She had bought him this gift at the very least.

Brendan wanted to smoke a cigarette to calm the burning sensation in his chest yet he realized that his hand was shaking. He grasped his hand, the one that was holding the cufflinks, with his other hand and got up to leave after a while.

He pulled out his phone to make a call. “Help me look into the Oak restaurant to see if there’s anything fishy about it.”

…

Deirdre had lost track of time by the time she opened her eyes and saw that the other side of the bed was still neat. She removed the blanket and walked out of the room just in time to bump into Maeve.

“You’re awake? What happened? Why are you in such a rush?”

“Nothing happened.” Deirdre calmed down. She had assumed that Brendan would get rid of Ophelia since she had offended him yesterday.

“Why didn’t you sleep in the room yesterday, mother?”

“Ah.” Maeve answered casually, “I felt sick and I was afraid that it might be contagious, so I slept in the other room.”

She chan