By the time Jason exited the morgue, his weather-beaten face was covered in wrinkles. His eyes were so bloodshot that their vessels looked like they were about to rupture in the next second.
As they both stood at the door, the assistant and the bodyguard fell silent, not daring to take a peep.
“Where is Justin?” Jason’s voice echoed down the hallway.
The assistant replied, “Young Master Justin should still be in Brookville discussing the project. The news | receive from there indicates that he has a high chance of winning this bid. It’s more or less already in the bag.”
“In the bag?” Jason clenched his fists so hard that the veins on the back of his hands bulged. “An eye for an
eye, I say. We shouldn’t have kept this scourge alive in the first place. Any problem that wasn’t completely eliminated is bound to arise again.”
“You mean—”
Suddenly, there was a clatter from the stairwell as if something had fallen.
Jason’s face tensed up.
The assistant and the bodyguard were already yanking the stairwell door open before it immediately revealed a panicked Amber.
“You haven’t left?” Jason questioned.
She was ashen-faced as she clutched the banister while taking two steps back. “I didn’t hear anything, Jason. I’m leaving now.”
“Didn’t hear anything’? Do you think I’ll believe that?”
“I really didn’t hear anything.”
“Stand there!”
As the cold words rang out, the bodyguard immediately understood what Jason meant and caught hold of her.
A frightened Amber screamed, but she was knocked out before she could call for help.
“Take her as a hostage.” Jason gave her a careless, disdainful glance.
If she hadn’t manipulated Tina, Tina wouldn’t have been so careless as to do many foolish things that resulted in the falling out with the Hindenburg Family. Not to mention, Tina’s psychiatric state wouldn’t be in such disarray.
When Amber regained consciousness some time later, she was in an old, abandoned warehouse. “What are you guys going to do to me?”
“President Burton simply wants you to stay here for a while, Miss Hudson. He has no other intention.”
“Jason?” She suddenly recalled the events from the hospital morgue. “Why is he holding me captive? I don’t know anything! It has nothing to do with me!”
“Nothing to do with you?” Jason sneered coldly in the dark, “How many of the people by Justin’s side are clean? I don’t care what you did or didn’t do. As long as you’re in my hands, he’ll be forced to listen to me.”
He had to find a way to cause Justin to lose the bid in Brookville or he’d be in hot water once Justin reported his theft of the patent to the board of directors.
Amber asked with a pale face, “What’s the point of taking me if you wish to threaten him?”
“You’re his fiancee. The entire Riverdale knows that and he’ll listen to you. Who would we have taken if not
you?”
“All of that is fake! The person he cares about the most is that mute woman, not me!”
Mute woman? Jason frowned.
“They might be divorced, but did you know that he took her to Brookville? He’s so worried about her safety in Riverdale lest I or someone else hurt her. The person he cares most about is Rachel!”
“What’s the point of telling me this? Do you think I can send someone to take her from Brookville now?”
“You don’t need to take her. She has a soft spot in Riverdale.”
Amber’s cold and sinister voice echoed around the warehouse.
When Justin concluded his meeting and returned to the hotel at noon, he found Rachel asleep on the couch with a magazine propped open on her knee. It was close to sliding off and landing on the floor.
He reflexively reached down to catch it, but perhaps due to him being rough with his actions, she stirred awake.
She looked up at him in a daze before violently coming to her senses and tensing up.
“Did I wake you?” Justin dropped the magazine on the coffee table.
Rachel straightened her posture. When did you get back? she asked.
“I only just finished my work. Did you stay in for the entire day?”
She nodded.
Despite being a grown woman, she had never left Riverdale before and it was her first time in Brookville.
As Justin raised his wrist to look at the time, he responded, “Get changed and have an outdoor lunch with me.”
A startled Rachel dumbly looked at him.
A short while later, someone was greeting him the moment they entered a room in the hotel restaurant, “President Burton! You’re finally here! Come over and sit.”
Never in her wildest dreams would Rachel have imagined Justin bringing her along for a lunch meeting.
Around the circular table were businessmen, who each had a beautiful young woman by his side. It was obvious from first glance that these women weren’t the men’s wives, but rather hired escorts.
The moment she sat down, the woman next to Rachel pointed at her purse and asked, “Did President Burton buy this for you? It’s a limited edition.”
Rachel subconsciously looked down at the purse in her hand while feeling conflicted.
As her trip to Brookville had been rushed, she didn’t bring much luggage. Thus, Justin had sent someone to purchase a fresh set of her entire wardrobe, purses, and accessories in Brookville. Despite the items being limited edition, she never paid much attention to it.
However, the woman next to Rachel hooked an arm around her own male companion and grumbled, “Look at that. The lady has such a nice purse that I look positively inferior next to her.”
Although the man was white-haired, he still placated the young woman. “I’ll buy you one that’s exactly the same as soon as we’re done with lunch.”
“Promise me?”
“Of course! However, you must drink a few more glasses on my behalf in a bit.”
“That’s not a problem.”
As the conversation fell on Rachel’s ears, she frowned.
The men around the table continued to discuss business while the woman minded their own matters. They only lifted their glasses and made toasts whenever the atmosphere had cooled enough to lighten things up.
Justin had to leave the area for a while in the midst of the lunch, leaving Rachel alone at the table.
A man opposite her asked, “Why is the beautiful woman whom President Burton brought along reticent?”
Upon hearing that, she was startled.
“I never knew he liked such quiet, reserved women” someone else piped up. “He has good taste.”
The woman next to the man immediately became unhappy and lifted her wine glass. Then, she spoke in a strange tone, “Since you don’t like to talk, let me make a toast to you. That way, we can also be friends.”
Before Rachel could even react to the fact that she was being spoken to, her wine glass was being filled.
She kept shooting glances toward the outside of the room with a frown, but Justin was nowhere to be seen.
The thing was that she couldn’t drink because Julian was trying to cure her mutism. She had to watch her diet as many items could irritate her throat that she couldn’t eat or drink.
However, the woman opposite Rachel was dangerously eyeing her. “Won’t you humor me now?”
“Why are you putting her in such a difficult spot, Rose? If you really want to drink that badly, I’ll drink with you.” The woman next to Rachel suddenly rose to her feet to raise her glass. Then, she smiled at the woman opposite them. “Surely, it wouldn’t be good for President Burton to have left for a while only to return and notice that someone had caused his female companion to become drunk.” With that, she gulped all of the wine in her glass. “Are you satisfied now, Rose?”
Rose was the woman who sat opposite them, but as Justin happened to return at that moment, she could only suppress her anger and returned to her seat.
“What’s wrong?” Upon noticing the strange atmosphere in the room, he asked the moment he took his seat.
“Nothing. Come, President Burton, let us continue our business discussion.”
An unconvinced Justin glanced at Rachel, but since she didn’t seem to be acting in an unusual manner, he allowed the topic to leave his mind.
Meanwhile, she was staring at the woman next to her.
After all, they didn’t know each other, so why had this woman helped her?
