

The person on the other end said something more, and Lynn grew impatient. “What does that have to do with me? Are you nuts?”

Without waiting for a reply, Lynn continued, “I’m busy. Find someone else. Besides, he’s a grown man. How could he possibly get lost? An adult should be responsible for his own actions. Does he really expect other people to clean up his messes?”

Having said her piece, Lynn lost all patience and hung up.

Jessie hadn’t heard everything clearly, but she caught that Lynn had mentioned her. She couldn’t help but ask, “Who was that?”

Lynn didn’t want to trouble her with it, so she hesitated to answer.

But just then, Jessie’s phone rang too.

Jessie took out her phone. It was an unsaved, unfamiliar number, but she knew who it was.

Lynn said, “These people just don’t give up.”

She wanted to tell Jessie not to answer, but it was too late. Jessie had already picked up.

A moment later, Jessie hung up.

“Let’s go. How about we grab a couple of coffees before the concert?” Lynn asked, pretending nothing had happened.

Jessie looked at her. “That was Keith Reese on the phone.”

Julian Grant’s classmate and good friend.

Lynn sighed. “Even if Julian has disappeared, it has nothing to do with you. He’s a grown man; it’s not like anything serious could have actually happened to him.”

Seeing Lynn’s tense and exasperated expression, Jessie suddenly laughed.

“Are you worried I’m going to go look for him?”

Lynn couldn’t even be bothered to glance at her. “Well, are you going to go? If I told you not to, would you listen to me?”

The call Lynn had received wasn’t from Keith Reese, but it was from a mutual friend in their Southaven social circle.

Julian Grant had been missing for three whole days. His close friends couldn’t reach him by phone and couldn’t find him at his apartment, so they were starting to panic.

Many people remembered how Jessie used to follow Julian around everywhere. They were childhood friends and next-door neighbors who had grown up together. On top of that, the timing of his disappearance coincided with Jessie’s return to the country, so many assumed she would know where he was.

Even if she didn’t know his location, they believed that, given their history, she would eagerly join the search for him.

Jessie said, “I would.”

“So there’s no point in me telling you not to go… Wait. What did you just say?” Lynn stopped mid-sentence. She turned in disbelief to look at Jessie, who was busy typing on her phone. “What did you say? You’d listen to me?”

Jessie finished typing a message and hit send before finally looking up from her phone to meet Lynn’s gaze.

“That’s right.” She nodded. “I’ll listen to you.”

She said it so naturally that Lynn was left standing there, completely dumbfounded.

As if she still couldn’t quite believe it, Lynn probed again, “Julian is missing, and you’re sure you’re not going to look for him?”

Jessie replied, “I think if he’s really missing, reporting it to the police would be faster than us trying to find him. Besides, the most I can do is give Keith and the others a few places where he might be. The rest isn’t really our problem, is it?”

With that said, Jessie pulled Lynn into the elevator. She pressed the button for the first floor instead of the one for the underground garage. “Let’s go get that coffee.”

Lynn couldn’t help but give Jessie a thumbs-up.

Jessie had almost forgotten about Julian’s little ’disappearance.’ If Keith hadn’t called her today, it would have completely slipped her mind.

Lynn was visibly relieved once she was sure Jessie wasn’t going to look for Julian.

’After all, as an insider, she knew just how much Jessie used to like Julian. Even though Jessie had complained to her about him several times recently, that was before any question of his personal safety came up.’

’Whatever Jessie’s reasons for marrying Victor Morgan, the fact was she had a husband now. I can’t let him, all the way in Aethelburg, hear any rumors about her getting involved with Julian’s problems. In the end, Jessie would be the only one to suffer, wouldn’t she?’

“Actually, I knew about this before you came back,” Lynn explained. “But I figured it had nothing to do with you. And since Julian disappeared on his own, there was no way you’d know where he was, so I didn’t bring it up.”

Jessie nodded in understanding.

’Only someone who was truly looking out for me would keep something like that from me.’

“He…” Lynn was still trying to figure out how to explain the whole story when Jessie cut her off.

“Let’s drop it. No need to talk about him,” Jessie said. “I already sent Keith a few addresses. If they check them all and still can’t find him, they’ll call the police.”

’Of course, she knew why Julian had suddenly disappeared.’

She’d known since they were young that the “aunt and uncle” next door were different from her own parents. The Grants were very hospitable and often had friends over.

Once, after school, Jessie insisted on trailing after Julian. Just as they reached the front gate of the Grant’s house, she saw a strange man walk out with his arm wrapped intimately around Julian’s mother. Behind the two of them, Julian’s father had his own arm around a woman she’d never seen before, both of them laughing happily.

Julian’s face had turned grim. Jessie didn’t know why, but she felt that something about the scene was very wrong.

This time, however, Jessie knew that Julian had walked in on a repeat of that very scene they had witnessed together all those years ago.

That was the real reason he couldn’t face it—the reason he’d ultimately decided to go abroad and start his own business.

After all, he just couldn’t accept that his parents were into spouse swapping.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep