Free Web NovelChapter 357: Chapter 355: She Ordered Him to Kill You
Perhaps that phone call was what did it. Julian Vaughn, who was supposed to arrive in Jynsia two days later, had changed his plans at the last minute and come with Simon Adler.
Mia Grant had plans with Simon Adler, but after a moment of hesitation, she decided to stand him up.
When Simon Adler got the call, he was silent for a long time before asking, "Can you give me a reason?"
Mia Grant thought for a moment, then said, "Julian Vaughn came with you, right?"
"Yes." But the two of them had gone their separate ways at the airport.
It didn’t take long for Simon Adler to realize what was going on.
"You made plans with him?"
"Something like that. I’m planning to meet with him."
"..."
Simon Adler said, "I’ll go with you."
"No need. We’re eating out in public. Even if he wanted to do something to me, he’d have to consider the setting, right? It’s not like he can poison me."
"Let’s leave it at that for now. I’ll treat you next time I’m free."
At seven in the evening, Mia Grant pushed open the restaurant door, arriving right on time.
Julian Vaughn had arrived twenty minutes earlier.
Mia Grant gave her name and was led by a waiter to a private room on the second floor.
It was a century-old restaurant in Jynsia, with a spiral staircase that creaked underfoot.
The door to the private room was open, so Julian Vaughn heard her footsteps immediately. He looked up toward the entrance, and a moment later, Mia Grant appeared in his line of sight.
Mia Grant nodded at him and took her seat.
The waiter presented the menus.
Mia Grant wasn’t particularly interested in anything else and just ordered the roast duck. Julian Vaughn, worried she wouldn’t eat well, ordered all of the waiter’s recommended signature dishes.
It was basically enough food for four or five people.
After the waiter left, Julian Vaughn picked up a bag from the empty seat beside him. He gently turned the lazy Susan on the table, moving the bag in front of her.
Mia Grant glanced at the logo on the bag and raised an eyebrow with a smile. "If it weren’t for this bag, I might have thought you were giving me a bomb or something. The kind that explodes the moment I pick it up and pull the ribbon."
"..." Julian Vaughn was rendered speechless by her imagination. She was being humorous, but he couldn’t bring himself to laugh.
As if she didn’t see the look on his face, Mia Grant lowered her head and began to unwrap the gift.
It was a watch. She recognized the brand because Silas Grant’s watch was from the same maker.
It was said to be worth seven or eight figures.
With Carla Sinclair’s massive money transfer fresh in her mind, Mia Grant wasn’t particularly fazed by the sight of this watch.
She knew that to Julian Vaughn, a purchase like this was no different from her buying a cup of bubble tea while out shopping.
"Why the sudden gift? An apology?" Mia Grant closed the box, showing no intention of trying it on.
Julian Vaughn took in her reaction, hesitated for a few seconds, then got straight to the point. "I wanted to apologize to you."
Mia Grant rested her chin on one hand, her smile casual, as if she didn’t care. But her eyes never left him, clearly telling him to confess everything and be done with it.
The atmosphere grew heavy.
After waiting a moment, Mia Grant took a deep breath. "It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it."
She pulled a call log from her bag and slapped it onto the table. "Your call records—I had someone clean them up."
"And your assistant’s overseas account. No one will know you were behind this."
"You’re my brother. I trust that you wouldn’t hurt me."
"But please, be more careful next time you have someone do your dirty work, okay? If *they* had found this, I’m sure today would have been the last time we ever met."
Staring at the contents of the document, Julian Vaughn’s brow furrowed in surprise. He hadn’t expected her to uncover all this.
Then, he finally understood what she was getting at and immediately explained:
"That drunk had nothing to do with me. I paid off his debt to try and pry his mouth open."
"I was just trying to get him on my side to bait the person behind all this."
"If it was really me, I wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of investigating that man from the day of your incident."
Mia Grant appeared to believe him. "Then why were you looking for Serena Grant?"
After much hesitation, he finally just said, "I don’t know how to explain it, but I truly mean you no harm."
Mia Grant studied him. She appeared calm on the surface, but inwardly she was far from satisfied with his answer.
’I’ve already laid my cards on the table. I played the family card perfectly, so this isn’t the result I should be getting.’
’What is Julian Vaughn so worried about?’
She tapped her fingers together and said with a smile, "Alright, if you can’t say, then I’ll take a guess."
"You and Serena Grant weren’t familiar with each other before this. What goal were you trying to achieve by going through all the trouble of finding her and trying to use her?"
"You’re a member of the Sinclair Family. You don’t lack for fame, fortune, or status."
"It can’t be that you have a secret crush on her, can it?"
"..."
Mia Grant noticed the corner of Julian Vaughn’s mouth twitch slightly.
"Oh, so it’s not that, I see."
"It’d better not be." Mia Grant let out a mock sigh of relief. "Otherwise, this whole situation would be very difficult to clean up."
"My own brother being in love with my sworn enemy... Truly one of life’s great tragedies."
Her tone was light, and the atmosphere felt just right—it wasn’t the tense, swords-drawn confrontation one might have expected.
Mia Grant rubbed her temples, still thinking. "But if it’s none of those things... does she have something on you?"
It felt like she’d hit a dead end, a feeling she really disliked.
Seeing that the man across from her remained unmoved, Mia Grant clenched her jaw, then let out a resigned laugh. "Or is it that you just really hate me as a sister, so you have to find ways like this to get under my skin?"
"Of course not," Julian Vaughn immediately retorted.
A knock at the door signaled the waiter’s arrival with their food, interrupting their conversation.
Letting out a slow breath, Mia Grant picked up her chopsticks, deciding to retreat in order to advance. "Forget it. Let’s just eat."
The figure across from her didn’t move to pick up his chopsticks for a long time, but Mia Grant ate with a clear conscience.
After a long while, Julian Vaughn rubbed his brow and said softly, "A while ago, I had a very long dream."
Her chopsticks clinked against her bowl.
Mia Grant looked up at him.
Julian Vaughn seemed to be choosing his words carefully. He paused before continuing, "It was a strange dream. In it, Serena Grant ordered someone to harm you. But I didn’t see that person’s face."
"At first, I thought I only dreamed something like that because I was too worried about you."
"Besides, there’s the saying that dreams are the opposite of reality, so I didn’t think much of it."
"But two days later, I had the same dream again. This time, the details were much clearer."
"Did you see... that person’s face?" Mia Grant’s grip on her chopsticks tightened.
He shook his head. "I’m only certain that this person is very familiar with Serena Grant, and with you as well."
"I sought out Serena Grant because I wanted to interact with her and see... if the dream really was a premonition of the future, then maybe I could prevent it from happening."
"Of course, it would be for the best if it was really just a dream."
"But I admit I shouldn’t have contacted her." So this was what he was apologizing for.
Mia Grant nodded. "It’s just a dream. You don’t have to take it so seriously."
She stood up and ladled some soup for him, a gesture of goodwill.
"By the way, what happened to me in your dream?" she asked casually.
Julian Vaughn shook his head, unwilling to say.
"Come on, it’s just a dream. You’re taking it way too seriously."
Julian Vaughn glanced at her, then said hesitantly, "She ordered that person to use a knife... and kill you."
CLATTER—
The soup ladle dropped into the clay pot.
