Mark Anderson had already expected Evelyn Parker’s answer, but he still couldn’t completely hide his disappointment.
“So I’m staying here alone?” Evelyn gave him a sharp look and replied, “Obviously. Who exactly were you hoping would stay with you?”
“No one.” Mark smiled innocently and crossed his arms.
“I just figured there might be a cat or something around here.” Evelyn’s eyes immediately narrowed.
“How did you know about Marshmallow?”
Mark paused for half a second before shrugging.
“Lucky guess.” Evelyn continued watching him suspiciously, then asked, “Are you willing to stay or not? If you don’t want to, I’ll ask someone else.”
“Of course I’m willing.” Mark immediately smiled.
“Who turns down free accommodations in a house like this?” Evelyn nodded with satisfaction, rose from the couch, and motioned for him to follow her.
She led him out of the screening room and back upstairs before opening a guest bedroom on the ground floor.
“You can stay here for the next few days,” she explained, then crossed the hallway and opened another door.
“And this is Marshmallow’s room.”
Mark looked inside and stopped.
A completely black cat was stretched lazily across the top platform of an expensive cat tree.
Its coat was so dark that even under the room lights there wasn’t a single patch of another color visible anywhere on its body.
Evelyn walked over, gently rubbed the cat’s head, and said, “Feed him twice a day, keep his water fresh, and take him outside on his harness sometime after ten at night. Taking care of him is the main reason I asked you to stay here.”
“That’s it?” Mark looked at her in confusion.
“You run an entire company full of employees. Why didn’t you ask one of the women at Silverline to do this?” Evelyn continued petting Marshmallow without looking at him.
“What employees do after work is their private time. I don’t have the right to take that away from them.”
Mark stared at her.
“So apparently my private time doesn’t count?”
“You’re different.”
“How?”
“You owe me twenty-four million dollars.”
Mark instantly fell silent.
After several seconds, he sighed.
“Can we please stop bringing up the twenty-four million?” Evelyn finally glanced toward him.
“Pay it back and I promise I’ll never mention it again.”
Mark immediately looked around the cat room as though he hadn’t heard her.
“You really are rich. Your cat’s room is bigger than the apartment I was renting.” Marshmallow’s tail hung lazily over the edge of the cat tree and moved back and forth while Mark examined him.
Something suddenly occurred to Mark.
“Wait.
Why is a completely black cat named Marshmallow?” Evelyn rubbed behind the cat’s ears and answered with complete seriousness, “Because he’s a burnt marshmallow.”
Mark stared at her.
There really was no arguing with that logic.
“There’s one other thing.” Evelyn suddenly turned toward him, and the softness in her expression disappeared.
“You can use the screening room, gym, kitchen, living room, and anything else on this floor, but you are not allowed upstairs.”
“Why?” Mark asked automatically.
“My bedroom is upstairs.” Evelyn stared directly at him.
“And I don’t allow men inside my bedroom.”
Mark folded his arms and deliberately gave her a teasing smile.
“But you won’t even be here. How would you know whether I went upstairs?”
Evelyn’s expression immediately turned cold.
Before Mark could react, her bare foot suddenly stopped inches from his face.
A faint rush of air brushed across his nose, carrying the clean scent of her shower gel.
Evelyn remained perfectly balanced on one leg, while the other was extended almost straight at head level without the slightest tremble.
“If you enter my bedroom,” she said calmly, “I’ll rearrange your teeth for free.”
Mark instinctively took half a step backward.
Only then did he properly understand what he was looking at.
She was trained.
Mark considered his reactions fairly good, yet he hadn’t even clearly seen the kick until her foot was already in front of his face.
If Evelyn had actually intended to connect, he probably would have been lying on the floor wondering which direction the attack had come from.
That also explained something that had bothered him earlier.
No wonder Evelyn had been comfortable inviting a grown man into her house close to midnight.
If Mark had actually tried anything inappropriate, the person in danger probably wouldn’t have been her.
“All right, all right. Words work too.” Mark raised his hands and adopted an exaggerated boxer’s guard while carefully watching her.
Evelyn lowered her leg and looked at him with mild surprise.
“You know how to fight?”
“A little.” Mark nodded seriously.
“Enough to handle ten guys.”
Evelyn slowly looked him up and down.
Mark dropped his hands.
“You could at least pretend to believe me.”
He followed her into the hallway and asked, “Are you going to sleep now?” Evelyn shook her head.
“I’m leaving.”
She disappeared upstairs and returned several minutes later wearing jeans, a casual jacket, and comfortable shoes while pulling a suitcase behind her.
“There are two cars in the garage. Take whichever one you want to Silverline tomorrow, but don’t damage anything.”
Mark almost reminded her that it was extremely late to be driving somewhere alone.
Then he remembered the kick that had stopped directly in front of his nose and decided that anyone who tried bothering Evelyn tonight was probably the one who needed a warning.
At the front door, Evelyn handed him a ring of keys and carefully explained which one opened each lock.
“And remember what I said. Stay off the second floor.” Mark accepted the keys and nodded.
“I understand. Want me to drive you wherever you’re going?”
“No.”
Evelyn hesitated for a moment before adding in a deliberately casual tone, “One more thing. If anyone comes here looking for me, tell them I moved out.”
Mark’s expression changed slightly.
“Oh. Okay.”
He didn’t immediately question her and instead asked which keys belonged to the garage and side doors.
Evelyn explained them one by one before carrying her suitcase outside, where she loaded it into one of the cars.
Mark followed her to the front entrance.
“When are you coming back?”
“I’ll let you know beforehand.”
“All right. Drive safe.”
Mark raised one hand in farewell.
Evelyn looked at him for several seconds with a strangely complicated expression, as though she wanted to say something else.
