Crises in Love (Zora and Jaylan) novel Chapter 537

I shot Hannah a puzzled look. "What do you mean? What's wrong?"

"The name's all wrong! Do you have any idea why I was late coming out?" Hannah asked, her gaze locking onto me as she steered the car onto the road where I had parked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing. I checked his business license."

"Business license?" I was taken aback, looking at her in astonishment. "How did you manage that?"

"Oh, that was a piece of cake. I snuck into his office!" Hannah boasted, her face glowing with pride. "That bar belongs to him, but his name isn't Mason Wood!"

"So, what's his name?" I asked, my curiosity piqued.

"On the business license, his name is Adkins Smith!" Hannah said, passing her phone over to me.

I took the phone, opened the album, and looked at the photo of the license she had snapped. The capital listed wasn't much, just $80,000. But sure enough, the name was Adkins!

"Could you have mistaken him for someone else?" Hannah asked, concern etching her features.

"And how did you confirm that he's the owner?" I was reluctant to believe the truth unfolding before my eyes.

"In his office drawer, I found a photocopy of an ID card. Keep scrolling the album..."

I flicked my finger to continue scrolling through the images, and there it was, the ID photocopy Hannah mentioned. The photo showed the same pumpkin-like round face. I checked the address. It wasn't from Silverdale City at all but from some small town out of state.

Shaking my head in disbelief, I said with certainty, "How is this possible? I'm telling you, I couldn't possibly mistake him!"

"I've sent all this to Logan to check if it's true."

"It can't be true! Even if he were reduced to ashes, I'd recognize him. He's bulked up now, for sure. Used to be skinny as a rail, but now he's built like a bear! Sure, he's changed a lot physically, but I couldn't mistake him!"

I scrutinized the pumpkin face on the photocopy again. "No doubt about it, it's him! And you know, last time I was home, my mom mentioned that the Wood Manor came into my dad's hands because Mason had gotten into trouble and had to sell."

"But it still doesn't add up. Look at the license issue date!" Hannah pointed out. "That license is six years old!"

I examined the date on the license and murmured, "This isn't right."

I whispered, "Similar to Jerome, involved in the black market. He had his fingers in all sorts of illegal pies! Going to jail should have been a dead end for him, so I just don't get it... how did he slip out?"

Hannah went silent.

As Hannah drove past where I had parked, my instincts drew my eyes to the mouth of the alley, where a group of guys was squaring off.

"What's going on there? A brawl?" I quickly pointed it out to Hannah.

"Don't worry about it, just a diversion," Hannah said dismissively. "I've got people keeping tabs on him."

"Then let's head back," I suggested.

But the image of the Wood Manor had already etched itself into my mind.

It seemed that Wood Manor was indeed attracting a lot of attention.