Half-Hearted: Mr. Sinclair, Stop the Act!-Chapter 82: Heartflutter

Sebastian received the message from Sienna Monroe just as he turned off the car engine and was about to get out.

After reading her message, he subtly frowned.

Instead of asking Sienna how she found out, he simply replied, "Got it," and then dialed Harrison Hayes’ number.

It rang for about half a minute before it was finally answered, "Hello, Sebastian."

Along with Harrison’s voice, the sounds of cheering and shouting could be heard over the line.

Sebastian furrowed his eyebrows, "Has the race started?"

"Oh, bro, you know about it?" Harrison laughed, "Not yet, the race starts at 10:30. Right now, it’s just warm-ups. I just got on the track and did a couple of laps. Feels great!"

Sebastian kept it concise, "Cecilia York will be there today."

"Cecilia York?"

Harrison was momentarily stunned, coming off the racing track, his blood was still at an excited peak, and he didn’t immediately recall the name.

He realized after a moment, "Oh... Caleb Sinclair’s cousin?"

"If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten about her. She hasn’t been around me for days, thought she gave up."

"Alright, I got it." Harrison asked, "Bro, if you’re not busy today, why don’t you come over? Coincidentally... that Lockwood kid is also here. Concerning that maritime cargo transport contract dispute, he seems to have been on the ship before, maybe he knows something about it."

This case was one that Sebastian had just taken up a couple of days ago, where the Lockwood and Xie families from Imperial City faced a shipwreck incident in their maritime transport.

The accident resulted in 16 casualties, with more than half of the cargo lost, with an estimated value of over 200 million.

The two families were in serious disagreement over compensation and cargo losses.

The police are still investigating the incident without reaching a conclusion.

Sebastian felt that it would be worthwhile to question the Lockwood kid if he met him, but it wasn’t essential. He planned to visit Zanford City tomorrow anyway.

However, he needed to handle the matter with Scott Hanson face-to-face, otherwise Scott would certainly confront Hanson about it upon learning.

With so many spectators at the racetrack and Cecilia York present, it would not only affect the race but easily cause trouble.

He glanced at the time on the car’s central control screen, "Send me the location."

Harrison laughed and agreed, "Sure. I’ll let the people at the entrance know, just mention my name and you can come in directly."

Sebastian acknowledged with a "Hmm," hung up the phone, restarted the car, and drove out of the parking lot.

When he arrived, it was close to 10:30 already.

Southridge Circuit 52 is located on the outskirts, at the border with Northgate, rather secluded.

Today was a friendship race for more than a dozen racing clubs from across the country, attracting a large audience, making the whole venue lively and noisy.

Even standing at the entrance, one could hear the speeding and drifting sounds of the race cars, along with the audience’s screams and cheers.

After entering smoothly, Sebastian called Harrison, but there was no answer.

He let it go, figuring Harrison would call back once he saw the missed call.

Following the signs towards the race track, his shoulder was suddenly bumped into, and a soft voice like a songbird said in his ear, "Sorry, too many people here, I didn’t notice, are you..."

The woman’s voice halted abruptly, staring blankly at his handsome face.

Sebastian glanced over, seeing a delicate oval face.

As he exchanged glances with her for two seconds, he spotted Harrison waving at him not far away, shouting, "Sebastian."

Sebastian’s gaze shifted from her, looking towards the approaching person, "Where’s Zane Lockwood?"

"He’s in the stands, really excited for the race to start, let’s head over there too..."

Harrison hooked an arm around Sebastian’s shoulder and noticed the woman beside them, sounding a bit surprised, "Hmm? Are you...?"

Upon hearing Harrison, Cecilia York immediately took her eyes off Sebastian, forcibly suppressing the uncontrolled flutter in her chest.

She turned to Harrison and showed just the right touch of surprise, "What a coincidence, you’re here to watch the race too?"

Harrison caught the "too" in her words and chuckled, "Didn’t realize you were interested in racing."

Cecilia offered a shy smile, "It’s alright."

From their conversation, Sebastian deduced who the woman was, and without intending to interfere, he informed Harrison before heading to the stands to find Zane.

Cecilia’s mind nearly blanked while talking to Harrison, as she watched Sebastian’s upright figure walking away, unable to suppress a slight curve of her lips.

Her heart was beating unusually fast.

Returning to The Sterling Estate in the afternoon, she inquired June Ewing about Sebastian.

