Laurel gave Ste a meaningful look and nodded.


    "Understood. Go ahead, Ms. Cameron."


    Ste gave her a quick nod and hurried up the stairs.


    But she didn''t head to her bedroom; she went straight back to Joshua''s study.


    If it hadn''t been for Laurel''s hint, she probably would never have searched this room again after her first attempt.


    The study was far too obvious. Any normal person would assume that since she had already snooped here once, he would never leave anything important lying around.


    Ste pulled open the desk drawers. The documents inside were exactly the same as the ones she had seenst time.


    If Joshua was bold enough to let her see these, the things she was actually looking for definitely wouldn''t be here.


    Her gaze shifted to the massive bookshelf behind the desk.


    Could it be on the shelves?


    Ste began searching for a spot that would be easy to reach. As Laurel had pointed out, if Joshua needed to verify his memory daily, he would have to check the log constantly. He wouldn''t stash it somewhere overlyplicated to ess.


    But after scouring the shelves, she still couldn''t find the notebook.


    For a fleeting second, Ste wondered if he had actually destroyed it, just as he imed. Was she just being paranoid?


    Right then, her eyes swept over a prominently disyed disy cab.


    It was the cab where Joshua kept every single birthday gift she had ever given him.


    Ste''s gaze sharpened.


    She gently pulled open the ss door.


    The gifts were arranged in pristine order. Even the original wrapping boxes hadn''t been thrown away; they were neatly stacked in the storage section at the bottom. Everything inside gleamed like new, impably maintained.


    Ste checked each item one by one, finding no hiddenpartments or trick panels.


    Just as she was about to close the door and search elsewhere, her eyes caught the empty gift boxes at the bottom. A thought shed through her mind.


    She crouched down and began opening the empty boxes one by one.


    When she opened the third box, she found a neat stack of files and documents tucked inside.


    And right there, resting among them, was the familiar notebook.


    Her heart pounding, Ste reached in, pulled out the log, and began flipping through the pages.


    Joshua was still keeping records.


    Her hands and feet instantly went icy cold.


    His notes weren''t entirely detailed; there was a lot of shorthand that made sense to him but meant nothing to her. She couldn''t immediately map out his exact movements from the brief entries.


    With time running out, she couldn''t afford to study it closely.


    Instead, Ste picked up the documents stacked beneath the notebook.


    Seeing ayout of the Burton family estate didn''t surprise her.


    But as eyes fell on detailed


    dossiers f


    let


    for Antoney Watson and


    Lauretta Chapman, a faint ripple of


    confusion surfaced in her mind


    Then, she saw the files on Neville Connolly and Marvin Connolly, and her gaze turned sharp.


    When she finally saw Wilbur''s name, everything clicked.


    In a split second, scenes from the past rushed through her mind, piecing themselves together like a shattered jigsaw puzzle finally made whole.


    The color slowly drained from Ste''s face, her blood running cold.


    What happened to Antoney and Lauretta... wasn''t an ident.


    Wilbur''s sudden departure... wasn''t a coincidence.


    Even Mrs. Gardner storming into the Connolly family to demand someone back was


    all Joshua''s orchestration.


    What exactly was Joshua trying to do?


    Why was he constantly targeting the people around her?


    She didn''t know how long she stood there before she finally lifted her head, her movements stiff.


    And right at that moment, she saw a familiar figure standing quietly in the doorway.