Nicole could not help but smile at how ridiculous yet valid his concern was. "Come on, dude. That's just an excuse I came up with to comfort Nolan and Lana."In reality, her marriage would concern nobody but herself and Jared. No one else would be able to exert any sort of meaningful influence on the wedding."That's great." Preston issued a sigh of relief.Everything would be fine as long as he did not have a hand to play on whether the wedding ceremony happened or not.Taking on a more serious look now, Nicole looked at Preston and added, "But, you should really start thinking about your own love life.""Yeah, I will." Preston replied.He did not want to suffer the torture of being the only single person in the room every time he hung out with them. Being around these love birds while they harped on the idea that he needed to find someone soon was agonizing to say the least.Nicole then smirked and shook her head. She thought it would be a good idea to just remind him about it
If such was the case, Nicole doubted if she did not think it through from the very beginning.After hearing Nicole's thoughts on the matter, Preston cautiously replied, "You mean that instead of crossing the levels without any sort of help, it seems that someone has been guiding you through the stages from the shadows?""Yes." Nicole nodded. "It definitely feels like that."After giving it some consideration, Preston hazarded a guess. "This means that the application which they have sent Nolan consists of two separate entities. One is on the surface, which is the game Nolan is playing, and the other is a hidden software."Upon further analysis, Nicole deduced that the hidden software should be the one the developer was looking to crack."They're waiting for you to complete it so that they can swoop in and steal your final result." Jared's cold and calm voice blared out.Jared's theory made Preston's eyes widen at an instant. "That's right. It should be just like what you've predi
If Lawrence was truly the one behind all of this, her explanations about the puzzles thus far would make perfect sense.Lawrence had attained the Water Crest, but he had not been able to crack its failsafe and become its bearer, and due to him being unable to seek Nicole's help directly, he had turned to giving Nolan a modified version of the interface masked as a game as his last resort.After all, Lawrence knew Nicole and Nolan well enough to come up with a strategy that capitalized on their strengths. Lawrence had also probably thought that Nolan would forever keep his secrets, making it difficult, if not impossible for them to learn of his true intentions from the boy.If it was in the past, Lawrence would only have to ask a few simple questions to gain a full idea of their progress and the situation they were in, granting him relative ease with achieving his goals. But now that things did not go his way anymore, he had resorted to elaborate trickery.Little did Lawrence know t
"Are you guys serious about this decision? But..." Gloria hesitated for a moment.The rest of her children had their own houses, and it was tradition that they would all move out once they were married."Yes, we've set our mind on it." Stanley smiled and said. "We wish to stay here. That way, the house will still be as lively as ever. Besides, it'll be convenient for us to take care of you and grandma.""You don't have to worry about grandma and us. Once you and Tia get married, someone else will take care of grandma," Gloria argued, worried that Stanley and Tia had only decided not to move out because of Mrs. Wallace Sr."We've really thought it through," Stanley insisted, even though he understood what Gloria's concerns were.While they were on the subject, Tia chimed in, "Yes, I want to continue taking care of grandma."Although Nicole had hired her to be Mrs. Wallace Sr. 's caretaker, their relationship had evolved over the years. They had grown to be very tight-knit now, muc
With a smile on her face, Nicole replied, "Don't worry, we'll just go along with Stanley and Tia's arrangements."Hearing this, Gloria calmed down. "Alright, I just want to make sure that Tia doesn't feel as if she is lesser than us or anything. That's my only concern."Indeed, this was Gloria's only concern. Nothing else would be a problem for her."You should just relax and prepare for their wedding, I'm sure they won't be able to wait for too long." Nicole smiled and advised.Then, she held Jared's hand and walked out of the house with him.Though Gloria was stunned at first, she quickly came to her senses and beamed. "The wedding is happening really soon, right?""I guess so." Daniel returned her smile."Well, since Stanley and Tia will be staying with us, I think we should clean the house up, especially Stanley's room. We must renovate the couple's room and refurbish everything. Let's give them a new set of furniture and decorations." Gloria began to plan."If you're going
"That's a good idea." Preston and Gary nodded right away.After they had conducted a few more rounds of discussion, Preston left the headquarters of Finley Group and made his way to Riddle Corporation. Upon arrival, he knocked on Nicole's door and entered her office.Seeing that it was Preston, Nicole widened her eyes in surprise. "Why are you here? You can't be here to ask for a free lunch, right?"After all, it was almost lunch hour."There are some issues, so I thought of coming over to inform you about them." Preston began, and proceeded to explain the outcome of his discussion with Ryder and Gary.Nicole nodded. "Initially, I had this idea too, but it's above my paygrade. I was worried we'd alert them, so I decided to forgo the idea.""Since we're the ones doing it, they won't realize a thing." Preston explained.At the end of the day, their adversaries had their eyes on nobody but Nicole. They would not discover anything if they did not look hard enough.After giving it s
Nicole nodded. "That's very much possible."Damien had been refusing to spill the beans on what he had been up to for a few days now. If anything, he seemed to be stalling, buying himself more time along the way.This had led them to wonder what he was actually hoping to accomplish by stalling. Was he expecting someone to come to his rescue?With the very same school of thought crossing Nicole's mind, she narrowed her eyes and asked, "Where is he?""I don't know, and Patricia didn't say anything either," Lulu carefully replied. "What are you worried about?""I need you to caution Patricia and tell her to be on guard. It's possible that Damien is waiting for someone to rescue him," Nicole ordered.Initially, Damien had made a few attempts at fleeing, only for Patricia to thwart all of them. Since then, he had remained silent, and such silence from him was a dead giveaway that he planned his exit.Having realized it herself, Lulu frowned and nodded. "Alright, I will inform Patrici
"What am I guilty of? Don't test me! If you don't release me, I will make you regret everything you've done to me." Damien threatened through gritted teeth."Alright, I'd like to see you try," Patricia said and sauntered out of the house, calm as she had been when she got in.The person in charge of watching Damien followed suit, and in a low voice, he asked, "Captain? He is still refusing to spill.""It doesn't matter. I don't need him to say anything now." Patricia snorted, her voice tinged with cold indifference."Captain, is there a new plan?" the man in black asked in a hushed voice."Tonight, you're going to release him. Let him go..."After devising her new plan of action and giving the man a complete rundown of it, Patricia darted the house one last glance, her eyes dark and cold. Then, she whirled around, got into her car, and sped off.The two men in black exchanged a mutual glance, both showing great determination and resolve. Although the plan Patricia had crafted wa