The Night I Left, He Turned Grey

"President Sinclair, my mistress and Miss Leila Jennings have already gone to bed. My mistress is a light sleeper, and if she’s woken up, she has a very hard time falling back asleep. I’m afraid I must ask you to return another day." There was no way a man in his fifties like Butler Duncan would let a young man, not even thirty, see that anything was amiss.

He maintained his smile the entire time.

Sean Sinclair didn’t notice anything was wrong, but he understood the implication—Leila Jennings was sharing a room with her mentor’s wife.

But he still felt a sense of unease.

The "it’s fine" that Leila Jennings had said before leaving with Cherry Cole left him feeling as if a piece of him were missing, filling him with a pervasive sense of discomfort.

"Do you have a guest room?" Sean Sinclair wanted to stay the night so he could see Leila Jennings the moment he woke up.

Butler Duncan smiled and politely refused. "President Sinclair, ever since my master passed away, the Thorne Residence no longer receives guests or outsiders."

Sean Sinclair frowned. "I’m Leila Jennings’s husband." ’How could I be an outsider?’

Butler Duncan said nothing.

His gaze, however, clearly said: You *are* an outsider.

Sean Sinclair knew he wouldn’t be getting into the Thorne Residence tonight, so he gave up. "Please tell Leila Jennings I came looking for her. And also, that it’s time for her to come home."

It was the middle of the night when Sean Sinclair got home. As he was about to change, he opened the closet and saw that Leila Jennings’s clothes were hanging sparsely. At some point, only a few outfits had been left behind.

Leila Jennings had never bought many clothes; whenever she went shopping, it was always for him. As a result, two-thirds of the closet space was his, and only one-third was hers. Her section was already small, and now it was even smaller.

An inexplicable irritation grew in Sean Sinclair’s heart.

In the shower, he discovered that the body wash and shampoo bottles were empty, and no new ones had been opened. As for where the replacements were, he had no idea.

Before he was married, his parents had taken care of the house. When he lived alone, a maid took care of it.

After they married, Leila Jennings managed the household.

Thinking back, Sean Sinclair was startled to realize that Leila Jennings hadn’t been home for four or five days.

After a quick shower, he took out his phone to send another message to Leila Jennings.

[Honey, remember to come home. I’m waiting for you here.]

Leila Jennings groggily opened her eyes. She had intended to reach for her phone to check the time, but the first thing she saw was that message.

She froze for a moment.

She felt a sense of disorientation, as if she had lost all track of time.

It had been a long time since Sean Sinclair had said those words to her.

When they first got married, he would say it from time to time, and each time, her eyes would well up with tears. ’I finally have a home,’ she would think. ’I’m no longer all alone.’

It was precisely because she cherished this hard-won home that she had tirelessly cared for Sean Sinclair’s parents and sister, doing whatever they told her to do.

It was precisely because she cherished this hard-won home that she scrimped and saved to take good care of Sean Sinclair.

But in the end, the Sinclair Family looked down on her, and Sean Sinclair had cheated on her, both emotionally and physically, behind her back.

’Oh, right. It wasn’t cheating.’

Sean Sinclair had never loved her in the first place.

Leila Jennings dismissed the notification. Then she saw a message from Mr. Duncan, reminding her to take care of herself and to send a message back to her mentor’s wife and him. Only at the very end did he mention that Sean Sinclair had come to the Thorne Residence looking for her last night.

This surprised Leila Jennings.

’He took Sarah Lynch to the reception, but then ditched her after it was over to come find me?’

’He’s sick.’

After replying to Mr. Duncan, Leila Jennings looked up at the ceiling, recognizing the place she had slept in before.

Cherry Cole’s apartment next to University A.

’How did I get back here?’

She vaguely remembered Cherry Cole getting wasted, and then she’d called Nathaniel Cole.

’Did Nathaniel Cole come?’

’Probably not.’

She hadn’t seen Nathaniel Cole last night.

She had seen the matron from her orphanage.

