When they were leaving, Jason hastily climbed into the passenger seat, so Zayne naturally became their driver. Nevertheless, he was in a very good mood after a satisfying meal, so he paid no mind to such a small inconvenience.
He pulled open the car door and entered the driver’s seat before promptly starting the engine. Meanwhile, back in the villa, Heather had already woken up. She came out of her room and looked around the empty house, noticing that there was not a single person around.
Heather’s mouth twitched at the realization that Zayne had left without a word first thing in the morning. Didn’t he tell her that it was important to stay hidden for the time being? In the end, he was the one who had gone out instead.
Since there was no one at home, Heather decided to head downstairs to the living room; this villa was truly an empty shell to live in. Right now, she was starving, so she went straight to the kitchen. After pulling open the fridge, she found that it was also as empty as a robbed room.
All of a sudden, she felt like she had come to an abandoned city, and she was instantly reminded of her days in the forest. However, she had her phone and a TV in the villa, so it wasn’t as boring as living in the wild.
A wave of hunger hit her just then, and Heather rubbed her stomach helplessly. At the end of the day, this beautiful villa was still incomparable to the cabin in the woods; there were at least instant noodles there, so she didn’t need to starve.
Since she was left with no other choice, Heather unlocked her phone, but she didn’t have any food delivery apps installed on it. She quickly tapped on the app store platform to download one of those. Food delivery was the most practical choice for her right now even though she was in no mood to order takeout.
After spending a long time surviving on instant noodles, Heather wanted to eat something fancy since she was back in Bradfort City. She stared reluctantly at her screen, deliberating if she should install the app or not.
The next minute, a rumbling noise came from outside the villa. Heather looked toward the sound and saw Zayne and Jason coming inside together. She slumped against the sofa weakly, for she was so hungry that she could pass out any time.
Meanwhile, Zayne’s lips curved into a sly smile as he watched Heather’s disheartened state. “Are you awake, Heather?”
The woman’s eyes darted lifelessly toward him. “What nonsense.” Her scornful response was troubling yet amusing to him.
“Are you starving, Heather?” Zayne quickened his steps and went up to her.
Heather shook her head in response; she wasn’t in the mood to chatter and simply turned to look at him glumly. As Zayne stared at the dejected woman, he wondered if he should say something to cheer her up.
Jason walked up to them immediately after noticing what was going on, and he was holding a bag of food in his hand. He placed it onto the table and said to her, “You should eat it while it’s hot.”
Heather glanced at the container of food before eyeing Zayne again. “Did you guys eat out?”
The man smiled and replied, “Yeah, but we didn’t forget to pack you some food.”
Heather wasn’t too happy with his words, though. She simply pursed her lips slightly. “You’re the one who told me not to leave this place. How can you go out to eat instead?” Her tone carried a slight hint of mockery to it.
On the other hand, Zayne returned her eyes with a helpless look on his face. “Heather, how can one possibly live without the pleasures of eating and drinking? This is nothing but human nature.”
Heather rolled her eyes, for he wasn’t even putting any effort to come up with an excuse. However, it wasn’t the time to linger on that—at this point, Heather was more eager to fill her stomach. She proceeded to ignore Zayne and opened the container at the table. The smell of food instantly hit her nose and she couldn’t help but take a few big sniffs.
“It smells pretty good.” Heather smiled. With a container of mouth-watering food in front of her, her mood naturally improved.
Zayne quickly passed her a pair of cutlery and gazed at her affectionately. He really liked the way Heather was right now, for she looked like an innocent little girl with no worries at all.
Heather took the fork and spoon from his hand and started to enjoy her late lunch. Meanwhile, Jason had gone upstairs in a jiffy. Naturally, he understood at once what was going on downstairs. He could tell that Zayne was unimaginably patient toward Heather, and Jason’s face darkened slightly at the observation. He didn’t know if he should pity the man or be happy for him.
Loving someone was a blessing, but it was bound to be painful if the other person didn’t feel the same way. Since Jason had to deal with such a painful experience in the past, he wondered how Zayne was feeling right now. Nevertheless, Jason eventually tossed away the ridiculous thoughts in his mind and decided to take a nap in his room; after all, getting enough sleep was of utmost importance to him.
Recently, he would wake up in the middle of the night every day as he was worried that he would wake up to Zayne being in trouble the next morning. After all, Jason could always tell when danger was approaching, for it was like a bomb inside of him that could go off at any minute.
Despite all of that, Zayne didn’t seem to care about anything at all. Jason watched his radiant smile from afar, and it’d be great if that guy was really as innocent and naive as this. In the end, Jason turned away, not wanting to watch them anymore. He knew that Zayne had his own plans, so he wouldn’t be able to manipulate his judgement.
Meanwhile, Heather was probably famished as she gobbled down all the food in one go. Zayne felt quite accomplished as he watched her by the side. He loved to see her like this, for she was so full of life and vigor.
After a while, Heather couldn’t find a garbage can to throw away the container after she was done eating, and Zayne looked around at the empty house as well. Needless to say, he found it near impossible to live in a place like this.
“Tell me, Zayne—since we’re not allowed to hire door-to-door services or go out, may I know how we’re expected to live under such stringent conditions?” Heather wasn’t worried about the quality of life in this villa. Instead, it was a matter of staying alive.
