Chapter 581

Chapter 581

Mason never expected that Kyle's distrust of him had gone this far.

When he didn't come back for a while, Kyle came over in person to give him a piece of his mind.

He felt embarrassed in front of Harper. He forced himself to explain, "I'm heading back now. I just happened to run into Ms. Orsini on the way."

Kyle didn't bother calling Mason out on it.

He gave Mason a disappointed look and said, "Get in the car. You're coming back to the office with me."

Mason got in without a word. Kyle then politely turned to Harper, "Ms. Orsini, I'm guessing you won't be heading back anytime soon. Why don't you come by the office, rest up tonight, and feel free to stay a few days if you'd like."

Kyle was busy dealing with Mason right now.

Harper could tell the invitation was just a polite gesture. She smiled and turned it down apologetically, "I've already wrapped up what I came here to do, and there are things waiting for me back at the office. Thank you so much for introducing me to Mr. Barnes."

"Once everything is settled, Mr. Elikin and I will thank you in person."

The moment Harper mentioned Caden, Kyle's expression visibly softened.

It wasn't that he was against Mason finding happiness.

He just couldn't stand the way Mason was acting right now — clingy, unclear-headed, and impossible to shake off.

On top of that, the family had already started looking for a potential wife for Mason. This was not the time for anything to go wrong, so he didn't want Mason spending too much time around Harper.

Seeing how sensible Harper was — even bringing up Caden to turn Mason down — Kyle was quietly impressed.

It was just a shame the two families were so far apart, with no real opportunity for deeper cooperation at the moment.

So they went their separate ways.

Kyle took Mason back to the office, while Harper returned to the hotel where she'd been staying, packed her things, and got ready to head home as soon as possible.

She finally didn't have to worry about Mason bothering her anymore. She felt lighter, let out a breath of relief, and reached out to Caden.

But strangely, Caden didn't pick up.

He only sent back a message telling Harper to stay put and not come back yet.

Harper was confused.

She instinctively checked the latest news and her other phones, but nothing major seemed to have happened. Caden's behavior was really out of the ordinary.

Still, looking at how firm his message was, Harper reluctantly stopped packing.

Whatever the reason, she trusted Caden's judgment. She'd wait until he had time to explain.

Harper stayed put and used the time to tie up loose ends from her meeting with Mr. Barnes.

She kept waiting for more from Caden, but nothing came. Her confusion kept growing.

Finally, she reached out to Travis, "Did something happen at the company?"

"Ms. Orsini?" Travis fumbled, trying to change the subject, "I heard you managed to connect with someone who can keep Dominic in check. Everyone here is celebrating."

But Harper wasn't so easily brushed off.

Her expression darkened, and her tone dropped, "So now I'm not even allowed to ask about what's going on at my own company?"

On the other end of the line, Travis went quiet.

Then he let out a tired sigh and said, "Nothing's wrong with the company, but there is some bad news. Mr. Elikin... someone got a photo of him coming out of a hotel with Ms. Davis."

"What?" Harper was stunned. "How is that possible?"

It was absurd.

Not because Harper blindly trusted Caden.

She trusted her own judgment.

Travis sighed again, "But the photos are already out there. Things aren't looking great for the company right now. We're doing damage control as we speak. Ms. Orsini, it might be better if you wait until we've sorted this out before coming back — so you don't have to deal with unnecessary gossip when you get here."

Harper listened quietly and said nothing more. She nodded, "Alright. Keep me updated."

Then she hung up, seeming to take his word for it.

But right after, Harper didn't hesitate — she called Molly.

She didn't buy that this was the whole story. If it were just a rumor, there was no reason Caden and Travis would still be struggling to handle it by now.

Something else was being kept from her.

Since neither Caden nor Travis would talk, she'd go to Molly.

If something had happened that involved her, Molly wouldn't hide it.

"Harper?" Molly sounded a little worried. "Did you hear about the photos of Caden? Kimber actually..."

"That's not true." Harper said without hesitation. "And that's not why I'm calling. I don't believe anything happened between Caden and Kimber. What I want to know is — what else is going on at the company?"

Molly paused. "You really trust Mr. Elikin that much."

Harper didn't feel like explaining that what she trusted was her own instincts.

She pressed on, "So what exactly happened? How did they end up in those photos? And how did Kimber even know where Caden was?"

Molly let out a weary sigh. "The Davis family just won't go away."

She slowly walked Harper through everything that had happened over the past few days.

It turned out that on the day Harper left, Kimber had tried to corner Caden — Harper already knew about that, and Kimber hadn't gotten anywhere.

But later, just when everyone thought Kimber had backed off, she suddenly reached out to Chloe. Chloe wasn't expecting it and got tricked into revealing which hotel Caden was staying at. Kimber used that to set up a staged run-in with him.

Caden hadn't seen it coming, and Kimber had planned the whole thing from the start.

Once the photos went public, a wave of paid trolls online immediately started blowing it up.

It put Caden right in the middle of a firestorm.

Now Caden and Travis were busy trying to scrub the trolls from the internet.

It all sounded perfectly reasonable.

But it wasn't the answer Harper was looking for.

She remembered that Caden had told her not to come back for now, and there had to be more to it than just this.

The real reason she'd called Molly was to find out why Caden didn't want her coming back.

She needed to know what was really going on behind the scenes.

Molly started to stall, sounding just like Travis had, "I really don't know. Maybe... maybe Mr. Elikin is genuinely worried about you getting attacked online."

Harper's voice turned cool. "Molly, you don't have to lie to me."

Molly fell silent.

She couldn't keep deceiving Harper.

So she said nothing and tried to talk her down instead, "Nothing serious happened, I promise. I'm here keeping an eye on things — isn't that enough? Stop asking. You'll find out when you get back. Everyone's fine."

Harper narrowed her eyes and pushed one last time, "Molly, you know I hate being kept in the dark. What happened?"