Chapter 11
Sebastian did not believe Valeria at all. His gaze continued to sweep all over her face.
Her breathing grew rapid. She clutched the puppy in her arms, subconsciously taking two steps back and pressing her back firmly against the elevator’s walls.
Then, he added, “I’m just asking you a question, Ms. Neal. Why are you so nervous?”
Valeria replied, “Dr. Grant, don’t you think that what you’re doing right now is rather inappropriate?”
“I’m standing outside the elevator, six feet seven inches away from you, and you’re referring to me as inappropriate?” Sebastian replied, looking at her calmly.
She was pressed tightly into a corner of the elevator as she stared at him on full alert.
The elevator soon let out a few warning beeps, indicating that the doors had remained open for far too long.
Sebastian eventually let go of his hand, allowing the elevator doors to slowly close.
Valeria continued staring into his dark eyes until the doors shut. Then, she finally let out a breath of relief. Her back was completely drenched in sweat at that point.
She wondered whether he had recognized her for a while before deciding that he most likely did not. She figured that there was not much Sebastian could do, even if he did.
Selena was her daughter, and she would never hand Selena over to the Grants.
Seven years had passed, and Sebastian already had a new girlfriend. Valeria’s past identity as Jane was nothing more than a girl he played around with.
She reckoned that someone like Sebastian, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, would probably be even less willing to bring up that part of his past.
Sebastian lowered his hand and walked back home.
Nemo let out a soft whimper toward the elevator, seemingly unwilling to see its own ‘son’ being taken away.
Sebastian seemed to have understood its feelings as he patted its head.
He spoke with a hint of sarcasm. “You only had the puppy for a week, and you already think of it as your own child, huh? What a philanthropist you are.”
Nemo slapped Sebastian’s leg with its tail, clearly dissatisfied with Sebastian. It slowly trotted
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back to the living room, flopped into its bed, and sulked while chewing on a stuffed bunny.
Sebastian sat down on the couch with his legs crossed and glanced at the money on the table, totaling up to 450 dollars.
He frowned as he took a cigarette from the pack on the table and smoked half of it.
The smoke from the cigarette lightly veiled his handsome face.
up
and
Nemo pawed at the cupboard under the coffee table, looking for treats. Sebastian stood walked over, only to find that it was filled with food for puppies that he had bought recently.
Valeria had already taken with her some puppy kibble, canned food, and powdered milk. He did not expect there to be so many things left.
Snatching a treat from Nemo’s mouth, Sebastian tossed it into the trash. “You can’t eat these. They’re for puppies, and you’re not one anymore.”
He then stared at the drawer full of pet supplies and scoffed. He had decided to consider buying them all as an act of charity.
Valeria soon brought the puppy home and named it “Potato”. Selena’s
when she saw it.
lit
up
with joy
Now that there were two dogs inside the house, it was bound to b
noisy. However, Potato was already potty-trained. Valeria figured that Sebastian must have already taught the puppy.
whether Potato
The truth was that, back at Sebastian’s house, she was already wondering w would have lived a better life if it had stayed with Sebastian.
She might not even be able to afford the same expensive dog food for it.
That night, Valeria had a dream.
She dreamt of Sebastian, along with a faceless old woman. However, she could tell that the
woman was Martha.
The two of them had somehow found Valeria and also found out that Selena was Sebastian’s
daughter.
Martha then accused Valeria of trying to climb the social ladder through Selena. She even cursed at Valeria, telling Valeria that she must be dreaming if she thought that she could
marry into the Grant family.
They then wanted to take Selena away.
Sebastian would plan to marry and have a family, while Selena would become an illegitimate child that he refused to acknowledge.
Valeria then dreamt of Alexander, Wendy, and their daughter, Gabriella. She also dreamt about her old classmates, who pointed at her and shouted, “You’re a thief! What a fat, ugly, and shameless girl you are, threatening Mr. Grant to be your boyfriend! Why don’t you take a look at yourself in the mirror?!”