June answered a couple of sentences but quickly sensed something was off, frowning slightly, "You ran into Sebastian today as well?"

Cecilia nodded and expressed her thoughts directly, "Auntie, since the Prescott Family is better than the Hayes Family, why not..."

"No way!"

Seeing her shy expression, June immediately understood what she was thinking and interrupted her, "Don’t even think about the Prescott Family. Such a family is beyond your reach.

Besides, you think Sebastian is an easy fool? He’s a lawyer; your little tricks are nothing to him."

That’s one thing, and another is that he is the nephew of the owner of Orchid Beauty Salon.

Being a lawyer is particularly perceptive, and if he senses something, the consequences would be unimaginable.

When selecting partners for the girls in the socialite class, extensive consideration and understanding are essential. It’s not just about money.

Cecilia froze, pursed her lips, lowered her eyes, and twisted her fingers silently.

June, seeing her like this, frowned even deeper.

She figured Cecilia was probably attracted to Sebastian’s looks.

Though somewhat unhappy inside, she still patiently explained, "Cecilia, it’s not that auntie doesn’t want you to approach Sebastian; if there’s a better choice,

auntie would surely support you. It’s just that... even leaving aside whether Sebastian is approachable, you’ve got no chance considering how he has remained faithful to his former fiancée all these years, so why waste time?"

Fiancée?

Faithful?

Cecilia raised her head in confusion and shock, "He’s engaged?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

June took a sip of tea, "It’s a childhood engagement with the Third Miss Grant from the West End Ainsworth Family. But five years ago, The Grant Family suddenly called off the engagement, and Third Miss Grant went abroad. She hasn’t returned all these years. The incident was widely talked about back then,"

"Then... why did The Grant Family call off the engagement?"

June shook her head, "Who knows. It’s said that Third Miss Grant insisted on breaking the engagement, causing the relationship between the two families to become less close.

Later, there were rumors that she fell for a foreigner, or they lacked feelings and found it unsuitable, or perhaps The Prescott Family’s old lady disapproved, and so on."

After hearing this, Cecilia suddenly felt that Third Miss Grant was somewhat unappreciative.

To abandon such a good fiancé?

If it were her...

The image of Sebastian’s handsome, dignified, and charming figure came to her mind.

Her heart beat "thump thump thump" again.

She asked again, "Auntie, what’s the deal with the ’faithful’ part?"

"Sebastian is already thirty this year, turning thirty-one soon, yet he hasn’t married or had a girlfriend, surely waiting for that Third Miss Grant since they were childhood sweethearts."

June hesitated a moment and softly added, "Besides, marrying him wouldn’t be all that good; you’d endure a lot, especially with his mother suffering a mental illness... ah, never mind, in short, he’s not suitable for you.

You should aim to win over Harrison; with the effort it takes to chisel through Sebastian, you could capture ten Harrisons."

Mental illness?

Cecilia York was surprised.

In such a wealthy family, someone like that would be laughed at.

The esteemed lady of the Prescott Family, how could she...

She wanted to find out more about the Prescott Family, but June Ewing gave her no chance, "Tell me, what happened when you met Harrison Hayes today?"

She felt a bit of dissatisfaction and reluctance in her heart.

Although Harrison Hayes looked quite good and came from a good background, she was satisfied the first two times she saw him, but after meeting Sebastian Prescott today, whose aura surpassed Harrison Hayes, her heart wavered.

She instantly fell for this man who appeared so cold yet noble and elegant.

On the way back, she was quite confident about winning over Sebastian Prescott.

Even though her confidence waned a bit after hearing her aunt’s words, she still wanted to give it a try.

What if... what if it worked out?

Just thinking about standing by Sebastian Prescott’s side as his girlfriend made her feel excited and thrilled.

But now, her aunt wanted her to drop this idea.

The last time, she mentioned wanting to invest in the Radiance Beauty Spa branch, her aunt also refused.

Thinking about this, that knot in her heart seemed to grow bigger.

For the first time, she felt a bit annoyed with her aunt.

Yet she couldn’t show any emotion on her face for June Ewing to notice.

She was just a tiny speck of dust in the Imperial City’s elite circle, nothing, and she could only rely on the stepping stones her aunt provided to slowly climb up.

Thinking this, she suppressed her displeasure and smiled as she talked about her pleasant chat with Harrison Hayes in the morning, and how they exchanged contact on WeChat.

*

Sienna Monroe didn’t know how things progressed between Harrison Hayes and Cecilia York that day, nor did she deliberately ask Sebastian Prescott, as she had been busy for two or three days due to the events at the art gallery.

