Summer looked up and forced a smile. She did not fake it; it was her genuine expression. She could not smile at all when the thought of Rosie might have been taken by Michael came to mind.
“I will leave you to it since you are cooking. I am here for Leonardo. Since he is so busy all day in the office and never comes back to the old house, I can only come here to see him,” said Michael gently.
However, Summer had quickly spotted the problem of his excuse. Since he knew that Leonardo was still busy at work, he should have known that Leonardo was still in the office. So why did he come here when he did not even have the key to the house? Was he thinking of waiting for Leonardo outside the door?
Of course, not. Michael had come to check out something. If Leonardo came home early, that meant Summer and Leonardo were together.
“Allow me to get you some water.” While speaking, she closed the door, then went to fetch the water.
Michael said nothing as he sat down on the couch. After handing him a glass of water, and when she was about to go back into the kitchen, Michael suddenly said, “I’ve forgotten to bring my mobile phone. Could I borrow yours for a second? I need to make a call.”
Summer’s heart missed a beat. She had wanted to text Leonardo to tell him not to come home early. Michael was really a cunning old fox.
“Of course.” She looked back at him. The lucky thing was that she had the habit of locking the most-used apps.
“Let me unlock it for you.”
While speaking, she deleted the call history. As Michael was sitting on the couch while she was standing in front of him, he had no way to know what she had done with the mobile phone. After she was done, she handed it to Michael.
Michael took the mobile phone and made a call. But there was no answer. He looked at Summer apologetically.
“Could you leave the mobile phone here? He will probably call back soon.”
She finally knew what Michael was up to. He did not want to give her the chance to give Leonardo a heads-up. Summer’s expression was a little unnatural.
“Sure.”
“Thank you.” While speaking, Leonardo turned off the mobile phone display and gently put it on the low table.
Summer glanced at her mobile phone for a few seconds, then went back into the kitchen. She was cutting the veggies absentmindedly, thinking Leonardo was so smart. He would notice Michael’s car downstairs when he came back. Michael could have forgotten to carry his mobile phone, but he would not have come without his car.
Summer took her sweet time to cook. She was supposed to finish cooking by eight, but now she only got it done by nine. But Leonardo had still not come home. She breathed a sigh of relief. After getting all things sorted out, she came out of the kitchen.
“Uncle Emerson, I’ve got to leave now,” she came up to Michael and said. She had cooked inside the kitchen for two hours, and Michael had been waiting for two hours in the living room.
“You are not waiting for Leonardo anymore?” His voice sounded hoarse after two hours of silence.
“He will kick me out when he comes home, anyway.”
Summer looked down so that Michael could not see the emotions in her eyes. Since she had said so, Michael could not have stopped her again. He passed the mobile phone back to her.
“I will leave you to it, then.”
…
Summer came out of the apartment unit and went into the elevator. Only then she took a long breath of relief. She realized that she and Leonardo had been too careless.
But Michael must be upset now; thinking the chickens had finally come home to roost. Earlier, he was using things about her child to sound her out. He had never expected that Summer would use the same excuse to approach Leonardo.
She got into the car, took out her mobile phone and called Leonardo. But there was still no answer, even after several attempts. She had a bad feeling about it. Leonardo had told her that he would be home for dinner. Under normal circumstances, he should have been home by eight. And she thought Leonardo must have found out that Michael had come looking for him, so he had not come home. But he did not even pick up her call now. Could it be that something had happened to him?
Summer called Tim to find out. But there was also no answer from Tim, too.
She drove straight to Emerson Corporation and waited for a while in front of the primary entrance. There were no signs of Leonardo. Where was he?
She checked the time. It was nearly 11. 00 p. m. A long time had passed since she last called him. He should have called back under normal circumstances. While she was still wondering, her mobile phone rang.
She looked at it; it was Jessica. Her bestie had been busy. Summer had not seen her for a few days.
“Jessica.” Summer answered.
“Summer, where are you?” Jessica sounded like she was depressing her anger.
Summer could hear that something was not right. “I’m at Emerson Corporation. What’s wrong?”
“Come to the Golden Cauldron. I will wait for you here.”
Jessica hung up after saying that. Summer was puzzled. What could have caused Jessica to get so angry? So she headed toward the Golden Cauldron. As she arrived and stepped inside the main hall, she saw Jessica leaning on the couch, playing with her mobile phone.
“Jessica?” Summer walked up to Jessica.
Jessica glanced at her, tucked away her mobile phone, and brought her to the elevator.
“I will show you what the jerk—Leonardo— is doing right now!”
“Leonardo?” Summer’s eyes brightened up. ‘You saw him?”
“Yeah.” Jessica smirked.
Summer breathed a sigh of relief, so long as he was safe.
Jessica brought Summer into the elevator and went straight up to a private room. When the two of them barged into the room, everyone inside the room looked in their direction.
Summer spotted Leonardo sitting in the middle of the crowd, and the strange woman by his side. She was stunned for a second, then looked over at Jessica, who quirked an eyebrow, telling her to walk over.
Just then, a familiar voice came. “Jessica, you have brought Summer, too!”
Summer looked in the voice’s direction and saw Carl. Tim and Kate were here, too. It was no wonder Leonardo and Tim did not answer her call.
Tim glanced at Summer and quickly looked away. It looked guilty to Summer. few seconds before looking away and continuing talking to the woman sitting beside Leonardo.
Carl got up and came toward them. “Summer, please come over. Don’t just stand there.”
Summer was so much calmer compared to Jessica. She nudged Jessica and said, “Let’s sit down.”
“Summer!” Jessica looked at her with a disagreeing expression.
Summer shook her head at her.