“What are you doing, Victor?” Gloria caught up to him.
Victor, however, picked up the document on the table. The first thing he saw was the stamp of the most famous media outlet in Riverdale, but what caught his attention was the content. It was shocking to say the least. “Burton’s the one who killed Hans!”
“Impossible! You’re lying!”
“See for yourself.” Victor handed the document to her.
The document detailed an illegal transaction that happened near a hospital. There were even pictures to prove it. The one who was holding the safe box was the same person who pulled Hans into the van
-it was none other than one of Justin’s bodyguards.
“Winston?” Gloria asked, recognizing the bodyguard right away.
“He’s the one who took Hans. What do you have to say for Burton now?”
All the color drained from her face when she heard that. “No. This is a misunderstanding. Even if Winston’s behind Hans’ death, that doesn’t mean Justin ordered him to kill Hans. No, there’s no way
Justin would do that. He wouldn’t!”
“He wouldn’t do it? What a farce.” Victor snereed. “Didn’t you hear what his assistant said? They had this for a long time and there is even a video too. If he’s not guilty, why did he spend five million on this?” With that, he took the document and was about to walk out of the room.
“Where are you going?”
“To the cops. I’m reporting this.” Hans was hospitalized because of me. Truth was, Victor had been feeling guilty about it ever since he talked with Rachel. He wanted to apologize but alas, Hans was murdered before he could. Victor knew he could never make it up to Hans anymore, so the only thing he could do was expose the murderer so Hans could rest in peace.
“Victor, are you mad? Hold it right there!” Gloria quickly got in his way. “You can’t report this to the cops.”
“You’re helping that b*stard?”
“No. This is for your own good! Do you think you can get Justin arrested just because you have this information? This is just a trouble magnet.” Gloria gritted her teeth. “Even if he’s really the murderer, he’s just going to get alarmed if he finds out about this.”
Upon hearing that, Victor paused.
Since he was starting to calm down, Gloria extended her hand and reassured, “Listen to me. Give me that article and pretend you never saw this.”
Victor, however, doubted her. “You’ll look into this?”
“I’ve been looking into this for a long time now,” Gloria insisted. “I’ve been looking for Rachel for ages. You can help me out if you want to.”
Meanwhile, Victor was still holding the five-million-dollar article, suspicious about Gloria. “And how can I know you’re not trying to get rid of this evidence for Justin? How do I know you won’t kill me just like he killed Hans?”
“Get rid of the evidence? Me?” Gloria glared at him furiously. A short while later, she stomped on Victor’s foot.
“Ow!” Victor gasped in pain. “What was that for?”
“I wouldn’t have taken you with me earlier if I wanted to kill you. You’d already be dead by now.”
Victor was gasping from the pain, and Gloria took the article from him. “What are you doing? Give that back!”
“You’ll really die if I give this back to you.” She glared at him and put it back on the table. “Give me your phone.”
“What are you trying to do?”
“Just give it to me.” She whipped out an old phone from Victor’s pocket and snapped some photos of the article, then she tossed the phone back to him. “You can’t take the manuscript, but you can have these photos. Happy?”
Victor was surprised.
Gloria closed the drawers and cabinets before turning around to stare at him. “You’re ungrateful, you know that?” She then left the company but Victor followed her. “Why are you following me?” Gloria
growled. “I’m a hypocrite, aren’t I?”
Victor skidded to a halt and was petrified for a while. “Hey! I just want to say that I’m sorry.”
Gloria finally stopped in her tracks. “That’s all? Just an apology?”
“What do you want then?”
“Food. I’m starving!” With that, Gloria turned around. She was still looking angry, and her cheeks were puffed.
Victor scratched his head. “Sure. My treat.”
The night breeze brushed against Riverdale’s river. It was early spring, so some people were still wearing winter clothes on the street. Gloria was sitting on a bench, chomping down on her chicken drumstick and hamburger.
Victor then asked, “Are you sure that’s all you want?”
“What’s wrong? I like these.” Gloria raised her chin and muttered, “Give me the Coke.”
Victor gave her the Coke, but since she was holding something in both of her hands, she nudged over to take a big sip. A moment later, she let out a big burp, and an awkward silence fell between them.
Gloria rolled her eyes. “What are you looking at? Never seen a hot girl burp?”
Victor looked at her with blatant disgust. “If you call yourself hot, then there’d be no uglies in the world.”
“If I’m not hot, who is?”
“Rachel. She’s kind, gentle, knowledgeable, and nice to everyone around her. I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful and kind as she was.” The more Victor talked about Rachel, the sadder he was. “I wonder how she’s doing.”
Gloria dropped her smile too. “Don’t worry. Justin’s not the monster you think he is,” she said. “He
won’t torture her. Janice said that Justin hid Rachel because he’s worried Julian might take her away.”
“He’s a madman. Locking her up is already a form of torture. She’s not a prisoner!”
“Calm down.” Gloria put her food down and wiped her hands off. “Let’s not talk about this. Janice is almost done with the neighborhood, but there’s still no sign of Rachel. Where could she be?” It’s been three months. She’s gotta be somewhere livable. Gloria then mumbled, “She must be somewhere in Riverdale. Justin was taken to the hospital right after he was injured. If she’s somewhere in the rural area, he would have been dead on arrival.”
Victor frowned. “He was injured? He deserves it. No wonder he was going to see a doctor.”
“A doctor?” Gloria was surprised. “He wanted to see a doctor?” She didn’t hear what Justin and Frankie were talking about in the heat of the moment, since she was trying to keep Victor quiet and praying that Justin didn’t notice his drawers were open.
“Yeah,” Victor answered. “His assistant said Dr. McCarty or something is in the car park. Asked Burton when he’d be seeing the doctor.”
Lots of thoughts were racing in Gloria’s mind. “Why didn’t the doctor go to the office if he’s there for Justin then?” No. He was not there for Justin, which is why he didn’t go to the office.
