Love's Change of Heart

Chapter 86

Naomi took the thermos from her, though nobody knew whether she believed her or not. "Just leave it to me. Go upstairs for a rest."

Leanna hadn't slept well yesterday, so she felt somewhat sleepy at this moment. Consequently, she went upstairs with a yawn and slept until six in the evening.

The last rays of the setting sun filled the sky on the distant horizon. When she came downstairs, she found that Naomi wasn't in her room. She went to the house next door to take a look, only to find that Wendy wasn't there as well. Not only that, but they weren't the only ones missing. It was time to make dinner, but the surrounding houses were very quiet, with no sound coming from them.

As the last glow of sunset faded in the distance, the lights along the street came on one by one, illuminating the ripples on the surface of the river.

It's perhaps difficult to find another serene old street that has existed for as many years as this one, thought Leanna. Just as she was in a sort of trance, Wendy appeared behind her and patted her on the shoulder. "You're up, Leanna?"

Leanna came to her senses. "Hey, Ms. Shaffer."

Wendy said, "Let's go."

Leanna was baffled. "Where are we going?"

"Oh, right, you don't know this yet." Wendy clapped a hand to her forehead. Then, she explained, "Well, now that the project to build the resort hotel has more or less been finalized, everyone's moving away one after another. It's hard to tell when we'll meet again, so we decided to have dinner together again for one last time. I dragged Naomi to help with the preparation this afternoon. Now that everyone's almost here, I came back to call you."

With that, she dragged Leanna to the community hall.

Meant for public use, the community hall was the place for festive gatherings by the surrounding neighbors, but there had never been full attendance at these gatherings due to all kinds of reasons. Perhaps because this would be their last meeting, there was surprisingly full attendance this time.

Underwood Lane's residents were mostly middle-aged men and women like Naomi and Wendy, who had reached a certain age but were unwilling to live with their children. Apart from these people, there were also young tenants like Leanna and Harry. Despite their age gap, they got along very well. It'd be more apt to describe them as a big reconstituted family than as landlords and tenants.

This evening, these middle-aged residents showed off their cooking skills by each making one of their specialties, resulting in a sumptuous feast with dozens of dishes on the round table.

Wendy showed Leanna to her seat. "Come on, Leanna, sit here."

this table were all her familiar neighbors, including Wendy and Naomi. However,

…

for Underwood Lane's acquisition lasted a full afternoon until darkness fell. After everyone else had left, Aidan

came over and asked, "President

and stood up, saying impassively, "Never

at the elevator lobby. One of the superiors said, "It's time for dinner.

I probably have to excuse myself today." He told them briefly

Therefore, upon hearing his words, his superiors immediately replied, "Is that so? Well, in that case, we can't hold

our regards to the neighbors when you

the way, Harry, will Leanna

nodded. "Yes,

the shoulder and said encouragingly, "Well, that's nice. This is a great opportunity.

but he nodded heavily nonetheless. "I'll do

before they realized it, someone had been standing quietly behind them with

to hail a taxi. However, as soon as he put up his hand, a black Maybach slowly pulled up in

rolled down to reveal the man's stony features.

in surprise,

apathetically, "Where are you going, Mr. Mills? Let me give you a

Harry quickly refused, "No, no, no, President Pearson,

"Get in the car."

man again, he opened the car door and

breathless with extreme nervousness. He had met with Aidan very often over the past few days due to work-related reasons. However, his superiors were the ones who talked to the latter most of the time, whereas he

was a huge family business with a solid foundation, but Aidan wasn't a wealthy playboy who only knew to eat, drink, and be merry. Not only had the Pearson Group's share price doubled since he took over the company, but it had swiftly expanded its market abroad, resulting in soaring annual profits. Rumor had it that Aidan was decisive and merciless to the point that even the Pearson Group's chairman feared him, which only proved