Left for Dead Came Back for Everything novel Chapter 137

Julian pushed up his glasses, his answer coming out effortlessly.

"Hudson mentioned it."

"Gwen told Hudson, and Hudson casually brought it up to me."

Eliza stared at him.

Her intuition screamed that something didn't add up, but Julian's expression was just too calm right now.

"...Oh." Eliza averted her gaze, reaching out to gently touch the bouquet of white daisies.

Tiny droplets of water clung to the petals, as if they had just been carried through the rain.

"Thank you."

Her voice was much softer than before.

Julian's eyes dropped to her slender fingers brushing against the petals.

He felt his heart rate betraying him again and quickly picked up his coffee to take another sip.

The rain outside was beginning to taper off.

...

It was evening by the time she got home.

Eliza arranged the daisies in a glass vase on the windowsill, placed the cake in the fridge, and curled up on the sofa.

She pulled out her phone and opened her chat with Gwen.

After a brief hesitation, she dialed her number.

The phone rang four times before it connected.

Gwen's muffled voice came through the speaker, layered over the sound of splashing water—she sounded like she was taking a bath.

"What is it now, your majesty? I'm in the middle of a spa session here—"

"Gwen, let me ask you something."

Gwen must have caught the shift in her tone, because she turned the water off.

"Hmm? Shoot."

"When you asked your brother's lawyer to review the contract for me—" Eliza chose her words carefully, "did you tell your brother what project it was?"

"Huh?"

Gwen sounded entirely clueless.

"No, I didn't say a word to him. I just had the lawyer check the clauses for any red flags. I didn't even mention the project's name. Why do you ask?"

Eliza didn't answer.

The line went dead silent for about two seconds.

And then—

"Oh my god!!!"

The sound of Gwen scrambling out of the bathtub came through crystal clear. A cascade of water splashed onto the floor, followed by the slap of wet slippers hitting the tiles.

"Eliza Shaw, you listen to me right now!!"

Gwen lowered her voice, but every single word dripped with sheer, unadulterated gossip-fueled thrill.

"I didn't tell my brother. My brother doesn't know. And the lawyer definitely doesn't know—he only saw the terms! I censored the project name and the client info on the first page before I sent it over because you told me to keep it confidential!"

"His information did not come from my brother."

"Then—"

"Then how did he know?" Gwen's voice was practically vibrating with glee.

"Eliza, use that brilliant brain of yours and think about it—who could possibly know what project you signed, and what position you took, on the exact same afternoon you signed it?"

"And he had a cake prepared."

"He—prepared—it—in—advance."

Gwen enunciated each word deliberately.

"Tell me, what kind of information network is that fast? Unless this person—"

She paused for a beat.

Then, in a tone that was so smug it chilled Eliza to the bone, she purred: