I'm Afraid I Won't Be Able to Leave

Mason Grant said the same thing as Mabel Grant. ’It really runs in the family,’ Leah Sinclair thought. She tried to calm him down, but Mason wouldn’t listen. He demanded to know where the reporters were, swearing he would break their legs.

When he learned that most of the reporters were from Kingsford and had already left, Mason was ready to buy a ticket right then and there to fly back and break their legs. The only thing that stopped him was Leah, who warned that she would get genuinely angry if he did.

Mason took her to the hospital, his expression icy the entire time. After her bandages were removed, Leah poked his cheek and teased, "Are you still angry? Your face is so dark, it’s almost the color of a pot bottom."

Mason turned his head away, ignoring her. But when he saw her try to stand up, he rushed to support her. "What are you doing?"

"Going back to the office."

Mason froze, growing even more anxious. "Why are you going to the office in your condition? You know what it’s been like there lately... Sis, can’t you wait? Let me fire those people first, then you can go, okay?"

"Mason, I can’t hide forever. The longer I stay away, the more they’ll believe the disgusting fantasies they’ve cooked up are true. And if you want to start firing people... can you fire everyone in the Grant Group?"

"Grandpa always said the Grant Group’s principle is to win people over with integrity. If you act like this, Grandpa will have you disciplined according to the family rules."

Leah held onto his hand to steady herself and looked at him seriously. Mason’s lips were pressed into a thin line. He knew that firing people outright was wrong, but he just couldn’t stand hearing them talk about Leah that way.

’As for what happened to Leah during her time at Azure Bay... She never brought it up, and neither he nor Mabel Grant ever asked. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to; they didn’t dare.’

Seeing him stay quiet, Leah’s expression softened. "Don’t worry. Your big sister here has heard every nasty thing in the book. This kind of talk can’t touch me. Will you come with me? Please?"

Mason remained silent, so Leah took his hand and gave it a little shake. "If you don’t come with me, I’ll be a little nervous."

Looking at Leah’s smiling eyes, Mason’s tone finally softened. "Fine. But if things get ugly and I can’t stop myself from getting physical, don’t blame me."

"I won’t. If they say something really awful, I’ll make the first move, and you can help me beat them up!"

Mason snorted softly and helped her walk slowly toward the exit. After they got in the car, he asked, "Sis, did you tell Asher you were going to the office?"

"...Um, no."

Leah felt a pang of guilt. She hadn’t planned on telling Asher Keating, knowing he would probably forbid her from going.

’But she had to go. Some things you can ignore and let blow over, but other things have to be dealt with, once and for all.’

Mason gave her a thumbs-up. "You’ve got guts."

Arriving downstairs at Baystream, Mason had the bodyguards check the area first to make sure no reporters were still lying in wait. Only then did he carefully help her out of the car. The two went straight to the company’s main conference room. Leah knew the project department was holding its quarterly group meeting there today.

When Leah knocked and entered, the conference room fell silent. She smiled and said, "Sorry, I’m late."

Shawn Grant was stunned for a moment, then quickly said, "Not at all, we just started."

But he kept shooting glances at Mason Grant, his eyes asking, ’What’s going on?’

Mason surreptitiously rolled his eyes. ’Like I could have stopped her?’

Mason helped Leah sit down in the area for Department Three. She was the manager, but her seat was currently occupied by Finn Farrell.

Leah didn’t say anything, just smiled at Finn Farrell. Finn actually felt a cold sweat break out on his back under her gaze and quickly scooted over to a different seat.

"Thank you."

Leah thanked him quietly. Once she was settled, Mason walked straight to the front of the room, pulled up a chair next to Shawn Grant, and sat down. His handsome face was cold and he said nothing. Shawn’s assistant quickly handed him a copy of the day’s meeting materials, and he began to flip through them casually.

"Alright, let’s continue. Department One, you’re up first."

With Shawn Grant’s signal, the manager of Department One began their presentation. Leah accepted the meeting packet and began looking it over. She could distinctly feel glances from every corner of the room, all laden with unspoken meaning, but she ignored them and listened quietly to the report.

Finn Farrell, sitting beside her, kept stealing glances at her. ’He had assumed that after a scandal like this, Leah Sinclair would be too ashamed to ever show her face again.’

’After such a huge incident, and her being not only a woman but also a young lady of the Grant Family, she had to care about her reputation, right?’

’As long as Leah stayed away, he was sure he’d be made manager of Project Department Three. But here she was, sitting right beside him, her expression cool and detached.’

’He could feel countless eyes staring at them from behind, yet Leah seemed utterly oblivious.’

Asher Keating received a message from Mason Grant saying Leah was at the company. By the time he arrived, the tedious meeting was already nearing its end.

Leah was presenting the final part of her report. Asher Keating listened to her slightly muffled voice through the frosted glass door, his lips pressed together lightly.

The door to the small meeting room next door opened. Nathan Grant snapped his fingers at him, and he entered the room. Nathan had also received a message from Shawn Grant and had come down, worried, to see for himself.

Only, instead of going into the main conference room, he had someone patch the video feed into the small meeting room next door.

Nathan Grant closed the door and immediately asked Asher Keating, "What’s going on? Didn’t we say she should rest at home until her leg is better? By then, the heat from this whole thing would have died down."

Asher looked at Leah speaking on the screen, his expression complex. "She’s not the type to hide from her problems."

In the conference room next door, after Shawn Grant finished speaking, he scanned the room. His gaze finally landed on Leah, a hint of uncertainty in his eyes. "Well, shall we wrap it up for today?"

Leah said crisply, "Just a moment."

As soon as she spoke, everyone in the room watched as the young Master Grant, who had been sitting silently at the head table with a frosty expression, shot up and moved to Leah’s side with lightning speed to help her to her feet.

Leah was taken aback for a second, then she laughed. "I’m not actually an invalid."

At the front of the room, Shawn Grant groaned internally. ’I knew it! This little hellion didn’t come back today just to get some work done.’

Mason helped Leah into the seat he had just been in, then pulled up another chair to sit beside her.

Leah reached out, pulled the microphone in front of Mason toward her, and looked up at everyone in the conference room. She began to speak calmly, "I know you’ve all heard the recent talk about me. I’m only going to say this once, so I hope you all listen carefully."

With that, Leah recounted everything: how she had signed the initial agreement with Azure Bay, how the first encounter was, as the contract stipulated, a clearly defined transaction, and how her subsequent job was to drink with clients before she left Azure Bay a little more than two weeks later.

The conference room was dead silent, the only sound being Leah’s cool, steady voice. Below, the audience’s faces were a mixture of shock and disbelief, while at the front table, the expressions of Shawn and Mason grew darker and more inscrutable with every word.

Mason, in particular, was clenching his fists so tightly it seemed they might shatter. They had considered looking into the matter before, but her time there had been so brief. Plus, from what they knew, she had been with Asher the entire time, so they hadn’t pressed her for details.