Chapter <b>46 </b>


    Mirabe had barely stepped into the living room when Delh, who was busy organizing boxes, looked up and almost jumped out of her skin. The ledger she was holding ttered onto the floor.


    “Mira… what brings you back so soon? Weren’t you supposed to visit Mrs. Catherine?” Delh asked, her face a picture of surprise. Quickly, she bent down to retrieve the ledger and tossed it back into the box without a second thought.


    Beside her. Shawn, calctor in one hand and spectacles perched on his nose, set down his device. He nced at his wristwatch before asking with mild confusion, “Honey, you haven’t been gone for more than a few hours. Did you forget something<b>?</b>”


    Mirabe cast a nonchnt nce at the box by Delh’s feet and replied casually, “She hadpany, so I came back.”


    “Oh, I see…” Delh said, the matter seemingly settled in her mind.


    After a brief pause, she continued without much thought, “You haven’t eaten yet, have you? Your dad and I thought you wouldn’t be back for lunch, so we haven’t prepared anything. Just give me a moment to put these away, and I’ll start on some food.”


    As she spoke, Delh quickly tossed a few more ledgers onto the coffee table into the box, and Shawn’s calctor followed suit. “Shawn, can you take this stuff back to the room? I’ll get started on lunch,” she instructed.


    “Sure thing.” Shawn replied, sliding off his sses and hoisting the box as he headed upstairs.


    Mirabe’s gaze lingered on his retreating figure, her thoughts a mystery. She followed Delh into the kitchen, lending a hand with the vegetables. She then asked, as if it were an afterthought. “Did we have any visitors today?”


    Delh shook her head. “Nope, why do you ask all of a sudden?” she replied, wondering if Mirabe had sensed something amiss.


    “When I came in, I noticed a couple of extra clean pairs of shoes by the shoe cab,” Mirabe said, her downcast, her voice betraying nothing unusual.


    Delh paused for a moment beforeughing it off, “I was tidying up the shoe cab this morning and got distracted by your dad. Must’ve forgotten to put them <b>away</b><b>.</b>”


    Mirabe simply hummed in acknowledgment, then seemed to remember something else. “Oh, and Mom, I ran into a group of men in ck suits while waiting for the elevator downstairs.”


    Delh paused again, about to respond, when her daughter continued. “They looked quite intimidating. Kind of like those debt collectors you hear about, you know? We don’t have any debts, do we?” Mirabe’s gaze was serious as she looked at Delh.


    Feeling a strange sense of guilt under her daughter’s scrutiny, Delh quickly shook her head. “No, we don’t <b>owe </b>anyone anything!” But after a few seconds, she probed, “Were those men you saw really that–frightening?”


    “Yeah, they didn’t seem like good news<b>,</b>” Mirabe stated inly.


    Upon hearing this, Delh’s throat tightened around the words. ‘They’re just from thepany’s finance department, not debt collectors. She swallowed them back down.


    Shawn was right to worry. Thepany’s staff had a daunting image, and even if she told Mirabe those were just finance guys, it might scare her. Worse, her daughter might start suspecting her parents of being involved in uwful business dealings.


    No, she couldn’t let Mirabe know the truth.


    Regaining herposure, Delh said with a steady voice. “It could be that someone in the building took out a loan with steep interest rates. If you run into these types of people again, make sure to steer clear, alright?”


    Mirabe turned to look at Delh, her gaze intensifying slightly as a faint shadow cast by her long eyshes fell upon her face. She didn’t press further, simply cing thest of the prepped vegetables into the basket.