She had checked all his drawers earlier but found nothing. Even in the locked drawers, for she had taken the keys when he was asleep and checked, reaped nothing.

She put things back in place exactly as they were before. This was thanks to her experience at the supermarket. She was good at arranging things on the shelves, except for the computer, where she tried a password twice but didn't get through.

She didn't dare to try again.

She came just in time before the screensaver started. A spreadsheet was on the screen.

She sat down and put her hand on the mouse.

While Kate was doing this, she felt that she was not herself. Somebody else possessed her. Her body was feeble, but her mind was clear. She knew all the instructions she was given, and she obeyed them mechanically.

Lucy was still meowing outside the window, and Laura, who was outside, and Tristan, on the roof, spoke from time to time.

They sounded so far away as if they were in another world.

Too many folders and files… She didn't have time to check the content of each file. She could only judge from the file names based on the financial knowledge she had learned in her half-semester at college.

Time was ticking away.

And the bar of the copying task was moving bits by bits. Her stomach was churning again.

She put her hand to her mouth and felt her hand was cold. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and took deep breaths.

Besides the reason that she agreed to help the deputy director Roger Kane, she wanted to know what he was doing for herself.

She could guess that the government officers traded with business giants from what she overheard the two waitresses saying in the private club. She didn't know what exactly these trades were, but the clues might be enough.

The rest needed to be investigated by the people who were more professional.

The rescue was a tough task. Lucy had slid to the middle of the roof. Tristan got out to the roof from the attic window too and stooped down to reach for Lucy. Lucy slid downward bit-by-bit and screamed from time to time.

Luckily Tristan was both imperturbable and incredibly supple thanks to his diligence in working out. After some effort, his hand finally reached Lucy. He urged her gently, "Lucy, come on. Grab my hand."

Lucy was out of her mind, and her hair had all stood up. She looked at Tristan for a long time and finally managed to reach one of her trembling legs to him. He grabbed her leg and pulled it up.

When she got to his arms, Lucy clung to him tightly. Tristan heaved a sigh of relief and patted her back. "Good girl."

He had to be very careful going back to the attic, or it would be not just the cat that fell off the roof. He might not die from the fall, but it would be a shame to break his bones.

Lucy freaked out. Even after they landed safely in the attic, it would not get down from Tristan's arms. Her claws grabbed his clothes tightly, and he could not get her to release him.

He was amused and pitied Lucy, "Bad girl, now you learn the lesson? Don't you ever run to the attic again?"

"And remember to eat less and work out more."

After stroking it for a long time, her hair turned soft, and her claws loosened. Tristan put it down and went to wash his hands and change his clothes. When he passed the bedroom, he pushed the door open softly.

He saw Kate stand not far from the door with a pale face. He frowned and asked, "You threw up again?"

Kate's lips trembled. She didn't look at him, shook her head, and then nodded again.

He went to grab her hand. They were cold. He said sympathetically, "You suffered a lot from it."

"You will have only this baby. I will be careful from now on."

Kate's hand trembled a little, and she didn't make a sound.

Her pitiful look always touched the softest part of Tristan's heart. He pushed her to his arms and asked gently, "Are you hungry? I will ask Laura to cook something you like for you."

The gentler he was, the colder Kate felt. She shivered all over her body.

She clung to Tristan's waist, and his strong body transmitted some power to her and made her feel at ease. She put her face against his c.h.e.s.t and listened to the steady and powerful beating of his heart. Her wildly beating heart was pacified.

Tristan was surprised at her voluntarily seeking his hugging. Probably hormones from her pregnancy were stimulating her. For this part of her pregnancy, he welcomed the change. He held her tighter to his arms.

They stayed in that position for a while, and then Tristan asked, "Do you want to go to lie down? I will call you when Laura gets the food ready."

Kate nodded on his c.h.e.s.t.

He carried her up and put her on the bed carefully, covered the blanket for her and kissed her on the forehead, and then left the room.

