When Ariel replied, Perry was a little surprised. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure why he’d get her number in the first place.

And now that she had replied, he had no idea how to continue the conversation. Anything he typed felt weird. So, in the end, he said nothing.

Nevertheless, his next action was to open her Instagram profile.

There weren’t many posts. It seemed like she had made everything public.

The most recent one was from two weeks ago. It was a photo of a hospital building. The caption read, “Here alone, as expected. Hoping for good news.”

Somehow, he could picture Ariel’s calm expression as she wrote it.

Clearly, she’d gone to the hospital by herself.

Perry scrolled further down. Most of her posts were glimpses of her life.

He could tell that Ariel had a real passion for life. She often shared photos of the desserts she’d made, meals she’d cooked, and flowers she’d bought, as well as how tidy everything was in her home.

There was a warmth and sense of care in everything.

As Perry kept scrolling, he couldn’t help but think Jayson really should’ve been happy.

Near the bottom, Perry came across a mirror selfie Ariel had taken. He hesitated but didn’t tap to enlarge it.

“Perry? What are you looking at?”

Matt noticed that Perry had been zoning out the whole time during dinner. He barely said a word and kept staring at his phone.

Jayson glanced over and asked calmly, “Something on your mind?”

He’d picked up on it too. Perry hadn’t really been present all evening.

Perry met his eyes and, for some reason, felt annoyed. “No.”

Nancy walked over just then. Her eyes flicked to Perry’s screen. “You seem distracted. Are you feeling okay?”

Perry locked the screen. “I’m fine.”

Smiling, Nancy replied, “Okay.”

But she was pretty sure she’d seen a woman’s photo on his screen.

A woman?

The thought echoed in her mind, and her gaze flickered back to Perry.

Jayson spent the night at Larkin Manor. He had some documents he needed from the study there. The next morning, just as he was about to head out, Renee happened to be leaving for school.

Wearing her school uniform, she slipped right into Jayson’s car.

Jayson gave her a look. “What are you doing?”

Renee replied lazily. “Going to school, of course. Jay, are you picking up my dear sister–in–law? I miss her. I figured I’d tag along and say hi before class.”

Jayson knew that by “sister–in–law“, she meant Nancy. She never called Ariel that.

As Renee texted Nancy to say they’d be downstairs soon, she suddenly asked, “Is Ariel totally losing it lately?”

Jayson turned to look at her. “What makes you say that?”

Renee raised her brows in thought.

Ariel cared so much about Jayson and had practically begged Renee to acknowledge her as her sister–in–law. But Renee had refused and acknowledged Nancy instead. Ariel must be furious, she figured.

Even if she didn’t show it, Renee could tell.

ང ཇ འཛ ཇ ཋ ཌ༴ ཇ

But why didn’t Ariel ever consider that she was never a match for Nancy to begin with?

Nancy was amazing in aerospace engineering. Renee wanted to study it in the future too. Nancy would definitely help her out.

But Ariel was actually pretty good at running a household. At the very least, she could cook, and her desserts were always on point.

She wasn’t totally useless.

However, Ariel had purposely stopped sending her desserts.

She kind of wanted some, but no way was she going to act all friendly just to get them. Ariel would only get cocky about it.

“Nothing. I just feel like it’s nice having a little peace and quiet lately.” Renee didn’t say more and turned her attention to a drone forum.

She really admired the developer behind U.N2. If she ever got the chance, she was going to meet that person one day.

་་ “ཅ འང རྒྱུ པོ

Jayson glanced at the stock market on his tablet, looking thoroughly uninterested in topics that had to do with Ariel.

After meeting with Nancy, he dropped Renee off at school.

Since she went to an international school, she didn’t have those painfully early morning classes.

When she walked into the classroom, she noticed Freya was already there.

Freya had an asthma attack recently and had to be hospitalized for a few days.

Now that she was back, Renee didn’t bother saying hi. They were the same age and had been compared to each other their entire lives. Renee was sick of it.

Freya didn’t seem to care either. She pulled a box of cookies out of her bag and set them on her desk.

Renee sat at an angle where she could see them clearly. She instantly noticed the familiar packaging.

She blurted, “Where’d you get those?”

Freya gave her a quick glance and took a bite of one. “What’s it to you?”

Renee frowned.

It really did look like something Ariel would make. That moon–themed box was totally her style, and the cranberry chocolate cookies inside had a scent that felt oddly familiar.

Out of nowhere, Renee felt annoyed. She didn’t even know why.

She told herself it was just a coincidence, but it still rubbed her the wrong way.

She gave Freya one last look and said nothing more.

After Ariel got to the office, she saw a text from Freya.

She’d sent a photo of the cookies Ariel gave her and wrote, “Is there anything you can’t do, Ms. Walker? I couldn’t help myself. I ate the whole box.

“Ms. Walker, can I come to you if I have questions about drones?”

Ariel thought Freya had a bright and cheerful personality, which made her quite likable.

She replied, “Sure.”

Then she put her phone away and spent two hours diving into aerospace research papers. Suddenly struck with a new idea, she rushed to pull Chad and the others into a meeting.

She remembered Carlos once gave her a book that covered exactly this area. It was a super valuable reference.

But she couldn’t find it anywhere.

Then it hit her. It was probably still at the marital home.

She thought about calling Jayson to let him know she’d be stopping by to get the book, hoping it wouldn’t be a bother.

But then again, he probably wouldn’t even pick up. And honestly, he barely even went home.

She figured she’d just grab the book and leave.

After working late till 8:00 pm, Ariel took her medicine and headed over to the house.