Everyone left the room when the lunch meeting ended.
While Justin spoke to some other people, Rachel waited for him by the door.
At this moment, the woman who drank on her behalf stepped out of the restroom and upon seeing Rachel there, she smiled. “Oh, you’re still here. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Coraline Harper.”
Rachel gratefully bobbed her head before signing, Thank you for standing up for me earlier.
“Oh, it was a small matter. It’s no problem, really.”
It wasn’t until Coraline was a distance away that Rachel suddenly realized something.
It seemed that not only was Coraline not surprised about Rachel’s inability to speak, Coraline could also read sign language.
“What are you looking at?” Justin asked behind Rachel, his voice pulling her back to the present.
As she returned to her senses, she answered, Nothing. Can we leave now?
“I have some things to do. So, you should return to your room first.”
Remembering what Janice had told her, Rachel asked carefully, Can’t I go with you?
“It’s business-related. You’ll be bored, so you might as well head back to rest. I’ll return soon.” As Justin said those words, he stroked the back of her head. “Be good and do as I say.”
Rachel’s expression remained unchanged as she nodded. However, as soon as she turned away from Justin, her expression morphed into one of disgust.
Once she returned to her room, her first order of business was to yank her hair until her scalp ached, as if that was the only way to remove the loath that came with the intimate actions.
As she stood at the entryway, she carefully thought about the people at the lunch meeting.
Although Justin’s current visit to Brookville was ostensibly about Burton Group’s bid, she suspected he was actually here for other matters. After all, she hadn’t heard of a single person at the lunch meeting.
The thing was that she had worked at Burton Group for a while and with the excuse of managing the corporation’s finances, she investigated all the clients who had financial dealings with Burton Group.
Not a single one of those present at the lunch meeting was among them.
There had to be a problem somewhere.
Now that she thought about that, Rachel stepped out of the room again.
Even if she couldn’t overhear the contents of their conversation, it would perhaps be enough to snap a few photographs and send them to Janice to have her look into them.
At the entrance to the second floor conference room, two bodyguards were standing watch.
Rachel hid at a corner of the corridor and waited until those people in the room exited. Then, she rapidly clicked the shutter of her cell phone camera to take several photographs in a row.
Crash!
The sound of glass shattering suddenly rang out from the restroom at the other end of the corridor.
“Who’s there?”
The two bodyguards immediately rushed over as Rachel’s heart clenched. As she lacked the courage to stay even for a moment longer, she departed in a hurry.
When she rode the elevator back to her floor, she was careful to stop two floors below where her actual room was. After doing so, she headed into the stairwell to ascend the stairs,
Yet, the moment Rachel entered the stairwell, she heard the sound of coughing coming from below.
A startled Rachel paused and she peered through the gaps between the railing to see blood trail down the stairs.
Her own blood immediately rushed to her head, leaving her hands and her feet freezing cold.
Cough cough…
Judging by the sound of the unsuppressed coughing, there was a woman at the floor below Rachel.
As Rachel returned to her senses, she carefully crept down half a flight of stairs before looking over the banister to see a silhouette leaning against a door in the stairwell. Coraline?
She froze.
It seemed Coraline had noticed Rachel as well, for she looked up warily before sighing with relief when she recognized Rachel. Then, she held a finger to her lips to indicate for Rachel to remain silent.
Rachel cautiously approached Coraline and spotted the blood all over Coraline’s white suit sleeve. Blood was still flowing down from her arm and dripping all over the place, staining the banisters below them.
Are you injured? Rachel asked.
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. You must leave right now.”
How could I do that?
“This matter is too complicated for you to handle. You better leave now!” It was right after Coraline said these words that her legs gave way, causing her to slide down the surface of the door. She looked lifeless and about to lose consciousness from blood loss.
“There’s blood here!”
“It’s going upstairs!”
There were men’s voices echoing up the stairway.
Since Rachel did not have time to care about anything else, she glanced at Coraline’s bleeding arm before quickly acting to tear off a corner of her skirt to bandage Coraline’s wound. With the bleeding temporarily stemmed, she proceeded to help Coraline upstairs.
“Why does the trail stop here?”
“She must be on this floor.”
“Let’s go, quick! Don’t let her escape!”
Upon hearing the door open and close in the stairway below them, Rachel took a deep breath of cold air. It was a long while before she calmed down and hastily escorted Coraline back to her own room instead.
After taking Coraline into the bathroom, she attempted to undo Coraline’s coat to check on her injuries, only to have Coraline stop her instead.
She tried to explain as she looked at Coraline’s wary face. However, Coraline replied, “Go… Go and look for
Janice.”
A terrified Rachel froze.
Then, there was a clamor of footsteps running down the hallway.
“This is the only room that the surveillance monitors don’t cover, President Shaw. She must be inside.”
“Nonsense. This is President Burton’s hotel room.”
“That’s not a problem. If you’re suspicious, you can head inside to have a look.”
When she heard Justin’s words, Rachel’s heart loudly raced as she looked down at the bloodstains on herself before she immediately locked the bathroom door.
“Rae…” His voice was heard from outside.
Although the bodyguards had ransacked the cabinets as well as the other rooms in the suite, they could not locate the person of interest.
“Where’s that female companion of yours, President Burton?”
The sound of rushing water came from the bathroom located in the second bedroom.
It was the only room in the suite that was left unchecked.
As Justin slowly approached it step by step, he tried to twist the doorknob to find it locked. “Rae? Are you inside?”
Since Rachel couldn’t speak, there was no way for her to give a speedy reply, regardless of whether or not she was inside.
So, he forcefully wrenched the doorknob open and with a loud click, the bathroom door swung open while its hinges shook. Rachel was inside the bathroom getting dressed and she yelped loudly as she covered her chest.
It was clear that she had only just finished showering as she was barefoot and only half-clad in her bathrobe. A large portion of the snowy fair skin on her shoulder was exposed toward the bathroom door.
A mortified Justin immediately slammed the bathroom door shut and he stopped the people behind him. “The spy’s not in here. You can leave now.”
When the bodyguard opened his mouth to say something, President Shaw interrupted and insisted, “Alright. Since she’s not inside, we should look elsewhere. Let’s not disturb President Burton anymore.”
With that, the group of people left the suite.
Now that Rachel was properly dressed in her bathrobe and with her hair still wet, she stepped out of the bathroom as she cautiously peeked into the living room. Have they left? she asked.
“They have.” Justin frowned. “Did I scare you?”
She nodded.
He then explained, “Someone eavesdropped on them while they were discussing business, so they’ve been looking for her. You didn’t see anyone strange, did you?”
No, Rachel signed.
While Justin caught hold of her hands, he added, “That’s good. Stay inside here for the next few days and
ignore everything else. When I’m done with my business, I’ll take you back to Riverdale.”
Her inexplicably sweet fragrance was wafting through the air.
Since she was only dressed in a bathrobe, the water droplets at the ends of her hair continued to drip onto her clavicle before it traveled down her fair skin, only to disappear into the grey fabric.
Justin swallowed hard.
The moment when Rachel exclaimed, she was already being carried toward the master bedroom.
Although she had hooked her arms around his beck, her gaze fell on the doorway of the bathroom in the second bedroom. Through the gap of the door, she could vaguely see a bloody arm behind the shower curtain.
