Eleanor Hollis’s grip tightened as she bowed her head, lost in thought.
Her phone wasn’t nearby, and she couldn’t find anything to contact the outside world, so she had no idea about everything that was happening in Serenford.
"Isn’t the scenery here beautiful? I used to love sleeping in this room, watching the sunrise and set, just like that, I could watch for a whole day. Eleanor, Hugo Quinn isn’t the only one who can be good to you. You should move on soon. Maybe in a year or two, that man will have forgotten about you."
"No, he won’t!" ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝕟𝕖𝕥
Eleanor Hollis almost reflexively said, realizing she was a bit agitated, she slowly calmed down for a moment.
"Maybe everyone else can forget about me, but Hugo Quinn won’t, and neither will Marcus. We have given each other so much warmth..."
As she spoke, she clung to the blanket beneath her.
Xavier Crawford frowned and sat heavily on the bed, disliking her certainty.
"But in their eyes, you’re already a dead person, Eleanor. How long do you think a man will remember a dead person?"
Eleanor Hollis shuddered all over, suddenly recalling what Xavier had said that day. He had even taken her hair.
Xavier smirked, "Of course, I found a corpse with a similar build to yours, making Hugo Quinn mistakenly believe that person was you, hoping he would give up sooner. Didn’t you want to leave him completely? I’m helping you."
Hearing him say that, Eleanor was shaken to her core; she seemed to imagine just how heartbroken Hugo Quinn was.
Xavier raised an eyebrow; was she planning to call Hugo Quinn?
After thinking for a moment, he still took out her phone and placed it in her palm.
"Eleanor, think it over. If you make this call, given Hugo Quinn’s personality, he’ll come looking for you at any cost, and all my efforts will be for naught. Since you want to leave his side, why give him hope? Hugo is a persistent person. If you’re not dead, he would hold on to that faint hope and keep waiting. But if you are dead, his hope would be entirely extinguished, and you could both forget each other; wouldn’t that be great?"
Eleanor’s fingers flinched, but she still took the phone he offered.
"But I don’t want him to be sad, Xavier. I don’t know what to do. Just thinking that he might be sad because of my death makes my heart ache here." She pointed at her heart, confusion filling her eyes.
A sharp pang of pain pierced Xavier’s heart. How strange, didn’t this person say she would be sad? Why does his heart feel such pain, as if pricked by a needle?
"Eleanor, think about it for yourself. This is between you two." He stood up, a bit embarrassed. If he didn’t leave soon, he was afraid he might snatch away the phone and throw it out the window.
The door to the room was closed again.
With a pale face, Eleanor looked at her phone, still functional, with countless missed calls, all from Hugo Quinn. It was imaginable how frantically he searched after she disappeared.
With the phone in hand, her fingers trembled as she pressed on it, but before she could dial the number, she laid the phone aside, discouraged.
Xavier had mentioned that only specific phones could make calls out of the estate; all other phones were completely blocked from any signals.
The Crawford Family was a mysterious family, and everything was done with extreme caution. Including herself, a first-time visitor to the Crawford home, she had been observed countless times.
Lying on the bed, Eleanor stared blankly at the ceiling panel, planning to ask Xavier for a phone call the next time he came.
Xavier had walked a long way before he remembered that no other phone could make calls here. He turned to go back, but then hesitated, suddenly feeling that it might be better if Eleanor didn’t contact Hugo.
Sitting gloomily for a while in the same spot.
"Young Master, what are you thinking about?" the butler asked curiously from the side.
Xavier scratched his head, unsure of himself, but seeing Eleanor like that made his heart ache unbearably.
"Do you know how to win a girl’s heart? Just make her happy. I feel like her mood hasn’t been very good lately; I worry if it goes on , she might fall into depression."
The butler was stunned; the usually oblivious young master actually wanted to win over a girl’s heart. He thought maybe the sun would rise in the west today.
"Girls like fluffy things; perhaps the Young Master could find a dog or a cat. Miss Hollis is in need of companionship right now, and these animals can provide that perfectly."
A gleam flashed in Xavier’s eyes, and without hesitation, he went out to look for a dog.
The butler quickly informed the older master of what had just transpired.
The older master, unlike the second young master, never smiled or spoke much, but he commanded considerable respect within the Crawford Family.
Only the second young master had been unruly since childhood and couldn’t even manage the family business.
"He said he wants to win that girl’s heart?" Cole Crawford’s eyes narrowed slowly. "Find out more."
The butler promptly and respectfully agreed, and when Cole returned in the evening, a dossier was placed before him.
"Married for five years, had a child who was lost, and then mingled with her ex-husband’s uncle for over half a year?"
Cole studied the dossier, his gaze growing darker.
Even the butler’s face looked grim; Miss Hollis seemed so young and innocent; how had she gone through so much?
"I thought Miss Hollis was a just-out-of-college student, but she’s already been married for five years," the butler remarked with disbelief.
Cole tossed the dossier onto the coffee table, a cruel smirk on his lips.
"A woman who didn’t even finish college, first seducing her ex-husband and then his uncle, and making that wealthy and influential uncle fall head over heels for her. Her tactics are indeed not ordinary. It’s no wonder Xavier, who has never been in a relationship, is easily ensnared."
Cole was very fond of his younger brother.
He always knew his brother was a naïve romantic, and Eleanor was undoubtedly a masterful manipulator. If she intended to leverage his brother to get into the Crawford Family, he certainly wouldn’t let that happen.
"Take care of it," he said flatly, devoid of any emotion.
The butler shuddered, but reminded of something, couldn’t help but speak softly.
"Master Cole, you know the young master’s temperament. Even though he’s slow in matters of love, he’s not stupid. He will definitely notice clues, and by then, he probably won’t speak to you again."