No Strings Attached

She pulled out her phone from her pocket and sent a message. [Met him, but he's wary of me. Can't get close.]

The man read the message, with a devilish smirk playing on his lips. "If it were that easy to fool him, he wouldn't be lan." The assistant nodded with a smile. "I reckon lan will dig into Zora's background next. He won't trust her that easily."

The man scoffed, "I'll make him believe."

lan stepped out of the café and immediately instructed Dawson, "Look up this girl named Zora."

"Did you notice anything unusual when you met her?" Dawson inquired.

lan's eyes narrowed slightly. "It's precisely because I didn't, which makes it strange. It's like she knew the answers to all the questions beforehand, and she felt unfamiliar, not like No. 11." Dawson started the car, glancing at lan in the rearview mirror. "If she's an impostor, then where is the real No. 11, and how could they know your secrets?"

The thought made lan worry. He hoped No. 11 wouldn't get involved in this.

Clara was awakened by a nightmare in the early morning. She dreamed of her mother lying in a pool of blood, reaching out to her. Tears glistened in her mother's beautiful big eyes.

The image echoed in her mind, accompanied by her mother's pained moans. Clara sat up abruptly in bed, gasping for air, a thin layer of sweat on her forehead.

Just then, Casey came in upon hearing the noise, anxiously asking, "Clara, did you have a nightmare again?"

Clara looked at him with tear-filled eyes. "I dreamed of Mom covered in blood."

Casey held her close, comforting her, "It's over now. Leonora has been sentenced to death. Once the case with Katherine is closed, the sentence will be carried out, and your mom will rest in peace." "Dad." Clara's voice was hoarse. "Would Mom be upset about me marrying lan?"

Casey gently stroked her hair. "How could she? She chose him for you. She'd be overjoyed."

"But she didn't expect Leonora to

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attack her. My brother said Mom was clutching that necklace when she died. I think she must have known Leonora was the culprit Maybe she wanted to call off the engagement."

Hearing this, Casey was at a loss for words. May clutching that necklace at her death was always a mystery. If she had known Leonora intended to harm her, Clara's reasoning made sense.

He patted Clara's back, trying to

soothe her, "Don't overthink it. You have to walk your own path. Even if your mom disagreed with your marriage to lan, you two love each other so much, and you even have a chilel together. Would you really give up on this marriage?"

When she heared this, Clara's eyes suddenly welled up. Her moist big eyes looked up at Casey. "Dad, I can't bear to leave him. He's my entire youth, the man I've loved for seven years. I can't bear to part with

him "After saying this,

Yuried

her face in Casey's chest, sobbing softly.

lan, who had been standing outside the door all this while, felt his eyes burn upon hearing these words. He was about to burst into the room and take Clara in his arms when that sentence echoed in his mind again.

Why did Clara say she had loved him for seven years? Hadn't they met just three years ago? Why did she say he was her entire youth?

Thinking this, lan felt as if an invisible hand was tightly grasping his heart, making it difficult for him to breathe.

When exactly did Clara meet him?