?Chapter 1061:


    By the fourth morning, Rnd caught himself scanning the bus stop for her silhouette before anything else.


    His bus routine had evolved to include searching for vacant double seats. When none were avable, he’d offer his spot to her, only to watch her pass it forward to an elderly passenger. They’d end up standing together, swaying with the bus’s motion.


    Despite the bus route passing her clinic, Rnd couldn’t fathom why someonemanding two thousand dors per hour would choose public transportation.


    The answer seemed singr, yet elusive.


    After a week of this routine, he confronted her at their shared bus stop.


    “What exactly do you want?”


    Amanda’s eyes widened with innocence. “I don’t understand what you mean.”


    “Let’s not pretend these daily meetings are coincidental,” Rnd said, his face a mask of indifference.


    “But they are,” Amanda forced a smile. “Is taking the bus suddenly forbidden?”


    “Stop ying naive,” Rnd snapped. “Tomorrow, I’m switching to the subway. Continue this charade alone if you must.”


    As he brushed past her, Amanda’s voice carried a hollow note he’d never heard before. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve nothing left to lose anyway.” Her tone struck a discordant chord in Rnd’s mind.


    This woman, typically so perceptive and skilled, possessed an uncanny ability to heal people’s minds. As a psychologist, she regrly navigated the darkest corners of human consciousness, yet maintained a sunny disposition. Or so Rnd had thought, until this hidden facet of her personality emerged from the shadows.


    “Why are you acting so pitiful? Your hourly rate equals my monthly sry. If a private driver is beyond reach, surely you can afford your own car? Or is this some borate attempt to catch my attention?”


    gα?ησν????s is your fiction sanctuary


    Rnd’s suspicion wasn’t baseless arrogance. At the factory, female coworkers regrly sought his phone number, a daily urrence he’d grown ustomed to.


    Amanda remained motionless, her eyes hollow pools of despair. “My dad was incarcerated.”


    “What?”


    “They put him behind bars,” she whispered.


    Rnd’s lips tightened into a thin line, his expression remaining cold. “How long?”


    “Life imprisonment.”


    “Must have been quite the offense.”


    “He was framed.” Amanda’s voice cracked on the words.


    ncing at his watch, Rnd responded with thinly veiled impatience, “Take it up with the judge.”


    Amanda’sposure crumbled as tears began streaming down her face. “I can barely keep myself afloat anymore.”


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