Chapter 94: Chapter 83: Blind Date

The moonlight was bleak, cool as still water.

Audrey Hughes’s heart was just as bleak. Several times, she felt her strength give out, as if she could no longer stand. But Shane Sterling, beside her, held her tightly the entire time.

She turned her head to look at his profile, which so strongly resembled Victor Sterling’s, and her heart filled with a storm of emotions.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay at the hospital with Ezra? What are you doing here?” Audrey Hughes asked.

“Yicheng is with him,” Shane Sterling replied. He left the rest unsaid: ’I was worried about you.’

Audrey Hughes fell silent.

Shane Sterling led her to his car.

“To the hospital? Or should I take you home to rest?” Shane Sterling asked.

“To the hospital.”

Shane Sterling started the car and turned it around, heading toward the hospital.

It was already late. The city had sunk into the heart of the night, the sharp edges of its buildings softened by the moonlight. The world was quiet, but the inside of their car was quieter still.

Shane Sterling glanced at the rearview mirror from time to time. He saw Audrey Hughes repeatedly tilting her head up and dabbing at the corners of her eyes, as if trying to force her tears back.

He let out a soft sigh and pulled the car over to the side of the road.

It took a moment for Audrey Hughes to realize what was happening. By the time she noticed, the car had come to a steady stop beneath the roadside trees.

“Why did you stop?” she asked, looking at Shane Sterling.

Shane Sterling pulled the pocket square from his suit jacket, turned, and handed it to Audrey Hughes.

Audrey Hughes lowered her head, clutching the soft square of fabric, unsure how to release her pent-up emotions. Then she heard Shane Sterling say, “I’m going to step out for a smoke.”

He opened his door, stepped out, and closed it behind him.

The car instantly became a private space for Audrey Hughes alone.

Audrey Hughes stared at the reflection of his stern yet gentle back on the window, and could no longer hold back her sobs. She began to weep loudly.

—

For the next two days, Shane Sterling handled the arrangements for Chloe Kerr’s funeral.

It wasn’t originally his responsibility, but his younger brother, Ezra Sterling, was deaf and mute, making it difficult for him to communicate with others. That, combined with being hospitalized for overwhelming grief, meant the task naturally fell to Shane Sterling.

Upon learning of Chloe Kerr’s death in the car accident, her divorced parents rushed to Meritopia. However, they weren’t there to see their daughter’s body one last time. They were there for the money.

After discovering that the Sterling Family was one of Meritopia’s wealthiest, they both, as if by silent agreement, made exorbitant demands. They wanted one last chance to profit from their daughter’s tragedy.

Shane Sterling despised dealing with scoundrels. To him, they were like tar—the more you struggled, the more stuck you became.

After attempts at reasonable negotiation failed, he simply ignored Chloe Kerr’s parents and sent someone to their rural hometown to bring her grandparents to Meritopia. Her grandparents were the ones who had truly raised her. After consulting with the elderly couple, Shane Sterling arranged for Chloe Kerr’s cremation, handled all the subsequent funeral proceedings, and secured a burial plot.

The elderly couple was overcome with grief. Shane Sterling comforted them and promised he would take full responsibility for their care in their old age.

The matter should have been settled then, but Shane Sterling couldn’t shake the feeling that something was left unresolved. The words Audrey Hughes had spoken during her confrontation with his father, Victor Sterling, kept him up at night.

He secretly had Chloe Kerr’s wrecked car sent for inspection. Two days later, on the same day her ashes were sent back to her hometown for burial, Shane Sterling received the report.

“Young Mr. Shaw, the brake pads on the car from the accident were indeed tampered with,” Justin Wyatt reported.

Although Shane Sterling had been prepared for this, the moment the truth was laid bare, a chill still ran down his spine. It was as if all the thoughts had been sucked from his mind.

“Have you found out who did it?”

“No leads yet.”

He sat absorbed in thought in his office chair when his phone suddenly rang. It was his father, Victor Sterling.

Shane Sterling gave Justin Wyatt a meaningful look. Justin Wyatt nodded, took the report, and left the office.

“Hello,” Shane Sterling answered.

“Where are you?”

“At the office.”

“Get to The Zenith Hotel right now. I have something to discuss with you.”

Shane Sterling hung up. As it happened, he had something to discuss with his father as well.

The Zenith Hotel was just across the street from the Sterling Group headquarters.

