The Years Between Signing and Seeing novel Chapter 342

Her thoughts were abruptly cut off. She collected herself, starting the engine with a dismissive tone. "I'm not looking for friends, and you hardly seem like a man who lacks them, Mr. Lambert."

Seeing that she was about to pull away, he blurted out his next words. "If you don't have anything going on with Jamie, and if you're single, I want to pursue you. I'm completely serious about this!"

Fearing he hadn't made himself clear, he frantically added a desperate promise. "I swear it has nothing to do with how much you look like Suzanne! You can chalk it up to love at first sight."

Suzie paused, taken aback. It wasn't the sudden confession that shocked her, but the sheer absurdity of the situation. He was Jamie's friend.

Jamie was so incredibly tight-lipped that he still hadn't revealed her true identity to his inner circle.

And then there was Hayden...

Since Jamie had managed to corner her in her own garage, he had probably dug up almost everything about her. Worse yet, he was already investigating Hayden.

Her current car, her house, and even the preschool enrollments for her kids were all registered under Hayden's name. Over the last few years, the support he provided rivaled everything Stella and the others had done for her. They had grown as close as family. If Jamie shifted his crosshairs and focused all his ruthless malice on Hayden, she would be the sole reason for ruining his life.

Then there was Chester right in front of her.

As these thoughts spiraled, she genuinely startled herself with her own dark realization. Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel, her mind caught in a fierce debate.

"Ms. Sterling? Are you listening?" His voice broke through her reverie.

She hesitated for a second before firing a question back at him. "Did Jamie really not tell you about our history together?"

She had zero desire to entertain his delusions, sharply pivoting the conversation. "What did you want to talk about? Get to the point."

The whiplash of her abrupt tone change made him think her temper was incredibly bizarre. But then he looked at her face again and completely forgot his grievance. She was effortlessly stunning, radiating a distant, aloof elegance that he found intoxicatingly attractive.

He shifted in his seat, sitting up straighter as he gave her a serious answer. "The first time I saw you, you were working at Jamie's place, right? Then a few days ago, I bumped into you and drove you to the Cross family residence. I mentioned it to Jamie later, but he didn't seem interested. He hung up on me after two sentences. Honestly, it doesn't feel like a simple employer-employee relationship to me."

She instantly caught the vital piece of information. Jamie must have used Chester's tip to track her down, going straight to the cemetery on the day of Helen's funeral.

"We were just an employer and an employee. Things ended on bad terms, which is why I left the Baylor family."

She offered the light dismissal smoothly, then turned her head to look right at him. "I remember the first time you saw me, you mistook me for a woman named Suzanne?"