Norah was really upset, her teeth almost sinking into her lip. But she had to put up a fake gentle smile as she followed behind the two.

When they arrived home, the three of them noticed a luxury car that they had never seen before parked up in front of the door.

Feeling curious, Gloria entered the house with her two daughters and saw a well-dressed man sitting across Daniel.

Even if the man was not facing them directly, his extraordinary charm made it impossible for people to take their eyes off him.

Norah had never seen such a good-looking man before. She rushed up to Gloria and said, “Mom, who is that person?”

Gloria shook her head and walked in. “Hey, Daniel.”

When Daniel saw Gloria and his daughters, he quickly got up and introduced them. “Jared, this is my wife, and this is my younger daughter.”

As Daniel introduced Nicole to Jared Johnston, the affection on his face was plain to see.

Norah was waiting for Daniel to introduce her, but Daniel did not even spare her a glance.

Jared’s glacial eyes swept over the three of them, and then he stood up and nodded to Nicole. “Hello, I am Jared.”

Jared's words startled Gloria and Norah.

The friendship between the Johnston and Riddle families spanned across generations. Mr. Johnston Sr. and Mr. Riddle Sr. had made a marriage arrangement for their grandchildren in the early years, and Jared was the fiancé whom Norah had been hearing about but had never met. Jared had been studying abroad before.

She did not expect that when Jared finally returned to the country, she was no longer the daughter of the Riddle family.

Noticing that Jared was staring at Nicole, jealousy turned into thorns pricking Norah in the heart. She felt hurt even when breathing.

It was all Nicole’s fault for not coming back at the right time. Otherwise, she would be the only person Jared saw now.

“Nicole.”

The man in front of him was truly charming, but Nicole simply responded with her name and said nothing else.

Gloria felt awkward but guessed that Nicole had just returned, not knowing who Jared was. So, she quickly explained, “Nicole’s is simple and forthright. Hope you don’t mind.”

Jared could not help but take a second look at Nicole. “It is alright. I like such a forthright personality.”

What he said elated Daniel and Gloria.

Jared was the most outstanding grandchild of the Johnston family. It would be great if Nicole could get his likes.

Nicole looked at Jared’s dark eyes and felt that there was more to this man than met the eye. She was good at reading people, but this man had an unfathomable look in the eyes.

The three of them sat down together. Gloria deliberately let Nicole and Jared sit next to each other, and Norah could only sit down by herself.

Nicole felt it weird, wondering why she was seated next to a stranger.

Just then, Jared held up the coffee cup and continued. “My grandfather has not been feeling well recently and wants to meet my fiancée. I know it is odd, but so I am here today.”

Nicole was completely dumbfounded. “Fiancée?” What the hell was going on?

When Daniel coughed nervously, Gloria got the hint and hurriedly said, “Nicole, you just came back, and we hadn’t told you that your grandfather and Mr. Johnston Sr. made a marriage arrangement for you. Jared is your fiancé.”

“What?”

'What the hell?'

She had only been back to the Riddle family for two days and had not even met all the family members. Yet here she met her fiancé?

As cool as she was, she could no longer stay calm. “Arranged marriage, seriously, Mom? Don’t you think this is too outrageous?”

Who would still get married by arranged marriages nowadays?

“I know it is hard for you to accept, but that was the practice during your grandfather’s time,” Daniel said helplessly.

He and Gloria had also worried about this before, but when they saw Jared was such an excellent man, they hoped Nicole would find a good husband like him.

Nicole’s face turned pale, but Norah thought Nicole took things for granted. “Nicole, I was supposed to marry Jared, but now since you have returned, I should return what is rightfully yours. You must not let down Grandpa.”

Norah finally caught everyone’s attention, and even Jared was now looking at her.

Norah saw Jared looking at her, her heart instantly pounding, her face blushed. She let out a smile like a fine lady.

Jared sized her up and said, “So she is the adopted daughter of the Riddle family?”

Jared emphasized the word "adopted" when he spoke. It made Norah feel like a basin of icy water pouring on her head.

This was the biggest thorn in her heart. Norah did not expect Jared to say it so directly. For a moment, the smile froze on her face. She did not want to admit it, but she could not deny it either. All she could do now was to bite her lip with a hurt feeling, her eyes reddening, looking as if she deserved pity.

Norah had known since she was a child that she was not as outstanding as her parents and brothers in terms of looks, but being the sole daughter of the family was her advantage. Usually, she just needed to use the victim card, and everyone would soften and not hurt her again. It was a trick that had always been working.

But Jared did not seem to buy this. He said indifferently, “I appreciate what our grandpas have done for us, but the times are different now. If you do not agree to this marriage, you may also take this opportunity to cancel the arrangement with my grandpa.”

It sounded matter of course to Jared, as if it was just a weather chat. But it completely stunned Daniel and Gloria. “Cancel the marriage arrangement?”

