Mr. CEO, You Look Strangely Familiar

”Maeve Sutton and Nora used to be good friends, but later they cut ties completely. Look at Nora, and then look at her. That’s the difference. That time at the movie theater, I told you that you and June Walsh are on completely different levels. You’re destined to go much further than her.”

Holly Wood looked at him. ”How can you tell?”

Leon Lynch replied, ”It’s about character, about the way a person handles things. People who are afraid of losing out will always try to take advantage of others.”

She broke into a radiant smile, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed.

”Oh, right. I forgot to tell our parents the wedding date. Could you give them a call and let them know?”

”Okay.”

It was pouring rain outside, and the room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

When Claire Sinclair heard the news that Faye Sinclair had been rescued, she was so furious her chest ached. She couldn’t sleep all night and went straight to Toby Dalton’s office first thing in the morning.

”Are you just going to let this go? Now that Faye has been rescued, Catherine and I are in danger! Luna Ainsworth and Faye Sinclair will never let me and my daughter off the hook!”

Toby Dalton sat in his chair with his back to her, his thoughts unreadable.

”Young Master Dalton, say something.”

He finally swiveled his chair around, his voice faint and distant. ”I’m not panicking, so why are you? Besides, you two are here with me, which is the safest place you could be right now. If you don’t feel safe here, you can leave. Go find somewhere you think is safer.”

”Young Master Dalton, that’s not what I meant...”

The corner of Toby Dalton’s eye twitched upward. ”Then what did you mean...?”

”I mean that as long as you can protect me and Catherine, Young Master Dalton, we’ll do whatever you ask. We’ll stop at nothing.”

”Is that so?” His fingers tapped lightly on the desktop. ”You’re the one who said it.”

”I said it.”

”You may go for now. I’ll give you an assignment when I have one.”

”Very well.” Claire Sinclair left the room.

Toby Dalton sat there alone. His gaze drifted unintentionally to the empty bed, and his eyes grew dull and lifeless.

Just then, a phone began to ring urgently.

He picked it up. ”Hello.”

”Young Master Dalton, news from Harrowin. Mr. Bancroft requires you to draw up a new plan. There can be no mistakes this time. You must take Lillian Bancroft’s life. No matter how long it takes, this is the last chance. Only success is permitted; failure is not an option.”

Toby Dalton tightened his grip on the phone. ”She rarely goes out in private. There’s basically no opportunity to get to her.”

A cold sneer came from the other end of the line. ”The First Lady is due at the end of October. There will be a huge celebration for the baby then. Figure it out.”

Toby Dalton lowered his voice. ”Alright, I understand.”

After hanging up, he clenched his fists tightly. There were just over five months until the end of October. ’Preparing for an assassination of this scale... the difficulty is staggering...’

’How on earth can I eliminate Lillian Bancroft quickly, ruthlessly, and precisely on that day?’

This was by no means a small problem.

As he was deep in thought, the door was suddenly pushed open. He looked up and saw that she had arrived.

”What are you doing here?”

Saphira Sutton closed the door and walked slowly toward him. ”Toby Dalton, how your heart has changed. I’m truly impressed!”

He gave a faint, cold smile. ”Are you so impressed with my heart because I’ve stopped caring so much about you? Saphira, a woman shouldn’t constantly play with a man’s feelings, especially a man who loves her.”

”I’ve always felt I had the capital to play.”

”Your only capital is your face. And haven’t you seen? Any woman can possess your ’sole capital,’ as long as she has money and power.”

”Heh... I don’t care about anything else. I just want to know who the man impersonating you last night was. And that woman was clearly in on it with him. You were sold out and you were still helping them count the money. When did your intelligence drop to this level? If it weren’t for me, you might be dead by now.”

Toby Dalton stood up, sliding one hand into his pants pocket. ”So what if you knew? Besides, someone with the guts to disguise themselves as me... do you think they’re some small fry?”

”I also think it was a disguise. But I’ve never heard of anyone in the world with such superb skill, able to use a skin mask to perfectly replicate someone else’s face. That sort of thing is forbidden worldwide, isn’t it? Besides, whoever can do it is clearly a master of their craft.” Saphira leaned back, her eyes glinting flirtatiously, her tone confident.

Toby Dalton snorted. ”Just because you haven’t heard of it, that means it doesn’t exist? Just because it’s banned internationally, that means no one dares to do it? Even I can’t find out who has this disguise technology. You should stop deluding yourself. Even if you knew, you’d never be able to hire them.”

”You think someone would stop me?”

”Isn’t it obvious?”

”Throw enough money at this person and see if they come running!” Saphira believed that there were very few people in the world who could say no to a huge sum of money.

Toby Dalton stared at her intently. ”You think money can solve everything? Besides, the little money you have is nothing to the truly wealthy.”

