Chapter 513
Standing Before Love
Heather pushed open the windows and turned around to smile at Leon as she inhaled the fragrant scent of the flowers in the air. â Leon, have you heard of Caleb Moriarty?â Perhaps Leon knows something about him, she thought to herself.
However, Leon stared at her with a confused expression. In all honesty, he couldnât quite recall this person at all, so he asked rather perplexedly, âIs he from Bradfort City?â
Heather shook her head in reply. âCould you help me look into this man? Heâs a general from Leisfeld.â
Surprised, Leon wondered, How did she get involved with someone from Leisfeld? He furrowed his brows and placed his cell phone aside.
âWhy are you asking me to investigate this person out of the blue?â he asked, needing a plausible reason from her.
Heather, on the other hand, said resignedly, âToday, he paid us a visit and mentioned our arranged marriageâ¦â She couldnât quite bring herself to mention the rest of it. Obviously, no one would be able to accept this sudden appearance of a so-called fiancé!
âArranged marriage? Between you and him?â Leon stared at her with an incredulous expression. What the heck? They donât even know each other!
Generally, an arranged marriage was all due to benefits, but he couldnât comprehend the reason for this arranged marriage between Heather and Caleb. After all, he couldnât see what benefits their marriage would bring to the Langstons.
âIâm equally confused too! Otherwise, I wouldnât have asked you to investigate this person,â Heather muttered with a glum face. Thereâs no way Iâll agree to this arranged marriage with Caleb!
Iâd rather choose Matthias over Caleb! Truth was, she herself was quite surprised by her sudden notion. Leon noted the indignation on her face and wondered, Did Caleb do something to offend her?
Why does it seem like she hates him so much?
âDo you dislike Caleb?â he asked carefully.
âItâs more than just dislike. Frankly speaking, I loathe him. I presume you are aware of the current situation in Leisfeld? For him to achieve his position, surely there would be a lot of innocent lives who suffered from his actions.â Heather could not bring it upon herself to have good feelings toward one who disregarded human lives. She intensely disliked Calebâs pair of eyes that resembled a deep, lifeless pool of water that lacked glimmer.
âI know what you mean, but we canât quite judge whether people like him are good or bad. You, however, have biasedly decided that heâs a bad guy.â
âCome with me into the bedroom.â Leon considered the situation before mentioning that. Heatherâs words had managed to pique his curiosity.
His set of tools were stored in his bedroom. As soon as Heather walked in, she furrowed her brows.
How did his bedroom get to this state?
She was met with the sight of an extremely messy room; there was even an opened bag of potato chips on his bedside table. How can Leon live in such a mess?
âIâll send the cleaners over tomorrow.â Heather couldnât stand this mess but she was quite anxious to get the important things sorted today, so it wasnât the best time for any cleaning right now.
Meanwhile, Leon stared at her questioningly. He reckoned that his room was quite tidy, and he had even sprayed some air freshener too. Why is she giving me such a disgusted look?
âI can clean my own room and I donât need a cleaner,â he protested vehemently. I can do this quite nicely, so thereâs no need to hire a cleaner!
However, Heather didnât want to pursue this topic regarding hiring a cleaner further and she thought to herself, I donât care what he says but Iâm definitely sending the cleaners here tomorrow! Out loud, she said, âLetâs put that aside for the moment. Find me the information on Caleb first.â
Leon nodded to indicate his response before he headed straight to his work desk, which was chosen for him by Heather. The minimalist, European-designed desk looked simple yet elegant.
Then, he switched on his computer. Truth was, he had spent a lot of his pocket money on this machine;
it wasnât like any ordinary computer and it was actually his personal computer, which belonged to him exclusively.
Leon didnât take much time to investigate Caleb this time around. This was all due to the ample and detailed information provided by Heather.
He flicked through the information and it confirmed her deduction. Caleb is indeed a military general!
Staring at the picture of Caleb in his military uniform, Leon concluded that Heather was quite right in her description. This guy does tend to instill a sense of fear.
âHow did someone like him seek an arranged marriage with you?â Leon asked this with a look of disbelief on his face. Heâs young and talented with a bright future ahead of him. Shouldnât he be going after someone with a political background to further cement his position? Why did he go after one with a corporate background all of a sudden?
âAccording to him, our families were close to each other during Grandpaâs generation,â Heather murmured, but she was skeptical about this because Robert clearly didnât look enthusiastic upon seeing Caleb. The former was at most in awe of the latter.
Thatâs not how close family friends would be around each other. Besides, Caleb didnât even show Grandpa much respect, so I donât believe that theyâre our family friends!
âBut how is that possible? Leisfeld and Bradfort City are miles apart from each other. I donât quite understand your definition of close family friend,â Leo remarked snidely, feeling perplexed by the situation.
Just then, Heather pointed to a string of words on the computer screen. âLookâCalebâs of Asian descent and the Moriartys actually originated from Bradfort City, not Leisfeld.â She shot him an annoyed look. He seems to be enjoying himself making snide remarks about the situation.
âSorry; I didnât notice that. I have to say, heâs quite a legend to have achieved the position of a general in Leisfeld despite being of Asian descent, and at less than forty years old at that!â Leon couldnât help but admire the other man. After all, it was quite natural for men to have their goals and to yearn for power too.
Heather, on the other hand, looked at him quite solemnly. In fact, she was quite unhappy to hear these words.
âAre you trying to say that Iâm not good enough for him?â she questioned with a sarcastic tone. Frankly, she had no interest in Caleb.
