CHAPTER 152: CHAPTER 152: FIRST LOVE AND THE STAND-IN

After Blake Sinclair left, the room sank into deadly silence.

Holly sat on the bed for a long time.

She got up, put on her slippers, and slowly walked towards his study.

The black safe was placed on the second shelf of the bookcase.

Holly dragged a chair to stand on it, trying to take it down.

But the box was much heavier than she imagined, and she couldn’t move it with both hands.

She could only tiptoe in this position, slowly sliding the box outward to the edge of the bookcase shelf.

The safe’s password was four digits; once entered, it could be opened by turning the key.

Holly placed her hand on the number keypad, trembling slightly.

She pressed each digit one by one, and with each press, her heart sank further.

After pressing the last digit, she turned the key with a gentle twist.

A soft click.

The safe opened.

The numbers on the display were identical to Shannon Yarrow’s birthday that her phone’s search app showed.

0, 6, 1, 6

The last shred of hope was crushed.

It was as if the blood in her body solidified at that moment, and a bone-chilling cold seeped out.

Blake Sinclair used Shannon Yarrow’s birthday as the password; what did that signify?

A poignant commemoration or an old flame that’s hard to let go?

Holly trembled as she opened the cabinet door.

There weren’t many things inside, the most conspicuous being a thin booklet.

The edges of the booklet were worn and slightly curled, indicating its owner frequently perused it.

Holly took it out carefully.

At that moment, her mood was surprisingly calm.

She opened the first page of the booklet, and a piece of paper torn in half fell out.

Only then did Holly realize this booklet was actually bound from several different pieces of paper.

There weren’t many pages, but they were all filled with drawings of swallows, each accompanied by the word "Sinclair" beside it.

The swallow drawings were naive, with a hint of youthful awkwardness, yet they were identical to the swallow patterns on Blake Sinclair’s tie.

It’s even possible that the embroidered patterns on that tie were replicas of these sketches.

Therefore, this was the origin.

This swallow sketch was the inspiration for those swallow patterns.

A thought formed in her mind; could these be the drafts Shannon Yarrow drew back then?

There was also a leather envelope inside the safe.

Holly reached for it but accidentally bumped into the small wooden box inside.

The wooden box fell, its lid loosened, and the contents spilled out.

She glanced at it and couldn’t tear her gaze away.

Inside the wooden box was a small ceramic swallow.

Suddenly, Holly’s head throbbed with pain again.

The swallow looked so familiar.

She must have seen it somewhere before!

She picked up the swallow, glanced around, and finally saw a letter "Y" on its little foot.

Y?

Sinclair?

Yarrow!

Holly finally remembered; in the video Zion Pence showed her, Shannon Yarrow was in her pottery studio in Brelond, personally sculpting what she said would be a birthday gift for her beloved.

The half-finished swallow in that video was almost identical to the one she held now!

So, this was the birthday gift Shannon Yarrow gave to Blake Sinclair?

Blake Sinclair preserved every page of the drafts Shannon Yarrow drew in their youth, bound them into a booklet, even designed them into embroidered patterns for his tie, and wore it daily.

He also locked the birthday gift she gave him in this safe that held extraordinary significance for him, and set the password to her birthday.

What does this amount to?

Reminiscing?

Eternal commemoration?

Holly sneered, feeling extremely absurd.

Feeling like she was a joke.

What else is there here?

She found herself wanting to see how much more of their passionate past was hidden inside this safe!

With decided defiance, Holly took out the envelope, just about to open it, when her phone vibrated.

The screen lit up.

Another email from Shannon Yarrow.

It was a video clip.

The video angle was from above, as if taken from a hotel hallway surveillance camera.

In the footage, Shannon Yarrow stood at the door holding a thermos bucket in a long corridor.

Not long after, Blake Sinclair opened the door and came out.

The two seemed to be talking, Shannon Yarrow’s emotions were intense, tossing aside the things in her hands and directly embracing his waist.

In the video, Blake Sinclair did not back away.

Holly recognized this hotel.

It was the hotel where "Success" was filmed.

So, they were rekindling their old relationship as early as then?

The alert for a new email sounded.

It was a photo.

The subject was six words: I won, he came.

She exited the video, her hand trembling as she opened the photo.

The night was dark.

The backdrop was clearly the balcony of a hotel room.

Shannon Yarrow was intimately leaning against a man’s shoulder, her arms wrapped around his waist.

The man only showed half of his side profile, but that contour looked very familiar.

"Boom."

Thunder roared.

Pale lightning tore through the night sky.

A weather alert notification popped up at the top of the phone.

Typhoon No. 79 has made an early landfall, please avoid going out unless necessary.

