Chapter 1014

Chapter 1014“Yes, I remember that.” Natalie nodded.
Shane lowered his gaze and went on softly, “My grandfather took me away when I was three and
personally raised me. Because of that, I seldom spent time with my parents. As time passed by,
although we still cared about each other, we were simply not that close. Then, when I was five, my
grandfather sent me to study overseas, and I got to receive the most exclusive education there. I only
came back here when I was fifteen.”
Th€ connection to th€ §ource of thïš dat@ r€§t$ in n0v3lebook“That means you were gone for ten years?” Natalie looked at him.
“That's right. The technology back then wasn't half as advanced as it is now. In those ten years, I only
had a few phone conversations with my parents and never saw their faces even once. In fact, even the
phone calls that we had were pretty short, as we didn't have much to say to each other.”
“That wouldn't be surprising considering you're a person of very few words in nature.” Natalie fiddled
with his fingers.
Shane let out a chuckle, but his expression turned solemn a second later. “During those ten years, it
was Sean who had stayed by their side.”
“I get it now. Sean took your place and played the role of your parents' filial son for ten years, and your
parents were happy to have him around. So...”
“Yes. Perhaps that's why my mother let Sean take over Wells Properties instead of me. After all, I
wasn't a good son to her.” Shane buried his face in his hands.
Natalie wrapped her hands around his waist, comforting him, “It's true that you could have done better,
but you had good reasons for your shortcomings. However, what I can't figure out is Sean. He stayed
by your parents' side for ten years. It's impossible that he had no feelings toward them whatsoever. So,why didn't he stop Sam from killing them? Even if he didn't know about it in the planning stage, he
should still have known about it after. So, what stopped him from exposing Sam? Surely he had no
feelings toward Sam, does he?”
Shane narrowed his eyes. “We can only find out the answer when we meet Sean. I would like to know
if he truly cared about my parents as well.”
“But who knows where he is now?” Natalie sighed helplessly.
Shane kept quiet after that, bowing his head and losing himself in a train of thoughts.
Just then, his phone rang.
It was a call from one of the directors of the corporation.
He let Natalie go and walked to the balcony to pick up the call.
Left alone, Natalie grabbed her sketchbook from the bedside table and flipped it open to work on a few
designs. The deadline set by the magazine company abroad was closing in on her.
Suddenly, a sheet fell out of her sketchbook and landed right beside her feet.
Bending down to pick it up, she saw that it wasn't one of her fashion designs but a sketch of a badge.
It was the badge that Joyce had shown her previously. She had done a rough sketch of it after she
came back and intended to show it to Shane.
However, she had gotten sidetracked when she received news about Harrison and had totally forgotten
about this sketch.
Just as she was scrutinizing the sketch intently, Shane came back after finishing his phone call.“What's this?” asked Shane as he came to her side and swept a quick glance across the sheet she was
holding.
Because of the poor angle, he didn't quite catch what the sketch portrayed.
Natalie handed the sheet to him. “I've told you before about the grudge between Joyce and Stanley.
Well, this badge is what Joyce found at the crime scene ten years ago. It belonged to the culprit. I've
wanted to show you this so that you can investigate it further but only just remembered it. Would you
care to look into it?”
Taking the sheet over, Shane finally got a good look at the sketch.
The moment he saw the sketch of the badge, his expression changed dramatically as he tightened his
grip on the sheet.
Seeing his reaction, Natalie stood up at once. “Darling, have you seen this badge before?”
“Yes, I've seen this on Sean.” Shane's voice was cold as ice.
Natalie's eyes flickered as she repeated, “You've seen this...on Sean?”
“That's right. Sean came back from abroad a few months ago. I saw him wearing this badge on his
neck.”
Natalie's lips quivered. “D-Does that mean Sean has something to do with S-Stanley's parents' deaths?
But how is that possible? He was only a teenager ten years ago—”