Juno hailed a cab and headed straight for the Jacobs Group building.
Why didn’t she go to the Jacobs Family home?
Because the original novel hadn’t mentioned the address, so Juno didn’t know it.
However, she really didn’t look presentable at the moment.
Her smoky makeup made her look like a panda, and her blood-red lips made her look like she had just feasted on a dead child.
So, before she could even ask which floor Derek Jacobs’s office was on, she was stopped by the receptionist.
“Miss, do you have an appointment?”
“No, but your Chairman Jacobs will be eager to see me.
Tell him it’s Juno Jacobs.
Give him a call and ask.”
Juno didn’t waste her breath.
She turned and sat on a sofa in the lobby, blowing a bubble gum bubble as she waited patiently.
Five minutes later, just as the receptionist hung up the phone and was about to notify Juno, the chairman’s exclusive elevator opened.
A middle-aged man with a slight beer belly trotted out.
“Where is Juno?!”
His expression was frantic and urgent, a look none of The Jacobs Group’s employees had ever seen before.
The receptionist froze, instinctively looking toward the heavily made-up girl.
Derek Jacobs naturally saw her as well.
He stood rooted to the spot, hesitating for a long time, not daring to step forward.
The girl, however, stood up from the sofa and walked over to him in her ill-fitting high heels.
“Are you Derek Jacobs?”
In the original novel, Derek was a handsome middle-aged man whose charm hadn’t faded in the slightest.
How did he end up with a beer belly here?
Seemingly sensing the girl’s slightly disdainful gaze, Derek sucked in a breath, pulling in his large belly.
“I am!”
Noticing his subordinates tiptoeing around and sneaking peeks, he hardened his face to look stern.
“Let’s talk in my office.”
The private elevator was sensor-operated; there was no need to even press a button.
Juno stood behind Derek, curiously observing the original owner’s biological father.
Because her gaze was so blatant, Derek uncomfortably rolled his shoulders.
The moment the elevator reached the nineteenth floor, he hastily stepped out first.
Once in the office, with just the two of them staring at each other, the atmosphere grew even more awkward.
“You…”
“Back then…”
They both spoke at the same time.
Derek gave a light cough.
“You go first.”
“Okay,” Juno said without holding back.
“Were you the one who lost me back then?”
At the mention of the incident that had filled him with a lifetime of guilt, the awkwardness on Derek’s face vanished.
Staring intently at the girl’s heavily powdered little face, his voice trembled.
“Are you really…
Juno?”
Juno nodded.
She swept up her long hair to show Derek the birthmark on the back of her neck.
Derek remembered every curve and edge of that red, butterfly-shaped birthmark with absolute clarity.
In an instant, his eyes grew red.
“I—I’ll call your mother!
She’s been crying and making a fuss for the past two days, demanding I give her back her daughter!
She said you wouldn’t acknowledge her!
She’s been crying about it for so long…”
His trembling fingertips had barely dialed a few numbers when he shut his phone off again.
“Let’s go home…
Juno, come home with Dad, okay?
her health isn’t good.
She might not be able to come…”
The man’s voice was cautious, his red eyes brimming with tears.
Juno, who had originally just wanted to complete her mission, somehow felt a sudden, sharp ache in her chest.
“Is that you?” she wondered.
Juno gently pressed a hand over her left breast.
She could feel an agonizing pain there, so heavy she could hardly breathe.
Mr.
and Mrs.
Jacobs were the original owner’s lifelong pain and regret…
Because of their lost daughter, Mr.
and Mrs.
Jacobs never had another child.
They were afraid that if they found a new source of solace, they would forget to look for their missing daughter.
But The Jacobs Group couldn’t be left without an heir, so the couple adopted a pitiful child from an orphanage.
And it was this child that Stephen Grant used to stir up trouble, spouting nonsense about a deceptive scheme to swap out the Crown Prince…
For over a decade, the couple had performed good deeds and accumulated karma, all in the hopes of finding their daughter sooner.
Who could have known that finding her would turn out to be a nightmare…
This aging father, just to ensure his daughter remained safe and sound in Stephen Grant’s hands, had given up opportunity after opportunity that could have brought The Jacobs Group to even greater heights.
In the end, he had turned himself into a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, delivering himself straight into the jaws of that ravenous wolf, Stephen…
Thinking of Mr.
and Mrs.
Jacobs’s tragic end, Juno regretted not stabbing Stephen Grant a few more times!