âHeather, you sure have a great imagination!â Leon muttered and he had the sense that he couldnât seem to communicate with women well, as each of them seemed to be on their own planet somehow.
âCan you get me a more detailed report? I canât find anything on the Moriartys relationship with us, and this is the most crucial part!â Heather tugged on Leonâs elbow and persuaded him; right now, she could only depend on his skills.
âItâs not that simple. Leisfeld keeps a tight lid on the information of their military staff, especially with him being a general,â he said with a troubled look. Although he was an experienced hacker, there were some things that were difficult to achieve as well.
âSo, do you need to hack into Leisfeldâs Department of Intelligence to get the true information on Caleb?â Heather made a quick guess.
âThatâs about right. The details of their important military personnel are stored safely in the database of the Department of Intelligence,â Leon said this with a resigned look, and there was nothing else he could do about it.
âForget about it then. Iâm worried that youâll eventually get kidnapped by some Leisfeld secret agent because of this someday,â she playfully remarked. I guess this is all the information I can get.
âIt looks like you lack confidence in my skills.â Leon winked at her with a playful look on his face.
âAlthough I donât dare to hack into the Department of Intelligence, Iâm actually quite good at gaining speculation and news from my informants. I canât guarantee the authenticity of the information, but at least we can cross-check all the information and compare everything. We should be able to get the big picture by doing so.â In fact, Leon was quite confident in himself; his previous actions were merely a joke and he quite enjoyed pulling her leg.
âHurry up then!â Heather rushed him urgently. She had no time to entertain his antics as she was quite anxious to obtain detailed information on Caleb.
âBe patient. Data analysis isnât that simple and thereâs quite a complicated process involved. You should join me.â Analyzing all that data was not only a boring job, it also required great judgment. Just then, Leon felt quite energized at the thought of having Heather working with him.
âHow long will it take?â She glanced at the time. If it takes too long then I might not make it for dinner.
âIf weâre quick enough, then one or two hours would be sufficient; otherwise, it could take us half a day if weâre not that productive.â For now, Leon couldnât quite give a specific timeframe as he hadnât started on it yet.
âI need to start preparing dinner in two hoursâ time,â Heather said this with a solemn voice. Cooking dinner was a serious event for her as she had never cooked for anyone else before. This was her first attempt today and it was all for Leon.
âThatâs not a problem. Letâs do this first. I must say that Iâm so lucky to have you cooking for me!â Leon exclaimed excitedly. He was so happy that he nearly wanted to burrow himself into Heatherâs arms.
âHurry up and do your work!â She pushed his head, which was moving closer and closer to her, aside without hesitation. This boy is so hyperactive and I donât want to be his mother figure.
In the end, Leon quickly dug up information on Caleb and recorded everything he foundâregardless of its authenticityâinto a Word file. Meanwhile, Heather looked at him working so skillfully and lamented in her heart, This is my first time seeing him do this.
After some time, Leon finally finished his data collection and he had compiled a fair amount. That was all obtained from multiple different sources, and he had hacked into every other website except for the government agencies.
Heather opened the Word file and she immediately had a headache upon seeing all the words bunched up together. As for Leon, he had done this for the whole afternoon yesterday as well, and repeating this today was a pain for him too.
However, he had his own specific method to remove any similar information and just retain one of it. In no time at all, half of the information was deleted from the Word file.
âLookâeverything is starting to fall into place.â He signaled to Heather with a comical expression and he beamed widely at her as he looked at the end result, feeling a huge sense of accomplishment.
Meanwhile, Heather glanced at her watch and saw that one and a half hours had passed without them realizing it. âHow can you determine the authenticity of all of these results?â she questioned curiously.
Leon smiled without answering her question and he asked, âIsnât it time for you to start on dinner?â
âIâve got another half an hour to go, so Iâd like to briefly go through this information first.â In all honesty, she couldnât wait to look at this half-finished work.
However, he rejected her outright as he smiled cunningly. âHeather, why donât you go and start on dinner earlier? Iâve got one last step to finish and I should be able to finish my work once youâre done preparing dinner.â
It seemed that Leon intentionally wanted to string her along. Heather looked at him indignantly, but all she could see was him clicking on the close button for the Word file. From his actions, it was quite evident that he wasnât prepared to let her join in on the last part of the analysis.
âOkay, then.â She curbed her curiosity and left. After all, it would only take at most one to two hours for her to access the information. There was no need to be anxious about things right now.
And so, she walked out of his bedroom and shut the door lightly after her. Leon then shifted his gaze back to his computer screen and rubbed both of his eyes. Iâll eventually overwork my eyes if I keep this up. He yawned and prepared to continue his work once again.
Very soon, the answer would be revealed and he had his own method to authenticate the information. It was quite a complicated process and it required a lot of brainpower, so he reckoned he would be overworking his brain soon.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, Heather was preoccupied by thoughts of Caleb. A while ago, she had noticed something amiss in the pile of information she had seen. Although she wasnât sure of the authenticity of the information right now, it kept popping up in her mind.
The Moriartys originally owned a corporation in Bradfort City and had close ties with the Langstons.
Furthermore, the Harts were also closely linked with the two families as well. Never in a million years did she expect the Hart family to be implicated too. As far as she knew, since young, the Harts and their family steered clear of each other.
However, she was quite surprised to note the link between the three families and wondered what happened back then. It seemed that something major must have occurred then and been kept a secret, and she couldnât help but link this to the incident where Myra and Tony were trailed by someone when they were abroad. Perhaps the incidents are linked?