Chapter 498 - 493: Very Good Skills
So, the Men in Black could only watch in silence as the two little ones struggled to run. Even though they were about to collapse from exhaustion, their Young Master remained unmoved.
Finally, the captain couldn’t bear to watch any longer and said timidly, "Young Master, if something happens to the young masters from this exhaustion, when the Young Madam returns..."
Sierra Ainsworth ran over. "Brother-in-law, if you keep treating my two nephews like this, you’ll be in for it when my sister gets back!"
Quentin Grant thought for a moment, then stood up and said to the two little guys, "Alright, that’s enough."
Dragging their heavy legs, the two boys collapsed straight onto the ground. When Quentin Grant saw this, his face went pale. He had forgotten they were still just small children.
"What are you standing around for? Get the doctor over here!"
Sierra Ainsworth ran over and knelt beside the two boys. Seeing they had passed out from exhaustion, she was furious. "Hurry up and carry the boys back to the living room."
Quentin Grant bent down and picked up Dylan Grant, and Sierra Ainsworth picked up Elmer Grant. They placed them on the sofa. The family doctor arrived moments later and put the two boys on IV drips.
Sierra Ainsworth looked at the boys’ sweat-drenched foreheads and couldn’t help but speak up. "What kind of father are you? If you wanted to punish them, you should have at least considered their age. If something had happened, forget my sister—even I would never forgive you!"
Quentin Grant was filled with regret. "I... I always think of them as if they’re half-grown already."
What Quentin Grant didn’t expect, however, was that after the two boys woke up, they asked him to train them. The training would be for two hours, from six to eight o’clock.
Sierra Ainsworth hadn’t expected this either, but since the children were requesting it themselves, she didn’t object. Quentin Grant agreed.
This continued for a month.
During this month, Nora Ainsworth kept a very low profile in Grestin. She made no sudden moves and instead thoroughly cased Toby Dalton’s entire compound. She now knew the purpose of every single area.
Therefore, she concluded that her mother wasn’t being held anywhere above ground, but in a dungeon.
Toby Dalton had completely let his guard down around her.
This wasn’t the typical behavior of someone with great ambition, but her current cover was different. For days on end, she did nothing but eat and sleep, showing no signs of being up to anything.
The weather had been bad since this morning.
It felt like an omen that something was about to happen.
By the afternoon, a heavy rain had started to fall and the wind had picked up, plunging the world outside into a dark and gloomy state.
Nora Ainsworth didn’t go out. She stood by the window, lost in thought.
The door was suddenly pushed open, and an angry Toby Dalton walked in.
She turned around. "What’s wrong?"
He sat down and, for the first time, voiced his frustrations.
"You know of the Grant Family in Fravia?"
Nora Ainsworth nodded. "Of course. Who doesn’t know about the Grant Family? They’re very powerful."
Toby Dalton nodded. "Right. In the world today, only four powers have their own Blackguard. Although I have plenty of men, they’re ultimately not the Blackguard..."
Of course, Nora Ainsworth knew Toby Dalton’s men weren’t the Blackguard, but she had to feign ignorance. "I just know the Grant Family is one of the groups with state sanction to maintain a Blackguard."
"Besides the Grant Family, there’s the Chambers Family in Zelkova. Tristan Chambers and Quentin Grant are close business partners. They’d better not collaborate on anything else, or I’ll make sure Quentin Grant faces dire consequences!"
Nora Ainsworth sneered inwardly, but her expression remained impassive. "Their cooperation would only benefit them and make them even stronger. How could you possibly take Quentin Grant down? I don’t believe it."
"That’s where you’re wrong." Toby Dalton stood up and walked over to her. "As long as you seize your enemy’s weakness, you can easily crush them. Saphira, did you know? I have Quentin Grant’s mother-in-law. This bargaining chip alone can get me plenty of concessions from his company, but I want more than just that."
Nora Ainsworth’s focus wavered for a moment. "You don’t want Quentin Grant’s company, do you?"
Toby Dalton’s eyes lit up. "Even you figured it out."
"Stop daydreaming. There’s no way he’d hand over the Grant Group to you just for his mother-in-law. It’s not his company alone."
"I know that, of course. But you have no idea just how much Quentin Grant loves that celebrity wife of his. I’ve already investigated it thoroughly. I’m obviously not just relying on this to destroy the Grant Group. I have other methods."
Although Nora Ainsworth didn’t know what exactly he planned to do, she knew better than to ask any more questions.
’I have to tread carefully here. Caution is paramount. I can’t say too much, and I can’t ask too much.’
’It’s best to stop after making a point.’
The two of them fell silent for several minutes before a knock came at the door. "Young Master Dalton, Miss Callahan is back."
"Let her in."
Nora Ainsworth asked, "Should I make myself scarce?"
Toby Dalton smiled. "I’m being completely open with you. This is my way of loving you. You don’t need to leave."
Nora Ainsworth nodded and leaned against the window.
The door was pushed open, and a completely unfamiliar face entered Nora Ainsworth’s line of sight.
Her face was still wrapped in white gauze and was as swollen as a steamed bun.
’How is this Catherine Callahan?’
’She’s clearly a complete stranger.’
