A Caged Songbird's Escape: Into the Arms of a Predator novel Chapter 502

She instinctively assumed that Mrs. Garrett was looking for her.

And seeing the door across the hall open, the older woman must have walked into the wrong apartment.

After all, Mrs. Garrett hadn't visited her place many times. Plus, as people got older, their memories weren't what they used to be. It was perfectly normal to get mixed up.

Rowan let out a low chuckle. "Her memory is perfectly fine."

Elissa was stunned.

Rowan and Mrs. Garrett knew each other?

Before she could voice her confusion, Janice laughed. "I didn't get it wrong, not at all! What a coincidence—my grandson actually lives right across from you. You two must have already met..."

As she spoke, Janice's eyes inadvertently swept over their intertwined hands. Her eyes widened, and her voice abruptly cut off. "Y-You two..."

Her face was a picture of shock and delight, making it hard to tell whether she was more surprised or thrilled.

"Haven't you always wanted to introduce me to her?"

Rowan raised an eyebrow slightly. "I took the initiative. I didn't let you down, did I?"

He looked incredibly proud of himself.

Elissa was even more bewildered.

What was going on? How did Rowan know Mrs. Garrett so well?

With Rowan's status, it wasn't exactly easy for an ordinary person to set him up on blind dates.

Elissa couldn't connect the dots, her mind growing more jumbled by the second.

Recovering from her shock, Janice rushed over and slapped Rowan on the shoulder. She glared at him playfully, but the grin on her face was impossibly wide. "You brat! Someone finally wants you and you didn't even tell me? You had me losing sleep over your love life every single day!"

The main reason Janice had worried so much was that she knew exactly how those wealthy families operated.

They were all greedy, treating marriage like a trifling game.

As long as Rowan remained unattached, she couldn't help but fear he'd get tainted by that toxic environment.

Who knew what kind of granddaughter-in-law he would drag home?

But now, everything was perfect!

Not only was he settling down, but he was doing it with the very girl she had picked out for him from the start.

The massive weight that had been hanging over her heart finally dropped.

Janice shot Rowan a reproachful glance before serving Elissa a plate of food. "Don't listen to him keeping you in suspense."

"Do you remember me telling you about my past?"

At Janice's question, Elissa thought back and suddenly realized it. She looked at Rowan in utter shock, then back at Janice.

The son Janice had given birth to, the one who had been taken away and raised by the legitimate wife... must have been Rowan's father.

So that meant...

Janice was Rowan's biological grandmother.

If that was true, everything from the past finally made sense.

Like why Paige treated Rowan and Slate so differently.

No wonder the tension between Paige and Rowan was always so volatile.

Thinking of this, she instinctively squeezed the large hand that had been holding hers all along. She glanced up at the man beside her.

He... must have had a much harder life than she could have ever imagined.

Janice knew she had figured it out. She placed a piece of braised chicken wing on Elissa's plate, asking with a hint of uncertainty, "Our family... I mean, the Murphy family is a bit messy. You... you don't mind, do you?"