Love’s Cunning Ruse

Chapter 82

“Are you chatting up your ex-wife online?” Dylan moved closer to Hayden as he said it, peeking at Kieran’s messages. He burst into a fit of laughter, his face red with amusement. “Wow, that’s so you!”

Kieran didn’t hide his phone, instead he looked up at Hayden and asked, “When did you get back?”

“Just now.” Hayden shrugged off his suit jacket and tossed it on the couch, revealing a crisp white shirt underneath. He had a brooding aura about him, even dressed in clean-cut attire – just like Kieran.

Hayden took a seat in the sofa across from Kieran, lighting a cigarette and asking, “Did Bertha really kill herself?”

“Why don’t you ask QuadDylan?” Kieran suggested, looking at Dylan.

Before their older brother Lucian’s unexpected death, Dylan had insisted they call him “QuadDylan” since elementary school.

Lucian was six years older than Kieran, naturally taking on the role of their leader

Hayden was younger than Lucian, ten months older than Kieran, and Dylan was two months older than Kieran. But Kieran had made his stance clear – he didn’t want to be the youngest, he wanted to rank the third. If not, he would refuse to acknowledge the ranking.

For some reason, Dylan agreed, allowing them to call him QuadDylan. At first, they didn’t think much of the ranking and nickname, but it eventually became a habit.

They were carefree in their youth. Hayden was more outgoing back then, and Kieran wasn’t that quiet.

Dylan remembered Hayden’s parents were both police officers, very righteous people. Hayden was no different, always ready to stand up for what was right. Back then, Dylan could freely joke around with Hayden and even use his nickname occasionally

Who could have foreseen Hayden’s parents being murdered, which was believed to be a revenge killing, and Hayden getting adopted, losing contact with Lucian, Kieran, and Dylan?

Not long after when Kieran was twelve, his mother had a sudden mental breakdown and killed Kieran’s father, Lucian was eighteen that year.

On the day of Lucian’s college entrance exam, Kieran’s mother had her episode, killing his father in front of him and setting their house on fire:

Lucian rushed home after turning in his test early. The fire was already severe. Without giving it a second thought, he ran into the burning house and saved a barely alive Kieran, injuring his legs in the process and losing the ability to walk.

After this tragedy, only Kieran, Lucian, and their grandmother remained in the household. All the company affairs fell on eighteen-year-old Lucian’s shoulders.

Kieran was raised by Lucian from age twelve to twenty-one. After the tragedies in Haydenis and Kieran’s families, the Pierson family sent Dylan, who had just graduated middle school, abroad to study.

Although Dylan and Kieran kept in touch, he didn’t know much about what had happened over the years.

He only knew that Hayden and Kieran had reunited. After reuniting, he learned that Hayden was adopted by gang leader Miles Simson. Hayden later worked with the National Security Agency to take down Miles, and had been busy dealing with the gang issues Miles left behind, keeping him occupied.

Today was the first time Dylan had seen Hayden in person since they had grown up, aside from online. To be precise, his helicopter landed directly on the lawn of his villa, and he was brought to Noblewood Retreat

Hayden clearly knew more about what had happened over the years, or he wouldn’t have asked about Bertha’s cause of death right off the bat.

Dylan finally replied to Hayden, “On Bertha’s body, there were no signs of a struggle before she died, no signs of resistance. Other than the injuries from the fall, there were no other human-inflicted wounds. Whether it was suicide, we can’t determine from the autopsy”/

“What about the kid?” Hayden asked, blowing out a circle of smoke that slowly dissipated in the air.

Kieran stepped forward, snatching the cigarette from Hayden’s hand and stubbing it out in the ashtray “The kid’s with Joyce.”

“What does that mean?’ Hayden’s gaze sharpened as he looked at Kieran, “Does Joyce know the truth?”

Kieran shook his head, “Not yet. But we’ve kept her close, so we can keep an eye on her. It’s a bit more reassuring that way”

“Let her hate you for now, before everything’s been figured out.” Hayden said seriously

Kieran gave Hayden a look, and let out a reluctant laugh. ‘She’s not mad at you, so you wouldn’t care.”

Finally, the quiet Dylan spoke up, “If I’d known all this would happen, I wouldn’t have studied abroad. Listening to you guys talk is like hearing a weird code, I don’t understand a single thing.”

“I’m tired. I’m going to rest,” Hayden stated, standing up to leave.

“Wait” Kieran’suddenly stopped him.

Hayden paused, waiting for Kieran’s words. “Just wanted to give you a heads up, Annalise Hansen has been asking about you since she came back to the country a week ago.”

