Free Web NovelChapter 354: Chapter 352: Watering His Territory
Buckling her seatbelt, Mia asked, "Is it just the two of us?"
Julian said that Yuri and Carla Sinclair had already left.
"Oh." Mia put her phone in her bag, planning to watch the scenery along the way.
"Have you thought about settling down in Portia?"
Seeing how intently she was watching the whole way, Julian couldn’t help but seize the opportunity to ask.
Mia rested her chin on her hand, gazing out the window. Hearing his question, she shook her head gently. "I don’t have any plans for that right now."
"Mm, that’s fine. You can come back whenever you want. The family has a Gulfstream, so it’ll be convenient for you to travel back and forth."
Mia nodded, not saying much more.
"Are you feeling better? You look much healthier than the last time we met."
’How could I not be?’
Thinking about all those nutritious meals she’d been eating, Mia couldn’t help but sigh.
"I’m fine now."
The car was quiet for a moment before Julian asked tentatively, "I heard you saw a doctor a couple of weekends ago?"
"..."
It took Mia a moment to process his words, then she pieced it together based on the timeline.
She froze for a second, feeling a little strange.
There were always people "monitoring" her, and a new group had been added ever since the last incident.
They were from all the different families.
She just hadn’t expected Julian to have his people watching her too.
"Yeah." After a moment’s thought, she decided not to tell the whole truth. "I was feeling a little anxious. Yates Donovan mentioned his uncle runs a studio, so I just dropped by for a bit."
"Is it stress from school? Or is it because of the Grant family’s affairs?"
"If it’s the latter, don’t worry too much. Simon Adler and I can handle anything that comes up."
Mia hummed in acknowledgment.
They arrived at their destination.
Mia followed behind Julian. "Do you guys come here every year?"
"Basically, four or five times a year."
Julian turned, reaching out to grab her arm. "Be careful, it’s slippery here."
It had rained in the early morning, and the steps were slick with moisture.
Mia used his support to climb up and soon saw Yuri and Carla.
The weather was gloomy, and the forecast predicted more rain during the day.
Nearby, each bodyguard held a black umbrella, ready for the downpour that was expected later.
After they were done, a light drizzle began to fall from the sky.
The younger generation left first, but Yuri Sinclair stayed behind.
Mia glanced back, always surprised by the depth of the man’s devotion.
On the way back, she mentioned this to Silas Grant.
"Why do people only learn to cherish something after they’ve lost it?"
Mia chewed on a fried dough twist, crunching it forcefully. "You men are really something else..."
"Do you know if I had any regrets when I jumped into the sea?"
Silas Grant was in the middle of reviewing a document.
His assistant had just dropped it off, and he hadn’t finished reading it yet.
At her words, his hands froze. He was clearly taken aback by her casual, yet pointed, question.
Mia hadn’t actually meant to provoke him; it was just idle chatter.
’After all, it happened so long ago. There’s no need to keep dwelling on it.’
After a long silence, she finally heard Silas’s reply: "It wasn’t just regret back then. I still feel it now."
The CRUNCHING sound stopped.
A few seconds later, it started again. Mia finished the last piece of her dough twist and asked softly, "Do you have nightmares?"
"Occasionally."
"Maybe you should see a doctor, too?" Mia suggested.
The man chuckled softly. "No need. I rarely have them anymore."
"What about you? What are your nightmares about? Can you tell me?"
Mia thought for a moment. "I don’t really have nightmares. It’s mostly just dreams about trivial, everyday things. I just dream a lot."
"How have you been feeling since you started the medication?"
"Much better," Mia answered earnestly. "I feel like the amount of deep sleep I get each night has doubled."
Speaking of which, Mia was reminded of the drunk man.
After she was hospitalized, she never heard any more news about the drunk man from that night.
Logically, if a police report had been filed, the police would have contacted her for a statement.
But they never did.
It had been almost a month now.
’With so many people there that night, they must have caught him.’
"Brother."
She called to him softly.
Silas looked up.
She trotted over from a short distance away, holding a half-empty bag of small dough twists, and sat down across from him.
She nudged his documents aside to make room for her snack.
Silas watched her small actions, a trace of tenderness involuntarily appearing in his eyes.
In just a few short days, his normally cold and sterile home had been filled with color.
And not just because of the flowers.
Traces of her were everywhere.
Her iPad was in the living room, her small dog-patterned blanket on the balcony chair. Even on his study desk, there was her notebook and a couple of manga she hadn’t finished.
His bedroom, especially, was now filled with her snacks.
At first, she’d hidden them all in the nightstand.
When it couldn’t hold any more, he had someone come on short notice to install a snack cabinet for her in the bedroom.
He knew, of course, that she wouldn’t be coming here too often in the future.
But he still wanted to indulge her, to make sure everything was to her liking.
Silas didn’t usually like this kind of environment. He was extremely territorial and hated being disturbed.
His home used to be as tidy as a model showroom, without a single trace of life.
But now, the monotonous black, white, and gray decor had grown warmer because of a certain someone’s presence.
In all the years past, he had never had a concept of "home."
The Grant estate, the He residence.
To him, they were all just temporary perches he passed through.
He owned numerous properties, but he usually only stayed at one or two of them—and even then, it was mostly just to rest somewhere convenient for work.
None of those could be called a home.
It was only after being with her that he realized he did, in fact, yearn for all of this.
It was just that before her, no one had ever made him feel this way.
Reality was always cruel. He was like an immovable mountain range, and she was like an endlessly flowing river.
She ran free and wouldn’t stop for a single mountain.
The fortunate thing was, she hadn’t run too far away. The river had split off a tributary to water his domain.
Shaking himself from his thoughts with difficulty, Silas asked her what was wrong.
When she called him like that, chances were she wanted a favor.
"You caught that guy from the other day, right?"
"The one outside the hospital."
Thinking back to that day, Mia was grateful for the bodyguards. She was also relieved she had just come out of the hospital; if something truly awful had happened, they probably could have saved her in time.
Silas’s brow twitched. He stared at her for a moment before saying, "We caught him."
"So what happened?" Mia tilted her head, curious.
"He said he was drunk and doesn’t remember anything."
"..." Mia frowned. "Then why was he carrying a knife if he was just drinking? And was it really just a random attack?"
"Mhm. We looked into his background later. He’s a gambler who owes a lot of money. After some... persuasion, he said he was planning to take revenge on society and then jump into a river to kill himself."
Mia sank back into her seat hesitantly, murmuring, "So it really was just an accident..."
"Then what about the man?"
"We let him go."
"...Let him go?!" Mia’s eyes went wide.
"Mhm." Silas closed the document and smiled faintly. "He was just the bait."
