Mr. CEO, You Look Strangely Familiar

Chapter 59: Chapter 59: The Leap (Part 1)

She lay beside her mother, wrapped in a blanket, fast asleep.

In the predawn hours, Nora Ainsworth was woken by a sudden chill.

Her first instinct was to check on Mrs. Ainsworth, but something was very different tonight.

Her mother wasn’t there. The realization jolted her wide awake.

Her gaze swept the room, landing on a figure sitting nearby.

Her mother was at the counter, putting on makeup.

”Mom? Why are you down here?!” Nora was terrified and rushed over to support her.

But Mrs. Ainsworth gently shrugged off her hand, her voice as calm as ever. ”I have something to do today, Nora. I won’t live past tomorrow. Let me do what I feel I must.”

Nora Ainsworth froze, her eyes stinging with unshed tears. ”Mom, tomorrow is Sharon Ainsworth and Quentin Grant’s wedding—”

Mrs. Ainsworth stared at her. ”Nora, if I don’t do something for you now, it will be too late.”

”Mom, I don’t need you to do anything—” Her voice was slightly hoarse. ”I just want you to be healthy.”

Mrs. Ainsworth looked away and said nothing.

The blush gave her sunken cheeks a touch of color. She had spent a long time on her makeup, applying it until it was flawlessly exquisite.

Nora Ainsworth sat and watched as her mother selected her favorite outfit from a suitcase, then put on a scarf, a hat, and a mask.

”Mom, where are you going?”

Mrs. Ainsworth turned and looked at her earnestly. ”Nora, from this moment on, you and I are no longer mother and daughter. This is the first thing I can do for you.”

She turned and left. Nora, snapping out of her daze, ran after her.

But her mother was moving too quickly. By the time Nora Ainsworth reached the hospital entrance, Mrs. Ainsworth was long gone.

「Snow began to fall. It was the first snow of the new year.」

To Nora Ainsworth, this snow felt like a terrible omen.

She headed for the hotel where Quentin Grant’s wedding was being held. It was the only place she could think of where her mother might go.

She took the elevator to the eighth floor.

As soon as she stepped out of the elevator, Nora Ainsworth spotted Mrs. Ainsworth sitting there, all bundled up.

She hurried over, sat down beside her mother, and whispered, ”Mom.”

Mrs. Ainsworth didn’t move. She only said, ”Don’t talk. Be quiet.”

Quentin Grant wasn’t getting married in a church; the ceremony was being held right in the hotel.

A space for the priest, the bride, and the groom had been set up on a dais at the front of the grand hall.

Guests began to trickle in, and by a little after ten in the morning, nearly everyone had arrived.

The attendees were all either rich and powerful or prominent figures in high society.

They were all influential figures, the kind not easily invited. The members of the Grant and Ainsworth families were also nearly all present.

The moment finally came when Quentin Grant, wearing a finely tailored suit and a groom’s boutonnière, arrived in the wedding car to greet Sharon Ainsworth, dressed in her bridal gown, at the hotel entrance.

A red carpet was rolled out at the hotel entrance, but the procession to bring the bride inside hadn’t started yet.

From a distance, Nora Ainsworth saw Mr. Ainsworth walking toward her.

Just then, she heard her mother’s voice beside her. ”Nora, you go downstairs and see the bride. I’ll just have a quick word with him and be right down.”

Nora Ainsworth replied, ”Then you can’t run off again. You have to come back to the hospital with me.”

Mrs. Ainsworth gave her a rare smile, one she had seldom seen before.

As soon as Nora Ainsworth stepped into the elevator, Mrs. Ainsworth walked up to Mr. Ainsworth.

”You’re well enough to be walking around?”

Mrs. Ainsworth looked at him, her voice strangely light. ”So many years ago, you were such a handsome man. Time is a real butcher’s knife. Now you’re balding, you’ve got a potbelly, your temper has gotten worse... and you’ve certainly become more decisive.”