“Don’t overthink it. If anything happens, I’ll tell you right away.”

“Alright, Mom, I’ll be waiting for your good news. I’m really worried about Aurora.”

Tessa’s voice choked as she spoke.

Hearing Tessa’s voice, Grace didn’t know how to respond. Her feelings were complicated. In the end, she just offered a casual word of comfort and hung up the phone.

Tessa looked at the disconnected call, then scoffed with disdain. Julian quickly stepped forward to ask, “How did it go? Did Madam Grace believe what you said?”

Since he had been standing at a distance, he could only occasionally hear Tessa speaking. But the rest, especially Grace’s response, he hadn’t heard a thing. So, even now, Julian was still curious. He wanted to know what Grace had actually said. And given Tessa’s masterful performance, it should have worked.

Tessa snorted. “Of course it worked. As much as she pretends not to care about Aurora, she actually does. After all these years, Aurora still doesn’t see through it. She’s always at odds with Mom, what a fool.”

“You’re really something,” Julian said sincerely.

Tessa raised an eyebrow. “So, as long as I make things sound serious enough, there’s no real issue. The rest? That’s for Mom to handle. We don’t need to worry about anything.”

Julian nodded and pulled Tessa closer, their bodies pressing together instantly.

Tessa smiled and pushed him lightly. “What are you doing? We’re still at the hospital entrance.”

Julian, undeterred, shrugged. “So what? This hospital is mostly funded by my family. What’s there to be afraid of? Besides, you’re my girlfriend. We’re practically getting married. What’s there to worry about? Should I be avoiding something?”

Tessa’s gaze flickered for a moment. Hearing the word “married” still made her feel uneasy. But seeing Julian so excited, she ultimately didn’t want to spoil the mood. After all, her dissatisfaction with him was something she kept to herself and didn’t voice directly. She was smart enough to know that. And right now, Julian still had some use to her, so she couldn’t just discard him. That wouldn’t be very reasonable. Besides, at this point, this man wasn’t all that bad.

Still, Tessa couldn’t help but feel something strange about him. It was like there was something she just couldn’t get over in her mind. It felt off, like there was something wrong, especially lately, Tessa had been feeling like Julian was avoiding her. Whenever she asked, he was always busy. And sometimes, when she called him, he was always evasive. Thinking back to the last time she called, she remembered hearing a strange sound. Something didn’t feel right.

“Julian, I want to ask you something.”

In a good mood, Julian didn’t notice anything odd in her tone. “Go ahead, ask me anything.”

Tessa nodded. “Last time I called, I heard a strange sound on your end. What was that?”