Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Samantha opened her eyes and saw that Timothy had returned. He was standing right beside the sofa, taking his clothes off.

Timothy seemed to have sensed her gaze and turned his face slightly to look at her. When he saw her sleepy eyes and heavy eyelids, he said softly, “Did I wake you up? Go ahead and sleep.”

Samantha’s heart finally calmed down after his return and her sleepiness had also reached its peak. She groaned softly, then closed her eyes again as she drifted back to sleep.

Timothy took off his shirt and pants, tossed them to the sofa armrest, and headed into the bathroom to take a shower.

The alcohol smell lingering on his body had almost disappeared completely when he came out of the shower. After drying his soaking-wet hair, he walked to the bed and got under the blanket to sleep.

He turned to his side, stretched out his long arms, then spooned the soundly sleeping Samantha.

Samantha moved unconsciously, perhaps because she had already become used to his embrace, and shifted her in his arms a couple of times to find the most comfortable position. She hugged him and fell back asleep once more.

Timothy lowered his gaze to look at her quiet, sleeping face. A content expression of happiness appeared in the bottom of his eyes, and he lowered his head to give her a kiss between her eyebrows. He then hugged her tightly, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

…

Early the next morning, Samantha opened her eyes slowly and looked beside instinctively. She was startled to see no one beside her because she clearly remembered Timothy coming back home that night.

She reached out to touch the bed and felt a lingering warmth in the empty space. He seemed to have gotten up already.

Samantha had nothing but admiration for his self-discipline. He could still get up early even if he slept late at night, and that was a factor contributing to his success. On the other hand, she still had nothing to show…

Although her initial thought was to stay in bed for some time, she was hit by a rush of inspiration. She covered herself with the blanket and sat up, then stretched a few times to loosen herself up before lifting the blanket and getting out of bed.

After heading to the bathroom to wash up, she went to the dressing room and changed into some comfortable home clothes. Once she was ready, she did some vocal warm-ups on the balcony and practiced reading some scripts.

She walked over to the sofa because her book was there, but when she saw that the clothes Timothy wore a day ago were still lying on the sofa’s armrest, her lips twitched slightly and she picked the clothes up.

The first thing she did was feel the pockets to make sure that there was nothing in them. She then walked to the dirty clothes basket and put them in.

All of a sudden, she caught a whiff of that familiar scent again.

It was not the cologne that Timothy frequently used, so she subconsciously put the shirt to her nose and sniffed again.

The smell seemed present yet not present, and she did not know whether her nose was just overly sensitive or whether the smell had become faint overnight.

Did Timothy change his cologne? Those fragrance notes did not appear to be the kind that men would like.

In any case, she felt as though she had smelled it somewhere, but she just could not put her finger on where exactly.

Two sudden knocks came from the bedroom door.

Samantha snapped back to her senses and said, “Come in.”

Aunt Julia opened the door and walked in with a smile. “You’re early, Mrs. Barker. I’m here to get the dirty clothes.”

“Ah, here they are.”

Samantha chucked away those thoughts she had and immediately put all the clothes in the basket. She then handed the basket over to Aunt Julia.

After taking the basket, Aunt Julia said, “Breakfast is almost ready. You can come down to eat in a bit.”

“Okay,” Samantha answered. A thought crossed her mind and she asked, “Where’s Timothy? Is he back from his morning exercise?”

“Ah, Mr. Barker?” Aunt Julia thought for a moment before replying, “He received a call early in the morning and left in a hurry. He’s not at home anymore.”

‘He left? Isn’t that too early?’

Did he have to rush to work so early in the morning after he came back so late the night before? What a heavy workload he had.

“I see, okay.”

Aunt Julia turned around and walked out of the room.

Samantha went to the bedside table to grab her phone. She sent Timothy a message that said: [No matter how busy you are, you must remember to eat.]

She then sent a ‘do-your-best’ emoji to him.

After setting down her phone, she picked up the practice book and walked to the balcony outside. Facing the bright rays of morning sunshine, she placed all her focus on practicing.

…

Rochelle knew that there was nothing she could glean from Jonathan, so she no longer bothered to waste her time and energy on him. She got a renowned private investigator to help her investigate and used Jonathan’s card to give the private investigator an advance payment of one million.

Once the money was paid up, it was only natural for the private investigator to be efficient. He needed only one day to gather everything and hand her a paper bag with background information on Harmony.

Rochelle took it, opened the bag, and found an A4-size document inside.

She chuckled, scanned through the information inside, and immediately sneered after she finished reading it.

“I gave you one million and this is all you managed to get?” She slapped the piece of paper right on the table.

There was nothing at all about Harmony’s background.

The only information given was that Harmony grew up with Timothy, Jonathan, and Zachary, but then went abroad to study when she was ten.

She then returned to the country once and stayed for an indeterminate amount of time, after which she went abroad again and nothing else was known of her time there.

Then, she returned to the country again.

She was exactly what Jonathan said she was—a friend.

No other information was available.

The private investigator looked particularly worried because he felt as though it was the first time that he encountered such a tricky assignment in his career. He felt humiliated when that was all the paltry information he could get despite his contacts and network.

Harmony’s information seemed to have been sealed off by someone, and the person protecting her was not someone he should underestimate. For the moment, he could only find so much about her.

The private investigator felt ashamed when he told her, “I’m sorry, Ms. Tyrell. You can choose to give me a little more time, or I will refund the payment back to you. Just please don’t give a bad review!”

Rochelle wanted to tattoo her bad review on his forehead for having the nerve to actually make such a request!

“You don’t need to give me a refund. I’ll give you more time. Be sure to investigate to the bottom of everything. Most importantly, you must find out if she has any special relationship with Timothy!” Rochelle answered concisely.

The private investigator understood at once.

It turned out to be a case of a wealthy wife wanting to catch her cheating husband. There was no surprise then that she was so anxious.

He thought for a moment and added, “If that’s the case, I’ve managed to discover one thing. Harmony is much closer to Timothy compared to the others.”

Rochelle’s eyebrows twitched. “How close is close? Were they together before?”

The private investigator scratched his head and his voice became softer. “Answering that…would require me to find out more.”

Rochelle closed her eyes and took a couple of breaths before finally restraining her urge to beat someone up. “Then do it! Or else you’ll have to refund my one million payment and top it up with another million in damages!”

The private investigator left immediately without saying another word.

Rochelle looked at the fluttering piece of paper and felt a headache coming on.

It would be fine if Harmony was nothing more than an ex-girlfriend or a first love, but the situation suggested that there was more to it than meets the eye. In an era where information spread like wildfire, nobody could remain hidden from scrutiny. She was either a very powerful person herself, or the person protecting her was very powerful.

Rochelle was not too worried if Harmony was a formidable person in herself. Her greatest worry was if the person protecting Harmony turned out to be Timothy..