Chapter 736 Isadora's Speculation

Chapter 736 Isadora's Speculation

The tattoo shop owner stared at us for a moment, then suddenly smirked and said, "You must've heard wrong."

I caught a flicker of mockery on his face. But when I looked closer, his expression seemed normal again.

Could we really have heard wrong?

No way. If it were just me, maybe, but Royce heard it too.

Royce and I exchanged glances, sensing something off about the shop owner's reaction. Pushing him further might not end well.

"Maybe we’re just freaking out about getting tattoos. Let's talk about it more when we get back."

I grabbed Royce’s arm and headed for the door.

"Hold on a sec," the tattoo shop owner called out.

My heart pounded, worrying he might get aggressive.

But I was overthinking it. The guy didn’t make a move; instead, he handed us two small gift boxes.

"These are freebies for our customers. Hope you don’t mind."

Royce and I hesitated but took the boxes. Whether we’d keep them depended on what was inside once we were outside.

"Do you give gifts even if we don’t get tattoos? Won’t you lose money?" I asked, playing dumb.

The shop owner shook his head. "Don’t worry about that. We won’t lose money."

Then he added, "If you decide to get tattoos later, think of us first."

I nodded quickly. "Sure thing, we will."

Royce and I left the shop and drove away.

We didn’t head straight back to the apartment. Instead, we parked in a safe spot and opened the gift boxes.

To our surprise, the boxes contained several temporary tattoos, a spray, and a small handcrafted flower.

I took out the flower and examined it closely. It looked familiar.

"Doesn’t this flower look like a mini Red Spider Lily?"

Royce pulled out his flower and nodded.

But our flowers were different colors. Mine was red, and his was blue.

"Do these items mean something?" I wondered, pulling out the temporary tattoos and spray.

I found a small card sandwiched between them, explaining how to use the spray and tattoos.

"Spray the solution onto the cardboard side of the temporary tattoo, peel off the clear film, and press the tattoo onto your skin..."

I read the instructions aloud. Nothing unusual.

"These might actually be useful," Royce said, frowning.

I had the same thought. "Do you think he misunderstood who we are or did it on purpose?"

"Could be either. But we should keep these. They might come in handy."

Royce put everything back into the box, and I did the same.

However, we decided not to bring these items back to our apartment. After some discussion, we opted to store them in a safe deposit box.

---

Isadora suddenly showed up at the office, looking pretty upset. I wondered if something had happened recently.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked, handing her a cup of coffee.

Isadora pursed her lips, "Have you been avoiding me on purpose?"

"What makes you think that?" I asked, genuinely puzzled.

We hadn’t been avoiding Isadora exactly, but since her husband had already approached us, we had to be cautious about her involvement.

"You’ve been investigating without telling me. Are you worried I’ll slow you down?" Isadora stared at me.

I opened my mouth but ended up sighing, "It’s not about slowing us down. We just don’t want to drag you deeper into this mess."

"But I haven’t figured out what happened to my sister. I can’t just walk away and live like everything’s fine."

Isadora took a deep breath, "I’ve been doing some digging on my own."

There was a knock on the office door. I glanced at Isadora before going to open it.

It was a department manager with a work report.

I took the file and sent him back.

Then I returned to my desk and looked at Isadora.

"But have you thought about your family?"

I couldn’t help but look out the window. The sky was blue, and the sun was shining, as if darkness didn’t exist.

Only those living in the shadows know that darkness is everywhere.

"I won’t drag them into this," Isadora said, her lips set in a firm line.

"But do you think we can control that? If they target you..."

I couldn’t finish. From Isadora’s perspective, no matter what she did, it seemed wrong.

Today, Isadora wore a professional black suit, her hair tied up high, looking sharp and determined.

"So, is this why you haven’t shared any leads with me lately?" Isadora stared at me.

I opened my mouth and finally nodded, admitting it.

She might be angry, but we really couldn’t drag her into this further.

"But to me, my sister’s death is an insurmountable barrier. Without resolving it, I can never live a normal life."

Isadora stood up, leaning on the desk.

I was forced to look up at her, meeting her eyes, my heart wavering.

Maybe our approach was selfish. Isadora had the right to make her own choices. We shouldn’t decide for her.

"So what do you want to do? Do you have any new leads?"

I rubbed my forehead, "You came here today because you’ve found something, right?"

"Recently, the news has been buzzing. It’s hard not to notice," Isadora said, sitting back down.

I smiled wryly, "We’re swamped too. There’s so much we need to look into."

"It feels like every lead could uncover something huge."

Isadora stared at me for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

I looked at her, confused. How could she laugh at this?