Chapter 1 A Troubling Call From A Stranger
Early in the morning, a ray of sunlight sneaked past the curtains and shone on a woman still fast asleep,
making her seem as gentle as a baby.
The woman had soft skin, cherry-red lips, a tall nose, and eyelashes so long that they could shield her
eyes from the sun. There was a sense of tranquility about her as she slept under the golden sunlight.
Suddenly, the abrupt ringing of a phone interrupted the sweet calmness of the scene and woke the
woman from her dreams.
With her eyebrows furrowed tightly, she rolled over and covered her ears with a pillow, intending to
ignore the phone call.
However, the caller refused to give up. Only after being tortured by the ringing for a while did the woman
finally decide to extend her long fair arm to grab the device on the bedside table.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt“Hello.” The woman’s voice was hoarse as she was only half awake, and there was a hint of irritation in
her tone.
“Your fiancé is all over the news, yet you don’t seem to have lost any sleep over it.” The voice from the
other end of the line was as deep as a cello. It sounded pleasant but foreign to the woman.
Immediately after hearing that, the woman opened her eyes wide to stare at the unfamiliar phone
number on display before exclaiming, “What did you say?”
“This is our first phone call. I’ve prepared something special for you as a wedding gift. I believe the timing
should be just right.”
The woman’s heart began to race after listening to the mysterious voice.
For some reason, she had an ominous feeling about it, but before she could seek out answers, her butler
knocked on her door. “Ms. Michaela, there’s a package for you that requires your signature.”
Immediately, the woman knew it was the gift the stranger had just mentioned. What does this person
want from me?
The woman was knitting her eyebrows in hesitation when she heard another knock on the door before
the butler called out, “Ms. Michaela?”
“All right, I heard you. I’m coming!”
As soon as the woman responded to the butler, the stranger hung up on her. All she could hear was the
beeping of a disconnected phone call. What a weirdo!
Even though the woman shook her head as she thought about how odd the whole thing was, she was
determined to figure out what the stranger was playing at nonetheless.
After changing into a fresh set of clothes in the shortest time possible, the woman hurried downstairs and
saw a somewhat restrained delivery man at the main door. “Sorry for making you wait.”
Then, the woman habitually signed her name, Michaela Lingard, on the delivery man’s document before
taking the parcel off his hands and watching him leave.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmAt that moment, her family had already woken up and was enjoying coffee in the living room.
Another young woman, also casually dressed, immediately jumped to her feet from the couch and
hurried over when she saw Michaela. With a cheeky expression on her face, the woman snatched the
package from Michaela’s hands. “This must be the piece of jewelry the Xanders had custom-made just
for you! Let me see!”
Michaela smiled slightly as she let the woman open the package for her. However, her face immediately
hardened when she saw the colorful magazine inside and the unmissable headline printed on its cover.
What shocked her even more was seeing her fiancé, Zack Xander, behaving intimately with the woman
beside her, Lucille Lingard, on the magazine cover.
“What is this?” questioned a stern voice after a moment of awkward silence.
Seated beside the stern man, a middle-aged beautiful woman narrowed her eyes at the magazine before
she heard the entertainment news host on the television. “Hello, everyone. I’m your host, Amy.”