Chapter 48
Chapter 48
Kael’s POV
After putting Zoe to sleep, I went back to the study and sat down at my desk.
Everything that happened tonight was weighing on me from beginning to end. I wasn’t the type to let emotions pile up in my mind, but too much had happened tonight. One thing had stacked on top of another until I could no longer sort them away as neatly as I usually did.
I opened my laptop and typed Clara’s name into the search bar.
The official page for The Gloria Nguyen Collective came up. Clara’s name appeared there under the title of “Senior Assistant,” with a formal professional photo in black and white, cleanly framed. I enlarged the picture and stared at her face for a while.
I couldn’t find anything in that photo that I wanted to find.
Then I shifted my attention to the rest of the page—Gloria Nguyen herself did not have a single photo on the official page. No photo, no personal profile, no concrete details about her background. Just the name, and the immense reputation that name had built in the medical world.
I pressed that detail down in my mind and kept digging.
I searched for more information on Clara and came up with nothing. She had left almost no trace online. Other than these basic details, there was nothing.
Yet I had seen everything she did tonight with my own eyes. The way she handled those medical files, the speed of her judgment, the clean, decisive way she dealt with Arthur—that was not the capability or bearing of an ordinary assistant.
And the gown she wore tonight had been personally arranged for her by Jasper, using diamonds from a Cole family auction.
In my mind, I took out all the things Iris had told me about Clara and compared them again.
Not one of them matched.
I closed the laptop and leaned back in my chair, staring at the ceiling of the study.
The little bit of alcohol I had earlier was still faintly working through me, but I wasn’t sleepy at all.
I got up, changed into workout clothes, went downstairs, and headed out, planning to run a lap around the neighborhood to clear out some of the clutter in my head.
On the neighborhood path, the orange streetlights cast a warm glow over the pavement. The night breeze was cool and carried the damp scent of grass and leaves. I steadied my pace and eased my breathing, letting the rhythm of my footsteps pull my thoughts forward.
Then I saw her at a corner.
Clara.
She was wearing running clothes, her hair tied back casually, with one loose strand by her ear, running toward me into the night breeze. The moment she saw me, her brow furrowed slightly.
I stopped.
“Miss Clara. What a coincidence.”
Her tone was cool, faintly impatient. “Quite a coincidence indeed, Mr. Voss. Funny how I seem to run into you everywhere. You really do have a lot of free time.”
I understood what she meant—she thought I had followed her here on purpose.
I didn’t explain, but I knew she didn’t believe in coincidences.
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Clara’s POV
Night running had been my habit for many years. No matter what happened that day, no matter how heavy it was, once I started running, the rhythm of my steps would gradually dilute it.
Too much had happened tonight. Arthur’s slap, the number three hundred million, Iris’s bucket of water—one thing after another, all pressing down on me. I needed to run it off.
Then at the corner, I saw Kael.
I hadn’t lived in this neighborhood long, so my first reaction to seeing him here was that he had followed me again.
I mocked him for having too much time in a steady voice.
He didn’t immediately try to explain himself. He just stood there, the streetlight outlining the side of his face.
Then he spoke.
“Miss Clara, thank you for agreeing to let your team operate on my daughter. Tomorrow I’ll transfer the thirty million surgical fee into your account. Thank you, Miss Clara.”
I listened to what he said without letting my expression change at all.
As far as I was concerned, a man who could be with someone like Iris could not be all that good at his core. As for what he had said tonight in the banquet hall in front of everyone—“Iris is not my girlfriend. She is only my daughter’s mother”—I had no interest in digging into what that really meant.
I answered casually, “Mr. Voss, there’s no need to thank me. Once the funds are received, our Gloria Nguyen medical team will naturally deliver the appropriate results. Bring your daughter to the hospital next week. We’ll need to conduct a formal risk assessment first. That’s all. I’ll be going now.”
I turned and kept running forward without another glance.ying, but Kael’s expression didn’t look good.