Chapter 36

Lydia's POV

The sky in Washington was so clear and bright that I gradually forgot all about London here.

Ivan stayed with me in Washington and we lived together in an ordinary house. Although it was not as luxurious as my home in London, the house seemed especially cozy with Ivan's company.

Soon, Ivan helped me find a school in Washington, and I started my college life again, and every day was busy and happy.

After I got everything settled, I sent my mom a package of Washington specialties and a letter, hoping that I could get their forgiveness, if not for now, and that our connection would not be broken.

Of course, there has been no response to that package, other than an online check that it had been signed for.

The quiet days went on for a while, and just when my life was getting on track, something strange happened.

I was walking down the street and always felt a strange gaze behind me, but every time I turned around, there was no one there.

I thought hard about whether I had offended someone and someone was trying to get back at me, but looking back at every little thing in my life, there didn't seem to be any signs of that.

At school, I got along well with my classmates, and even those who didn't usually talk much would nod and smile at each other when they saw us.

At home, my neighbor was very friendly to me, even his dog, who showed me affection from time to time. I really can't think of anyone who wants to harm me.

Suddenly a terrible thought popped into my head, could it be Connor?

No, it can't be. Connor doesn't love me at all.

When I think of this man, I only have chills. If he loved me, when the kidnappers asked him for the core technical documents of DQ Group, he would have agreed immediately; if he loved me, he would not have taken out a fake document and traded with the kidnappers; if he loved me, our child in my belly would not have died in the hands of the kidnappers for no reason.

If he also loves me, as much as I love him, he could not just leave London by me and fly to Washington. According to his character, he would even try everything to tie me back, not sneak around and follow me like this.

Love is the hand that wants to touch and retract, he does not even want to touch, and how can we talk about retract?

So that person who followed me, that gaze that appeared behind me from time to time, how could it be him?

Maybe it was because I hadn't fully adapted to my new life in Washington yet in my subconscious, and I was still in love with London, so I had this illusion.

It's really funny that I would have such an illusion about this person who broke my heart.

Connor's POV

From the day Claire came to my office, I knew she wanted to fix our relationship. But the moment she stood behind me and put her chin on top of my head, I sensed that her intentions were not so pure.

I felt her gaze fall straight to the papers on my desk; she wanted to learn about the company from me, although I wasn't sure why she was so curious about what was going on at the company.

When I got home, she tried her best to seduce me again, but since the last time I analyzed her and Lydia's car accident with Locke, I started to loathe this woman and didn't even want to have normal physical desires for her.

I asked Locke to send someone to investigate Claire, while having someone keep an eye on Lydia at the hospital.

One day, someone who was near the hospital told me that Ivan had gone to the hospital to pick up Lydia and take her to the airport in a taxi.

Since Lydia really wanted to leave me, I let go.

After all, in Lydia's life and death, I chose to save the company and myself, while in the moment of the accident, Ivan chose to protect Lydia, so I was relieved to leave Lydia in his hands.

It's just that Ivan is still young and limited in his ability to protect her only with his own body in case of danger, so I decided to let the bodyguard escort them away from a distance.

After the bodyguard told me that Lydia and Ivan had boarded the plane without incident, I was slightly relieved, but I just couldn't feel completely at ease yet.

I contacted a friend in Washington and asked him to arrange for someone to covertly protect them at the airport, and at the same time, I got Lydia's address in Washington.

Every once in a while, I would get updates from Washington about Lydia, that she was back in college, that she had entered a competition, that she had won an award.

I was relieved and happy to see that she was living a new life and getting better.

I can't help but look at Lydia's face in the photos and rub my hands gently against it.

The photos did not reduce my thoughts of Lydia, but rather let the thoughts flow into my heart with my veins, eroding me a little.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and got a flight to Washington.

I wanted to feel where she lived, to breathe the air of the same city with her, I wanted to see her from afar, even if it was only for a day or two, it was better than I missed the moon late at night every full moon.

Every time I went to Washington, I was very careful, trying to make myself less noticeable.

Each time, I just followed her from a distance, standing on street corners, standing by streetlights.

I watched her hair grow longer every day, watched her leave school with her classmates talking and laughing, and watched her walk home alone.

I walked to the door of her house, hid in the bushes of the garden, endured the bites of mosquitoes, and watched the lights in every room of the house go on and off, dim and on again.

Maybe she was cooking, maybe she was finishing her schoolwork, maybe she was already asleep.

I only set myself two days because the company had a lot of work and every time I came to Washington, I had to work late to take care of all the work before I could leave. Each time I returned to London from Washington, I had to deal with papers piled as high as a hill on my desk.

It seemed like hard work, but I was happy to do it. If I didn't see her again, my thoughts would swallow me up.

The peace and quiet only lasted for a while and was soon shattered when everything suddenly happened together, leaving me scrambling.

DQ Group sued me for leaking trade secrets, and the information of that core technology that they had cooperated with Carter Group was leaked out. Only the president of DQ Group and I handled the information, so I became the only suspect of leaking the information.

After learning about this incident, the shareholders of the company held a meeting and decided to fire me. I knew that if I didn't find the person who leaked this information, not only would my career be affected, but the Carter Group, which my mom and dad had worked so hard to create, would also suffer.

I thought long and hard about it, and from the time I got the file in New York, it had been with me, and I hadn't even touched it to Charles.

As soon as I returned to London, I locked the file in the safe, the combination of which was the day I first sent Lydia to school, and this combination was known only to me. Moreover, I have never opened the safe in front of anyone else, so there is no possibility of someone else peeking into the combination.

If this person could crack my password, unless ta knew me well and also knew what was going on between Lydia and me.

Thinking back to Claire glancing at my desk in my office, my intuition told me that this was probably related to her.

But how did she know the combination to the safe?

By definition, I was the only one who knew the date, and even Lydia might not remember it well.

This mystery was growing in my mind. I could only put my hope on Locke, hoping that he would hurry to find out Claire's whereabouts, and also provide clues for me to find the evidence against Claire.

If Claire did this, she must be hoping that I can get away from work because I was fired from the company and go home more often to spend time with her.

The woman, since you want to set me up, I will not do what you want. If you don't do this, how do you know that things in the world are not controlled by you?

Since it is idle, I do not want to go home, so why not go to Washington for a while?

With this plan in mind, I quickly took care of the consequences caused by the information leak and bought a one-way ticket to Washington.

Lydia, I'm coming, I'll be living with you in the same city, but I'll never let you know that I'm near you.

I found a house in Washington just a block away from Lydia's house and lived there, waking up every day to read the newspaper, admire the scenery of Washington, and when I missed Lydia, I went to her neighborhood and visited her school.

Perhaps because I knew in my heart that Lydia and I were both in Washington, the longing became less intense and my mood became better.

Even I suddenly began to envy Lydia's life in Washington, away from the complicated chores of London, away from the complexities of the world, just simply and beautifully living their own little life here, carefree, and accompanied by someone who likes them ......

Like their own company ...... because of this idea in my heart, sprouted jealousy.

If I had made the right decision when Lydia was kidnapped, how good would it have been ...... so that she would not have to go far away from Washington, so that the one accompanying her would not be me ......

I looked at the wall clock, school had been out for some time, Lydia should be back, I decided to call a taxi to go around Lydia's house.

Soon, I arrived at Lydia's house, I got out and looked around, I should meet Lydia soon, I was looking forward to it.

Suddenly, several black shadows came out of the bushes in the garden of a nearby house, and they jumped directly at me.

I fought them with a little bit of my previous martial arts background.

Suddenly, there was a flash of silver light, and the men in black took out a small knife ready to stab me.