Flora stared at him, stunned. "How do you know that?"


    Before Soren could answer, a thought struck her, and her eyes widened in rm. "What is Evangeline doing at the hospital now? She wouldn''t be there for the will, would she?"


    Her voice grew tense. "Brother, call the caregiver at the hospital right now! Don''t let Evangeline in! She''s probably there to get her hands on Grandma''s shares."


    Soren hadn''t told Flora about Evangeline signing away her inheritance rightsst night. Still, her suspicion made him pause. After a moment, he said slowly, "Maybe Evangeline isn''t as bad as you think."


    "Brother, don''t let her fool you! Even if she''s not pure evil, she''s definitely not some saint," Flora retorted. "Have you forgotten? She''spletely obsessed with money now. After divorcing you, she''d probably jump at the chance to hurt the Fawkes family."


    Flora had another suspicion she didn''t voice: that Evangeline might have been the one who convinced their grandmother to give her the shares in the first ce. She had seen Evangelineing out of their grandmother''s room alone just before the birthday banquet. At the time, her mind had been on Glenn, so she hadn''t thought much of it. But now, it seemed entirely possible that Evangeline had manipted her.


    Growing more anxious, Flora urged him, "Brother, what are you waiting for? Go on, do something!"


    Soren looked at his sister''s worried face. After a few seconds of hesitation, he picked up the agreement Evangeline had signed from the desk behind him. "Evangeline has already given up the inheritance," he said, his voice cool.


    Flora stared at the document, taken aback. She snatched it and flipped through the pages. When she saw the use stating "voluntarily waives all ims," she asked skeptically, "Could this be a fake?"


    Soren shook his head. "This agreement is legally binding. Evangeline has voluntarily relinquished her inheritance. She won''t be getting any shares in Fawkes Enterprises. Even if Grandma insists, she can''t take them."


    "Then what is she doing there? Does she have some other scheme?" Flora muttered under her breath.


    Her suspicious tone stirred an odd, ufortable feeling in Soren''s chest. He didn''t understand why.


    "Why can''t you believe that she''s just there to visit Grandma?" Soren asked quietly. "Why do you assume she has an ulterior motive?"


    Flora, missing the strange note in his voice, scoffed. "Her mother schemed and manipted to get her married to you. She''s her mother''s daughter, cut from the same cloth. Hasn''t she spentall these years trying to cling to you? You were so good to her and then she divorced you without a word, announcing it at Grandma''s birthday banquet of all ces, making it look like our family mistreated her. And what about her job? Fawkes Enterprises and UME are directpetitors, but she just waltzed over to UME to openly oppose you."


    Flora had been bottling up her resentment toward Evangeline for a while, and


    Soren''s question opened the floodgates.


    Soren grew more and more silent.


    "Maybe... maybe she truly had no other choice at the time," he said softly after a moment.


    "What?" Flora didn''t quite hear him,


    but she didn''t care. Her phone


    buzzed, and she nced at the screen. "That''s Poppy She


    probably almost at the hospital I''m heading over, brother. You should hurry downstairs."


    With that, Flora disappeared.


    Soren rubbed his temples, a headache blooming. He looked


    down


    his hand,


    at the agreement ?n bi


    the paper that symbolized the final, clean break from Evangeline.


    ***