Chapter 273 Crayson’s Bad Fall
Veronica beamed as she showed her hand.
She had been on a roll since the beginning of the last few rounds, and she was working her way into a winning streak.
Matthew, on the other hand, had on the ideal poker face as he sat stoically next to her. Little did he know that Ruka, who was perched on the seat behind him, was aware of the basic rules of poker even if she hardly ever played. She had watched in grim disbelief as he discarded cards that would have given him a good hand and feigned bad luck by folding during bets. He was pulling back to let Veronica win.
With her newly-boosted confidence, Veronica got her head in the game and began to slay. As a result, her bank account with a meager sum of seventeen thousand had an additional amount of hundred and fifty thousand dollars!
In fact, she wasn’t the only winner; Xavier and Matthew had won several rounds as well, leaving Yvonne as the odd one out who somehow managed to lose over four hundred thousand dollars during the game.
“Oh, man, talk about sore luck,” she moaned ruefully. She turned to look at Conrad in despair. “Conrad, you said you were gonna sponsor me, right? We’re splitting this fifty-fifty.”
“She has a point, Uncle Conrad,” Veronica sang, so happy that she was oblivious to how Matthew had let her win most of the rounds. “I told you to sponsor me and you refused to. Bet you’re licking your wounds now.”
Conrad shook his head in mock exasperation. “Oh, I should have listened to you, Veronica,” he said melodramatically.
Meanwhile, Matthew leaned into his seat and stared at the cards he was holding: three Kings and two Aces. He had a full house, and if he had shown his hand, he would have won the pot for sure. There was at least twenty grand worth of winnings after the bet was raised, but at the last minute, he\ decided to let Veronica win. Folding, he tossed his cards into the center pile and pointed out nonchalantly, “Someone’s on a roll.”
“Of course. I’ve never lost a game of poker,” Veronica said proudly, unaware that her poker skills were no match for Matthew’s even though she was admittedly better than average players.
“Winner buys everyone a meal,” Yvonne piped up, wiggling her brows at Veronica as if to remind the latter that lunch and dinner would be on her.
Veronica nodded. “I’m more than happy to.”
“Luck was on your side as well, Young Master Xavier,” Conrad remarked.
Xavier smiled. “It loved Roni a little more though.”
Leaving the men to their conversation, Veronica rose from her seat and made a beeline for the restroom. She had been so focused on winning the pot that she refused to relieve herself.
Not long after, she came out of the restroom stall and headed for the communal sink area to wash her hands, only to see Matthew standing there with a cigarette in hand.
She gave him a cursory glance and said nothing. For a moment, neither of them exchanged a word, and she started to powder her nose while staring into the mirror.
Just then, her phone rang. She quickly capped her lipstick and wiped her hands with a tissue, then fished out her phone from her purse. When she saw Daniella’s name flashing on the screen, she picked up the call. “Hey, Mom.”
“Oh, thank goodness the call got through. Where are you right now, Veronica? Your master was coming down from the mountain this afternoon when he slipped and fell. He bumped his head on a rock and is currently in a coma.”
“What? How did that happen?” Veronica’s voice rose by a pitch when she heard the shocking information. Next to her, Matthew stiffened and paused from taking a drag, then glanced over at her worriedly.
“Crayson isn’t young anymore, and besides, he did take a pretty bad fall. The roads were all coated in ice and snow.”
“Okay, I’ll go back right now.”
With that, Veronica hung up the phone hurriedly. She stood in front of the sink and took a deep breath, but that was when she saw Matthew staring at her in the large mirror. She met his gaze in the reflective glass, but just as he parted his lips to say something, she turned and walked away before he could speak.
He followed her out of the restroom area closely from behind.
Presently, she jogged up to the private dining room. She was surprised to see that the room was empty save for the cleaning staff and Ruka.
“Xavier went to make a call while Yvonne and Conrad went skiing…” Ruka spoke up.
The cleaning staff was probably here to straighten up the private room before the crowd came in so that they could serve dinner at 6 pm on the dot.
After all, the resort was already packed to the brim with tourists, and the hotel would not be able to take in that many customers, even when some of them were to wait in line.
Veronica immediately called Conrad on the phone, but none of her calls were put through.
“Take my car,” Matthew offered, speaking up behind her.
Panicking, she considered his suggestion and decided that she had no other options right now. She reached for the keys he was passing to her and said, “Thanks. I’ll bring the car back to you as soon as possible.”
She ran downstairs. She was about to call Matthew to ask him which car was his when he suddenly appeared and pointed at the silver-gray Maybach parked at the side.
She turned around to look at him, but she could not bring herself to thank him as she jogged up to the car. Just as she was going to start the car and drive away, he walked up next to her and opened the door.
“What are you doing?” she demanded somberly.
“It takes hours to get to Cabot Town from here. Heaven knows what kind of danger you would be in if you were to drive. Get down; I’ll take the wheel,” he said solemnly, though there was no disguising the worry in his voice.
While Veronica knew how to maneuver a car, she was not as good of a driver as Matthew.
After a moment of hesitation, she got down from the car and rounded over to the passenger seat. As Matthew fastened his seatbelt, she said, “Could you drop me off at Encounters? I’ll drive back from there.”
She did not want to trouble him anymore, and she was at ease after their split. Things had been simple and idyllic for her ever since she cut him off, and she liked it.
He ignored her as he turned the steering wheel familiarly, driving out of the ski resort.
A while later, her phone buzzed with a call from Xavier. She picked it up and told him briefly about what happened, then hung up.
Subsequently, she thought it would be wise to call Yvonne as well so that she would not be worried. The last thing she wanted was for her friend to fret over her safety.
During the car ride, Veronica and Matthew were in complete silence. The only sound that filled the vehicle was the thumping of the DJ playing his mixtape on the radio.
It seemed as if the houses surrounding the resort were all wooden cabins. The scenery outside was beautiful. The snow, illuminated by the dim lights shining through the windows of the cottages, made the twilight hour all the more magical. It was like the whole world had gone quiet, and there was an untouchable peace that cloaked the land.
Veronica imagined this was what it was like to live in a snowglobe-esque town, where all the trees and the houses were kept in a gorgeous, whimsical winter wonderland.
It’s breathtaking, she admitted. However, the beauty of nature did not distract her from her worries. She was concerned that something bad would happen to Crayson while she was still rushing back to see him.
She knew that Daniella would never call her to talk about anything minor in order to spare her from worrying, which meant Veronica’s master was badly injured, making her all the more anxious.
“In all fairness, Crayson is sharp-minded and he is well-trained with martial arts. You have nothing to worry about,” Matthew comforted when he saw how pinched Veronica looked.
She decidedly ignored him and turned to look out the window. She did not have the chance to retort against him back in the private dining room, at least not in front of everyone, but right now, she was in no mood to even look at him!
