Chapter 1706:

Nate didn’t blink. “If it bothers you, go find a woman on your own. I won’t stop you.”

Franco froze, caught off guard. If getting a woman was that simple, couldn’t he just yell into the sky and have one drop into his lap?

Unbeknownst to him, fate had other plans—because one day, that’s exactly what would happen.

That night, Corrine and Nate left for the airport together.

As the plane sliced through the clouds, Corrine tapped out a message to Leif. She kept it brief—blaming work for her early departure and offering a faint hope of meeting again.

Leif read the message without surprise. His lips curved faintly, a ghost of a smile flickering before he set the phone aside. Just as he expected.

And yet, the ease with which Corrine had chosen Nate over him—so swiftly, so cleanly—clawed at something beneath his composed exterior. A dull ache bloomed in his chest, bitter and hard to ignore.

His phone lit up, buzzing on the table.

Lone Ranger.

“Is Corrine with you?”

“Why do you ask?”

Lone Ranger told Leif that Corrine had asked him to dig up information on Claude before relaying what he had found. “Weird thing is, there’s nothing—no trail, no leads. But I did uncover something else. The Powell family’s heir has been gravely injured and hasn’t recovered yet. Now the Powell patriarch is offering a massive reward for any information about you. Be careful while you’re out of headquarters. The Powells are dirty. No telling what they’ll pull.”

Leif remained calm, but his eyes narrowed as he processed the news. “Wipe Corrine’s tracks.”

𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘁 gⱯ𝗅𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀⫽𝖼𝗈𝗺

“Already on it,” Lone Ranger confirmed.

Over an hour later, the plane touched down smoothly in Lyhaton.

Corrine checked her phone the moment she had signal, squinting at a new message from Lone Ranger.

Back at Celtis Estate, she slipped into the bathroom and immediately called him.

“Has he returned to Lyhaton?”

Claude—she’d almost forgotten him.

Weeks ago, her uncle Jayden had been framed by that man, and Barry—someone Jayden had once trusted—had died mysteriously behind prison walls. No clues in sight.

The autopsy showed no trace of foul play. But Corrine had known. Deep down, she had always known Claude’s hand was behind it.

With no solid evidence, the authorities had pinned everything on a prison guard, who confessed his guilt, and closed the matter. That decision kept things quiet and protected Arion from fallout.

But Claude’s bold return at Jules’ wedding had set off alarm bells in Corrine’s mind. Jules’ intelligence network was too narrow to dig into Claude’s background, so she had turned to Lone Ranger.

Now her worry wasn’t just about the past—it was what Claude might do next. Especially here, in Lyhaton. Especially if he had eyes on the Ford family.

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