Toby Dalton clicked his tongue. "Not bad, the plastic surgery is excellent. I can’t even recognize you. If I didn’t already know who you were, I’d have absolutely no idea you were Catherine Callahan."
"I’m very satisfied. The surgeon you found is very skilled, and I really like this new face," Catherine Callahan said. The moment she spoke, Nora Ainsworth instantly recognized her.
’Her appearance has changed, but her voice is exactly the same.’
"You had plastic surgery, but your voice is still the same?"
Catherine Callahan nodded. "Yes."
"You should change your voice to match your face."
Toby Dalton nodded. "Indeed. Saphira is right. The voice needs to change as well to truly become a different person."
Catherine Callahan looked at Nora Ainsworth. She seemed familiar, but her face was clearly that of a stranger.
"Young Master Dalton, this is?"
Toby Dalton was clearly unwilling to elaborate. "She’s with me."
Catherine Callahan glanced at Nora Ainsworth again before asking, "The swelling should go down in a few days. When am I going back to Fravia?"
Toby Dalton nodded. "I’ll arrange your return as soon as the swelling subsides. Go get some rest for now."
"Alright, I’ll head back."
Catherine Callahan left the room.
Nora Ainsworth chuckled softly. "Her plastic surgery turned out nice. She looks like a celebrity."
Toby Dalton shook his head. "You didn’t see her face before. It was ugly enough to scare ghosts."
"Where is she from?"
"Fravia."
"She’s going back to her home?"
Toby Dalton scoffed. "What home? She’s just carrying out a mission."
Nora Ainsworth sat back down on the bed. "When a woman goes on a mission, it’s either seduction or seduction."
"It seems I really can’t hide anything from you."
"Who are you sending her to seduce?"
As she asked the question, Nora Ainsworth’s heart pounded nervously. She didn’t want to hear him speak the name of the man she cared so much about.
"A woman like her... young men wouldn’t be interested. She’ll have to go after someone in the Ainsworth Family."
Nora Ainsworth didn’t press further. "I’m going to take a nap. I’m tired."
"Alright."
Lying under the covers, Nora Ainsworth took out her phone, sent a text to Quentin Grant, immediately deleted it, and turned her phone off again.
**
That evening, Jean Grant’s stomach began to ache faintly. She rushed to the bathroom and discovered that her period had started.
She was instantly furious.
’No wonder the pregnancy test a few days ago kept showing a single line. I’m not pregnant at all.’
She couldn’t understand it. ’I used to get pregnant so easily as long as we didn’t use contraception. This past month, Nicholas and I have been together for over twenty days without any protection. Why haven’t I conceived?’
’Could it be because of the three abortions I had before? Am I infertile now?’
The thought truly terrified Jean Grant.
’Three abortions, and all of them were Marlon Marshall’s babies. Now that I finally want a child of my own, I can’t even get pregnant.’
She came out of the bathroom and checked the time. It was already seven o’clock.
She changed her clothes, grabbed a face mask and a hat, and left the house.
When she arrived at the hospital’s OB/GYN department, the doctor told her to come back for an examination after her period ended.
Jean Grant left the hospital, dejected and feeling even more anxious than before.
When she got back home, the living room was empty.
She went upstairs to Mr. Ainsworth’s room and heard him talking to someone. Listening closely, she could tell he was murmuring sweet nothings.
Jean Grant pushed the door open and found her father-in-law sitting at his computer, voice-chatting with someone.
"Dad, who are you chatting with?"
"An online friend."
"Oh." She returned to her room and tried calling Nicholas Ainsworth several times, but couldn’t get through.
Her stomach started to cramp up from her period.
Jean Grant lay on the bed and scrolled through her social media feed.
She was using her alternate account and followed many people, including Ethan Ellsworth, Chloe Marshall, and Nora Ainsworth.
She saw Ethan Ellsworth’s latest post, a picture of Dorothy Ellsworth. The comments below were uniformly praising how pretty and cute she was. For some reason, Jean Grant replied, "Pretty? I don’t see it. Looks just like her mom."
After posting it, she deleted it.
’My thoughts are getting so dark,’ she thought, feeling irritable and restless. She didn’t want to sleep or do anything at all.
’I want a child so badly right now.’
’A child who looks just like me.’
Time ticked by. A little after eleven, she finally heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
Nicholas Ainsworth appeared at the door, surprised to see her still awake. "Why are you still up? I thought you’d been adjusting your schedule to go to sleep at eight."
"I have cramps... Honey, could you make me some brown sugar tea?"
Nicholas Ainsworth furrowed his brow. "You were home all day and couldn’t even make it yourself? Did you have to wait for me? If I hadn’t come back, would you have just gone without?"
Jean Grant nodded at him.
Nicholas Ainsworth put down his bag. "You’re unbelievably lazy," he muttered.
As soon as he said it, he went downstairs.
A short while later, he came back up with a cup of brown sugar water and handed it to her. "Here."
As he handed it to her, it dawned on him. "Is it that time of the month?"
Jean Grant nodded. "It is."
"You know, it’s really strange," he said. "Marlon Marshall screws you one time in a hotel, and you get pregnant. I’ve been with you for more than twenty days straight... how is it you’re not pregnant?"
Jean Grant hated it when he brought up the hotel incident, but she didn’t understand that for a man’s pride, there was nothing more humiliating than being cuckolded.