Nicole keenly caught a glimpse of the determination in the man’s eyes and suddenly realized that he was seizing the opportunity of her return and came to sound her out, and encouraged her to withdraw the marriage arrangement.

It seemed that he did not want this marriage either. Just that Mr. Johnston Sr. refused, and so he came to dissuade her from agreeing to this marriage.

Nicole frowned slightly. She did not like to be manipulated, and hated being used even more.

“The Johnston family is prominent in San Joto, and Mr. Johnston, you are older than me. It is inappropriate for a little girl like me to cancel the marriage arrangement, and it is going to make the Johnston family look bad.”

Nicole called herself a little girl, but her composure did not look like an eighteen-year-old at all.

Jared looked sideways at Nicole but only met with her unfathomable eyes, his heart trembling inexplicably as if he had been seen through by this precocious little girl.

That was interesting.

As Daniel and Gloria came out of their shock, Daniel said in a deep voice, “Nicole is right. It was Mr. Johnston Sr. who proposed the marriage arrangement. If Nicole were to back off from this engagement, it would upset Mr. Johnston Sr.”

Besides, the impact of canceling the engagement would affect Nicole dearly, and they needed more time to think about it.

Even if Nicole really wanted to back off from the engagement, it should not be Nicole who brought this up. It would jeopardize the friendship between the two families if things were not handled properly.

But the marriage engagement between the two families had long been spread far and wide in San Joto. If the Johnston family was to cancel the engagement, it was going to affect Nicole, too.

Seeing that the Riddle family was in a predicament, Jared thought for a moment and said, “Since it is a matter of two families, whichever side proposes it will hurt the friendship of the two families. So it is better for Nicole and I to go back to the Johnston family together and explain it to my grandfather.”

“Nicole, what do you think?” Daniel and Gloria were very optimistic about this marriage, but if Nicole was not into it, they were not going to force it.

So what if it would affect her reputation? If their daughter chose not to get married, they were willing to support her for a lifetime.

“Sure. Set a time.” Nicole had no objection.

As much as she disliked this pretentious guy, she was more opposed to losing her freedom, especially when she had just returned home. She had more important things to do.

“Then wait until my grandpa gets better and I will come and pick up.” Jared smiled politely at Nicole.

Nicole nodded and said, “Okay.”

Norah watched and quietly cursed as Nicole rejected such a good marriage with just a few words. Not willing to let go, she glanced at Jared and thought of a plan.

After some pleasantries, Jared got up and left, refusing to let Daniel and Gloria see him out.

But Norah insisted, and Daniel let her be. That was the least they could do.

Seeing Jared leave, Daniel looked at Nicole with concern. “Are you really going to back off from the engagement?”

Norah was looking forward to this marriage before this. But when Nicole returned and Jared came to discuss the withdrawal of the engagement, Nicole agreed to it, to their surprise.

They did not want to interfere with it, but they still felt that they were missing such an excellent man like Jared as their son-in-law. Nicole might regret it in the future.

“I am still young and studies are my priority.” Nicole made an excuse that was often seen on TV.

“Nicole is right. She is still young and will have more choices in the future.” Gloria was relieved, and Daniel did not insist anymore.

Outside the door, Norah was seeing Jared out.

Jared now felt unfriendly, completely opposite the gentleness and humility when he was talking inside.

But in order to achieve her goal, Norah still plucked up enough courage and said, “Jared, my sister does not know any better. Please don’t mind what she said for wanting to cancel the engagement.”

Jared glanced sideways at Norah. “I don’t mind.”

Norah was not sure if it was an illusion; Jared seemed to become even more unapproachable.

But there was only one chance, and Norah selectively ignored it, pretending to be shy as she continued. “Actually, before my sister came back, I was your fiancée. Unfortunately, it has all changed.”

After hinting it so obviously, Norah bowed her head shyly, waiting for Jared to respond.

Yet, Jared’s eyes suddenly darkened and his voice icy when he said, “Fish eyes can never be passed off as pearls. All things should return to their rightful places.”

Norah’s face turned pale.

Raising her head and looking at Jared again, she saw his frosty expression. His icy gaze was so in-your-face, piercing into her heart and making her tremble.

Just then, the Johnston family driver had pulled the car up. Jared got into the car and instructed the driver to drive him off.

Norah slowly came out of her daze as she watched the car leave.

Was Jared ridiculing her as just a fish eye and Nicole was the pearl?

Why... Why did these people discard her like garbage when Nicole returned?

“It is all Nicole’s fault!”

Had Nicole not returned, she would have always been the princess of the Riddle family, enjoying the wealth of her parents, the favor of her brothers, and Jared would have been hers.

Norah stared back at the door of the living hall with an extremely sinister look in her eyes. She did not want to be sent away. She was not going to leave this family. Everything here should rightly belong to her.

Upstairs, Nicole had taken a shower and gotten changed, finally getting a moment of peace.