In the end she remained silent, started the car, and drove away from the house.
Mark watched until the taillights disappeared.
Then his smile slowly faded.
Evelyn had spent several minutes explaining the cat, the guest room, the cars, and the second floor, but Mark had a feeling that none of those things were the real reason she wanted him here.
The most important sentence had come right before she left.
If anyone comes looking for me, tell them I moved out.
Who was she avoiding?
And who might come to her house looking for her?
Mark initially wondered whether it had something to do with money.
Evelyn had already told him that Silverline’s readily available cash had become tight after financing Derek Collins’s movie and agreeing to put more money behind Jaws.
Considering that Mark himself was responsible for a twenty-four-million-dollar hole in the company’s finances, thinking about it made him feel slightly guilty.
“Being the boss really isn’t easy.”
Mark sighed and went back inside.
Standing alone in the large living room, he suddenly noticed how quiet the entire house felt.
Evelyn lived here by herself, and with this much empty space around her, keeping a pet made considerably more sense.
“Meow.”
The cat-room door had been left slightly open, and Marshmallow wandered into the living room.
The black cat stretched lazily before approaching Mark, circling his legs twice and brushing its tail against him.
“You hungry?”
Marshmallow answered with another meow.
Mark returned to the cat room, filled the food bowl according to Evelyn’s instructions, refreshed the water, and watched Marshmallow immediately begin eating.
“You’re easier to deal with than half the actors I know.”
Afterward, Mark went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.
It contained plenty of bottled drinks, sparkling water, wine, and beer but remarkably little actual food, so he grabbed a beer and returned to the living-room couch.
Closing his eyes, Mark opened the system interface.
He had noticed a small flaw while watching Jaws with Evelyn and wanted to correct it before preparing the final exhibition version.
The changes were minor enough that he could make them directly through the system without altering the film’s pacing.
A few minutes later, something furry landed beside him.
Mark opened one eye and found Marshmallow sitting against his leg, licking his nose before lazily leaning into him.
Mark smiled, closed his eyes again, and continued revising the movie while absently rubbing the cat’s head.
By the time he finished, it was after three in the morning.
Mark found a new toothbrush and other basic toiletries in the guest bathroom, cleaned himself up, and went straight to bed.
He slept without dreaming and remained completely unconscious until something soft repeatedly brushed across his face.
Mark opened his eyes.
Marshmallow’s tail swept across his nose again.
Sunlight was already filling the room.
“What time is it?”
Mark grabbed his phone and discovered that the battery had died sometime during the night.
He immediately climbed out of bed and rushed through a shower.
There was far too much to do today.
Megan needed the completed film materials so she could begin coordinating ratings and distribution paperwork, Mark still had to sign the new marketing agreement with Evelyn, and they needed to finalize the promotional campaign for the Halloween release window.
Sleeping late was the last thing he needed.
Mark quickly fed Marshmallow, refreshed his water, grabbed his bag, and hurried toward the front door.
The doorbell rang before he reached it.
Mark stopped.
Was Evelyn already back?
He opened the door.
The person standing outside was not Evelyn.
The man was several inches shorter than Mark and slightly overweight, probably somewhere in his late twenties or early thirties.
His dyed red hair, small earring, expensive casual clothes, and tired eyes gave him the appearance of someone who spent far too many nights in clubs.
He had been smiling.
The smile disappeared the moment he saw Mark.
The man’s eyes immediately turned cold.
“Who are you?”
Mark nearly answered with the first rude response that came into his head, but stopped himself at the last second.
Instead, he cleared his throat and asked, “Who are you looking for?”
The man glanced past Mark into the house as though trying to find someone.
When he saw nobody behind him, he looked back and asked impatiently, “Where’s Evelyn?”
So he really had come looking for her.
Mark’s eyes narrowed slightly as he examined the stranger more carefully.
Considering Evelyn’s warning last night, this man’s appearance couldn’t be a coincidence.
For a moment, Mark even wondered whether he represented someone Evelyn owed money to, although his appearance seemed far too flashy for any respectable bank or investment firm.
The stranger became irritated when Mark didn’t answer immediately.
“I asked you a question. Are you deaf?”
Mark’s expression instantly cooled.
“What did you say?”
He stepped forward.
Mark was taller and broader than the man, and the sudden movement forced the stranger to instinctively retreat half a step.
Realizing what he had done, the man quickly straightened himself and raised his chin as though trying to recover his dignity.
“I’m here to see Evelyn,” he repeated.
“Who are you?”
Mark stared at him for another second before suddenly acting as if he understood.
“Oh, you mean the woman who used to live here?”
The man blinked.
“She moved out.”
“What?”
His expression changed instantly.
“That’s impossible. When did she move? Why didn’t I know about it?”
“A few days ago.” Mark stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind him.
“I only moved in recently.”
The lie came surprisingly easily.
The stranger followed him toward the garage.
“Do you know where she went?”
“Why would I?”
Mark unlocked one of the cars Evelyn had left behind and climbed inside.
When he drove out, the man was still standing near the house staring after him.
Mark lowered the window.
“If you’re looking for the previous resident, try somewhere else. Don’t hang around outside my place or neighborhood security might start wondering why you’re here.”
Then he drove away.
The stranger watched the car disappear before cursing under his breath and pulling out his phone.
He immediately dialed a number and waited until someone answered.
“Hello? Mrs. Parker? Evelyn isn’t home.”
He paced beside the road, growing increasingly frustrated.
“Some guy answered the door and said she moved out. Do you know where she went?… You don’t know either? You’re her mother.”
The man listened for several seconds before finally sighing.
“Fine. Call me if you hear anything.”
He ended the call and stared coldly at Evelyn’s house.
(End of Chapter 14)