Chapter 157 - 155: Crashing the Engagement Party
Mia Grant paid Simon Adler no more mind.
For one, her impression of him was mediocre at best. She would never have contacted him if it weren’t for official business.
And for another... Yates Donovan was calling.
After a moment’s hesitation, she got off the bed and stepped out onto the balcony to answer the call.
"Hello?" Mia Grant’s voice was quiet, as if she were afraid of being overheard.
"Why are you calling me so early?"
Yates Donovan had been very busy the past few days and had never once contacted her during the day.
So she, in turn, had been considerate. She hadn’t reached out to Silas Grant, nor had she initiated contact with him.
"Not busy today?"
"Busy. Swamped, actually." His voice was languid, followed by a contented sigh.
Mia Grant listened closely. "You’re not still in bed, are you?"
The man let out a muffled chuckle, which served as a confirmation.
"Are you done with everything?"
"Nope."
"Then why aren’t you up yet? It’s already noon."
"I couldn’t sleep last night. Can’t a guy sleep in a little?"
"Why? Having trouble adjusting, or are you just particular about your bed?"
"What do you think?"
"..." Mia Grant blinked, her expression completely bewildered.
Her silence was deafening. Lying on his side in bed, Yates Donovan just rested the phone against his ear, not even bothering to hold it.
He waited. When she still didn’t say anything, he gave a laugh of exasperation. He slowly opened his eyes, moved the phone away from his ear, and rolled over to squint at the ceiling.
"Just as I thought. All smiles for the new lover, and not a single tear for the old one."
The same old sarcastic routine.
It dawned on her a moment later. Mia Grant remembered something and let out a soft "ah" of realization.
She finally realized they hadn’t finished their conversation the other day.
Before she could speak, Yates Donovan asked, "The news of your engagement to the eldest son of the Sinclair family is all over Portia. You really don’t give a damn if certain people live or die, do you?"
"What does that have to do with me?" Mia Grant retorted, refusing to take the blame. "That was all the Grant Family’s doing. They did it on purpose as a message for Silas Grant. What was I supposed to do?"
Silas Grant must have really provoked Ms. Hughes last time. She’d been fuming, and she took the first chance she got to launch this pathetic little counterattack.
"Is that so? I get the feeling you had a hand in this somewhere."
Yates Donovan knew her better than that.
’It was a no-brainer that she had something to do with it.’
Mia Grant guiltily rubbed her nose but didn’t hide the truth. "A little," she admitted. "But not much."
"Aren’t you afraid of angering Silas Grant to death?"
"I wasn’t trying to anger him. I was just putting on a show for the Old Master."
’That was it. She’d made a deal with Simon Adler’s contact and pushed this from behind the scenes, all to get the engagement news to the Old Master as quickly as possible.’
’She hoped that the Old Master, for the sake of her marriage alliance with the Sinclair Family, would let her off the hook for the time being.’
’Silas Grant still needed a little more time to make his move.’
’In the meantime, she needed a talisman to save her own skin.’
’Just in case, she had also contacted Simon Adler himself. She’d asked him to casually drop the news to the Old Master if he had the chance to visit him in the coming days.’
’But Simon Adler hadn’t agreed yet.’
After a pause, Mia Grant lowered her gaze and asked softly, "When we were on the phone yesterday... was he really there?"
"Who’s ’he’?"
Yates Donovan asked, feigning ignorance.
"...My brother."
"Does it matter if he was there? At this point, you think he doesn’t know already?"
"So, what was his reaction?"
"His reaction?" Yates Donovan drew out the word, as if trying to recall. "Can’t seem to remember."
Taking a deep breath, Mia Grant said his name in exasperation. "Yates Donovan."
"I really can’t remember."
"My memory’s never been good."
Mia Grant called his bluff. "But you always used to remember that I was your fiancée."
"I did," Yates Donovan said, the smile in his eyes freezing over.
’He was doing it on purpose. So what?’
’For a split second, he was tempted to just throw it all away and ask her: if she remembered, then why did she choose the Sinclair Family?’
’But he couldn’t do that.’
’A proper leading man couldn’t ask such a childish question.’
’He wasn’t a resentful wreck like Kian Keller, or a jealous brute like Silas Grant.’
’Besides, an engagement wasn’t a marriage.’
’Without a marriage license, what did it really mean?’
’It was just a choice.’
’Just one of thousands upon thousands of choices she would make. Insignificant.’
’No need to get hung up on such trivial matters.’
’It was meaningless.’
When he opened his eyes again, a hint of a smile had returned. As if nothing had happened, he asked, in the gossipy tone of an old friend, "I’m curious about something."
"What is it?"
"I thought it would be Kian Keller."
’Yates Donovan didn’t care why she’d suddenly gotten engaged. Judging by her tone, she hadn’t been forced into it.’
’He wasn’t hung up on that. He just didn’t understand how things had ended up this way.’
’The Sinclair Family.’
’His assistant had compiled a file on the Sinclair family’s eldest son for him yesterday.’
’Felix Sinclair.’
’He’d seen the boy once at the hospital.’
’His looks, his life story—everything was practically perfect.’
’Good-looking, a great student, from a good family. On a school campus, he would certainly be the center of attention.’
’It was perfectly reasonable for Mia Grant to like him.’
’After all, who doesn’t like a young soul?’
’You couldn’t expect an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl to be completely devoted to a bunch of old geezers like them.’
’There had to be a balance.’
’The addition of Felix Sinclair would do a nice job of lowering their group’s average age.’
’But...’
’Why choose such a young fiancé?’
’She loved Hayes Hughes, had a thing for Silas Grant, and was partial to Kian Keller.’
’In his opinion, even without him, her ex-fiancé, she still had plenty of other decent "assets" to choose from.’
’No matter who she picked, she wouldn’t have been getting the short end of the stick.’
’After all, those men were all crazy about her.’
’In the end, she chose an option that wasn’t even on the table.’
"That’s what I wanted to talk to you about the other day." Mia Grant didn’t intend to hide it from him. She could trust him completely now, without worrying about him leaking her secrets.
She kept it brief, but in just a few sentences, Yates Donovan understood.
’Simply put, it had nothing to do with love. It was purely transactional.’
’Realizing that... talk about a wake-up call.’
’Wasn’t that more effective than any alarm clock?’
’His drowsiness vanished in an instant.’
"I get the feeling the Keller Family is about to put out a ’wanted’ poster for me. Compared to that, the Sinclair Family is a much safer bet."
"Makes sense." His mood greatly improved, Yates Donovan’s tone became much lighter. He even started helpfully justifying her choice. "I hear generations of the Sinclair family all live together, specifically to prevent discord between the brothers."
"The family atmosphere seems pretty good. None of the headache-inducing backstabbing you get in other big families. It’s definitely safer."
"Remember to send me an invitation. I’ll prepare a gift and be there."
He’d changed his tune so quickly that Mia Grant was momentarily stunned.
"Are you sure you’re not planning to crash the party?"
"Of course not. I’m not brutish like Silas Grant."
"But you really do need to be careful of Silas Grant."
"He wouldn’t," Mia Grant said, her eyes downcast.
"Tch. That was before." Yates Donovan clicked his tongue. He stopped himself from saying more, not wanting to add to her stress.
The thousand things he wanted to say were distilled into a single sentence. "I’ll be back in a couple of days. On the day of your engagement party, I’ll be your security."
’He would be there to protect her.’