The Sway and Slide of Love

The host of the live stream continued to try steering the conversation back to

Noelle's personal life, but every time she brought it up, Noelle shut it down with a firm denial.

From start to finish, she never mentioned Hendrix's name.

Perhaps frustrated with Noelle's lack of cooperation, the host cut the one-hour interview short, ending it under 30 minutes.

As soon as the stream ended, Noelle received a call from Evelyn, profusely apologizing to her.

"I had no idea they were planning to take that angle. Seriously, are they out of their minds? Both the male and female leads are trending right now-they should've focused on the characters instead! Why must they bring your personal life into it?"

Her words sounded sincere, but Noelle felt no emotional pull. She didn't respond, simply listening in silence.

After rambling on for a while, Evelyn finally noticed Noelle's lack of reaction and timidly asked, "Are you mad?"noveldrama

"There won't be a next time."

With that, Noelle hung up the phone. Then, she turned off the lights and went to bed.

Noelle was genuinely upset, but not enough to hold a grudge.

By the next morning, she had already put the incident behind her. It wasn't until she checked the news that she discovered the podcast account had been banned. To make matters worse, it was the publisher's official account.

Later, the publisher issued a statement on another social media platform, explaining that the host had acted unprofessionally by injecting too much personal bias into the interview. Moreover, they had since severed ties with her.

Noelle had no idea who was behind this decision, nor did she care. She silently closed her phone and continued eating breakfast.

Not long after, there was a movement from across the hall again. This time, it was much quieter-just the sound of someone dragging a suitcase and a faint conversation.

Rosie also heard it and immediately perked up, listening intently.

Noelle tapped her glass. "Eat your food."

"Mommy, do we have new neighbors?" Rosie asked.

Noelle nodded. "Yup."

"I wonder if they had kids," Rosie mused, taking a sip of milk. "I hope it's a little girl. I love playing with little girls."

Noelle had briefly glimpsed the furniture being moved in the day before-genuine leather couches and a marble coffee table, both clearly expensive. They didn't seem like they would belong to a typical resident of this complex.

But as Noelle's neighbors had mentioned, times were tough. Plenty of folks were downsizing, forced to leave their old places for something more affordable. So, perhaps their new neighbor was someone who had to leave their villa and settle here instead.

"Should we go say hi to the new neighbors?" Rosie asked. She was always

curious about new things, even new neighbors.

Noelle, remembering the previous day's events, shook her head. "No. If they have

kids, you'll meet them eventually."

"Okay..." Rosie was a little

disappointed, but when Noelle got ready to take her downstairs, she still carefully picked out a few toys before taking Noelle's hand and heading out the door.

"I've already brought everything over. It's-"

Just then, someone stepped out of the door from across the hall while speaking to someone inside. The moment he saw Noelle, he froze in place.

And he wasn't the only one-Noelle stopped cold, too. She quickly snapped out of

it and asked with a frown, "So, you're the new neighbor?"

"No, Ms. Swanson," Dan hurriedly denied. "I'm just here to deliver some things."

His explanation only made Noelle's expression darken further.