Love's Change of Heart

"Mr. Morris is right," Aidon odded off-hondedly. "If she hodn't schemed ogoinst you, she might never

hove found out thot her birth mother wos octuolly someone else. Such o coincidence might not hove

occurred."

Leonno wos even more lost now. You coll thot o coincidence?

"Then, os for Violet's fother ond birth mother…"

"He's not innocent either. He wouldn't hove been the subject of such retribution if he hodn't indulged in

Violet's woys ond ollowed her to do oll those things. As for her birth mother, why do you think she

showed up out of the blue ofter disoppeoring for so mony yeors?"

Aidan took a sip of Leanna's drink before adding casually, "He's not the only one with a daughter, right,

Mr. Morris?"

Leanna didn't pay attention to the last thing Aidan said. Instead, she was staring at the glass in his

hand. "You have your drink, so why are you drinking mine?"

"Yours is sweeter."

Leanna and William were both speechless.

William rubbed his temple and decidedly ignored Aidan's question. "It's getting late. I still have matters

to attend to."

After a pause, he added, "I'll drop you off, Miss McKinney."

Leanna didn't seem to have expected that from him. She was startled for a moment before shaking her

head. "It's fine. Aidan will drop me off."

William nodded. "In that case, I'll get going first."

Once William was gone, Leanna turned her gaze back to Aidan and stared at him in silence.

They locked eyes, and Aidan's darkened slightly.

A few seconds later, he lurched forward.

Leanna leaned back. "What are you doing?"

Aidan stretched his arm across her chair and responded calmly, "Didn't you say that couples can't

resist kissing each other when they stare into each other's eyes?"

Leanna's cheeks flushed. She lowered her eyes and bit down on her straw as she muttered, "I was just

repeating something I saw on the Internet."

"Oh? It seems pretty accurate to me."

Leanna didn't want to carry on with this line of conversation, so she changed the subject. "What on

earth were you and William talking about anyway?"

"What do you mean?" Aidan cocked his eyebrows.

"I felt as if you were implying something, but I couldn't figure out what."

Aidan smirked. "It's good that you couldn't figure it out. Knowing any of these things won't do you any

good."

Leanna pursed her lips and remarked, "But I did understand something."

"Hm?"

"You said that Violet's birth mother showed up all of a sudden after having disappeared for so many

years. Did someone find her? Is she here for money or something else?"

"I don't know much else about this," Aidan said slowly.

"Just tell me what you know then," Leanna shot back.

"Perhaps you shouldn't go home tonight," Aidan declared.

Leanna was dumbstruck.

She turned her head away from him. "Fine. Keep it to yourself then. I'm not that curious anyway."

"Lloyd isn't in the country right now," Aidan continued. "It won't be a big deal if you don't go back."

"How did you…"

Leanna wanted to ask how Aidan knew about this, but as soon as the words came out, she realized

what a dumb question it was. Aidan had been keeping an eye on Lloyd the whole time, so he would've

known about it from the start.

She thought about it for a moment and asked, "Do you know what Lloyd is doing abroad?"

"The answer to this question is the same as the last one," Aidan replied.

Leanna stared at him with annoyance and dissatisfaction.

After a while, she finally muttered, "I don't have any toiletries or a change of clothes with me."

"Is that supposed to be an excuse?" Aidan asked.

Leanna pursed her lips and made a request. "I don't want to go to Castor Villa."

Lloyd wasn't around. Georgina had set a trap for her and was waiting for her to take the bait, so she

wasn't keen on going back anyway.

"Alright," Aidan answered without hesitation.

Along the way, Leanna couldn't resist asking, "You can tell me now, right?"

"What's the rush?" Aidan said coolly. "We have the whole night ahead of us. We can take our time."

Leanna noted his emphasis on the words "take our time" and knew well enough that he meant

something else.

Hah. This b*stard is always full of ulterior motives.

Soon, the black Maserati stopped in the basement parking lot.

Once the two went up to the house, Aidan poured Leanna a glass of water before he handed her a set

of his clothes. "You can wear this for now. I'll get someone to send some clothes over tomorrow."

Leanna nodded and took the clothes to the bathroom.

The place was still well-maintained even though Aidan rarely stayed there.

After showering, Leanna found a hairdryer and started drying her hair. She checked the bathroom

again as she planned to buy whatever she needed when she came back tomorrow.

She didn't know how long Lloyd would be gone, but if nothing unexpected happened, she would most

likely be spending the next few days here.

When Leanna came out of the bathroom, Aidan was standing by the window taking a call. From the

vague snippets she caught, she surmised that it had something to do with the demolition at Underwood

Lane.

Leanna sat down on the couch and texted Zoe to give her a quick summary of the day's events.

Once she was done with that, she curled up and hugged her knees as she stared at Aidan from behind.