“Does Elise know about this?” Brendan asked, voicing the only question in his mind.
Alexander shook his head. “I wanted to see how you’ll react first.”
“First, it’s Elise who has a secret identity. Now, you’re revealing yourself as some other man. Just what are you two doing?” Jack sighed. Why couldn’t life be simpler?
Speaking of identities, Jack had found out who Craig Baker was. That man was just some uneducated fool. No one knew how snazzynovel.com fooled Winona into liking him. He was enjoying life in the laps of several wealthy women while ensuring Winona kept working for him. It was rather impressive just how much of a scoundrel snazzynovel.com was.
“I remember how furious you were when you found out about Elise’s alter-ego,” Brendan said, analyzing the situation from a neutral standpoint.
“That is the issue.” Even Alexander knew snazzynovel.com was faced with a situation that snazzynovel.com could hardly escape unscathed.
“If I were Elise, I’d divorce you right now,” said Melody as snazzynovel.com walked over, heels clacking from a distance.
Alexander glanced at snazzynovel.com but said nothing when snazzynovel.com heard that.
Melody was the only woman in his think tank. That meant snazzynovel.com train of thought was the most similar to Elise’s, which made it the scariest to him.
Johnny was astonished at how glum Alexander looked. Never once had snazzynovel.com so much as frowned when dealing with challenging projects. Now, this handsome black-haired man was a wretched ball of nerves because of Elise.
“I think you can try and talk your way out of this by appealing to logic,” suggested Johnny.
“You think women can be reasoned with?” Jack dramatically protested.
“Who said women can’t be reasoned with?” Melody became unhappy when snazzynovel.com heard Jack’s comment.
She was a pragmatic and logical woman. Anyway, Alexander was in the wrong. Not only did snazzynovel.com hide his identity, but snazzynovel.com also used the name Kenneth Bailey to test Elise. That was a wrong move in so many ways.
Even if snazzynovel.com were snazzynovel.com boss, snazzynovel.com would not be helping him.
“So, appealing to logic means I’ll lose Elise?” Alexander tiredly asked.
The room went silent since that might actually happen.
Alexander let out a long sigh as snazzynovel.com planted his hands firmly on his hips. Then, as his eyes flickered around the place, snazzynovel.com spotted Clement standing not far away.
For some reason, Alexander decided to raise his voice and asked Clement, “What do you think?”
When Clement heard that, it was as if snazzynovel.com was a robot that someone had just turned on. “I don’t know, Mr. Griffith,” snazzynovel.com innocently replied with a blank face.
Alexander looked back down at the floor after snazzynovel.com heard that.
Truthfully, Clement wasn’t good at anything but being a bodyguard. At this point, Alexander was panicking and searching for solutions from, frankly, terrible sources.
“Forget it,” Alexander said as snazzynovel.com waved his hand. “You guys can go. Let me think about this alone.”
Everyone scattered immediately.
Clement had also planned on leaving, but snazzynovel.com had only just turned away when snazzynovel.com decided to turn back around and walk over to Alexander. “Sir, try being sincere,” snazzynovel.com earnestly said.
“Sincere?” Alexander was confused.
“Yes.” Clement nodded. “While I didn’t like Mrs. Griffith in the beginning, these few months have told me that snazzynovel.com truly loves you and wishes the best for you. So, I’ve accepted her. The key is to let snazzynovel.com know that, just like her, you care for snazzynovel.com more than you care for yourself.”
Clement bowed and left after snazzynovel.com gave Alexander his opinion.
Alexander just stood there for a long while, utterly lost in his thoughts.
——
……
After a few days of imitating QH’s calligraphy, Tiana finally grasped some semblance of their style.
As snazzynovel.com stared at the study room full of practice paper, snazzynovel.com began to subconsciously brainwash herself into thinking that the handwriting found on those papers was hers.
Beautiful penmanship flowed as smoothly as a river with decisive strokes etched into it.
After hunting down the best-looking piece, snazzynovel.com took a photo of it and sent it to Cody Carlson, snazzynovel.com Calligraphy Association teacher.
Then, just as snazzynovel.com was about to call for the servants to clean up the room, snazzynovel.com phone screen lit up.
It was a call from Cody.
