Chapter: 548

Before he could dial again, the phone rang.

As soon as he answered, a familiar voice greeted him.

“Any progress?"

It was unmistakably Maddie's voice.

It was her!

Nikolas couldn't have been more certain.

"What kind of progress are you looking for?"

Nikolas' voice caught Maddie off guard.

"It's you! How did you get this number?"

"Does it matter? Maddie, you've lied to me again!"

He had believed Maddie was innocent this time. He had trusted that Maddie wouldn't harm a child.

Maddie was even more anxious than Nikolas but managed to regain her composure more quickly.

"You kept saying you trusted me, yet you've been investigating me the whole time?" It didn't take her long to piece things together. “If you really trusted me, you would've used your own phone to call, not someone else's. You were scared I'd recognize your number, weren't you?"

Nikolas was left speechless.

He had indeed borrowed his assistant's phone to avoid Maddie recognizing his number. But was that really the issue?

"Maddie, you're being ridiculous! You wanted to kill Jonathan's son? He's just a child. How could you even consider that?"

"I didn't plan anything against him; it was Jonathan's parents who wanted to see the boy. I merely arranged for someone to bring him over," Maddie replied quickly, her excuse already prepared, shifting the blame to Francine.

Nikolas was not so easily deceived; it was just that he preferred not to dwell on it too deeply.

"If it really were his parents' wish to see him, you wouldn't have taken him to a warehouse in the suburbs. You'd have taken him straight to them!"

"I...1 just—"

“Enough with your excuses, Maddie. I won't be deceived by you again. I'm going to see Jonathan right now."

With those final words, he hung up, leaving Maddie genuinely frightened.

Before Nikolas could step out of his office, Maddie burst in from the legal department, her appearance a stark contrast to her usual poised and polished demeanor.

"You can't go to Jonathan! He mustn't find out about this!"