With nothing to do, she turned on her computer.

After fiddling with the normal Windows interface for a while, a mysterious window popped up, revealing a list of The Hunter jobs inside.

Looking at the list of jobs, a head portrait flashed in the private chat window. She clicked open it and saw the teammate codenamed Specter talking to her. [Lucifer, you have been offline for many days. Where have you been?]

[Just living a few days of normal life,] Nicole calmly replied.

[You have been on the wanted list online. I can’t believe that you can still enjoy a normal life.] Specter showed her a few screenshots. While she was away for the past few days, someone had pinned an order at the top, and she was the target.

[Isn’t that common?] Nicole smirked, not taking it seriously.

In the dark web called The Hunters, whether it was The Hunters Union or a lone Hunter, it was common to offend someone because of taking on certain jobs. Most of the jobs she had accepted this year were big cases, and it was normal that she was now wanted.

[Common? Didn’t you see the bounty? It is $10 million!] Specter attached an emoji that showed as if he was about to crawl out of the screen.

[Oh, yeah?] Nicole clicked an icon, and sure enough, she saw the reward of the job, which was the highest reward of this year. It seemed that she had stepped on someone’s toes, and that person was offering a $10 million bounty to come after her. That was interesting.

If she was not the one being wanted, she would have taken on the job.

“Oh, yeah? You should lie low from now on and don’t expose yourself.”

Nicole looked at the screen and replied sarcastically, [Worry about yourself. The entire world knows that you and I have worked together.]

She was confident of staying undetected as no one had found her for so many years. Specter was her partner, but she was not sure how well Specter could hide.

[Damn it! You just reminded me; I almost forgot. I had better stay offline from now on. Take care.] Specter went dark right after.

Nicole shook her head at Specter's nervousness. It was she who was wanted, not Specter.

Nicole let out a sigh and continued to browse through the list. Risking her safety, she picked a job that offered an attractive reward, and then shut down the computer and went to sleep.

Unbeknownst to her, her actions were provocative to someone else. A tall man was looking at the web page with sullen eyes in a dark room somewhere. He had finally settled things about his fiancée today. What really caused him a headache was this hacker. The phone rang, and he picked it up.

“Mr. Johnston, Lucifer appeared again and even accepted a job,” Max, Jared’s assistant, said in disbelief.

Jared’s eyes darkened and said coldly, “I saw it.”

Lucifer, the most powerful hacker in The Hunters, had caused him to lose a lot of money three months ago. He had been looking for this hacker, but she had not appeared. So he had to put a bounty on her.

When she suddenly went online today, Jared immediately sent someone to trace her location.

He had failed to defeat Lucifer’s firewall, and Lucifer had successfully gone online and accepted a job before going dark again. This was nothing short of a provocation to him.

“What do we do?” Max did not know what to do. “She was online for quite a while, yet our people could not trace her down.”

Jared’s eyes darkened as he loosened his bow tie and said coldly, “Since we can’t catch her, then let’s bait her.”

“You have an idea?” Max was relieved.

Jared squinted and said again in a bitter voice, “No matter what job she has accepted today, find the client and take over.”

He could catch her as long as he became the client.

“Yes! Understood.” Max nodded and hung up.

Jared put down his phone and stared at Lucifer’s avatar, and scoffed. “I lost a hundred million dollars because of you. I am going to catch you.”

Three days had passed in the blink of an eye. Nicole had officially returned to the Riddle family, and almost everything except her school was in place.

Daniel and Gloria were eager to seek help from Damien, Daniel’s eldest brother. So Daniel planned to take Nicole back to see Damien, and Sean was coming back to pick them up.

Inside the car, Daniel could not help telling Gloria. “No matter what Damien and his wife say today, stay calm for the sake of our child.”

“Got it,” Gloria replied with a martyred look.

Sean could see Nicole’s perplexity and whispered, “Our two aunts may be a little mean when they talk. Don’t take it to heart.”

“Got it.” Nicole nodded. Seeing Gloria’s nervous look, she knew that the two aunts must be nasty.

Nicole thought for a moment, and then took out her phone and sent a text message.

Sean started the car. Norah smiled and waved at the four of them. “Be safe, Mom, Dad, Sean.”

“I will.” Sean did not look at her but fired up the engine immediately. Even Daniel and Gloria did not talk to her.

Watching the car drive away, Norah’s eyes were filled with a look of indignation. They all would take her along when they went to her grandpa’s place before this. But now, they just took Nicole alone. She was not qualified to go with them after their biological daughter had returned. “Nicole, I’d like to see how a hillbilly like you gets into Royal Creek Institute!”

She knew the two aunts very well. When she first wanted to enter Royal Creek Institute, they all found a thousand and one ways to stop her. Now it would be even more impossible for a country girl like Nicole to get their help.

She would like to know how else Nicole could compete with her.