Adrian Grant’s gaze slowly slid from her bare shoulders down to the gentle curve of her spine.

He had indeed pushed the door open because he was worried something had happened to her, but now…

“I thought you might have fainted in here,” he said, his voice a few shades deeper than usual.

Caroline Whitman couldn’t believe how shameless Adrian Grant was getting.

Barging in without even knocking.

“I’m fine. Now get out.”

Adrian Grant didn’t move.

He walked in and shut the door behind him.

The water was still RUSHING, steam filling the air.

Before long, other sounds mixed in with the shower’s spray—intermittent and heavily suppressed.

A hand occasionally appeared on the frosted glass, pressed against the wall, its fingertips curling slightly before being covered by another hand from behind, which clasped them back.

Caroline Whitman couldn’t remember how she got out of the bathroom afterward.

She only remembered Adrian Grant wrapping her in a bath towel and carrying her to the bed. The moment her head hit the pillow, her eyes closed. In a daze, she felt him place a light kiss on her forehead.

Seeing her breathing become long and even as she drifted off to sleep, Adrian Grant leaned against the headboard and watched her for a moment. Once he was sure she wouldn’t wake, he quietly got up.

With a towel wrapped around his waist, he went to the walk-in closet to grab a clean set of pajamas.

The moment he opened his suitcase, he paused.

The clothes inside had been moved.

His neatly folded shirts had been put back, but they were folded the wrong way and facing the wrong direction.

He could tell, however, that Caroline Whitman had done her best to return them to their original positions.

Adrian Grant took the clothes out one by one. The velvet box containing the engagement rings was lying obediently inside.

He opened it. The rings were still there.

But he could tell they had been touched.

Adrian Grant crouched before the suitcase, silent for a moment.

‘So that’s why Caroline was in the bathroom for so long,’ he thought. ‘She must have found the rings I hid at the bottom of the suitcase and didn’t know how to face me.’

‘So she found out after all?’

He finally let out a soft, soundless chuckle, feeling a little helpless.

‘I wanted to give her a surprise, but she ended up giving me an “accident” instead.’

She beat him to the punch last time, too.

And this time, she’d discovered his plan ahead of time.

Adrian Grant closed the box, zipped up the suitcase, and grabbed his pajamas. After changing, he walked back to the bed.

He bent down to place a kiss on her forehead, then went around to the other side of the bed, turned off the light, and lay down.

「The next morning, everything was as usual.」

Adrian Grant had made breakfast. Ryan Grant sat at the dining table, dangling his short legs as he ate.

Caroline Whitman stood to the side with a glass of milk. The three of them occupied their own corners, just like any other morning they had spent together.

“Mommy, are you going to work today?” Ryan Grant asked after finishing his breakfast, wiping his little mouth and tilting his head up.

“Yes. I’ll pick you up after work.”

“Oh, what about Daddy?”

Adrian Grant had also finished eating. He set down his utensils. “Me too.”

Ryan Grant blinked, suddenly remembering something. “Oh, right! Great-Grandpa called me this morning and asked me to go play with him at Grandpa’s house. He said he has lots of snacks and a new Lego set for me. Can I go?”

These days, whenever Gavin Grant wanted to see his great-grandson, he couldn’t take the boy to his own estate. He had to go to either Jonathan Grant’s place or Franklin Whitman’s, running back and forth between the two.

Caroline Whitman felt it was quite an ordeal for the old man, so she naturally agreed. “It’s up to you.”

Adrian Grant grunted in agreement. He was more than happy to not have any distractions for the next couple of days for his big plan.

So after breakfast, the two of them dropped Ryan Grant off at the Grant Ancestral Home.

Gavin Grant was waiting at the door to greet them personally. The moment he saw his great-grandson, he was grinning from ear to ear. He gave Adrian Grant and Caroline Whitman a dismissive wave, as if to say, “You can go now, leave the child here.”

Adrian Grant drove to the Whitman Group building and parked in their usual spot. Just as Caroline Whitman was about to unbuckle her seatbelt, he placed a hand over hers, stopping her.

She turned her head to look at him.

Adrian Grant didn’t say a word. He simply tilted his head slightly, presenting his profile to her. The meaning was self-evident.

Caroline Whitman looked at his expectant expression, as if this were the most natural thing in the world, and thought of the ring box she had put back, untouched, the night before.

Even now, she didn’t dare to dwell on whether Adrian Grant had discovered that she had gone through his suitcase.

Maybe he had, maybe he hadn’t.

But now that she knew Adrian Grant might propose to her at any moment, she was a nervous wreck.

This half-spoiled surprise, not knowing when it would actually happen, was making her terribly impatient.

‘Damn it.’

‘Why didn’t he hide it better, letting me find it like that?’

‘And why did my meddling hands have to go and “help” him tidy his clothes?’

After waking up today, Caroline Whitman had put on a full face of makeup and dressed meticulously. She truly had no idea when Adrian Grant might suddenly pull out a ring and say something that would make her blush and her heart race.

She had to be prepared at all times. There could be no repeat of the pajama-clad debacle from her last confession.

Caroline Whitman snapped out of her thoughts and leaned over to give him a quick peck on the corner of his lips.

She paused. ‘A kiss like that probably won’t satisfy him,’ she thought.

So she deepened it slightly, just to prevent him from launching a counterattack later.

Her rare initiative stunned Adrian Grant for a second, but he quickly recovered, raising a hand to cup the back of her head and pressing the kiss even deeper.

It wasn’t until Caroline Whitman gave him a light push that Adrian Grant finally let go.

“I’ll pick you up for lunch.”

Caroline Whitman’s heart skipped a beat.

‘He can’t be planning to propose in the middle of the day, can he?’ she thought.

She bit her lip lightly. “I probably won’t have time for lunch. I have a meeting with a business partner.”

Adrian Grant nodded. “I’ll pick you up after work then.”

Caroline Whitman thought of the plans she had confirmed last Friday and said tentatively, “…I have an engagement tonight, too.”

“…”

Adrian Grant looked at her, silent for a moment.

His gaze made Caroline Whitman feel guilty, but she kept her composure. “I really do have plans. You can look at my schedule if you don’t believe me.”

Adrian Grant showed no intention of looking at her schedule.

He simply raised an eyebrow and said in a placid tone, “President Whitman has a full schedule today.”

“But as it happens, I have nothing on my schedule for the next couple of days, so I’m free after work. Whenever your social engagement ends tonight, I’ll come get you.”

Normally, Caroline Whitman would just think he was being clingy.

But now, his words might carry another meaning.

So she hesitated for a moment before testing the waters again. “Is it an absolute must that you pick me up?”

“An absolute must.”

Caroline Whitman stared at his face for several seconds, trying to find any evidence on his flawless poker face.

There was none.

His expression, tone, and eyes were all exactly the same as every other time he’d said he would pick her up from work. She couldn’t detect anything out of the ordinary.

“…Fine,” she said, pushing the door open and getting out. “I’ll send you my location when I’m done.”

Caroline Whitman went into her office, feeling unusually distracted.

In the morning, she had a meeting, took a business partner out for a round of golf, and then had lunch.

She returned to the company in the afternoon for another meeting.

At seven o’clock, she went to her evening social engagement.

She was out almost the entire day.

For once, quite remarkably, she didn’t run into Adrian Grant by chance, unlike all the other times.

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