Chapter 75: The Kindness I Threw Away

I drove in silence, my mind spinning.

From Dad's death until yesterday, Caspian and I had only met twice. Twice. And both times he'd acted so distant, I'd convinced myself he was done with me.

He'd promised me that Quinn Industries and Dad would be fine, but then Dad died suddenly anyway.

It had felt like the end. Like I'd gambled everything and lost.

I'd even started breaking down, convinced that Dad's death was the turning point. The investigation team would work harder to find evidence, and everyone who'd been helping me could finally stop.

It was over.

But Marcus and Grayson were still working on it? Still trying to fix this mess?

And Caspian. Last night, when he came to me, he hadn't said a single word about any of it. Just kissed me in that strange, careful way and left before dawn.

I'd thought he wasn't interested anymore. That whatever this was between us had run its course.

"Mrs?" Grayson's voice pulled me back. "Are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here." I gripped the steering wheel tighter. "What's the solution? How are you fixing this?"

"The evidence against your father was all perjury, which normally takes massive resources to prove. But recently, two witnesses suddenly changed their statements, so things became much simpler. The result should come through soon."

My breath caught. "Wait, so it's actually going to be resolved? Dad's name will be cleared?"

"That's right."

I had to pull over because my hands were shaking too hard to drive safely. "I don't understand. Why are you still doing this? Dad's already gone, I handed over the company, I thought everyone would just... stop."

"Caspian gave the order," Grayson said simply. "This matter must be resolved."

My throat went tight. All this time I'd been thinking he'd lost interest, that I'd become too much trouble. But he'd been working on this the whole time?

"Thank you," I managed. "Thank you for everything. When this is over, I'm buying you the most expensive dinner you've ever had."

Grayson laughed. "I'll hold you to that."

After hanging up, I just sat there in my parked car, trying to process everything.

By the time I made it to the cafe, I'd been waiting over an hour before Evelyn finally showed up.

One look at her and my chest hurt.

Less than two weeks since Dad died, and she looked like a ghost. Someone who'd never been particularly warm had turned to cold, all sharp edges and hollow eyes with pale skin.

"Evelyn..." I didn't know what to say. I'd known Dad's death would hit her hard, but this was worse than I'd imagined.

"You're back." Her voice was flat, barely there. "How was the south?"

"Beautiful weather. Warm." I tried to smile. "You should go. Get some sun. It might help."

"Maybe." She wasn't even looking at me, just staring past my shoulder at nothing.

I took a breath and dove in, telling her about the case finally getting resolved, about Dad's name being cleared.

She barely reacted. Just another distant "mm" like I'd told her the weather forecast.

"Look, after everything settles, we need to deal with the inheritance," I said. "I don't want anything else. Just give me the courier company. That's all I'm asking for."

"Fine," she said immediately, like she couldn't care less.

I studied her lifeless expression and felt a pang of guilt. "Evelyn, are you okay? Really?"

Finally, she seemed to actually see me. "The courier company has no assets. It barely makes money. What do you even want it for?"

"I don't want to deal with headquarters politics and board meetings and all that corporate mess," I said. "The courier company is simple. I can handle simple right now."

She just shrugged. "Do whatever you want."

"I'll get Thomas to draw up the contract. We can sign as soon as possible."

Another vague nod.

I knew pushing wouldn't help, so I called Thomas right there and had him prepare everything. I also made sure to mention it loudly enough that Evelyn's brother would definitely hear about it through the office gossip chain.

Sure enough, within an hour, Thomas showed up with the contract and Evelyn's brother and a lawyer in tow.

The Evelyn brother had the lawyer review every single term, making absolutely sure I was only taking the courier company and nothing else. Once he confirmed I was basically giving up my entire inheritance just for one struggling company, he couldn't sign fast enough. He even got Sophia and her brother to sign that same day, probably terrified I'd change my mind.

That evening, I marched into the courier company and kicked out the useless relative who'd been running it into the ground. Then I spent the next several hours implementing all the new policies Lucas and I had planned out.

I had no idea what I was doing, honestly. I stayed in that office until my eyes burned and my brain felt like mush, reading management books and studying logistics software until the words blurred together.

When I finally made it back to Jade Bay, the silence hit me like a wall.

I was exhausted, but my mind wouldn't shut up about Caspian. About how he'd been helping me this whole time without saying anything. About how I'd completely misread everything between us.

But then again, even actual couples don't see each other every day, right? And we weren't even that. We were... whatever this was.

I forced myself to shower and sleep.

The next morning, I was rushing to get ready for another long day at Fengzheng when the doorbell rang.

I opened it to find a delivery guy holding a box. "Miss Quinn?"

"That's me."

"Your dry cleaning from yesterday. Just need you to sign."

I took the box, confused. "I didn't send anything to be dry cleaned yesterday..."

I opened it anyway.

And froze.

Inside were the men's slippers. The cheap ones I'd thrown in the trash. The ones Caspian had taken with him.

"Oh my god." I couldn't stop staring at them. "He actually dry cleaned them."

The delivery guy shifted awkwardly. "Yeah, uh, we picked them up yesterday. Is something wrong? Did we deliver to the wrong address?"

"No, it's... they're mine. This is right." My brain still wasn't processing this. Who dry cleans slippers? Who dry cleans twelve-dollar slippers?

The delivery guy seemed to be fighting back a smile. "If you don't mind me asking, what brand are these? The dry cleaner said they'd never seen this material before..."

Oh god, he meant they'd never seen slippers this cheap, sent for professional cleaning.

I could feel my face heating up. "They're, uh, imported from Europe. It's custom-made, so very expensive artisan craftsmanship, you know how it is."

"Ah, that explains the lack of branding," he said, nodding seriously, but his murmur, "what a waste of money.:"

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

After he left, I just stood there holding this box of dry-cleaned cheap slippers, trying to figure out what this meant.

He'd taken my trash. Literally taken my trash bag with these slippers in it, and instead of throwing them away like a normal person, he had them professionally cleaned and returned to me.

I grabbed my phone and took a photo of the slippers in their pristine box, then sent it to him with a message.

"You're absolutely insane. You know that, right?"