But the orphanage was a million miles away from City A; there was no way the matron could have come.

So...

There was an eighty percent chance that last night’s "matron" was actually Nathaniel Cole.

Leila Jennings: "..."

Mortifying.

She rolled over and pressed down on a hand.

"AHHHH!" Cherry Cole, who had been sleeping on the floor, shot her head up. Only then did Leila Jennings realize she wasn’t alone in the room. She looked down.

The two of them stared at each other, dumbfounded.

"Why am I sleeping on the floor?" Cherry Cole’s hair was a mess, and her face was covered in red marks. She pushed herself up.

"I kicked you?" Leila Jennings asked.

She wasn’t sure.

Cherry Cole scratched her hair and was about to climb onto the bed when a knock came at the door.

"Who is it this early in the morning?"

"It’s eleven twenty-three," Nathaniel Cole’s voice came from the doorway, tinged with parental sternness. "Get up and eat."

"Why is my brother here?" Cherry Cole looked completely baffled.

Leila Jennings was now certain that the person who had picked them up from the tavern last night was Nathaniel Cole, and she told Cherry Cole as much.

Cherry Cole suddenly let out a laugh, which then died in her throat.

"I’m so screwed. He found out about my tavern."

Leila Jennings said, "...Actually, your brother has known for a long time."

Cherry Cole wasn’t smiling anymore.

"Forget it. Let’s get up, wash up, and eat." She resignedly climbed to her feet. She’d known from the start that she couldn’t hide it; nothing ever escaped her brother’s sharp eyes.

Leila Jennings threw back the covers and suddenly noticed a bandage stuck to her chest.

Cherry Cole noticed it too. "Did your clothes get injured?"

As soon as she said it, she felt how silly it sounded. You wouldn’t use a bandage to fix torn clothes.

An image from last night flashed through Leila Jennings’s mind: she had pointed to her heart and told the "matron" that the bandage needed to go right there. When she woke up, a bandage was on her chest.

She lifted her gaze to the doorway.

"You’re still in your evening gown. I’ll go find some of my clothes for you to wear." Cherry Cole was also wearing her gown from last night, but hers was more casual and easy to move in.

When she opened the door, a delicious aroma wafted in, and her stomach rumbled twice.

Nathaniel Cole, who was sitting on the sofa reading the news on a tablet, asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Clothes for Leila."

"Here." Nathaniel Cole picked up a large paper bag from beside him and handed it over.

Yawning, Cherry Cole took the bag and started opening it as she walked back to the room.

Inside was a long, white knit dress and an olive green cashmere coat, with the tags still on.

She didn’t need to guess to know that her brother had bought them for Leila.

"Hee hee." Cherry Cole giggled, tearing off the tags and handing the clothes to Leila Jennings.

Leila Jennings didn’t notice her tearing off the tags and assumed they were Cherry Cole’s own clothes. She took them and went into the bathroom to change.

The white knit dress fell perfectly to her ankles, and the shoulder width and sleeve length of the olive green coat were just right.

It was a perfect fit.

But it wasn’t made for Cherry Cole’s height.

Cherry Cole was slightly shorter than her and had a more balanced figure, unlike her own slender frame.

When Leila Jennings walked out, both siblings turned to look at her.

The soft white knit dress and the green coat that brightened her complexion, when layered together, further accentuated her cool and ethereal aura.

Cherry Cole’s eyes lit up. "My brother has amazing taste. He’s got a great eye for both people and clothes."

So the dress and coat really had been bought by Nathaniel Cole. Leila Jennings walked over. "Thank you, President Cole. May I ask how much this outfit costs? I’ll transfer the money to you."

Cherry Cole had a good eye for brands and knew it was probably only twenty or thirty thousand yuan in total. Just as she was about to speak, she heard her brother name an exorbitant price.

"One hundred thousand."

Cherry Cole: "..."

"Can you afford that, Jennings?" Nathaniel Cole leaned back on the sofa, his aura noble and his gaze profound.