When the door was finally closed, Kate heaved a sigh.

It was so close. If he had held up her left hand, he would find that she had a pink flash drive in her palm.

If he had come back half a minute earlier, he would see her running out of his study hurriedly.

If he had gone back to his study directly, he would see the screensaver was not on…

They had a few peaceful days.

One afternoon, Max and Daisy showed up.

Tristan was at home too. He was accompanying Kate watching a training video for pregnant women.

The fat cat was sleeping by their feet. She had to be checked from time to time and bathed more frequently to make sure she wouldn't carry parasites or bacteria that could harm the pregnant woman and the baby.

Tristan wanted to send it away for some time, but Kate did some online research and found that it was not necessary to be so cruel to the cat.

They were wearing lovers' clothes. The man was gray, and the woman was pink. Their looks matched each other, notwithstanding the age and temperament differences between them.

The scene stung Daisy, and she lowered her eyes. Tristan asked them to sit down naturally, and Laura brought tea and desserts.

Kate was delightful in receiving them. Ever since her fight with Daisy, they had not talked on the phone. She got some information about her through Max, though. Daisy was working in some estate company under the Chasin group.

About the matter that brought them here, Max looked awkward.

Daisy spoke out first, "It was my idea to come to you. We got something going on in our family."

Kate was startled and asked, "What happened? Mom or dad got sick?"

Daisy asked coldly, "How long since you called them?"

Kate felt guilty. She didn't like to call her parents since she found out she was pregnant. She called a couple of times, but she always kept the conversation short, as if she worried they could see her bulging belly through the telephone line.

Max continued the subject, "Here is what happened. There were some guys that showed up and said our house belonged to their family one or two generations back. And they produced something like a land title. Our father said our grandpa worked for the landlord of the house as a cook for decades. His sons and daughters abandoned him and went to the big cities. So he agreed to sell the house to grandpa at low cost on the condition that he lived there until he died. That house has belonged to our family since then."

"So what do they want now?" Tristan asked.

"They want to get it back, with just a little compensation for us to move out. Ten thousand dollars, and we get out of there in a month." Daisy said. "Our house is worth far more than that. Besides, we cannot buy a house with that money at all."

"Can't we take this to court?" Kate asked.

"Our grandpa bought that house way more than fifty years ago, and the landlord was muddled then, and there was no title deed to be found. If this is taken to court, we may get nothing at all."

Max added, "One of the guys, probably the grandson, owns a big company. He says he wants to build a factory there. Mom and Dad asked them to increase the compensation so that we could buy a small house, but they refused."

Tristan thought about it and said, "Let me handle this."

Daisy gave him an admirable look, but Max's expression was complicated. He looked to Kate.

Kate rejected his help by instinct, but she could not see her old parents become homeless.

Tristan touched her hand and said, "Don't worry about it. It is not a big deal."

The thing that drained their whole family's wits out was not a big deal to him. Kate didn't know what she should think. She was speechless.

After Daisy and Max left, Tristan said, "What is it? You seemed to disapprove of me?"

Kate looked at him and asked, "How are you going to handle it?"

"It is useless to reason with these guys."

"So you will pay them?"

"You will just encourage them to ask for a foot if you give them an inch."

Seeing the nervousness in her eyes, he downplayed it, "It is OK. We will just give them a little heads up and make them get back to sense."

"Come on, let's continue watching the video."

Kate was still absent-minded after sitting down. Tristan held her shoulders and comforted her. "Don't worry. I will not cause trouble for your family. Nor to myself. I will have Ed go over there personally. He is good at this."

At these words, Kate recalled two occasions. She was kidnapped and threatened with a knife on her face; Max was set up and scared to death for four full days.

The doctor in the video was narrating all kinds of scenarios a pregnant woman might encounter, but they could not get into her mind. The person beside her was immersed in it.

Kate sighed. There was too big a gap between them. They were totally different people.