Chapter 1548:

Saul stood still, listening, lost in thought. As Maddox disappeared around the corner, Saul’s gaze lingered.

Those words… they carried more than sarcasm. There was history in them.

Maybe pain.

Had Maddox, the infamous playboy, been burned by a woman too?

If so, she must have been something unforgettable. Someone like Corrine.

Maddox was oblivious to Saul’s quiet scrutiny.

Back at his car, he flicked the cigarette to the pavement, ground it beneath his heel, and slid into the driver’s seat. His eyes fell on the dashboard—and the crude insult, “you’re a fool,” still scratched into the plastic. His jaw tightened.

His tongue pressed hard against the roof of his mouth.

That bold woman had better pray he never caught her.

With a scoff, he twisted the key in the ignition and drove off into the night.

Meanwhile, Corrine lay on her bed. She reached for her phone and sent a message to Karina.

After confirming that Karina was safe, she tossed the phone onto the bedside table with a sigh.

It buzzed again almost instantly.

Lone Ranger.

She answered with a flick of her thumb. The voice on the other end came sharp and clear. “I have found something about the person you asked me to look into. Amelie is the eldest daughter of the Hamilton family. There was a fire in their estate about a year ago. According to records, the entire family—except Amelie—was killed…”

Corrine cut him off mid-sentence, her tone sharp as a blade. “I am not interested in useless backstory.”

There was a pause on the line. Then Lone Ranger’s voice returned, calm but insistent. “There is something strange about it. Just give me a second to explain…”

Corrine rolled onto her stomach, twirling a strand of hair that had fallen over her chest as she listened quietly to Lone Ranger.

𝕄𝕠𝕣𝕖 𝕦𝕡𝕕𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕘𝕒𝕝𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝𝕤.𝕔𝕠𝕞

“From what I found out, after what happened with the Hamilton family, Amelie was so shaken up that she ended up spending more than six months in a sanatorium. But for some reason, things got held up, and she didn’t leave the place until earlier this year.”

At those words, Corrine frowned, a glint of suspicion surfacing in her eyes. “You mean something else happened during her stay at the sanatorium?”

“Yes,” Lone Ranger said. “I hacked into the sanatorium’s records. Turns out, she was transferred to a private hospital overseas—one that specializes in plastic surgery.”

Just then, a vivid memory surfaced. Corrine recalled the mirror-lined room she had seen during her visit to Amelie’s estate. She remembered Amelie seated at the center, methodically combing her hair with eerie calm. What Corrine had once dismissed as melodrama now felt layered with a concealed reality.

“Can you trace her identity before she became Amelie Hamilton?” she asked.

The soft clatter of the keyboard echoed from Lone Ranger’s end, filling the silence. After a pause, his voice returned. “I’ve confirmed it—she’s from the Quinn family of the Independent Continent.”

“The Quinn family?” Corrine’s brows lifted in surprise.

That name hadn’t been on her radar.

And then, without warning, a name surfaced in her mind.

.

.

.