After dinner, Wynette brought Alice and Joanne back to Graceview Estate.
The three of them sat together chatting, and the atmosphere was surprisingly comfortable.
Because of her health issues, Alice headed back to her room to rest once it got late.
Meanwhile, Joanne leaned against Wynette's shoulder, fiddling with her nails while holding Wynette's hand. "I completely forgot to ask these past few days. How's the company doing?"
Whenever Joanne got stressed or upset, she had a terrible habit of picking at her nails.
As her best friend, Wynette was already used to it.
"It's been okay," Wynette replied.
Joanne finally relaxed a little. "Good. I might have to leave for a business trip tomorrow around noon and be gone for a few days. I was worried about you before, but now that Alice is here with you, I feel a lot better. Worst case scenario, I'll make my brother keep an eye on you too."
At this point, Joanne genuinely thought it would be perfect if Wynette became her sister-in-law.
Now that the idea had taken root, Joanne felt like she needed to put it into action.
From now on, she planned to create as many opportunities as possible for her best friend and brother to spend time together.
After all, feelings could grow over time. Who knew? Maybe the more they interacted, the more they'd fall for each other.
Completely unaware of Joanne's thoughts, Wynette instinctively felt guilty after hearing that last sentence.
Adriel's confession surfaced in her mind again, and she suddenly didn't dare meet Joanne's eyes.
After thinking for a moment, Wynette said softly, "When you come back from your business trip, there's something I wanna tell you."
She was considering finally telling Joanne about her marriage registration with Adriel.
Joanne turned to look at her. "You can't tell me now?"
Wynette smiled awkwardly. "I haven't figured out how to say it yet."
That was honestly the truth.
Joanne couldn't help muttering, "Is it really that hard to say? It's not like you're suddenly gonna tell me you became my sister-in-law or something. That's impossible."
Wynette let out an embarrassed laugh.
Except...
That was exactly what she planned to tell her.
Right then, Joanne's phone started ringing.
She glanced at the screen and immediately powered her phone off.
A moment later, Wynette's phone rang too.
"That bastard, Eli. Ignore him." Joanne glanced at Wynette's phone, and her expression instantly darkened.
Without hesitation, Wynette hung up and blocked the number directly.
The happiness Joanne had barely managed to recover instantly sank again.
She looked at Wynette and said, "I'm gonna go review some files for a bit. You should get some rest too."
The irritation in her voice was impossible to miss.
Wynette wanted to ask if she needed company.
But seeing how Joanne clearly wanted to be alone, she hesitated.
After walking a few steps, Joanne suddenly remembered something and turned back toward Wynette. "Oh, right, weren't you looking for Ammius-Crocus recently? That's the name, right?"
"Yeah." Wynette nodded.
Joanne slapped her forehead. "My memory seriously sucks. Our firm handled a plagiarism case involving him before. Someone copied his work and used it commercially on a large scale. My colleague handled the case, but apparently, nobody ever met Ammius-Crocus in person. Everything was managed by his assistant."
Earlier today, she'd been chatting casually with her colleague at the office when Ammius-Crocus came up, and the conversation naturally drifted toward him.
The reason Joanne remembered so clearly was that the man was ridiculously mysterious.
Wynette looked at Joanne expectantly.
Joanne continued, "All I managed to find out is that Ammius-Crocus is male, super withdrawn, and hates interacting with people. Anyway, my colleague worked with his assistant throughout the case.
"He happened to see a post from the assistant today. Apparently, Ammius-Crocus is going to Sacred Light Monastery tomorrow for a day trip."
She had planned to tell Wynette earlier and almost forgot about it.

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