Obedience No More He's the One I Deserved novel Chapter 388

Chapter 388 A Deal with Hidden Terms

Chapter 388 A Deal with Hidden Terms

+20 Free Coins

“I don’t know what Dawn went through, but the way someone carries themselves never lies.

“Ethan, have you ever thought that Dawn isn’t the same woman she used to be?”

She wasn’t Dawn Porter anymore. She was Dawn West.

Three years

years of silence, then suddenly she came back a completely different person.

Alice had always been known for being bold and worldly, yet even she was shocked watching Dawn that night–especially the part when she flirted with that male model.

She couldn’t tell if this change was good or bad.

Ethan stayed silent. Even through the phone, Alice could feel the weight of his silence pressing between them. She sighed, her voice soft and steady in the quiet car.

“Ethan, she’s doing well now. I just hope you can too.”

She expected him to stay quiet.

But after a pause, his hoarse voice came through. “That’s just how it looks.”

“Alice, there are things you don’t know, so you wouldn’t understand. She’s been through hell.”

Aside from when Dawn’s accident happened three years ago, Alice had never heard Ethan speak with that kind of pain. It made her chest ache.

She frowned, hating the heaviness that crept up inside her. “If I don’t know, then tell me! No wonder she hates you. You really are the worst–can’t even use your mouth when you need to!”

The more she said, the angrier she got. She hung up with a sharp snap.

And she’d been worried for him!

She hated men like this the most–doing the wrong thing and still pretending it was for someone’s good.

“Typical,” she muttered. “Men are all the same. Ethan’s no exception.”

Ethan stared at the disconnected call, his eyes dark as ink.

After a long moment, he turned and set the phone down on his desk.

1/3

11

$49

Chapter 388 A Deal with Hidden Terms

He crouched and opened the bottom drawer, revealing a locked safe.

He entered the code.

Inside was a thick folder.

It contained everything Dawn’s mother had left behind–including a diary.

+20 Free Coins

Whatever the truth was, Dawn had the right to see it. The only question was whether she could bear what was inside.

Ethan frowned, sitting motionless for a long time before finally picking up his phone and sending a single text.

The next morning, Dawn arrived at Jackson Group as promised.

The polite smile on her face looked as stiff as a mask–beautiful, but unreadable.

“Mr. Jackson said there’s something important he needs to tell me. I’m here. Shall we start?”

Ethan handed her a cup of coffee. His voice was low and even. “It’s about what your mother left behind.”

Dawn didn’t look surprised. She held out a hand. “Where is it? Give it to me.”

He studied her quietly for a few seconds before saying, “Alright.”

The edge of the notebook was warped from water, the yellowed pages showing its age.

Dawn held it for a moment, then set it aside and opened the will instead.

The will stated that all of the Shi family’s remaining assets were to go to her. But the Shi family’s estate had burned down over a decade ago. There shouldn’t have been anything left.

“Five hundred million dollars in cash?”

Dawn frowned and gave a small laugh.

“My mother really had a sense of humor. Even when the family was still around, I never saw that kind of money. Where would she have gotten half a billion?”

That was what puzzled Ethan too.

The date on the will wasn’t that old–it almost read like a prophecy.

2/3

17:39 Tue, Dec 23.

Chapter 388 A Deal with Hidden Terms

Â49)

+20 Free Coins

It was as if her mother had known she was going to die and wrote it all down beforehand, making sure everything was clear. But at that time, the Shi family had already been on the edge of bankruptcy. Where would that money have come from?

Dawn didn’t think too much about it. She folded the will and put it

away carelessly.

Her gaze drifted toward the red diary but stopped. She didn’t dare open it.

Something in her gut told her whatever was inside would tear her open in ways she couldn’t control.

Ethan stood by the desk, one hand resting on the edge, his body slightly tilted toward her. His eyes stayed locked on her the whole time.

After a long silence, Dawn finally drew a deep breath and reached for the diary.

The red cover had faded with time.

She opened it to the first page, and her mother’s familiar handwriting appeared.

Dawn had never imagined that one day she’d get to know her mother this way.

Her childhood memories were already faint. All she could still picture was her mother’s bright, fearless face, always smiling.

The first half of the diary was full of ordinary life–entries from her 20s through her 30s.

Bits and pieces. Scattered thoughts.

Girlish dreams mixed with daily frustrations.

That was when Dawn learned something she’d never known before–her father wasn’t the man her mother had loved most.

There had been someone else.

Vincent.

The kind of love tangled with hate that only youth could create.

The details weren’t clear, but Dawn could almost picture it–a stormy, complicated romance that had changed everything.