You Looked Down on Me Once, Now You Look Up. novel Chapter 509

Breakfast spots were hard to come by around here.

But once night fell, the whole neighborhood transformed—the restaurants lit up, crowds spilled onto the sidewalks, and the air buzzed with the smell of food and chatter.

At a street vendor’s stall, Brandon ordered two steamed buns and a cup of soy milk. He was just about to scan his phone and pay when a calm, clear voice spoke up right next to him. “Same as him. How much for both?”

“Eight yuan.”

“Sixteen, I’ll pay for both,” she said.

Brandon awkwardly stood there, bun halfway to his mouth, not sure whether to keep eating or set it down.

By five thirty, he was waiting by the police station entrance when Patricia showed up.

She wore black-rimmed glasses, a gray baseball cap, simple jeans, and a white tee—she looked more like a college student than anything else, all understated and fresh.

“Surprised to see me, Mr. Lantz?” she teased.

Brandon swallowed his bite slowly, washed it down with a sip of soy milk, then finally answered, “How could I not be?”

“Since when did Ms. Martin start treating me like her secret weapon?”

“I always thought we were friends,” he said, a little too honest.

Friends? Brandon almost laughed at the idea.

A billionaire’s wife—friends with a regular cop like him? If they were really friends, would he still be just a detective in this small city?

He glanced across the street, watching a sanitation truck rumble by. “Come on, Mrs. Padilla, don’t joke like that.”

“But you’ve been helping me behind the scenes, haven’t you, Mr. Lantz?” she pressed. “Always quietly moving things along, always watching—but never letting yourself get too close. What are you really struggling with?”

“What is it you’re wrestling with, Mr. Lantz? I guess in your eyes, I’m somewhere between good and bad, right? Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so torn.”

Brandon shifted, letting a patch of early summer sunlight spill over her. “So, Mrs. Padilla, are you the hero or the villain in your own story?”

“To some people, I’m the villain. But to most, I’m the good guy.”

“Who are those ‘some people’?” Brandon asked, not letting it go.

Patricia didn’t hesitate. “Theo. Emerson.”

“So the rumors are true? You came back just for revenge?” he asked quietly.

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