Chapter 68 A Mysterious Invitation

Chapter 68 A Mysterious Invitation

Nadine voice was soft, but there was a strange chill beneath it.

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Zane took it as nothing more than a polite farewell. After hanging up, he dismissed the lingering sense of unease that had started to stir.

Nadine, on the other hand, could no longer maintain her smiling fa?ade. The moment she put down the phone, her expression twisted with rage, and she swept the stack of documents off her desk with a loud crash.

Finn had gone to see Tess–and worse, he’d penalized Nadine’s bonus and handed it to Tess as a trust fund.

Her whole body trembled with fury, her eyes burning red with rage.

How?! iTess /iisn’t that ibrilliant/i, idazzling /iiattorney /iianymore/i. iShe’s /ia iwashed/ii–/iiup /iiex/ii–/iicon /iwith ia /iicriminal /iirecord/ii! /i

But then, a wave of panic rose in Nadine’s chest.

iWait/ii! /iiTess /iiand /iiFinn /iihaven’t /iiofficially /iidivorce/i…

Her palms broke out in a cold sweat.

When she looked up again, a dangerous glint had reced the fury in her eyes.

Tess had no idea she was being watched. After collecting the 30,000 dors from the trust fund, she returned to her hotel.

But as she neared her hotel room, something odd caught her

eye.

A stranger stood just down the hall. The moment he saw her, he rushed over and slipped a note into her hand before vanishing without a word.

Confused. When she looked up again, the stranger touch.

already gone. Only the note in her hand remained warm from his

Her alert red. A warning rm sounded in her mind. But when her eyes skimmed over the contents of the note, her pupils

shrank.

She sucked in a few sharp breaths, trying to suppress her shock, and quickly stuffed the note into her palm before heading

inside.

It said, “Tomorrow. Hignd Hotel. The case file you want will be there.”

The case filei… /i

Tess’s breathing quickened.

She wasn’t awyer anymore, but there was only one case file she desperately wanted to see the one connected to the nightmare that sent her to prison a year ago.

That disaster had hit her out of nowhere. Even now, she didn’t know the full truth–but she was sure of one thing: it hadn’t been a coincidence.

Her hand tightened into a fist, her heart racing,

Who had sent this note? And what were they after? The messenger had only been the delivery guy. The real sender remained

in the shadows.

A thousand tangled thoughts surged in her mind, forming a knot of doubt and questions.

She couldn’t tell if this was a trap or the lifeline she’d been waiting for.

But what she did know was this–she was tired of living under the weight of a crime she nevermitted.

She wasn’t just herself. She was La’s mom

Chapter 68 A Mysterious Invitation

That changed everything; she cared about her reputation.

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Nothing happened for the next two days; the storm held its breath. Until the business meeting between the twopanies.

Charles was already waiting where Finn was supposed to arrive. He sat with a roll of legal documents at his side, tapping them restlessly against the edge of the table.

Bored by the wait, he ordered liquor to pass the time.

“Hard to get a meeting with Mr. Lock these days,” he muttered to himself.

A voice greeted him politely from behind, pulling him from his haze. Charles, already tipsy, sobered halfway in an instant. His back straightened like a rod.

Brody sat in a wheelchair, unable to stand but still offering a courteous nod.

Finn didn’t return the gesture. He leaned back in his seat, exuding an effortless kind of power. “Let’s get this over with.”

Brody didn’t seem offended. He motioned to his secretary, “Suzane, bring me the documents.”

Even though they were still technically in a bar, the air instantly shifted into something sharp and formal, like a high–end boardroom.

The conversation faded into background noise. Charles’s back finally rxed, his eyes drifting once again to the nearly empty bottles on the table.

He was drunk.

Charles knew he shouldn’t be. Thest time he drank too much, it triggered a severe allergic reaction. That should’ve been a wake–up call. But this time, the alcohol brought something else–a numbness he’d been craving,

It silenced the pain. Blurred his worries.

The ache in his gut, tangled with his reckless thoughts, created a twisted kind of pleasure he couldn’t help but sink into.

Maybe it was seeing Finn again that stirred something in him, but all Charles could think of was the conversation he’d had with Zane.fn6a21 ?????? ???? f?i?n?d?n?o?v?e?l?/fn6a21

Charles admitted he was despicable.

He had been maniptive. Every word carefully crafted to make it seem like he and Tess were more than friends.

But the truth was, they had kept their distance. There was nothing going on between them.

It was his own selfishness that had started the whole thing.

He hadn’t beenpletely clueless when Tess left. But he’d felt so ashamed that he couldn’t bring himself to stop her.

Maybe it was better this way.

Thoughts spiraled in his head, and without thinking, he took another long swig.

He wasn’t built for heavy drinking

But the empty wine bottles kept piling up.

And soon, his neck was flushed red, heat rising across his skin.

He thought it was just the alcohol as he gulped down another ss of wine.

And then Tess walked in.

Her eyes swept the room, instantly alert for anyone susp

The first person she noticed was the tall man seated at the center of the room.

Chapter 68 A Mysterious Invitation

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Even just sitting there, his posture straight and cold gaze fixed ahead, he lookedpletely out of ce–tooposed, toomanding.

His presence was conspicuous.

Finni? /iiWhat /iiis /iihe /iidoing /iihere/ii? /i

Tess’s eyes flickered, and she immediately looked away, trying to shrink into the background.

But in that brief second, her brows furrowed. Something didn’t feel right.