Zayne rubbed his chin as he replied, “I’ve already thought about this problem. The most practical solution is to get help from a trusted and reliable companion.”
Heather didn’t see the point of him saying that. What did he mean by someone who was reliable and trusted? It was such a complicated way to define a person.
“There aren’t many who can be trusted.” Heather couldn’t think of anyone who fitted that criteria; she even figured that it was much less for Zayne who had just arrived in Bradfort City not too long ago.
“Don’t you worry, for I’ve already found someone for the job,” Zayne said confidently.
In response, Heather asked curiously, “Since when do you have reliable friends in Bradfort?” Heather clearly remembered he didn’t have many friends in the city.
“Judging by the time, he should be on his way now,” Zayne simply said mysteriously. Along with that, the look in his eyes became mischievous as he stared at Heather.
The woman stared back at him warily. It seemed that the situation was complicated, for there was definitely more to it than he let on. Right then, Zayne’s phone started ringing. Both pairs of eyes instantly locked onto the phone, and Zayne picked up the call under Heather’s gaze.
“You’d better come quick. She’s about to get angry.” Zayne immediately cut the line after that, giving Heather no chance to make out the caller by their voice.
Even though Zayne had only said one sentence, Heather could gain some information from that simple exchange—in fact, it seemed to be some valuable information.
“I’m guessing this helper of ours is someone I know.” Heather came to that conclusion using the elimination method. As such, she could vaguely guess who their visitor would be after that.
“I think you already know who it is by now.” Zayne chuckled goofily, for he felt like he had just been caught red-handed.
“Weren’t you supposed to keep this a secret? In the end, you exposed our location on your own.” Heather’s tone was one of accusation, for she thought that Zayne was really too lenient to others.
“We had an equal exchange.” Zayne told her the truth.
Meanwhile, Heather was surprised to hear that. She didn’t think there’d be anything for those two to exchange, and she didn’t know what exactly they’d traded on either.
“Did you guys even think about my feelings when you made the deal?” Heather wasn’t fond of being kept in the dark. Then, she rubbed her temples in defeat since the situation was troubling.
“I’m sorry, but his offer was so attractive that I couldn’t reject it,” Zayne said truthfully. In fact, this exchange was way too unfair for the other side.
“Whatever.” Heather wasn’t too unhappy about it. After all, the other person was indeed someone she trusted fully. Technically speaking, it wasn’t completely a rash decision on Zayne’s end.
In fact, Zayne had already expected Heather to react in such a manner. He could finally relax inside, for he obviously didn’t want to see her lose her temper.
“What are your plans for later, though?” Zayne asked Heather as he tested the waters.
“I’ll wait for him to arrive. We have some things to clear up on anyway.” There were certain things that still needed explanation; they’d been put off for too long, and Heather was already feeling impatient. Hence, why not take the chance now to make everything clear?
“In that case, I might have to give you two some private space,” Zayne teased her mockingly.
“Stop being sarcastic. He wouldn’t even be coming if it wasn’t for your betrayal.” At the end of the day, Heather was a little angry. As she thought of the things that Zayne had done, discontent filled her chest.
“This isn’t a betrayal; I’m an ally.” Zayne was smiling, but he didn’t feel too good inside.
“Don’t let me hear any excuses.” His smile instantly froze at the sound of her words.
Zayne knew that she was just casually speaking her mind, so he didn’t take it to heart. The two locked eyes in silence for a moment before he said to her, “I’ll head upstairs first, then. Remember to make him feel at home later.”
Heather snapped at Zayne’s leaving figure, “Hey! Why should I do that?” Heather was a little dissatisfied, for she wasn’t fully prepared to meet that person yet. Why did she have to welcome him as well? Wasn’t Zayne being a little too hard on her?
“I know you can do it.” Zayne turned around to give her a smile and a strange knowing look.
Disregarding his usual gentlemanly qualities, Zayne was awfully cunning whenever he acted like this—it was both upsetting and annoying to watch. Heather narrowed her eyes in response and put on an intimidating face, and Zayne hastily turned back around in the end.
With his back facing Heather, Zayne gave his hand a wave. “I know that he’ll give this villa a new look when he comes, Heather.”
She was even more irritated when she heard that, for she really didn’t want to attend to their guest in the living room.
“I’m going upstairs, so you take care of him on your own. You’re the one who contacted him, after all,” Heather said to Zayne’s back.
“I’m so tired these days… I really don’t have the energy to socialize, so I’ll leave it to you, Heather.” Zayne sounded sincere, but in actual fact, he appeared to be in good spirits. There was no sign of fatigue on his face at all.
It looked like Zayne was fully on their helper’s side this time, and Heather had a feeling that she’d been betrayed as she stared angrily at the man’s figure.
Even though she seemed easy-going to the idea, she wasn’t mentally prepared to meet their visitor. She couldn’t possibly ignore him entirely later, so she’d rather head straight to her bedroom and hide there for the time being. However, running away wasn’t her style after all. Zayne probably knew that, and it was the reason he was forcing her to handle the situation.
As Heather was debating with herself, her feet seemed to be glued to the ground; she couldn’t move them at all. Deep inside, she was more eager to face the situation head-on. Nonetheless, the urge to shy away from reality popped up in her mind from time to time, for this was indeed a difficult decision to make.