“Who’s Annalise?” Hayden asked calmly

Dylan helplessly pointed at Kieran to answer for him, “His aunt, Annalise. The woman who has been into you for over a decade.”

“Oh”

Kieran glanced at Hayden speechlessly, “She’s my relative after all, so don’t be too harsh when you turn her down.”

What Kieran meant was not to hurt Annalise too badly when rel

After a moment of silence, a brief reply came from the door, Tr

best

Watching Hayden’s retreating figure, Dylan finally sat down where he had just sat, “Which side do you think Hayden is on? I feel like he’s on Joyce’s side.”

“You just call her Joyce? Kieran gave him a stern look.

Dylan rolled his eyes, “How do you want me to address her?”

“Call her Mrs Hernandez.”

“But didn’t she get divorced?” Dylan looked at Kieran with a dismissive look, I think Joyce sounds better.”

Then just call her Joyce”

“Really?” Dylan looked at Kieran incredulously.

Kieran nodded, “Anyway, that guy is back. I’m not worried about having no one to clean up if something happens to you, call her whatever you want!”

Dylan felt a chill. “Of course I prefer to call her Mrs. Hernandez, it sounds so appropriate!”

“How’s the investigation you were doing for me?” Kieran’s look suddenly became serious

Dylan also got up and walked to Kieran, “Before I give you the answer I found, you need to seriously answer a question for me.”

“Go ahead.”

You and Bertha…”

He had anticipated Dylan’s question, so he answered before Dylan had even asked, “Nothing happened.”

After a silence of a second or two, Dylan looked at Kieran carefully, analyzing his expression, “We’ve known each other for so many years, you can tell me the truth. Nothing really happened between you two?”

“We’ve known each other for so many years, are you doubting that I just lied to you?” Kieran’s voice was a little provocative, sounding somewhat dangerous.

Dylan laughed and shook his head, I’m not suspecting you. I’m just afraid you’re an irresponsible person! Joyce is a naive girl so you can’t be irresponsible to her.”

Just as Dylan finished speaking, he saw Kieran pick up his phone.

“Who are you calling?” Dylan asked casually

Unexpectedly, Kieran replied, “I’m calling that guy over to take care of you”

Dylan quickly went forward and grabbed the phone from Kieran, then hurriedly said to Kieran, “About the anonymous donation you asked me to investigate for Sansa, I have some leads. The account is a shell account opened overseas. I need further investigation to determine who is operating behind it. But this is definitely not ordinary. If it was a regular donor, even if anonymous, they wouldn’t need to be so secretive, unless they intended to.”

“How could I let you waste time investigating ordinary donors?” Kieran glanced at Dylan, then said, “You’ve worked hard, keep investigating!”

Was this man criticizing him first, and then encouraging him right away?

The next morning, considering that Julie’s foot was injured, Ivan insisted on not letting Julie send him to school, but obediently got in the car with

Shawna

Shawna said that this was the best behavior Ivan had shown in the five years she had served him.

Considering that she was injured due to work, Kieran gave Julie a month off. Julie’s foot healed well and the cast was removed about three weeks later.

However, in those three weeks, or rather, after that time at the noodle shop, Kieran never came to see her again.

Instead, it was Elliot, who had called her several times during this period.

Apparently, the landlord was staying in the hospital all the time. It was unclear whether it was Kieran’s doing, but overall, the landford hadn’t bothered her during this time. Daphne had helped Julie visit the landlord in the hospital several times, and apparently there was nothing seriously wrong. The landlord just didn’t want to leave the hospital, probably hoping to get more benefits from Julie.

After Julie had her cast removed at the hospital, she received a call from Dr. Brice.

In Dr. Brice’s office.

Dr. Brice handed Julie a business card, “This is the card of a friend of mine who works at Oakhurst Hospital. I’ve already contacted him, so if you decide to transfer…. Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.

‘Dr. Brice, thank you. But, I might need some more time, my cast was just removed, I’m worried about mobility.”

That’s okay I’ve told him, whenever you’re ready, you can go there,” Dr. Brice said with a smile.

‘Dr. Brice, I really appreciate it”

“If you’re really grateful, then treat me to lunch! I still don’t know what I’m going to eat today!’ Dr. Brice laughed, took off his lab coat, and said to Julie, 1 heard there’s a new restaurant near the hospital that’s good and offers a discount, why don’t we give it a try?”

“Sure!” Julie readily agreed, thinking that Dr. Brice was considerate, knowing that she was short of money and therefore chose a restaurant with discount, but she had no idea that she would run into..