Love's Change of Heart

the wound. Then, having treated all the wounds on his body, he cleaned up the trash and began

scrutinizing the old house.

Jethro was addicted to gambling and had started borrowing from loan sharks many years ago. Not only

that, but he'd even gone so far as to sell his own daughter. Still, he never mortgaged this old house.

Why is that so? This place can't sell for a lot of money, but it won't be a problem to sell it for a few

hundred thousand. It's already routine for someone like Jethro to gamble away all his property, but it's

never crossed his mind to sell this house. This is strange.

Well, I've got nothing else to do while staying here, anyway, thought Ron. With that, he began to search

every corner of this house thoroughly.

…

On her way back from the old house, Leanna noticed that it was getting late, so she phoned Zoe and

told the latter that she wasn't going back to the studio. The fridge in her apartment was almost empty,

so she felt like doing some grocery shopping.

To her surprise, however, she ran into Celia in the grocery store.

Celia was shopping for fish when Leanna saw her. When she saw the latter, her pupils dilated at once;

it took a long time before she finally made a sound, saying, "M-Miss McKinney…"

Leanna smiled as she greeted her. "Do you live around here?"

The word 'yes' sprang to Celia's lips, but she bit her tongue and choked it back. Instead, she made an

excuse, saying, "No, I don't. I'm just hanging around here with my friends today. I noticed that the fish

here are quite fresh, so I thought it'd be nice to buy a couple of fish and make some fish stew at home."

Leanna darted her eyes toward the fish counter. "They're fresh, indeed."

At this moment, Celia promptly said, "I've got something else to do, so I gotta go. See you next time,

Miss McKinney."

"Hold on a minute."

Celia felt her blood freeze the very instant Leanna stopped her. Her neck stiffened, and she turned

around, asking, "I-Is there anything else?"

Leanna handed the shopping bag nearby to her. "You forgot to take your fish."

Celia quickly took the shopping bag from her while forcing a weak smile. "Thank you, Miss McKinney.

Well, then, I gotta go."

"See you around."

Carrying the shopping bag in her hand, Celia dashed to the payment counter, paid the bill, and left

without buying anything else.

At the sight of this, Keaton, who was following Celia at a short distance, let out a quiet sigh of relief and

left as well. Luckily, President Pearson has instructed before that Madam Fletcher and Celia are not to

go out at the same time during this period. To think they ran into each other here today! He seems to

have some foresight indeed.

Leanna also bought two fish. Just when she was about to leave, though, she saw a card left on the

floor; she picked it up and saw that it was an access card to one of the floors of Aidan's apartment

complex. Seems like Celia has dropped this. Putting the card away, she put the two fish in her

shopping cart and continued with her grocery shopping.

As she left the grocery store after buying two large shopping bags full of groceries, she happened to

get a phone call from Aidan. He asked, "You've gone to meet Elijah?"

"Uh-huh," Leanna replied. "I left his office long ago and have just done some grocery shopping. When

are you coming back? There's too much stuff; I can't carry them all by myself."

"Wait for me there. I'll come over in a minute."

"You don't have to. I'm already in the car. It's just that I can't carry them upstairs."

"Well, then, wait for me downstairs in the neighborhood. I'll be there in half an hour."

"Okay."

After ending the phone call, Leanna put her phone away and slowly drove back. The grocery store was

very close to their apartment; it'd only take about ten minutes to cover the distance on foot, while a step

on the gas pedal was all it took if one were to drive. Still, she got stuck in traffic for a few minutes since

it was the evening rush hour.

It'd only been ten minutes since the phone call between her and Aidan just now when she arrived

downstairs. She didn't want to stay in the basement, which was stuffy and poorly ventilated. Leaving

the groceries in the car, she went upstairs to the ground floor and took a stroll in the garden.

Sitting on a bench nearby, she fished the access card out of her purse. However, it had only the

building name and the floor number on it; no unit number was labeled on it.

After sitting there for a while, she got a phone call from Aidan, who had arrived in the basement. "Oh,"

she said, "Give me a minute. I'll be there right away." With that, she put the card back in her purse and

went to the basement.

No sooner had she reached the basement than she saw Aidan. She showed him the way, saying,

"Over there!"

Aidan couldn't help but raise his eyebrows at the sight of the two large bags of groceries when she

opened the car door. "Did you have to buy so many things?"

Leanna replied, "Yeah. I've decided not to move back into the Castor Villa for the time being. Let's put it

off until sometime later. I like this neighborhood, after all."

Aidan was rendered speechless.