Chapter 520 I Must See Him Even if I Die
When Veronica clicked on the timer, 30 seconds had already passed. This meant that she only had 17 seconds left. She knew right then that there was nothing left she could do.
As she raised her gaze to the crane, she stared at it as tears blurred her vision. Finally, she sobbed as she murmured, “Matt, I owe you this life.”
At her last syllable, a bright light emitted from within the tower crane, and a loud explosion followed. The fire lit up the night sky, and she watched helplessly as the front end of the tower crane fell and plummeted into the sea.
Even though it was a port, the crane was set up a few hundred meters away for some construction. So, the water was deep enough to absorb the impact.
“Matthew. Matthew. Matthew.” She chanted his name under her breath and didn’t even realize it when her phone dropped to the floor.
All of a sudden, she rushed to the edge like a madwoman and jumped over the railing with a hand on it for support. Then, she didn’t miss a beat as she dived into the sea.
The sea was utterly freezing this late at night. Despite this, she plunged into the water as the waves swallowed and brought her under.
She tried hard to swim up to sea level. Once she managed to fight against the current pulling her under, she swam toward the tower crane as it burned.
After she swam for a long time, she continued swimming as though ‘exhaustion’ wasn’t something that existed in her dictionary. She only wanted to reach the spot the tower crane had fallen as soon as she could.
Even if Matthew died, she needed to see it to believe it.
Waves crashed against her as if trying to deter her from swimming forward and pushing her back.
Nonetheless, she only had one thought in her mind: to see Matthew, even if it was to find his scattered belongings. Suffice to say, she had given up any sliver of hope of seeing him alive at this point.
As anguish fueled her, she had unknowingly swam about 300 meters.
On the square, everyone heard the explosion and came to the edge, ready to investigate.
At this very moment, a person suddenly popped up from under the water.
“There’s someone there. Go check it out,” a person ordered as the rest quickly ran over. It was Matthew.
“It’s Young Master Matthew. Quick, help him.”
“Pull him up!”
“Young Master Matthew, are you alright?”
The few leaned on the railing and reached out with their hands to pull Matthew up to land.
Once he caught his breath, he stood outside the railing and jumped over it. Then, he took another deep breath as he swept his short black hair back. “Where’s Xavier?”
“He’s still in the car, Young Master Matthew,” a bodyguard promptly answered.
Wrath engulfed Matthew as he strode toward the direction the bodyguard pointed at. It was about 200 meters from where he stood to the parked car.
Before they could get close to the car, two gunshots were heard, and they saw a car drift and stop beside another sedan.
Then, the sedan’s door opened, and Xavier jumped into Antheena’s car at lightning speed.
“S*it! Xavier got away,” the bodyguard beside him shouted.
Matthew’s dark brows furrowed and his oppressive aura emerged mixed with hostility and ruthlessness.
He raised his hand and extended them to the side. The bodyguard beside him instantly gave him a gun. Matthew aimed a few shots at the sedan, but the car was fast and too far away from him. Therefore, the bullets only damaged the car’s windows and did not stop it in the slightest.
“After him!” he ordered as his men rushed into their vehicles.
At that moment, Thomas came running in from the left. “Young Master Matthew? Are you alright?”
Thomas had been scouring the area and almost ran out of the square, for he feared he missed a spot until he received his subordinate’s call that Matthew had returned safely. So, he returned immediately.
Anger swept across Matthew’s handsome face as he glanced coldly at Thomas. “Good for nothing! You can’t even watch over a person.”
“Huh?” A stunned Thomas didn’t understand what was happening.
A bodyguard beside him told him. “Xavier got away.”
“He got away?” Thomas’ eyes widened, and he ran toward the car. But after a few steps, he stopped and looked back at the rest of his colleagues to ask, “Where’s Miss Murphy?”
“Roni’s here?” Matthew heard Thomas and forgot about Xavier completely.
Then, one person squeezed through the bodyguards and answered Thomas, “After we heard the explosion, a person jumped into the water, but I didn’t see who it was.”
Thomas looked Matthew in the eye and suggested hesitantly, “Could it be… Miss Murphy?”
It was not just Veronica but Thomas was also ready to jump into the sea when he heard the explosion. Still, he was too far away and soon received a call informing him of Matthew’s safety far before he reached the edge of the sea.
“F*ck!” he cursed as he threw the gun to the bodyguard beside him and sprinted toward the sea. Then, he jumped in without hesitation.
As Thomas saw what had transpired, he started delegating tasks to the rest of the men, “Those who are strong swimmers. Get in there.” At his order, quite a few of them also jumped into the sea.
Matthew swam from the shore to the tower crane and searched for her, shouting, “Veronica? Veronica!”
He was not alone, though, as the other bodyguards swam over and searched for her. Unfortunately, they did not find her despite searching for a long time.
After being in the water for a long time, some were at their limit and returned to shore. The dozen or so people in the search had dwindled to just a few.
Time ticked past, and soon half an hour had passed, but there were still no signs of Veronica.
Thomas swam up to Matthew and shook his head. “We still don’t see her, Young Master Matthew. Could she–”
“Shut up! No matter what, I want to see her, alive or dead. Search!” Matthew growled angrily and continued yelling her name.
He knew that she was a good swimmer. So, nothing could happen to her.
As worry and anger filled him, he punched the tower crane’s metal pillar. Suddenly, he frowned and looked up at the tower crane. His eyes glinted as her possible location formed in his head.
So, he used the tower crane’s ladder and climbed up. The tower crane was tall despite part of its structure submerged in the sea. There were still a hundred meters of it above the water.
Matthew swiftly scaled all the way up to the operator’s cab and vaguely saw a person sitting inside through the glass window. His heart, caught in his throat, finally settled as the tension left his body. His body swayed a little due to the sudden loss of worry plaguing his mind.
Still in the water, Thomas watched Matthew ascend the crane and didn’t return after a while. So, he instantly figured out that Veronica was right there. “Let’s go. She’s found,” he instructed the men, and they all returned to shore.
On the tower crane, Matthew pulled open the door of the operator’s cab and walked in before he closed it.
In the dark, Veronica sat on the chair, her head buried in her curled-up legs. She sat there unmoving and utterly silent.
Yet, when he entered, he faintly heard some sniffling.
She knew someone was there, but she assumed it was Thomas who had found her.
