The man watched silently as Zaria played with the puppy a little before gently taking it back into the car, treating it better than she had ever treated him.

__

When Zaria arrived, Theodore was confused when he saw her. "You adopted a dog?" He knew that his daughter didn't have a particular fondness towards animals and it was not very likely for her to adopt a pet.

"My boss gave it to me." She responded as she gently took the puppy out of the crate. After work, she had taken him along to shop for his food, toys, and snacks. He had fallen asleep on their way back.

Theodore frowned as he watched her gently place Des on a couch before unpacking the things she had bought.

"Zaria…?" He drawled out her name suspiciously like he always did when he suspected that she had done something wrong.

"Mmh?" She tilted her head and looked at him innocently.

His gaze turned strict. "Why would your boss randomly give you a puppy for no reason?"

"It's not random. He gave it to me to apologize." She explained, and as expected, he didn't believe a word of it.

"You're telling me that Desmond Fort, that arrogant man, apologized to you? What dream are you stuck in?"

Zaria was helpless. She knew that it would not be easy to explain." I'm not dreaming, okay? He was in the wrong, so it's only right for him to say he's sorry."

Even if he did realize his fault and decide to apologize, why would he go out of his way to prepare a gift and such a meticulous one at that?

Not only was Theodore not convinced, but he was also even more suspicious of whatever was going on.

"Dad, what's wrong?" She asked when she noticed his odd stare.

He snapped out of his thoughts. "Nothing. I just want to ask, How would you feel if your fiancée got overly close to another woman? Would you be comfortable if their relationship is too close to be appropriate?"

"Dad, what are you trying to ask?" She looked at him seriously as she paused unpacking the shopping bags.

"How do you think it would feel to be cheated on?" He asked more straightforwardly.

She didn't need to think about the answer. "Awful. Why do you ask?"

Although she asked, she could pretty much tell where this conversation was headed.

As expected, he sighed like he was at a loss and gently spoke, "Zaria, I don't want to control your love life. You are already a grown-up woman and know what's right for you. Furthermore, you can get into a relationship with whoever you fall in love with regardless of their looks, status, and whatnot. However, I would not appreciate it if you fell in love with an engaged man. He is a known womanizer and all that, and it probably wouldn't make any difference to his fiancée if he had another mistress. Even so, I would not want you to be the source of another woman's grief."

"Dad…" She was speechless at how fast this had escalated.

Not giving her a chance to squeeze in a word, he continued," Most importantly, what would you gain from a man who knows nothing but to cheat on his future wife? Have you thought about your future? Even if he broke his engagement and married you instead, he would give you nothing but endless heartbreak."

He could not count the number of news stories he received every day about women who committed suicide, fell into depression, or ended up as criminals because their husbands kept cheating on them. He didn't want his daughter to end up as one of them, and he didn't want her to become an enemy of the Spark family's heiress because she messed around with the latter's fiancé.

"Dad, I know. I will not be inappropriate with him." She finally responded to his lecture.

Hearing her words, he was reassured. Even so, he frowned and swore to kick that man from the Fort family if he dared to play around with her.

Dinner was ready soon. She finished eating fast so she would have time to continue her research before sleeping. Just as she was about to go to her room, she recalled something and brought out a packet of kibble and a new dog bowl.

"Des? Time to eat, my darling." She called out to the puppy that had woken up and was now sneaking curious looks at Theodore as though wondering whether they could be friends.

Hearing her voice, he rushed over and buried his head into the bowl as soon as she poured some food into it.

Theodore's reassurance flew out through the window when he heard her.

It was obvious that she was talking to the puppy, but why did her tone sound so ambiguous? It was almost as though her words were not meant for the puppy.

…

The following day.

"I'm done investigating the Preston Family. Here are the results." Zaria announced when she arrived at Desmond's office.

He held back his surprise. She was done? That fast? When she asked for a week, he was almost certain that she would need more time. To his surprise, she had not even used half of that time.

Holding back his shock, he looked at her attentively. "Speak."

She held the files in her hand close to her chest as she explained her findings in detail. "On the surface, they are a normal aristocratic family, but my investigation proved that they are the most complicated family in Imperium. I could take days explaining the dark secrets that no one knows."

He observed her facial expression and concluded that she was uncomfortable about having to divulge the dark secrets that she had mentioned. They were probably things that the Preston Family did not want anyone to ever find out.

He didn't want to know them either. "I only need to know things related to my family." "Okay." She was relieved as she filtered out what she had found out. "The most suspicious person in the Preston family is Liam."

"How so?"

"He was in love with Samantha." She carefully waited for his reaction, and when she saw none, she continued. "Although she loved his elder brother, she somehow had his child. Take a look at this."

She flipped through the file and handed him a white sheet of paper, whose content was a photo that had been reprinted. It was an amniocentesis report.

The mother's details were clear as day: Samantha Fort, 25.

The results showed that the father of the unborn baby was Liam Preston.

He was shocked, but not for the reason that she thought.

It happened three years ago. When Samantha begged him to help her keep the secret with tears in her eyes, he deleted all the records to make sure that no one ever found out. No one, aside from him, Samantha and Liam, knew that Samantha had been pregnant.

Zaria continued when she was convinced that he had digested the shock. "The most suspicious thing is that no one knows about it except him and her. Yet the records were not deleted by them—Samantha had an abortion right after the amniocentesis and was unconscious for a while. On the other hand, Liam was too heartbroken to do anything to help her. Someone else helped her do it and that is odd. My guess is that it's a member of the Fort family."

He smiled at her analysis. None of it was wrong. Could it be that she really managed to investigate the Fort family? But if that was the case, then how did she manage to get the wrong thing?

She did not sense his emotional turmoil. "Strangely, Samantha suddenly wants to marry him. Do you think she is under a threat? Because I think Liam definitely has a motive for revenge. What if he wants to destroy the Fort family for helping Samantha three years ago?"

"Anything else?" He asked, not daring to jump to conclusions based on a speculation.

"He has been investigating me. Is this not suspicious?" She smiled, though she inwardly wanted to strangle Liam. What the hell was wrong with that man?

"Did you choose the wrong profession?" He finally asked. "Were you a detective in your past life?"

She rolled her eyes at his exaggeration. "Business is my forte. I only became an investigative journalist to help my dad. Sometimes, we need to thoroughly research to find the hidden truths that we need to publish."

It was surprising that she had explained so much, but he caught the tiny flash of pain in her tone. "You don't sound like you like it?"

She shook her head. "Not that I don't. It's just that sometimes, one can get slandered even after spending so much time and effort to find the truth."

This was where he differed from her. "But you did lie, Zaria. You slandered my mother."

If this was before, he would have long exploded at her words. But after hearing her clear results that were a hundred percent true about Liam, he wanted to believe her even though the facts pointed in a different direction.

She sucked in a breath and looked at him. "Sir, would you believe me if I said that your mother is the kind of person I made her out to be in those articles?"