He straightened up, looking toward Hogan, his face turning cold. “What happened?”

When he heard the news, he’d been out of town signing a contract. He dropped everything and rushed straight to the hospital.

He hadn’t needed to give Hogan any instructions he knew Hogan would already be investigating, so he simply asked.

Sure enough, Hogan explained, “Celeste wanted to see Amara today, to clear up some things from the past, and she asked me to bring her.”

“So I called Amara. She agreed, and we met at a dessert café.”

“But as we were leaving, Amara suddenly started clutching her abdomen in pain. She looked like she was really hurting. The two of us got scared and brought her straight to the hospital.”

“At the hospital, the doctor said Amara’s pain was caused by some food she ate, which triggered uterine contractions.”

“I suspected that the cake she’d eaten might have been the problem. So I left Celeste here with Amara, and went back to the dessert shop to investigate. As it turns out, there was an issue with the cake.”

As he spoke, he pulled over the shop owner, who was visibly trembling with fear. Hogan continued, “This is the owner of the dessert shop. He claims the cake Amara ate was injected with herbal medicine, and that Celeste instructed him to do it.” “Finnian, he’s slandering me! I never tried to hurt Amara!” Celeste immediately cried. Finnian focused a cold, intimidating stare on her.

He was a man with a commanding presence. Just being silently stared at by him gave people enormous pressure.

Celeste was terrified, but she had to speak up. She blurted out in a shaky voice, “It’s true, I was the one who reached out to Amara today. I just wanted to come clean. The person who tried to set up her and Hogan before-it wasn’t me, it was Liliana! I took the fall for Liliana!”

“And three years ago, when Amara fell into the water at the old house, that wasn’t my doing either. That was Liliana’s fault, not mine.”

“I wanted to meet Amara just to tell her the truth about these two things. I don’t want

to take the blame for Liliana anymore. I don’t have any reason to hurt Amara.”

“And even though I was the one who suggested we meet, Amara picked the place. I’d never even been to that dessert shop before, and I don’t. and

know this owner at all! He’s ly

Ding

about me!”

Celeste was desperate, her voice trembling further.

She knew all too well what Finnian was capable of—and how much he cared about Amara.

If Finnian truly believed she’d tried to hurt Amara, she couldn’t imagine what would happen next.

Amara spoke up, “It’s true, I was the one who picked the meeting spot. Ever since the three of us entered

the cafe the a

we never split up. Celeste never had a chance to talk to the owner. But whether someone else might have done it for her, can’t say.”

Amara wasn’t trying to accuse Celeste, nor was she making excuses for her-she was simply stating what she knew.

Celeste quickly added, “Exactly! All three of us sat together the whole time. I never left, not even for a second. I had no way to speak to the owner.”

“And I came out today with Hogan-no one was following us, I didn’t bring anyone.”

“Besides, I just got back from overseas. I don’t have any connections here. Even if I wanted to find someone to hurt Amara, I wouldn’t even know whom to ask…”

“It really wasn’t me, Finnian, you have to believe me!” Celeste pleaded, her anxiety clear in her voice.