No Strings Attached

Chapter 233

Grumbling under her breath, she stormed toward the diner. Just moments ago, she had been all ice and daggers with him, but the second she turned around, her smile blossomed for Brodie like the first day of spring.

Watching the scene unfold, a surge of jealousy inflamed Ian's insides.

Dawson hurried over, eyeing his boss' thunderous expression, and tried to cool the embers with a word of advice. "Mr. Hayes, maybe you're jumping the gun a bit. Attorney Clara's been warming up to you these past few days. With this outburst, you've set things back to square one."

Ian shot him a withering look. "I can't just stand by and watch her cozy up to some other guy."

Dawson relentlessly twisted the knife deeper. "Mr. Hayes, didn't you treat her the same way once? Since Heidi came back from overseas, you were all about her and neglecting Attorney Clara, right? She must have felt just like you do now. Probably worse, given that she went through a miscarriage and massive bleeding. Oh, that's right, you can't miscarry, so you'll never truly understand her pain."

Those words stabbed Ian right in the heart. Clara had been caring for him these past days, and he'd gotten a bit too cocky.

He thought she was ready to take him back. He thought she had forgotten all that hurt. But wounds that deep couldn't just fade away. He had been too hasty, and now Clara was infuriated.

Cursing himself, Ian turned on his heel and walked away. When he returned to the table, his demeanor had softened considerably. He even went so far as to invite Liana for a visit to his Rose Estate.

After the trio had left, Brodie quietly collected Ian's used cutlery. He hadn't gone far when a call from Chief Fox came in. Making an excuse, he headed straight for the precinct.NôvelD(ram)a.ôrg owns this content.

As soon as he entered, Chief Fox handed him a stack of files. "Here's the arson case from 25 years ago you were talking about. There were three fires that day, one at a warehouse in the suburbs. There was a body inside, rumored to be a servant of the Hayes family."

Brodie immediately opened the dossier, scrutinizing the details. His mother remembered nothing, save for a shattered watch. The watch's hands were frozen at 3 p.m. on July 8th, 28 years ago.

He speculated from his mother's phobia of fire and the recurring nightmare that she must have experienced a fire that caused her amnesia. But he was certain that before she lost her memory, she must have endured a great trauma. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been so shattered to have spent his childhood in a near-mad state.

Brodie pored over the dossier, searching for clues. When he saw the name of a person who died in that fire, his eyes paused.

Robert, the Hayes family's butler.

Mr. Robert was the man his mother called out for in her nightmares. Instinctively, Brodie felt a connection between the two. He tucked the dossier away and pushed his glasses up his nose. "I want to reopen this case."

Chief Fox looked puzzled. "Why, did you find something off?"

"It just feels like the cause of the fire is too far-fetched, almost like it was murder."

"Don't scare me. I handled that case. You're basically saying I messed up."

"It's not about that. I just want to honor the truth and give the victims some closure."

Chief Fox knew better than to cross the ace detective he had so eagerly recruited. He handed over another file. "Someone wants you to look into this case, Paolo's wife's car accident. They basically

want you to help find a child who might have been switched at birth."

Brodie's gaze immediately landed on the image of a birthmark on the child's back – the shape of a petal.