Chapter 952

About ten minutes later, she bolted upright in bed.

Thinking over everything that had happened that night, she realized she had missed a crucial detail.

*Twelve years ago, outside the convenience store by Rivercrest Academy… didn’t you and Noreen publicly date?*

How did Seth know so much about what happened back then?

That question gnawed at her for over an hour. Even when her morning alarm went off, she still couldn’t figure it out.

Giving up, she finally dragged herself out of bed to wash up.

Since she was up earlier than usual, Claire hadn’t prepared breakfast for her yet.

Noreen decided to head downstairs and grab something quick from a nearby cafe for the two of them.

After all, Claire had stayed up pretty late the night before as well.

But the moment she stepped out of her bedroom, a text from Seth popped up. *Are you awake?*

Noreen grabbed her coat and walked toward the front door, texting him back as she slipped on her shoes.

*Yes.*

Seth replied: *Open the door.*

She froze with one shoe on. Forgoing the other, she practically scrambled to open the door.

Seth was standing right outside. She had no idea how long he had been there.

He was holding a takeout bag filled with breakfast.

He spoke softly. “I didn’t have time to cook, so I picked up some dim sum from a restaurant. It’ll have to do for now.”

He was deliberately keeping his voice down, likely afraid of waking Claire.

Actually, he wasn’t afraid of Claire—he just didn’t want to put Noreen in an awkward position.

Noreen took the bags from him. “What about you?”

“I already ate,” he said, a pleased glimmer in his eyes at her concern.

Still, he looked deeply reluctant to leave, knowing he couldn’t stay.

Ultimately, he just reached out and ruffled her hair. “Go back inside. Eat it while it’s hot. It won’t taste good once it’s cold.”

Noreen was about to say something else when the faint sound of a bedroom door opening drifted from inside the apartment.

Not daring to hesitate, she swiftly shut the front door.

Almost the second she closed it, Claire walked out of her bedroom, rubbing her sleepy eyes and yawning. “I’ll go make you some breakfast. Give me five minutes.”

“Don’t bother, we already have food,” Noreen said, carrying the bags over to the dining table.

The bags were incredibly heavy, packed to the brim.

There was easily enough food to feed five people.

Seeing the massive spread, Claire gave her a confused look. “Did you go out and buy all this?”

Noreen averted her gaze. “Yeah. I wanted you to sleep in a little longer.”

“Why did you buy so much?”

“It all looked good, so I got a bit of everything,” she lied smoothly.

Fortunately, Claire was still groggy and completely missed the guilty micro- expressions and evasive stares.

“Let me go wash up first.”

She moved efficiently and hurried back to dive into the food.

Shrimp dumplings, egg tarts, radish cakes, sticky rice in lotus leaves…

Claire loved egg tarts more than anything. Taking bites of the pastries and washing them down with chamomile tea she looked immensely satisfied.

“This place is amazing. Next time I don’t feel like cooking, we should just order from here.”

She checked the name on the packaging and pulled out her phone to look it up.

Her chewing suddenly slowed to a stop. She looked up at Noreen. “What time did you wake up today?”

“Six-thirty. I couldn’t sleep well, so I got up half an hour early.”

At least that part was the absolute truth.

Claire just said “Oh” and didn’t press the issue.

Her eyes dropped back down to the egg tart as she waged a silent internal war.

She had just mapped it. The drive to that specific restaurant was at least an hour round trip.

But it had only been forty minutes since Noreen woke up. There was

Ochance she had gone outelis

bought it herself

Besides, Noreen was never picky about food. Making her drive that far for breakfast was something she would consider a massive waste of time!

So, it was incredibly obvious exactly who had delivered this meal.

In the end, her appetite won out over her suspicions.

Channeling her annoyance into hunger, Claire spitefully ate two more egg tarts.

All the while, she comforted herself mentally.

She needed a full stomach if she was going to have the energy to curse him out later!