The Night I Left, He Turned Grey

Professor Cheney didn’t give Mr. Jacobs an immediate answer. Instead, he waited until much later in the day, right before bed, to agree. This made the arrangement seem highly credible.

Mr. Jacobs put away his phone and asked a maid, "How has Sarah been these past two days?"

"Aside from mealtimes, Ms. Lynch has either been in her room or in the study."

"She hasn’t even been out in the courtyard?" Mr. Jacobs frowned slightly.

The maid shook her head. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Mr. Jacobs looked up toward the study and the upstairs rooms, asking, "Where is she now?"

The maid replied, "Ms. Lynch is in her room."

"Hmph." Mr. Jacobs went to Sarah Lynch’s door himself and raised a hand to knock.

At that moment, Sarah Lynch was on the phone. Hearing the noise, she immediately turned and called out, "Who is it?"

In truth, she had a good idea who it was.

"It’s me," came Mr. Jacobs’s booming voice.

Sarah Lynch didn’t go to the door right away. Instead, she said to Sean Sinclair on the phone, "My grandfather’s here. I’ll call you back later."

"Sean, I love you. Bye-bye."

After hanging up, Sarah Lynch went to open the door, intentionally putting on an unhappy expression.

Mr. Jacobs looked at her. "Still angry?"

"I wouldn’t dare be angry with you, Grandfather." Sarah Lynch’s words held a hint of the entitlement that comes from being doted on. Mr. Jacobs didn’t get angry at her tone; after all, this was the child he had raised himself.

Sarah Lynch stepped aside to let Mr. Jacobs in.

Mr. Jacobs looked at her messy room and chided her out of habit, "Such a messy room for a young woman. You really don’t like to clean up."

Sarah Lynch immediately ran over, grabbed the clothes from a chair, and handed them to a maid.

The maid began to tidy the room.

Mr. Jacobs challenged them, "Why don’t you normally come and tidy Sarah’s room?"

The maid looked troubled.

While Mr. Jacobs’s comment about Ms. Lynch being messy was said without any real blame, his question to the maids about why they didn’t clean her room was entirely accusatory.

Everyone in the Jacobs Family knew that Ms. Lynch was Mr. Jacobs’s favorite. When it came to matters concerning her, they all had to be extra cautious.

It wasn’t that they didn’t come to tidy Ms. Lynch’s room; it was that she wouldn’t open the door. They couldn’t exactly barge in.

"Grandfather, I’m the one who didn’t want to be disturbed." Only after Sarah Lynch said this did Mr. Jacobs stop blaming the maid.

The maids breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness Ms. Lynch wasn’t spoiled and arrogant.

Seeing that her grandfather had something to say to her, Sarah Lynch quickly ushered the maids out and closed the door.

"Grandfather, is there something you needed to see me about so late?"

"I came to talk to you about the bidding conference the day after tomorrow. Professor Cheney has agreed."

"Really? He’s giving the spot to me?" Sarah Lynch knew perfectly well that with a position like Professor Cheney’s, her future would be incredibly bright, especially at her young age.

But her youth was also a potential problem.

"Grandfather, what if people have doubts?" Sarah Lynch was still a little worried. After all, the signing ceremony and the finalization of the partnership would be in the news.

Mr. Jacobs motioned for her not to worry. "Professor Cheney said you’re an outstanding young person. This is an era for the young, so there’s no problem with letting them have more exposure. He’s always seen it as his personal mission to cultivate young talent."

"That’s what Professor Cheney said?"

"Mmm, those were his exact words, so don’t you worry. You have the papers you’ve published over the years, not to mention all the research projects, big and small, that you completed abroad. If anyone raises any questions, just put that information out there. Everything is legitimate. I’m not a god; if you didn’t have some real talent, there’s no way I could get you onto the project team. If there were an investigation, I’d go down with you."

Sarah Lynch smiled. "Thank you, Grandfather. I know everything you do is for my own good."

"And yet you’re still here, being angry with me."

"I’m not angry."

Sarah Lynch hugged Mr. Jacobs’s arm and swayed back and forth, just like when she was a child. It was that simple to make him laugh heartily.

"Were you just on the phone with that young man, Sean Sinclair?"

"Yes." Sarah Lynch nodded. Whenever Sean Sinclair was mentioned, her expression would turn a little shy.

Mr. Jacobs was also very curious about this young man who so captivated his granddaughter’s heart.

"You’re saying that while you were abroad for four years, he’s been waiting for you this whole time?"

"Yes, and he flew over to spend my birthday with me every year. I just didn’t tell you, Grandfather," Sarah Lynch said. "It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you, it’s that I was afraid you’d think I was only focused on my love life and not my research. Sean was also afraid of distracting me, so he was very restrained and didn’t contact me too much. But whenever I needed anything and reached out, he was always there for me."

Mr. Jacobs nodded, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.

"So in these four years, he hasn’t been with any other women back home?"

Sarah Lynch froze.

Then she said at once, "No, of course not. There’s no way Sean would fall for another woman, let alone get involved with one. He said that if he ever has children, he only wants to have them with me."

Mr. Jacobs shot her a glare. "You aren’t even married, haven’t met the parents or gotten engaged or anything. What’s all this talk about having children?"

The older generation is very conservative.

But Sarah Lynch, having lived abroad, was very open-minded and didn’t care about such things. In fact, she was already thinking that having a child would be her ticket to marrying Sean Sinclair.

’Sean Sinclair was a responsible man at his core. That was part of the reason he hadn’t divorced Leila Jennings yet—he felt he had to take some responsibility for her and couldn’t just abandon her outright.

’If she could leverage that, a child would become her most powerful weapon.

’They hadn’t used any protection the last time they were together after drinking.

’It had been almost a month. If her period didn’t come in the next couple of days, she would go to the hospital for a test.’

"Sarah, what are you thinking about?" Mr. Jacobs noticed she had drifted off into thought.

Sarah Lynch snapped back to reality and said directly, "I was thinking about Sean. Grandfather, you promised you would help him. Sean is very ambitious and hardworking. This project is very important to him."

"I know." Mr. Jacobs shot her an annoyed look. "All you do is think about others."

"What do you mean, ’others’? Sean is going to be your grandson-in-law!"

"I say you have no shame, and you just keep proving it." Mr. Jacobs looked at her and added a reminder, "Dress professionally that day. And don’t wear overly expensive clothes or carry a designer bag."

He had warned her repeatedly.

Sarah Lynch also knew she couldn’t be too ostentatious that day. She nodded and said, "I know what’s appropriate, Grandfather."

"Good, as long as you know."

"In that case, Grandfather, can I go out tomorrow? I should at least be able to buy an outfit, right?" Sarah Lynch’s eyes lit up.

Worried she would get into trouble, Mr. Jacobs shook his head and refused. "No. You’ll stay right here at home. You’ll go with me on the day of the event."

Sarah Lynch looked helpless. "But I haven’t seen Sean in so long."

"Sean Sinclair, Sean Sinclair, all you ever think about is Sean Sinclair! With this much free time, you’d be better off reading a couple more research papers." Mr. Jacobs was starting to get angry.

Sarah Lynch didn’t dare bring it up again and quickly shut her mouth.

"Okay, I’ll do whatever you say, Grandfather."

"Listening to me is always the right choice." Mr. Jacobs stood up. After leaving the room, he summoned the butler. "Go run a background check on Sean Sinclair from Stellaxis Technologies. Specifically, find out if he’s been close to any women these past four years."