“Okay,” Joseph answered softly and looked outside the window. A look of success flashed across his
eyes. He thought through it for the entire night and felt that he had figured it out. He just needed some
time to confirm it. Initially, he thought that it would be rather smooth but after Hayden obviously avoided
him yesterday, he felt that he needed to look for a good excuse and Noah was that excuse.
From that day onwards, Joseph would bring his son regularly to Hayden’s place. Even on the
weekends Hayden and Stella would go to their villa. At times they would go for picnics in the garden or
play at amusement parks. As time went by, they became very comfortable with each other.
Hayden felt that it was her culinary skills that attracted the father and son. During their time together,
Joseph would seek her opinion on his plans for the centennial celebrations so that he would not be
embarrassed during meetings.
…
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Ms. Kidman.” Inside the private room at the Green Bay café, a young man
placed down his briefcase and sat opposite Viola.
Viola waited impatiently and showed her displeasure when the man came.
“You’re the private investigator recommended by Jason, Lachlan Kelly?”
The man nodded and was calm when he saw the doubt in Viola’s eyes, “I am.”
Viola was frustrated and took her handbag and was about to leave and scoffed, “Jason must be mad.
Where did he find you? Are you even an adult? Someone may mistake you for a high school student!
My matters cannot be handled by a kid!”
The man looked barely twenty and had a baby face. Although he couldn’t be a minor, he was definitely
not more than twenty five years old. No one would believe that he was the most famous private
investigator in the entire Nanking.
Lachlan sat and calmly said, “Once Ms. Kidman leaves, I will erase whatever I’ve investigated. So you
don’t have to worry about me leaking anything. This is my professional ethics.”
When Viola heard this, she stopped, frowned, and asked, “What have you found out?”
“Weren’t you disinterested?”
Viola hesitated before returning to her seat and said, “Go ahead. What have you found out? If you
really found out something useful, then I’ll believe that you can work for me.”
Lachlan took out a document nonchalantly, placed his fingertips on the document, and slid it slowly
towards her.
“Regarding what Ms. Kidman wanted to check on this lady called Hayden and her child. I’ve found out
that six years ago, Hayden was last seen a night after her eighteenth birthday. That was the last time
she was seen by her friends before she left the country.
“Six years ago…” Viola looked at the date on the datasheet. Her frown became tighter, “Why was it that
night?”
“Although Ms. Kidman didn’t say what you wanted me to investigate, I felt that you must be very
curious about why Hayden didn’t go to the room arranged by her sister Chelsea after she was drugged.
Instead, she was taken away and during the same day, Joseph Beckham was also in the same hotel.”
“What do you mean?”
“I felt that there are sufficient reasons to suspect that the surrogate mother that Joseph looked for was
Hayden.”
Viola’s face turned pale as her hands trembled holding onto the datasheet. How could it be so
coincidental?
When she was trying to figure out how Noah came about, she spent a lot of effort finding out that he
was born by a surrogate. So if it was a surrogate, Joseph must not continue to be in contact with that
woman. That was why she was relieved over these years but now unexpectedly this surrogate could be
Hayden.
How could the second daughter of the Downey family become a surrogate?
“Impossible.” Viola immediately refuted this possibility, “She was the second daughter of the Downey
family and didn’t lack anything. How could she do such a thing?”
“Ms. Kidman, you were the one who said that Hayden was drugged by her elder sister. Anything is
possible. I’m just telling you my train of thought. If you don’t agree with this, I can stop right here and
not pursue this any further.”
Lachlan looked towards Viola with disdain.
Viola’s expression darkened, clenched her fists, and demanded, “Investigate! Who said not to? I need
to get to the bottom of this.”
“Okay, then the next thing I’ll do is to look for the ex-steward of the Beckman family and inquire about
the issue concerning the surrogate. He should be the one who was responsible for arranging it. I’ll
contact you when there is anything significant.”
Lachlan looked at the datasheet in Viola’s hands and said, “You can keep this datasheet. Contact me if
you have any questions. Oh, Ms. Kidman, it’s not good to judge a person by his looks. What makes a
good private investigator is his analytical abilities but not his age.”
Lachlan stood up and left after saying. His baby face expressed full of self-confidence and arrogance.
Lachlan had taken up this case because the person of interest was Joseph. Female celebrities were
truly dual-faced. This Viola was truly annoying.
Once out of the café, Lachlan raised his open hand over his eyes and looked at the clear sky. The
weather was great and suitable for a meet-up.
…
“Shall we buy some groceries and have hotpot tonight?” Hayden asked Joseph after they picked up
their children.
“Sure.”
Hayden nodded and before they reached the traffic junction, she called out to Mark, “Go to that
Carrefour.”
Both of them held on to the kids and browsed the supermarket. Although they were supposed to just
buy some fresh produce, Stella led Noah to look for some snacks.
“Hey, where did they go?”
“I’ll have a look.” Joseph went to look for the kids.
Hayden pushed the cart and picked out the vegetables that they needed.
Joseph pushed a small shopping cart as he followed behind the kids.
Stella picked a box of chocolates and looked at Joseph with those big cute eyes and said, “Normally
mommy won’t let me eat too many chocolates. This is what Noah and I like to eat.”
Joseph took all the flavors from the shelf and said, “Then we’ll buy some.”
This was what wealthy people do! Stella’s eyes sparkled and hopped happily, “Joseph is the best!”
Noah smiled at her and pointed to the snacks ahead.
By the time the kids picked their snacks and met up with Hayden at the cashier, the small cart was
piled high.
Hayden looked with her eyes wide open, “Good lord. What did you guys buy? How long will it take to
finish them? Stella, you…”
“Not me.” Stella waved her hand.
“Who can it be if it’s not you?” Hayden frowned and continued, “Noah’s not like you. He doesn’t
frequently eat snacks.”
She reached to twist Stella’s ears and Stella quickly hugged Joseph’s thighs and hid behind him and
shouted, “Help me, Joseph.”
Joseph protected Stella and said calmly to stop Hayden’s actions, “I wanted to buy them.”
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