"I'm staying in his apartment right now."
That word came like a tidal wave that hit Chloe right in her core. The hand holding the phone started to tremble, and Chloe's face got paler as she had already assumed the worst might have happened.
Dorothea already knew the identity of Vernon as her benefactor, and there was definitely a mole around her.
But Chloe still tried to play it off, hoping that Dorothea was just bluffing to catch her off guard and accidentally spilled Vernon's identity by herself.
"W—What do you mean by apartment, D—Dorothea?" Chloe acted calmly, but she kept stuttering out of nervousness. "He— um… I don't think he… has an apartment…."
"You're not really good at lying, Chloe," Dorothea said bluntly, and Chloe muttered 'sorry' out of reflex.