"Not feeling well?" Shanley had just returned from a business trip to Australis when he got the call. Hearing the surprising strength in her voice, he arched an eyebrow. "Are you sure it''s you who''s not feeling well?"
"Ah? Well, it could be your grandfather," Hannah retorted, her lie exposed but her tone shamelessly defiant. "It doesn''t matter who''s sick. The point is, you need to be back at the manor by six o''clock today."
"Or else—" Hannah resorted to her usual threat. "You can just stop calling me Grandma."
"Beep, beep, beep..."
,
Before he could ask for more details, Hannah had already hung up.
Shanley pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head in resignation. It seemed Hannah was growing more childish with age.
"Call Dana," Shanley instructed, toying with a mango candy he''d brought back from Australis.
"Yes, sir."
A momentter, Felton had the real story. "Sir, it seems your grandfather''s savior will be visiting at six this evening. Your grandmother would like you to be there to entertain her."
So there it was. Just as he''d suspected. He was twenty-seven, not seventy-two. How little confidence did Hannah have in him that she was this desperate to find him a wife?
"Schedule a meeting with the senior management," Shanley said, slipping the candy into his suit pocket. His sharp features softened into a mask of cool indifference. "Tell my grandmother I''ll be homete."
After a pause, he added, "And prepare a thank-you gift for our guest." He might not be there in person, but proper etiquette still had to be observed.
"Understood," Felton replied, immediately getting to it.
"Sir, this is the file on Ms. Payne," Flint said, retrieving a dossier from his briefcase and handing it over with both hands.
Juniper Payne, eighteen years old. Orphaned at three, adopted by the Sherwin family. At eighteen, she was kicked out for her rebellious behavior, questionable morals, and promiscuous lifestyle. She was currently living with rtives in the Moulnds slums. Her academic record was poor; she''d been expelled during her sophomore year for skipping sses and fighting, and had been out of school for over a year. She had just recently reenrolled at Aurora High School. The file included detailed ounts of her promiscuity, truancy, and fights. Any single one of these details was enough to paint a grim picture.
"Seducing her younger sister''s boyfriend..." Shanley paused his reading, his eyesnding on a photo of said boyfriend.
"Hah." A cold, mockingugh escaped him. His handsome face remained impassive, but his eyes were frosted over.
The girl might be young, but she wasn''t blind.
And the rest of it... An uneducated delinquent who could diagnose a faulty fuel tank at a nce? A slum resident who rode a custom-built electric scooter worth millions?
As for the fighting, from what he''d seen, she had azy, aloof demeanor. She wouldn''t start a fight unless provoked. Brawling and delinquency? He just didn''t buy it.
"Hmph." Bored, Shanley tore the file to shreds and tossed it into the trash can.
"Two days, and this is the garbage you bring me?" he asked, his voiceced with ice.
"Sir, that''s truly all we could find," Flint replied.
It was bizarre. There was so little information on Ms. Payne, and what little existed was entirely negative. The records of her decade-plus at the sanctuary seemed to have been deliberately wiped clean. Every inquiry hit a dead end. He was starting to wonder if she''d even been living on the same.
"Sir, should I get the hacker team from Sigma Network involved?" Flint asked cautiously. The team wasprised of the world''s topputer experts; they could dig up a person''s entire ancestry, let alone the history of an eighteen-year-old girl. "No need." Shanley''s gaze deepened, a flicker of interest in his eyes as a casual smile yed on his lips. Everyone had their secrets, and there was no need to dig to the bottom of things. If the girl didn''t want people to know, she had her reasons. He would respect that.