---- Chapter 6 Bloomberg Group suddenly received a lot of orders for one of its overseas projects, so Timothy only came home the next day in a rush to pack some of his suits before leaving for his business trip. He never mentioned a word about not coming back home the previous night to Madeline. And, just like that, she was left alone at home once more. The second day after Timothy left, Madeline started preparing her paperwork. Too many cases had happened during the few days she'd taken off work, and they were now stressing her out. After a few back-to-back meetings in the morning, she'd then gone to every department to run through the cases with them one by one. When she got home after work, Madeline removed her makeup, freshened up, and changed into a set of activewear. She put her hair up in a ponytail and went out. She jogged along the path close to the forest ---- garden, stopping occasionally to take in large breaths of fresh air, remaining calm all throughout. She ran for a little over a mile before stopping at a stone bench to stretch and cool off. She even received a call from Timothy then. He sounded like he was outside, and there was a lot of background noise too. She even heard a female voice on the line, and Madeline couldn't help but feel sensitive toward it. She asked him, "Where are you? Who are you with?" Timothy just answered, "I'm at the garment factory." Madeline said nothing. She hated it whenever he answered her with perfunctory responses like this. He knew very well what she meant by asking that, and yet, he always pretended not to know. Sensing Madeline's silence, Timothy changed the topic to something more lighthearted to cheer her up. "Miss me yet?" ---- She didn't bother humoring him. "You just left. I don't miss you." "Really? You're not missing me?" he asked again, slower this time. He then quickly changed the topic and asked, "Are you outdoors? Nobody answered the phone at home." Timothy changed the topic so suddenly that Madeline couldn't quite keep up with his train of thought. "No? I just came back from work." Just then, a woman in pink knitted activewear was jogging in Madeline's direction from afar, with a Samoyed on a leash. As soon as Madeline caught sight of her, she could feel her blood begin to boil. She got worked up at once, but amidst her heart beating more quickly than ever, she still felt unusually excited at the same time. The rush of adrenaline had nothing to do with anything joyful-it felt more like she was actively anticipating something she was immensely curious about, even though she knew that it ---- wasn't a good thing to happen. Madeline gripped her phone a little harder and said in a hurry, "I'm jogging at the park near our place." Hearing this, Timothy's tone suddenly turned stern and slightly anxious. 'Don't jog anymore and hurry home." Madelin didn't seem to hear him, however. She just stared as the woman and her dog came closer and closer to her. Timothy was still going on and on about something on the phone, but Madeline wasn't listening to him anymore. She hung up on him and greeted the woman, who had slowed to a stop before her. "Hi, do you know if there's a convenience store nearby? I just moved here, and I'm not too familiar with the neighborhood yet," she said. Madeline looked at Lacey and the huge dog she was walking. Then, she smiled at Lacey and said, " Just go straight for one block and turn left."