Aiden Pierce's phone rang, the sound sudden and jarring in the enclosed car.
It was startlingly abrupt.
His gaze fell. Seeing the name on the screen, a pleased smile touched Aiden Pierce's lips.
But he didn't answer.
Willow West tightened her grip on her phone.
'Aiden Pierce just left the Wests' house. There's no way he didn't hear his phone.'
'Not answering means he's deliberately giving me the cold shoulder.'
Willow West huffed and tossed her phone onto the bed.
Aiden Pierce waited for Willow to call a second time, but to his surprise, after that one call, the timid little thing didn't try again.
The man, who was usually such a master strategist, gradually started to feel uneasy.
An image of the timid girl kneeling in punishment on the veranda, her body trembling uncontrollably, surfaced in his mind.
'That timid little thing... she isn't secretly crying, is she?'
'The flagstones on the Wests' veranda are hard, and who knows how long she knelt there!'
'Is she hurt?'
