Chapter 1761
Both Ernest and Liam were a little surprised to hear the news. Why did they suddenly leave without
informing them?
Liam thought something was off. He knew that Maria wouldn''t leave without an excuse.
His expression sank and he turned to look at Ernest.
Ernest''s face was pale and he seemed a little solemn.
The two of them exchanged confused nces with each other.
When neither of them spoke, the butler, Pedro, hurriedly asked, "Is everything alright?"
"Did they seem off when they left?" Liam asked Pedro.
Pedro shook his head and thought carefully before saying, "No, I heard Miss Maria tell Miss
Winston that she wanted to go out for a drive the moment I entered the house. They told me to tell
you so you guys wouldn''t get worried."
"They''re just going out for a drive?" Liam was still surprised. He took out his mobile phone and
called Maria.
Soon, the call was picked up, but Leah was the one who answered the phone.
Leah''s calm voice came through the phone, "Hi Mr. Robinson, it''s Leah. I''m out with Maria right now.
You won''t mind me spending some time with her apart from you, right?"
"Leah, why did you guys suddenly decide to go out? Can''t Maria answer the phone?" Liam asked,
confused.
"She''s driving. She said she''s not very good at it, so it''s best for her to concentrate on the road for
now. She''ll call you backter," Leah exined.
When Ernest heard that Liam was talking to Leah, he hurriedly said, "Pass me the phone. I want to
speak to Leah."
Liam then told Leah, "Hold on. Ernest wants to talk to you."
When Leah heard this, she remained silent.
At that moment, the phone seemed to have been passed over to someone else.
Ernest took the phone from Liam and asked, "Leah?"
There was a pause on the other side of the phone. After a few seconds, Ernest called out again,
"Leah, are you there?"
But this time, it was Maria who answered him, "Hello, Ernest. It''s Maria. I thought this was Liam''s
phone?"
"Maria?" Ernest frowned. No matter how calm Maria sounded, he could feel that something was off
with her tone.
"Yes, it''s me. Don''t worry. Leah and I are just going out for a short drive. We''ll take good care of
ourselves. You can be rest assured. Please stop calling us for the time being. It''ll be a hassle for us
to pick up the phone since we''re driving."
When Ernest heard this, he felt his heart tighten.
He felt a little suffocated.
"Pass Leah the phone. I want to talk to her," Ernest grunted.
"You can talk to her after we get back. Alright, I''m hanging up now," Without giving Ernest a chance
to ask anything else, Maria hung up the phone just like that.
At that moment, Ernest felt that something was wrong. No matter how slow he was in catching up to
situations, he knew that Leah was deliberately avoiding him, and Maria was intentionally avoiding
Liam.
The two girls had obviously gone away on purpose to avoid him and Liam.
Maria did not even give him a chance to talk to
Leah.
Once the call ended, Ernest returned the phone to Liam.
Liam frowned and looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. They looked at each other in
bewilderment.
"They don''t want to talk to us, do they?" Liam asked.
"Well, it''s obvious that they don''t want to talk to us. Maria wouldn''t let me talk to Leah, and Leah
wouldn''t let you talk to Maria," Ernest sighed.
"I don''t understand why Maria is avoiding me. I don''t think I''ve offended her in any way. We weren''t
fighting before this. What''s going on? Am I overthinking it?" Liam was very puzzled.
"I don''t think you are. I can understand why Leah doesn''t want to talk to me, but I can''t work out why
Maria would suddenly ignore you and leave with Leah. Something seems wrong," Ernest said with a
sigh.
"What on earth happened?" Liam knitted his brows.
The two men deliberated over the matter for a long while, but they still couldn''t figure it out.
They thought that the change had happened too abruptly, so they were caught off guard.
Amidst their quiet contemtion, Pedro slipped away and disappeared from sight.
By the time Liam and Ernest came to their senses, Pedro had already left the living hall.
Ernest frowned and whispered, "I think Pedro might know something. I''ll ask him about it first, then
you should give Maria another call. Maybe Maria went out with Leah to help Leah clear her
thoughts. After all, I don''t think you and Maria should have any problems going on between you
two."
"I hope that''s true."
Liam was not as optimistic as Ernest. He could feel that something had gone wrong with Maria, but
he didn''t know what the problem was.
He knew that it was highly unlikely that it was nothing.
In the meantime, Ernest rushed to the kitchen. He was going to find Pedro and ask him about Maria
and Leah.
He knew that Pedro was a gossip, so he was certain that the man must know something.