Outside the window, the rain poured down.

The typhoon was getting closer.

Her world.

Collapsed.

At the same time.

The internet was in a frenzy.

Hot searches shot up to the top in strange rapid succession.

[Mr. Z’s identity confirmed]

[Shannon Yarrow and Blake Sinclair grew up together]

[High society love triangle, first love and a stand-in]

[Holly Crowe cheated with her ex-boyfriend]

Shannon Yarrow’s account posted two videos ten minutes ago.

One was a video of Shannon learning pottery to make a Yarrow for Blake Sinclair, and the other was of her paintings for Blake over the years.

Both videos had the same caption, [To my dear Mr. Sinclair.]

Meanwhile, several anonymous accounts exposed photos of Holly and Zion Pence entering and leaving a couple’s cinema hall today.

Weibo exploded.

With the typhoon keeping everyone indoors, they passed the time surfing online, and her two Weibo posts were flooded with comments in an instant:

[Indeed, Blake Sinclair is the Mr. Z Shannon mentioned! Their relationship is clearly deep, Shannon has secretly loved Blake for so long.]

[Everyone, go watch the end of the second video, so Shannon confessed to Blake at his birthday, they were really together, Shannon was Blake’s first love.]

[Is Shannon returning this time to rekindle her old flame with Blake? What about Holly?]

[Am I the only one who thinks Shannon’s behavior is wrong? Even if she was with Blake before, he’s married to Holly now, isn’t she the other woman now?]

[But isn’t Holly too? Those photos prove Holly cheated, maybe Holly cheated first, and Blake then sought comfort from his first love.]

.....

A black Maybach sped through the night.

Typhoon landfall imminent, there were almost no people or cars on the road.

Trees on both sides were supported by triangular brackets, mall windows plastered with grid tape.

The howling wind was isolated outside, as Blake Sinclair drove fast towards The Grandflora Gardens.

Repeated notifications sounded coldly from his phone, "The number you are calling is temporarily unavailable, please try again later..."

The green light turned red.

He slammed on the brakes, his body lunging forward from inertia.

Blake grabbed his phone, stubbornly dialed again, but it was the same.

He clenched his fist and pounded on the steering wheel twice.

Tossed the phone onto the passenger seat.

The ringtone suddenly blared, and upon looking, he found it was Cole Tanner calling.

The hope that had just ignited in his eyes was instantly extinguished.

"President Sinclair, I finally reached you!" Cole Tanner’s voice was urgent.

"What’s the matter?" Right now, all he wanted was to hang up all calls, fearing he’d miss any news about Holly due to this.

"We can’t get those hot searches off Weibo no matter what. Our people have negotiated with Weibo multiple times, their attitude is very firm."

Blake’s expression changed instantly.

He stared into the pitch blackness outside the car window.

Someone, is orchestrating all this from behind.

"Call Shane Yates, he knows how to handle it," he uttered resolutely, "Whatever it takes, I want those hot searches gone within half an hour."

"Yes!"

After hanging up, Blake immediately checked his missed calls.

No calls from Holly.

The green light countdown ended, he stomped on the gas pedal.

The car tires left a wet trail on the road, racing towards The Grandflora Gardens.

The elevator was still descending slowly.

He couldn’t wait another second, pushed open the fire escape door, and dashed up three steps at a time.

Seventh floor, he reached the doorstep.

His hands trembled while entering the password, got it right only on the second try.

The door opened, he was greeted by deathly silence and the sound of his own breathing.

"Holly?"

He called out, his voice echoing in the living room, but there was no response.

He flipped the light switch, the brightness flooded the entire house but couldn’t fill the emptiness inside him.

He searched from the bedroom, to the walk-in closet, to the second-floor studio, rummaged every corner, still couldn’t find Holly.

All of Holly’s clothes, shoes, and personal items were there, but she was gone.

The sliding glass door on the balcony wasn’t closed tightly, wind and rain poured in, whistling fiercely.

The vase on the coffee table, in the end, couldn’t withstand it.

Pink lychees scattered across the floor, as if drained of all life.

The nourishment fluid from the vase dripped along the edge of the coffee table, spreading a dark stain on the rug.

Blake stood in the middle of the living room, feeling as though a part of his heart had been forcibly hollowed out, leaving only a void filled with cold air.

For the first time, he realized how big this house really was, so big that it could completely engulf a person.

The wind continued to blow, the study door swung open, repeatedly striking the door frame.

Suddenly, Blake thought of something, dashed inside.

The chair that was by the desk had been dragged in front of the bookshelf.

And the second shelf of the bookcase showed clear signs of the safe being moved.

Did she... see everything?