Flora’s Guide to a Second Chance at Love and Life novel Chapter 1976

Lucy nodded and followed Bentley downstairs.

Meanwhile, Amy stood quietly behind the door, listening in on every word. She recorded the whole conversation and sent the file straight to Fiona, hoping it would help. And if it didn’t, at least she’d prove her worth to Fiona.

…

Back at her apartment, Fiona flopped onto the couch, stretching out lazily. When her phone buzzed with a new audio message, she played it on double speed. As Amy’s recording finished, a sly little smile curled on her lips.

So Amy’s parents really were in on the whole Country M Research Institute deal, and they had their own connections, too. That meant there was no telling how many people in the States were tangled up with the institute—or how many “chip people” they might have smuggled in already.

This was important. After she finished listening, Fiona deleted the message right away. What mattered now was tracking down every company that had done overseas business in recent years. Sure, it’d be like looking for a needle in a haystack, but it was still better than doing nothing.

She opened her laptop and started typing. The computer was running code to sift through the data. Fiona loaded up the information and left it to churn—she knew it could take all night, especially with a database this massive.

With nothing else to do but wait, she figured she might as well get some sleep. Besides, she had an early class the next morning. She’d already missed a bunch of days. Even if she didn’t need to show up every time, she was still officially a student. She couldn’t just skip all the time.

Food was her ultimate weakness. She scrambled out of bed and headed to the bathroom. Jackson, seeing she was really up, went to the kitchen, set out breakfast, and waited. Once Fiona finished getting ready, she didn’t go straight to the table—she made a beeline for her laptop on the living room rug, sitting cross-legged and tinkering for a bit before finally joining Jackson.

She dug into the sweet, silky tofu pudding, practically inhaling it. The smooth texture and subtle sweetness made her whole mood lift.

Jackson watched her with an amused smile. “What were you working on so early?”

“I pulled together a report last night—almost thirty years’ worth—on companies doing business with Country M. I just checked: over fifty thousand companies have had some kind of deal with them. About thirty thousand are just routine stuff, but there are still twenty thousand I need to look into. No details from them yet, so I’ll have to dig deeper.”