The drive over took Shane Sterling no more than five minutes.

He had just parked when a message from Victor Sterling arrived: “Third floor, Celestial Room.”

Shane Sterling didn’t reply, heading straight for the elevator and going upstairs.

On the third floor, at the Celestial Room, he pushed the door open to find a single woman in a red dress sitting inside the enormous private suite.

Shane Sterling thought he had the wrong room. He took a step back and glanced up, confirming that the character for “Celestial” was indeed on the door.

Hearing the noise, the woman in the red dress turned to look at him.

“Sean.”

It was Genevieve Quincy, Jocelyn Quincy’s younger sister.

“What are you doing here?” Shane Sterling asked, standing in the doorway and watching her from a distance.

Genevieve stood up and gestured to the seat across from her. “It’s a long story. Sean, why don’t you come in and have a seat?”

Shane Sterling walked into the suite.

Genevieve attentively poured him a cup of tea and placed it by his hand. “Sean, please have some tea.”

Shane Sterling didn’t touch the cup. “What’s going on?” he asked directly.

Genevieve raised a hand to smooth the hair at her temple, looking slightly embarrassed. “I only found out after I arrived. It seems my father and Uncle Sterling arranged for us to meet today… for a blind date.”

Shane Sterling let out a cold laugh. “A blind date?”

“Haven’t you heard, Sean? A while back, the rumor was that the Sterling and Quincy families were going to renew their marriage alliance.”

“Even if there were an alliance, it wouldn’t be with you. Where’s my former fiancée?”

At the mention of her sister, Jocelyn Quincy, Genevieve’s expression faltered. “My sister… she went abroad to study.”

“Study abroad?” Shane scoffed. “With English that bad, it sounds like she learned it from a gym teacher. What country would take her?”

Seeing she couldn’t hide the truth, Genevieve said with some difficulty, “Actually… my sister used drugs again yesterday. My father caught her and sent her abroad overnight. He said she’s not to come back until she’s clean.”

“So, the older sister is out, and the younger one steps in? What is this, some kind of cheap drama plot?”

Genevieve’s cheeks burned. “I didn’t know this was going to happen either.”

Finding the whole situation absurd, Shane Sterling stood up to leave. Genevieve quickly grabbed his arm. “Sean, don’t go just yet. My father and Uncle Sterling are in the suite next door. They’ll hear you.”

“And so what if they do?”

“We can’t change what they’ve decided,” Genevieve said, looking at Shane Sterling timidly. “I know you don’t like me, but you didn’t like my sister at first, either. And you were still forced into an engagement with her. My thinking is, if this alliance is inevitable, rather than fighting them head-on and getting ourselves hurt, maybe we could cooperate. We could pretend to go along with them for now, play the part, and buy ourselves more time to figure something out.”

Shane Sterling’s piercing gaze locked onto Genevieve. This second daughter of the Quincy Family was the child Jocelyn’s stepmother had brought from a previous marriage. Not being President Quincy’s biological daughter, she had always been timid and kept a low profile in the family. Jocelyn always told people her stepsister was a harmless little bunny, but looking at her now… ’This little bunny has some sharp teeth.’

“No, thank you.” Shane Sterling coldly pushed Genevieve’s hand away. “I’m not interested in getting engaged to you sisters one after the other.”

With that, he turned and walked toward the door.

Just as he pushed the door open, an unexpected person entered his line of sight.

“Isla?”

Isla Prescott was walking down the hall, carrying a laptop. Her brow, which had been furrowed, smoothed out the moment she saw Shane Sterling.

Shane Sterling hadn’t come home on the night of New Year’s Day.

Isla Prescott had only received a single text from him, saying something had come up with his family and that she should go to sleep without waiting for him.

After that, she hadn’t seen him for two consecutive days.

Isla Prescott didn’t know what had happened with his family, but for him to use a phrase like “something had come up,” she knew it couldn’t be a minor issue.

She was worried sick about him, but she was afraid of bothering him while he dealt with family matters. All she could do was endure the agony of wanting to see him but being unable to, waiting for him to contact her first.

She never expected they would run into each other here today.

“What are you doing here?” Isla Prescott asked as she walked toward him.

Just as Shane Sterling was about to answer, the door to the adjacent suite opened, and his father, Victor Sterling, stepped out.

Victor Sterling’s gaze fell upon Isla Prescott, sharp and scrutinizing.

“Sean, and this is?”

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