After all, he didn''t think that Pedro would pass up an opportunity to ask Leah and Maria about their
spontaneous trip outdoors in detail.
Soon, Ernest arrived at the kitchen and saw Pedro whispering to the cook.
At that moment, Pedro had his back to Ernest. He did not see Erneste in.
The chef, on the other hand, was visibly taken aback. Panicking, he said in a loud voice, "Master
Ernest, you''re here. Is there anything I can do for you?"
Ernest''s eyes were fixed on Pedro''s back for a brief moment.
Almost immediately, Ernest noticed that Pedro''s back stiffened. Suddenly, Pedro turned around and
shed a fake smile at Ernest, "Master Ernest, why are you here? Are you hungry? Let me prepare
some food for you."
"Don''t y dumb with me," Ernest''s voice was gruff, "Mr. Butler, you know why Maria and Leah left
without a word to me or Liam, don''t you? Tell me everything you know."
Pedro immediately shook his head and feigned ignorance, "Master Ernest, how would I know? Why
are you speaking to me as if I know something you don''t? Shouldn''t you be more knowledgeable
about matters concerning Leah?"
Ernest''s eyes sharpened at Pedro''s tone.
All the while, Pedro was still looking at him with an innocent smile.
However, Ernest knew that the man was not as innocent as he seemed.
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"You better cut this out and tell me everything you know!" Ernest red at Pedro threateningly.
His gaze was very intimidating. Pedro avoided looking into Ernest''s eyes and tried tough it off,
"Master Ernest, why are you using me like that? I really don''t know what you want me to say.
How would I know more than you do? Besides, Miss Maria and Miss Winston wouldn''t have told me
what they were up to even if I asked. What can an old man like me know?"
"Fine! Keep your secrets. Let''s see how long you can keep pretending that you know nothing,"
Ernest said solemnly.
Ernest''s sharp tone overwhelmed Pedro a little. When had Master Ernest, who was always gentle
and elegant, be so intimidating?
The young man had a very sharp tongue.
"I really don''t know anything much. All I know is the twodies'' faces looked very pale and they
looked quite upset before they left. I really don''t know what''s going on, I swear," Pedro continued, "It
seems like the both of you don''t know what''s wrong with thedies as well. To be honest, I''m quite
worried about them, but I don''t want to make any wrong guesses. I swear that I''ve told you
everything I know!" "They looked upset?" Ernest frowned and asked once more, "Are you sure that
Maria looked upset as well?"
Pedro frowned, "I''m sure. Miss Maria looked a lot more upset than Miss Winston. When they saw
me, they even pretended as if nothing was out of the ordinary and smiled at me."
"To be honest, I feel a bit upset that the two girls were forcing a smile when they saw me."
"However, I know that it is not my ce to ask too much. I really don''t know what happened. Did
you guys have a fight or something?"
Ernest carefully observed Pedro for a long while. Eventually, he decided that Pedro seemed to be
telling the truth.
Yet, Ernest couldn''t figure out why Maria had looked upset.
Was it because of Celeste?
He didn''t think it was a big deal.
After all, Liam had not even been together with Celeste before. He didn''t know why Maria would get
angry over something like that.
His expression sank further.
Meanwhile, Liam kept calling Maria, but no one answered the phone.
After he called Maria for a consecutive three times with no answer given, he received a short
message from her asking him to stop calling her as she was driving.
The message made Liam feel uneasy.
He really didn''t know what he had done wrong. He sent a message to Maria and asked, "What''s
wrong? Can you please answer my calls? We can talk it out. You didn''t have to leave without saying
a word."
Leah read the message and nced at Maria, "Liam sent you a message. Do you want to reply to
him? He seems to be really worried about you."
Maria just smiled, "Just ignore him."
"Are you sure? I think that he''s really worried about you," Leah said.
"I''m worried that once I hear him speak, I''ll not be able to stop myself from crying. I don''t want to
show him how upset I am. My emotions are my own business to deal with," Maria lowered her head
to cover up the sudden destion and bitterness that appeared in her eyes.
Even though she had long known about Liam''s feelings for Celeste, she could not help but get
upset.
Leah could tell that Maria was truly hurt.
When Leah saw how depressed Maria had be, she felt that nothing she said would be able to
lift Maria''s spirits. It seemed that she would not be able tofort Maria with any of her words.
After all, Leah herself was upset, too.
What mattered now was how they would respond to the situation.
Even though they had known that both Liam and Ernest had feelings for Celeste, they couldn''t help
themselves from feeling sad.
They were both wallowing in self pity.