Tempted Trapped and Too Late to Run

Chapter 702

Walter didn't want to make a scene, not now. "As long as you know what's really going on, that's good enough."

Dylan didn't respond. The whole group filed back into the old manor's main hall, where the chef had just set out steaming bowls of noodles.

Everyone had to eat longevity noodles, along with seafood soup. It was tradition—no exceptions.

But Dylan was allergic to seafood. He picked at the noodles, ate barely two strands, then slipped away upstairs.

Once the ancestral ceremony wrapped up, all that was left was to wait for the evening banquet.

The manor was decked out-plush red carpet everywhere, every corner meticulously decorated.

Kayla glanced over at Tara, who'd been helping out since dawn, and handed her a bowl of soup. “There's no seafood in this. Can you bring it up to Dylan?"

Tara paused, looking at her with an unreadable expression.

Kayla's heart skipped a beat—maybe Tara had caught on to her plan. She felt her face go a little pale.

But Tara only smiled, warm and sincere. "Sure, I'll take it to him.”

quiet sigh of relief, but there was a flash of coldness in

sure the old man's eightieth birthday

and knocked on

was just another Ferguson family member. He was sitting

didn't look at her, just kept

worried your stomach might act up later, so they asked

Dylan realized it

paused for just a second, but his face stayed blank. "I'm fine.

didn't look offended. She just pushed the bowl a little closer,

grandma treats me like her own granddaughter, and I've just gone along with it. From now on, we're basically family, even f we're not the same generation. Can't we at least be friends? If you'd told me sooner that you never planned to marry me, I wouldn't have bothered learning all the Warren family rules. When your grandma called me back, you didn't say anything. Everyone assumed I came back to get engaged to you. The rest of the Fergusons think so, too. All I'm asking is for a

everyone."

why they'd sent her up with the soup-just to see

exactly what needed to be

Dylan was thinking, he set down his paperwork, picked up

finally relaxed,

it. I just need something to tell

spoon down, she picked up the bowl

walk away, then

expression shifting for