On the fourth day, which was the eighth day since Radiance Beauty Spa was investigated by the market regulatory department, they received a notice from the quality inspection bureau.

All products from Radiance Beauty Spa were deemed qualified.

At the same time, the shutdown order was lifted.

Upon learning this, Sienna Monroe merely furrowed her brows, knowing that Radiance Beauty Spa’s business would surely be affected by this shutdown, but the underground industry might not be.

However, that branch of hers was unlikely to open anytime soon.

Ding!

[This afternoon, there will be rumors spreading within the circle that Radiance Beauty Spa was investigated because someone had an allergic reaction using inappropriate products at home and tried to extort Radiance Beauty Spa, but negotiations failed, so they maliciously reported it.]

The notification tone of the text message interrupted Sienna Monroe’s thoughts.

She pursed her lips, not having to think much—it must be June Ewing’s doing.

Now that the shutdown order was lifted, Radiance Beauty Spa was set to reopen.

June Ewing naturally wanted to restore Radiance Beauty Spa’s reputation and give customers a proper explanation.

So, she had to think of a way to remove the stain from Radiance Beauty Spa thoroughly.

They might even recover those lost or about-to-be-lost customers.

Killing multiple birds with one stone.

June Ewing was indeed clever.

She had easily overcome two difficult hurdles for Radiance Beauty Spa.

Sienna Monroe’s brows furrowed even deeper.

Ding!

Another text message flashed at the bottom of the screen.

[The shareholder dividend meeting for Radiance Beauty Spa’s underground industry is scheduled for this Friday at 9:30 AM, held in June Ewing’s office.

The debutante training course spans three to six months, with five set to graduate next month, and June Ewing will choose targets for them.

She possesses a file containing information and evaluation forms of the elite sons and affluent dames in Imperial City and Meridia, placed in Radiance Beauty Spa’s office within a document casing labeled with the employee regulations file, in the cabinet behind the desk.]

Employee regulations file?

Sienna Monroe’s eyes narrowed, recalling seeing something titled like this in that cabinet last time when she urgently searched for the underground industry employee roster.

In her hurry, she didn’t consider other matters.

Thinking about it now, why would an employee regulations file be placed specially in the cabinet?

They say the most dangerous place is the safest.

Just like the last time it was mentioned, the real account book hidden within a book cover on the top shelf of the bookshelf.

Even in such an obvious place, who would think a real account book would be mingled among a pile of literature books?

June Ewing was indeed adept at hiding things.

She held onto her phone, sitting in her office chair, thoughtfully coming up with a plan.

There was no way she could attend their dividend meeting on Friday. Even if she went, June Ewing would find a way to send her away, possibly even suspect her.

However, it was the best opportunity to obtain their audio evidence.

She simply couldn’t miss it.

After much deliberation, she dialed the private investigator’s number and got straight to the point, "Do you have any discreet listening devices that can record audio?"

The man on the other end, in his thirties, asked, "Is Miss Morgan planning to eavesdrop or is it for something else?"

Sienna Monroe didn’t hide the truth, "To eavesdrop."

"Well, I do have an appropriate bugging device that connects to a phone app for operation, which automatically uploads saved backups every ten minutes, but the price is a bit high. I wonder if Miss Morgan can accept it?"

He finished speaking with a couple of laughs.

Sienna Monroe knew from the beginning, when she first approached him for help investigating Caleb Sinclair, that his quotes wouldn’t be cheap.

But thankfully, he was efficient, and everything he provided her was useful. Plus, he never used the evidence he held to blackmail people.

So she could accept the high price, "Yes."

The man heaved a sigh of relief, laughing, "Alright. Could I courier this to you? It wouldn’t be good for you if someone saw it. I’ll send the operation guide to you via email."

"Okay."

Not long after hanging up, she received an operational video from the private investigator.

It didn’t seem difficult to understand.

After receiving it via express delivery that afternoon, she tested it once, finding the effect quite good.

The device was black, coin-sized, controlled via a mobile app.

If stuck to the bottom of a black table, it was not easy to notice, and the audio quality was clear with no noise, uploading backups every ten minutes.

However, there was a downside.

It had a range issue—the recorded sound would stutter and be indistinct if the speakers were more than five meters away.

She could accept this; it was not a major issue—just place it closer.

Now she just needed to think of a way to place this device in June Ewing’s office.