Chapter 567: Resent Reject Regret By Aqua Summers Chapter 568

Chapter 568 Gambit It was as if Deirdre had been submerged in freezing water.

Not getting any response, the voice continued. “Bren? Are you there?”

Still as gentle and chummy as ever. The only thing that changed about his tone was a slight hint of confusion caused by Deirdre’s prolonged silence.

She felt as though her chest had exploded. Her eyes were red.

It was Declan. It was Declan’s voice!

She thought she had mistaken his voice for another, but the second time he spoke dispelled any of her uncertainty. Her brain blanked, and in a fit of anxiety, she accidentally slid the screen and caused the call to end.

The heater was working in full force, yet she felt her body ravaged by jolts of chill. Her teeth were chattering. Crouching low, she felt a nest of hornets being unleashed inside her skull, buzzing.

What was going on!?

Hadn’t Declan said he was no longer talking to Brendan? Had he not claimed that they were now even less familiar with one another than strangers?

Then what was with that call? What was with that… tone? That address?

Had it not been for Brendan’s fever, Deirdre would have never been able to accept his call and realized she had been played for a fool this whole time!

But that only brought out more questions. Why would Declan lie to her? Why would he do that? Why would he claim not to be friends with Brendan only to contact him as friends behind her back?

As confusion and panic seized her, the phone rang again. Deirdre was so startled her grip loosened, and the phone fell onto the floor, still ringing. She took a deep breath, calming herself the best she could, and answered it.

Declan sounded downright perplexed. ‘Why did you hang up, man? You still hold a grudge against me?”

A grudge?

She bit her lips and answered, “Mr. King, it’s me.”

Declan was startled. “Miss McKinnon!?”

His surprise was impossible to disguise, but he managed to calm down from it. “But this is Brighthall’s phone! Why are you the one answering?”

Deirdre closed her eyes and opened them again. “It’s… complicated. I’ll explain it to you, but I need you to come clean before that. Why are you calling Brendan today, and why do you sound so friendly with him?”

She could not possibly calm down. Charlene had revealed that Brendan and Declan not only knew each other, but they were also very close, which was just the kind of knowledge that would fuel her paranoia.

Charlene’s information was a directly contrasting account to the one Declan had provided, after all. It completely flipped what Deirdre knew in its head.

“If the two of you… If the two of you have been this close this whole time, then why did you lie? What’s your ulterior motive!?”

“Miss McKinnon, hey,” Declan replied reassuringly, trying to mollify her. ” Calm down a little. I’ll answer your questions because I get why you’re worried, but please don’t take this the wrong way. It’s not what you think it is.”

Deirdre gulped, swallowing the vortex of emotions Declan’s call had summoned. “Oh yeah? Then what is it?”

“I know what you think. You probably think we are friends because I made a call like this to him, and so I must have lied to you about the nature of our friendship. But I didn’t. Our friendship ended a long time ago. It’s gone up in smoke.”

Deirdre shook her head hard. “No, no! I can’t believe you think you can just fool me again! Mr. King, I respect you because you’re a good man. I’ve always liked you for that, but you can’t just abuse that trust and respect. You can’t just play me like a fool!”

“I’m not doing that at all.” Declan chuckled tiredly. “Look, this is a really complicated issue, but if I have to summarize it, then it’s this: I’m in a bind.”

She froze.

“This is the kind of thing only Brendan can help me with. I know we’re like strangers to each other now, but I’m trying a gambit… for my sake.”