She also dreamt about the greedy faces of her Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Thomas.
Valeria then saw herself lying in a pool of blood. Selena was crying beside her and eventually collapsed from a heart attack.
It jolted Valeria awake from the nightmare right away.
She got out of bed and rushed to Selena’s room without even putting on her slippers. She finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Selena sleeping peacefully.
She could not help but lean down and gently kiss Selena on the cheek.
Selena was slightly stirred awake and murmured, “Mommy?”
Valeria lay down beside Selena and pulled Selena into her a
“Mommy’s right here.”
Feeling her own daughter’s breathing and warmth, she slowly calmed down.
Valeria could not fall back to sleep. She waited until Selena was asleep once more before
getting up and walking to the window to stare at the moon high and bright in the sky.
The moonlight spilled faintly through the window.
Valeria was still feeling rather unsettled.
However, she was not the only one who could not sleep that night.
Sebastian was awake at the moment as well.
He had to assist Shawn with a surgery the next morning, so it was crucial to get a good night’s sleep. Yet, all he could do was toss and turn on his bed as his mind kept replaying the scenes like a projector on loop.
Unable to fall asleep, he decided to take a sleeping pill. However, even after that, Jane’s face still kept on appearing in his mind.
One moment, she was crying and begging him to adopt Nemo.
Chapter 11
4/5
The next moment, Jane was shaking him by the arm, begging him to fix her ugly bunny plushie that she had made a mess out of.
And the next, she was wrapping her arms around his waist, their clothes disheveled. They were in the corner of the gym storage room, with Sebastian kissing her until she could not
catch her breath.
Her voice was hoarse as she whispered, “Someone’s outside-”
Another fellow student had come in to look for some gym equipment, and the two of them hid
in a corner.
Sebastian dozed off for a bit and then woke up again-it was 3:00 am.
He sat up and started breathing heavily to catch his breath. Then, he went to the bathroom to freshen up and get changed.
Sebastian felt that something was off that night. He felt his temples throbbing intensely. He cursed at himself, realizing that he actually had a wet dream about Jane.
He was not able to control himself and smoked two cigarettes in a row.
Agitated, he took out his phone and opened up Telegram, only to find Jane’s profile still had the usual gray tone.
He frowned and made a call to one of his childhood friends, Mark Davidson.
The voice coming from the other end was a groggy one. “Sebastian, is that you? Why aren’t you sleeping in the middle of the night-
plained,
With a frown, Sebastian “Mark, I need your help to look someone up. Her name’s Jane Carlson.”
He figured that his recent emotional turmoil was largely due to hearing news of Jane’s “death “. They had been sleeping together for three years after all.
He was not exactly a heartless person. Even a normal classmate would feel bad for Jane when
they heard that she had died of a serious illness.
Sebastian’s mood swings, laced with concern and anxiety, along with his recent insomnia,
were all just normal reactions to Jane’s supposed death.
It lasted for quite some time as well.
Even his colleagues at the hospital had started to notice that something was off. “Dr. Grant, you seem really distracted lately.”
Chapter 11
Sebastian frowned and responded lightly.
5/5
In the afternoon, a colleague informed him that Shawn was treating everyone to dinner that night at a ranch-turned-restaurant.
His phone rang while he was on his way there. “Hello, Sebastian? I’m calling you about the person you asked me to look up for you-Jane Carlson? There are a ton of women with that name in Slate City, but only two matched the age range that you provided.
“One of them was recorded to have gone through treatment at a small clinic six years ago. She had a major hemorrhage during childbirth and gave birth to a baby boy. The baby boy, however, died right after being born.
“The other one was married. She fought with her husband and took her own life by taking poison two years ago.”
The sound of tires screeching echoed as Sebastian slammed on the brakes.
His fingers clenched tightly around the steering wheel. He stared straight ahead while his whole body trembled uncontrollably.
Mark continued, “That’s all I could find. Hey, Sebastian, are you listening? Hello?!” Sebastian was frozen in place, as if someone had pressed the pause button on him.
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