Mr. CEO, You Look Strangely Familiar

”A walk?” His eyes instantly darkened.

”Yes.”

”Then why does my tracker show you’re in the woods? Who did you go to see?”

Chloe Marshall was startled. ”You’re monitoring me?”

”This isn’t the first or second day I’ve been monitoring you. Didn’t you already know that? And you still lied to me about going for a walk? You’ve gotten quite good at lying. I’m going to see for myself just who it is you were meeting!” He turned to go down the steps.

Chloe Marshall grabbed his arm. ”Don’t go.”

He turned back, his eyes burning with rage. ”I shouldn’t go? Even if I don’t, you won’t tell me who you met, will you? You’ve got some nerve. If I don’t deal with this person, do you really think I’ll let you keep lying to me?”

Hearing those two words, ”deal with,” sent a chill down Chloe Marshall’s spine.

’If Ethan Ellsworth gets caught, he’ll be...’

”I won’t lie to you anymore. Let him go this once. He’s my friend.”

He sneered. ”So you really did go to meet someone.”

”A man or a woman?”

”A woman, of course,” she answered. ”Please, just let him go this once.”

”If this were before, I would have listened to you. But tonight, I won’t.” He took out his walkie-talkie. ”Surround the woods. Search for anyone suspicious.”

Then he strode away.

Chloe Marshall stood there, cold from head to toe.

’My mind is a tangled mess. I don’t know what to do.’

Then, she hurried after him, jogging to catch up to Lillian Bancroft. She said nothing, simply following him toward the woods.

The once pitch-black woods were now brightly lit, swarming with people.

But they found nothing.

”It seems we were a step too late.”

His words made Chloe Marshall relax slightly.

”However—” He turned back to meet Chloe Marshall’s gaze. ”Pull the surveillance footage from the two paths leading to the woods and send it to my bedroom.”

With that, he turned and left.

As always, Chloe Marshall followed him.

He didn’t look back the entire way. It wasn’t until they reached his bedroom door that he spoke. ”I’ve never seen you so eager. Do you want to keep me company?”

The more Chloe Marshall acted this way, the more curious Lillian Bancroft became. Who on earth had she met?

”Silly, can you please—”

”Give you the video?” he finished for her, then pushed open the door. ”How could I possibly do that? After I watch this, I’m going to put out a global warrant for his arrest for stealing state secrets. If I give it to you, I won’t be able to do that, will I?”

Chloe Marshall could tell he wasn’t just talking. He was dead serious.

For a moment, she was stunned, unsure of what to do.

”If you just give it to me, you... I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll listen to everything you say.”

”What if I want you to willingly bear me a child?”

Chloe Marshall stood frozen, looking at his mocking, unsmiling gaze. Her heart turned to ice.

’Is tonight the last time I’ll ever see Ethan Ellsworth?’

’Will tonight be the end, the moment we can never see each other again?’

’What should I do?!’

’How can I handle this and protect everyone!’

While she was lost in thought, the video footage arrived.

He opened his laptop, watched the video, and recognized Ethan Ellsworth at a glance.

Ever since that concert, when she had lost control, he had memorized what Ethan Ellsworth looked like—his build, the way he walked. He had never forgotten.

”He’s quite the stoic one. Giving up being a star to come here and work undercover.” Lillian Bancroft’s words were like a clap of thunder, exploding in the depths of Chloe Marshall’s heart.

’He recognized Ethan Ellsworth.’

”Silly, let him go.” She stepped forward, her eyes pleading.

”Why? Wife, have you forgotten that you are now my lawful wife? Yet you’re meeting other men right under my nose. Tell me, what do I have to do to completely extinguish any chance of you two getting back together?”

”But we were in love! Silly, it was you! You forcefully tore us apart! You saved me, your nanny saved me, but a debt of gratitude can’t be repaid like this! Silly, if it weren’t for you, Boss Ellsworth, Dorothy, and I would have had such a happy life! It was your insistence that ruined me, and now you want to harm him too. I have to ask you, what gives you the right?!” Chloe Marshall’s eyes welled with tears.

”You can only blame me for falling in love with you. In this world, there aren’t always reasons for things. I want you by my side for a lifetime, willingly. That’s the reason.”

”But all you ever do is threaten me! How can you get ’willingly’ from threats?”

”I only use the most effective methods. I know someone else got to your heart before I did, so I have to take a different path. Now, I’m giving you two choices. One: him, the son of the Ellsworth Family from Fravia. I will issue a global warrant for his arrest. I doubt the ruler of Fravia would go to war with my country over a single citizen. Two: you willingly bear me a child. Which path do you think is more viable?”

This situation, Chloe Marshall felt, was no better than when she was strung up in a tree, waiting to die.

It was even worse.

He always threatened her using the people she loved most, whether it was Boss Ellsworth or Dorothy.

”Fine. I agree.” As she said this, she felt she was no longer herself. Reality always forces one to accept defeat.

”Also, if I find out you’ve had even the slightest contact with him again, or if you haven’t completely broken off your relationship, you will bear the consequences. You’d better not have told him about the child.”

”I haven’t.”

”Good. I’ll keep this recording for now. And from now on, you are not to see Dorothy. You can see her again when you are successfully pregnant.”

’Could anything be crueler than this?’

She wanted to cry but couldn’t. Dejected, she turned and walked out the door.

Lillian Bancroft stood there, not feeling triumphant at all. In fact, he felt even more stifled. But he refused to admit that what he had done was wrong.

Ethan Ellsworth left the Imperial Palace that very night, his departure smooth and unobstructed.

He didn’t plan on using this identity again. He had originally intended to use his vacation to return to his home country and then come back, but as he was leaving, he noticed people heading for the woods and suspected he might have been exposed.

After staying in a hotel that night, he went to the school entrance Chloe Marshall had mentioned early the next morning.

’I want to see if the child she described is real.’

He sat waiting in a small alley across from the kindergarten. At half past seven, a familiar figure entered his line of sight.

He slowly stood up. Although he had mentally prepared himself, seeing it with his own eyes was still a shock.

’Is that really Nora Ainsworth?’

She was bare-faced, her long hair that used to hang loose now tied back in a long ponytail. She was wearing cheap clothes bought from a street stall, a stark contrast to the person she used to be.

’Are the two identical children on her left and right really hers and Young Master Grant’s?’

He walked forward, stopping right behind Nora Ainsworth. ”Nora,” he called out.