Mr. CEO, You Look Strangely Familiar

Nora pursed her lips. ”A mother knows.”

Then she left.

Sierra Ainsworth hugged Nora. ”Sis, you have no idea. Knowing the kids are alive... even though I haven’t said it, I’m so, so happy. Those two are your whole world. I know you could never be truly happy without them. Now that they’re back, Sis, you and Quentin need to be extra careful about everyone’s safety. The only one we’re missing now is Mom.”

Nora hugged her back tightly. ”Sierra, alive or dead, we have to find Mom. No matter the cost.”

”Mhm.”

The two sisters went downstairs and saw Luna Ainsworth sitting there, smoking by himself.

”Dad.” Sierra pulled Nora over. ”Let’s use this chance to have a proper talk.”

He stubbed out his cigarette, clasped his hands, and looked at them with immense guilt.

”Sierra, Nora... sometimes I think... I didn’t protect your mother, and I didn’t protect you. What’s the use of all my money? If we find her, and she’s alive, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to her. If she’s gone... I’ll follow her immediately.”

Sierra sighed. ”Even if Mom is gone, I don’t want you to be gone too.”

Nora spoke up. ”The most important thing right now is finding Mom. We have to find her.”

Luna Ainsworth sighed. ”Nora, we haven’t seen each other since you were taken. You don’t feel any father-daughter bond with me. And I... I’ve done a lot of things wrong. But my wish is the same as yours and Sierra’s—I want to do everything I can to find your mom. And... I hope that I can hear you call me ’Dad’ just once in my lifetime. Even though... I don’t deserve it.”

Nora clasped her hands, her gaze lowered to the floor.

Luna was silent for a few minutes, then stood up and walked towards the stairwell.

Just as he set foot on the first step, a voice called out from behind him, ”Dad!”

His body stiffened. He slowly turned his head and met the gaze of Nora, who had risen to her feet. His eyes quickly misted over. He nodded. ”Yeah.”

Then he quickly went upstairs.

Pushing open his bedroom door, Luna looked at the wedding photo above his bed, and his eyes welled with tears. In the photo, the woman standing beside him had a radiant smile and a bearing remarkably similar to Nora’s.

That was his wife, Faye Sinclair.

Quentin Grant and Leon Lynch returned, carrying several sets of clothes.

Nora looked them over. The clothes were very stylish. ”Just two sets would have been fine.”

”We should at least let our son choose,” Leon said with a wide smile. ”I was tempted to have the entire children’s store shipped over.”

Quentin thrust the whole pile at Nora. ”Take them all upstairs. Let the two little treasures choose for themselves.”

”Alright.”

Nora took the clothes upstairs.

Opening the bathroom door again, she saw her two children asleep in the bathtub. Nora quietly backed out, then came back in with two towels.

Squatting beside the tub, she called softly, ”Sweethearts, let’s go sleep in the bed.”

Dylan Grant murmured and sat up.

Elmer Grant stood up right after. Nora handed them the towels, then led them out of the bathroom, one in each hand.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, watching her deeply sleeping children, her heart had never felt more at peace.

This was a peace that only her children could bring her.

It was irreplaceable.

During dinner that evening, Luna spoke up. ”Nora, I’ve sent out the announcement.”

”That’s fine. It had to be said sooner or later.”

Seeing she had no objections, Luna said, ”After you go back, you must be on high alert. We absolutely cannot let something so dangerous happen again. Don’t give anyone the slightest opening.”

”I’ll start making arrangements to prevent any similar incidents,” Quentin quickly affirmed.

”Quentin, my boy... Nora’s already calling me Dad. When am I going to hear it from you?” he asked, a meaningful look in his eyes.

Quentin was in high spirits. ”Is that all? I can do it right now. Father-in-law, Grandpa, Dad—I’ll call you everything at once.”

He then raised his wine glass. ”A toast to you.”

Luna raised his glass, and as they were about to clink them, Leon hurriedly raised his own. ”Dad, don’t forget me.”

”Haha! Come on, all together.” The three men clinked their glasses and drained them in one go.

”Daddy, we’re men too. Can we drink alcohol?”

Quentin sized him up. ”You can drink when you’re over eighteen.”

”Why do I have to be over eighteen?”

”Because you’ll be falling in love after you turn eighteen,” Quentin said, using it as an excuse.

”That’s totally unnecessary.” Dylan reached out and grabbed the wine bottle. ”What’s the point of dating? I could get married right now, have a little baby, and boom—a family of three.”

It dawned on Quentin. ”That’s right. You’ve already won over your Auntie’s Dorothy. But, son, Daddy has to remind you, if you say that to your future father-in-law, I guarantee he’ll beat you to death.”

Dylan shot him a glance. ”Daddy, you’ll probably never be able to compare to me. I move with the times; I’m more advanced than you. While you were still drinking milk from a bottle, I already had a little wife. How can you even compare?”

Elmer, ever the troublemaker, piped up, ”Daddy, did you wait until after you were eighteen to drink?”

Quentin coughed dryly twice and denied it. ”No.”

Elmer chuckled. ”Then why are you making us wait? Besides, Daddy, if drinking at eighteen is because of falling in love, does that mean you fell in love before you were eighteen?”

Quentin was completely stumped. He looked at Nora. ”Uh, you know, it was just some high school thing. The most we ever did was hold hands.”

”Don’t you explain to me. An explanation is just a cover-up, and a cover-up is an admission of guilt. Besides, that was ages ago. Even if you did hide something from me, am I supposed to get mad at you over it? It’s not worth it. Competing with your past is something only a foolish woman would do.”

Leon clapped in admiration. ”Well said! Only our Nora has such magnanimity.”

”What ’our’? She’s ’my’ Nora,” Quentin corrected, displeased.

Leon scoffed. ”She’s all yours, the kids are yours... what, you can’t even let me daydream a little?”

”Daydream my ass! Believe it or not, I’ll smash your head in.”

Leon propped his chin on his hand. ”Can’t you be a little more generous?”

”Sorry, but this young master has never been very generous.”

Luna sat to one side, smiling and shaking his head.

RING RING RING... The landline in the living room suddenly started ringing.

Luna reached out and picked up the phone. ”Hello?”

”...”

”Oh, it’s for our Sierra. I’ll put her on.” Luna handed the phone to Sierra. ”It’s for you.”

Sierra stood up, walked over, and put the phone to her ear. ”This is she. Okay.”

Then she hung up.

”What did Aaron want?”

”He said he wants to meet with me in a bit.”

”I’ll have the driver take you.”

Sierra nodded. ”Okay.”