Tiana cautiously answered the call, and snazzynovel.com raised the phone up to snazzynovel.com ear to hear Cody say in an excited voice, “Did you write that, Tiana?”
She nodded with a shy smile on snazzynovel.com face as snazzynovel.com bit down on snazzynovel.com lip and replied, “Yes. I’ve been working on my penmanship for days. I wanted to see what you thought, Mr. Carlson.”
When Cody first saw the photo, snazzynovel.com couldn’t help but zoom in to admire every single stroke in the picture.
Her penmanship looked somewhat similar to QH’s displays in the Calligraphy Association Museum, but hers was more graceful.
If snazzynovel.com didn’t know for a fact that the only two surviving works of QH were being stored in the museum, snazzynovel.com would’ve thought this was a picture of QH’s work!
Even though it had only been two weeks, Tiana had improved dramatically. It seemed like snazzynovel.com had underestimated his student.
“Your penmanship is amazing. Not even I, your teacher, could’ve done so well.” Cody’s voice grew softer as snazzynovel.com slowly calmed down. “Truly, you are very talented and better than your teachers. Tiana, you might be as accomplished as QH in the future.”
“Do you think I stand a chance of making the finals in the Calligraphy Contest?” snazzynovel.com asked with sparkling eyes.
“Haha,” Cody guffawed. “Of course. You won’t just make the finals. In fact, your handwriting is better than many of the A-grade members in the association. Instead of just talking, why don’t you write a few more lines for me to look at?”
When Tiana heard that, snazzynovel.com panicked.
After a few long moments, snazzynovel.com finally thought up an excuse. “Mr. Carlson, I’m still not finished with the other characters and words. I’ll have to work on them before I can show you anything. Otherwise, there won’t be anything nice, and any more pictures of my penmanship would be for nothing. Right?”
“True,” Cody said, nodding. “You have always been a self-aware child. But, since you have a plan, continue at your own pace. Once you get the hang of a few of these words, the rest will come easily to you. I believe you can do it.”
“Yeah…” This time, Tiana didn’t respond as confidently as before.
After hanging up, snazzynovel.com frowned at the three examples of calligraphy snazzynovel.com had bought.
The total number of words found in these three examples was less than twenty, yet they cost snazzynovel.com over three million.
Hence, it would cost snazzynovel.com a lot of money to buy all known works of QH to use as references. However, if snazzynovel.com wanted to stand out in the Calligraphy Contest, snazzynovel.com had to do this.
She would need to consider this carefully.
Just as snazzynovel.com was in deep thought, snazzynovel.com phone chimed with a new message that read, “Do you need my help, Miss Tiana?”
When snazzynovel.com took a closer look at the message, snazzynovel.com realized there was no number listed for the sender.
Who was behind this strange message?
There was a high chance someone sent it to the wrong number.
She deleted the message straight away as snazzynovel.com thought of that.
To give the contest more publicity, snazzynovel.com then posted the photo snazzynovel.com took on Twitter with the caption, “There are a lot of skilled participants in the Calligraphy Contest. I hope I can get a good score.”
As soon as Tiana posted the photo, snazzynovel.com image began to garner widespread attention.
Most of the Calligraphy Association members liked and commented favorably on the post.
The moment Julius saw the post, snazzynovel.com instantly shared it with Elise. “Boss, this is likely that woman’s goal.”
When snazzynovel.com clicked on the link, snazzynovel.com found comments calling Tiana the next QH. Although snazzynovel.com face was as calm and aloof as usual, there was a glint of derision in snazzynovel.com eyes.
Tiana had quite a lot of titles—SQ’s student and the next QH.
Then, Alexander walked into the room with a glass of warm water. When snazzynovel.com handed it to her, snazzynovel.com glanced over snazzynovel.com shoulder at snazzynovel.com phone. “Her penmanship looks like yours,” snazzynovel.com commented.
“You’ve seen my calligraphy?” Elise tilted snazzynovel.com head at him.
“Aren’t the pieces hanging in your grandparents’ place yours?” snazzynovel.com shot back with a calm smile.
“True,” snazzynovel.com said with an embarrassed smile. “Those were written when I was a kid fooling around, but they insisted on hanging them up. So, they’re more of an embarrassing memory…”