Saphira chuckled lightly. ”I don’t have much money, but you do, don’t you? I don’t believe for a second that you don’t want to know where this master is.”

Toby Dalton didn’t deny it. ”I do want to know. But I also know that it’s impossible for me to find out who it is.”

”Why?”

”Because Quentin Grant won’t let me find out.”

Saphira was startled. ”I see.”

”Do you still think your little bit of money is a lot now?”

Saphira was speechless.

Toby Dalton looked at her. ”You finally escaped my control, only to come running back so eagerly. Saphira, knowing you, you definitely wouldn’t have returned just because of some fake Saphira. So tell me, what do you want?”

”This time, you’re actually wrong. I’m not as devious as you think. I just... I don’t understand why you’ve suddenly grown so tired of me. Can you tell me plainly?”

”Because I’m tired of chasing you. And, I don’t want to play your games anymore. So I’m letting you go.” He was telling the truth.

”Then do you still love me?”

Toby knew that loving her was one thing, but whether he wanted to continue this desperate entanglement with her was another thing entirely.

If he didn’t love her, he wouldn’t have been so obsessed with her imposter.

If he didn’t love her, he wouldn’t have hit her last night.

It was she who had blinded him.

”You do still love me, don’t you? I knew it.” Saphira walked over to the bed in the inner room and fell backward onto it. ”I didn’t want anything. After I finally escaped from you and went home, my dad immediately started arranging blind dates for me. I was forced to meet a few men, only to find that none of them were as good as you. So I gathered my family’s people and rushed back, only to find out someone was impersonating me by your side. At that moment, even if I wouldn’t admit it, I realized... you were right. Without me, another woman who looks just like me can be by your side. All this time, I really did overestimate myself.”

Her words struck a chord deep within him. When a man has pursued a woman for so long that he’s grown numb and is ready to give up, her sudden epiphany can make him feel that wooing a woman wasn’t so difficult after all. The hard part was the struggle he had put himself through.

”So now you want to come back to my side, is that it?”

”If you’re willing to love me like you did before...”

Toby Dalton stepped forward and looked down at her. ”I know you’re the real Saphira. But after what happened last time, I still have to wonder if you’re not just another woman who’s had plastic surgery or is wearing a disguise.”

She chuckled lightly, kicked off her shoes, and piece by piece, stripped off all her clothes until she was standing naked before him.

Toby Dalton’s gaze fell to her navel. There, he saw a stud identical to the one in his own ear. It was really her. This was a secret only the two of them knew.

He was also very familiar with her body.

Saphira sat there cross-legged, completely naked, and propped her chin on her hand. ”Believe me now? Actually, I think you’re pretty stupid. No matter how good the plastic surgery or the disguise is, the voice will still be different.”

”Her voice was very hoarse. I couldn’t tell if her throat was damaged for some other reason. The moment a face that wasn’t yours started speaking, I knew someone was impersonating you. And when I heard your voice, I knew you were the real Saphira. But... what can I do? I no longer feel that same ecstasy and excitement I felt when I saw her.” He sat on the edge of the bed, his voice light but laced with a chill that made it impossible to doubt he was telling the truth.

”Who was that woman, exactly?”

”A woman from Quentin Grant’s circle.”

”Nora Ainsworth?”

”Haven’t you seen the news? It’s all over the news.”

Saphira quickly pulled out her phone to check the news. As she read, a storm of emotions crossed her face. ”You not only admitted to the airport incident, but you also confessed to kidnapping Quentin Grant’s mother-in-law? Toby, is that really you?”

”Sometimes, you don’t get a choice in the matter.”

Saphira moved behind him and wrapped her arms around his neck. ”Toby, I’m so not used to you treating me this way.”

”It’s like if a person gives someone an apple every day. After a while, they’ll start to take it for granted. Then one day, when you stop giving it, they feel like you owe them.”

Saphira gradually loosened her grip on him. She then picked up her clothes and slowly began to dress, speaking as she did. ”Since you’ve come to dislike me so much, I might as well go home, find a husband through the blind dates, have a child with him, and live a nice life as a family of three.”

He turned and grabbed her by the arm.

A smile played on Saphira’s lips. ”You still can’t bear to let me go, can you?”

Toby forcefully pulled her in front of him, lowered his head to capture her lips, and they both tumbled down onto the bed.

”Do you truly want to stay by my side?”

Saphira nodded. ”Otherwise, would I have walked right back into the spider’s web?”

”In that case, don’t disappoint me again. Because if you shatter my heart again, I won’t be able to forgive your little games.”

”I won’t. But, can you promise me one thing?”

”What?”

”Kill Quentin Grant, Nora Ainsworth, and their two sons.”

Toby froze. He looked at her. ”Do you think I can actually kill their whole family of four? And why do you want them dead? Do you have a grudge against them?”

”I do.”