Love's Change of Heart

Lloyd is plonning to do something during the onniversory ceremony.

Her silence prompted him to remork, "Whot's the motter? You've been here for so long now. Don't you

think you con stoy for just o few more doys? Don't tell me you think thot I'll do something to you."

She smiled fointly. "You're reoding too much into this, Mr. Crossley. I didn't think you'd invite me to

Crossley Group's onniversory ceremony."

"You soy you're Sondro's doughter, so it stonds to reoson thot you should ottend Crossley Group's

onniversory ceremony," he replied coolly.

"In thot cose, I won't object to it either."

Once Leonno returned to her bedroom, she storted mossoging her sore fociol muscles. It wos

exhousting to foke o smile oll doy long.

She stretched her neck o little before heoding into the bothroom for o shower.

When she come bock out, she sow her phone screen light up.

She plopped herself down on the bed ond onswered the coll. "Hello?"

"Are you done pocking your things?" Aidon osked.

"No…" She licked her lips. "Why don't we woit o couple more doys?"

"Didn't we discuss this olreody?"

Leonno flipped over. "Lloyd's not letting me leove. He wonts me to woit until Crossley Group's

onniversory ceremony is over first."

"Did you ogree to thot?" His tone become o lot colder.

"I didn't hove o chonce to soy no."

"Pock your things. I'll come ond pick you up tomorrow."

He sounded adamant, but she said, "You don't need to. It's just a few more days."

"Leanna," he called out grimly. "What reason do you think he keeps you there for?"

"I know he's up to no good," she replied softly. "That's why I need to stay here."

They didn't know what Lloyd was planning yet, but she could keep an eye out for what he was up to if

she stayed in the house.

Furthermore, since Lloyd had already told her to stay, he wouldn't let her leave so easily. If Aidan took

her away anyway, both sides would be bound to drop all pretense of friendship between them. Lloyd

was a wolf in sheep's clothing; there was no telling what he would do if he was backed into a corner.

"I'll be fine. I know how to take care of myself. Weren't you the one who said that with you around,

Lloyd won't have the guts to do anything to me?" Leanna tried to assure him.

"Did you believe that?"

She went silent at his question—she had no answer for that.

"That was true in the past, but don't you know what the situation's like now?" Aidan pressed.

"Oh, alright. I got it." She knew his fears weren't unfounded, so she didn't continue debating this with

him. "I'll just bring along all of my most important things tomorrow. I can leave the clothes and stuff here

since they're not important. Are you satisfied now?"

"That's more like it."

Just then, she yawned as she was feeling a little drowsy. "I'll go to bed now. Good night." With that, she

ended the call.

A thunderstorm began later that night.

Leanna's nightmare woke her up. When she opened her eyes, she saw that her window had blown

open and the rain was coming in.

She got up to close the window and spotted Lloyd's car pulling out of the garage.

Where's he going in the middle of the night during a thunderstorm?

She frowned. The car lights flashed into her window, and she quickly dodged behind the curtain.

Once the light was gone, she turned back around and saw the car exiting the gates.

She sat back down on her bed and checked the time—it was 3.30AM.

After mulling it over, she pulled on a jacket and grabbed her phone.

Leanna figured that Georgina wouldn't have known about Lloyd leaving the house in the middle of the

night, so she wouldn't be keeping her guard up against Leanna.

However, Leanna didn't even have to try the door to know that Lloyd had locked his study.

Thus, she walked over to his room and gently eased the door open.

After making sure that there weren't any security cameras inside the room, she switched on the

flashlight on her phone and started rummaging through the room.

Lloyd was an extremely cautious man. She couldn't find anything at his desk inside his bedroom, save

for a few books.

Despite searching as thoroughly as she could, she found nothing.

Just as she was about to leave, her eyes fell on a painting that hung on the wall in front of her.

All at once, a few scattered images from her memory flashed across her mind, but she couldn't get

ahold of any details.

Leanna walked over to the painting and placed her hand on the frame before closing her eyes.

A few seconds later, she opened her eyes, pocketed her phone, and took the painting down with both

hands.

There was a secret compartment behind the painting, but it required a password.

She studied the painting once more. A series of numbers whizzed through her mind. After thinking for a

few more seconds, she decided to key in the numbers.

It was the right password.

She took out a box from the secret compartment.

Inside the box was a watch that was half-destroyed by a fire.

She quickly took out her phone and took a photo of it.

She was just about to look through the other contents in the box when car lights shone in through the

window again—Lloyd was back.

Leanna swiftly returned the box to its original place and hung the painting back up before running back

to her room and locking the door.

As soon as she did so, she heard footsteps coming down the corridor.

She breathed out slowly. When she sat back on the bed, she realized her back was soaking wet by

then.

Nothing happened after Lloyd returned to his room. He didn't leave again.

He only left for twenty minutes tops. Did something unexpected happen that made him change his

plans? Or was his destination someplace not too far away from here?

She lay in bed and started looking at the picture she had taken with her phone.

Thankfully, the night mode function on her phone camera did a pretty good job with the picture as it

was still fairly clear.

Half of the watch was in good condition, but the other half was burned to a crisp.

Leanna recalled that her father had bought two watches, according to the sales record that was found

at the warehouse back then.

One was with her, and the other…

It was most likely the one that was in Lloyd's possession.

She set her phone down and closed her eyes, but her mind kept swirling with flashes of memories.

The storm lasted all night, and she stayed awake the whole time.