During dinner time, Charlotte wanted to sit next to Rachel. “Mommy, I want to eat that!”
“This?”
“Yes!”
“All right. Eat more and grow tall, Rachel said. Then, she dropped the food the little girl liked onto her plate.
With an unreadable look in his eyes, Justin watched as Charlotte chomped down on the food happily. This girl is usually a picky eater and would always complain at the dinner table. No matter how we coaxed her, she wouldn’t even take an extra bite. With this woman around, she just eats anything she gives her and even eats a lot of it. More importantly, everyone knew how Charlotte usually treated other women. She would usually be stubborn, rude, and mean toward them. In contrast, she was very obedient toward Rachel. Is it because they’re related by blood?
Night fell, and after Rachel tucked Charlotte into bed, she sneaked out of the room quietly.
At the top of the staircase, she saw that the light in the study on the first floor was still turned on. If her guess was right, Justin was probably still working there. Therefore, the master bedroom would surely be empty now.
If the surveillance record containing the evidence that could prove that Hans was murdered was in this house, the most probably place it would be was either the master bedroom or the study.
After she slipped into the bedroom, she started searching from the head of the bed, opening and checking every drawer. Finally, in the corner of the closet, she found a black-colored safe.
Password… What’s the password? she asked silently while looking at the number pad.
Beep, beep, beep.
She punched in Justin’s birth date.
It’s not right. What about Charlotte’s birthday?
Beep, beep, beep.
That’s not it, either. I still have one more try left, she thought. At that moment though, the sound of footsteps came from outside the room, so she quickly closed the closet doors.
“What are you doing here?”
Holding her chest, Rachel turned around and said in surprise, “You gave me a scare! You don’t make a sound at all when you walk!”
“Why are you sneaking around in my room?” he asked while standing at the door, his expression deadpan.
“Sneaking around? I just put Charlotte to bed and wanted to tell you that I’m going to leave now. In the end, you came behind me right after I came in and scared the daylights out of me!”
“Really? You’re looking for me?” he asked suspiciously as he inched in closer to her.
Staring at him, she said, “You don’t believe me? What else could I possibly be doing except to look for
you?”
“You put in so much effort to make a trip here. You baked cookies with Charlotte and refused to leave.
At this time now, you even came into my room where we’re alone. So tell me, what do you plan to do?”
After hearing his conclusion, Rachel couldn’t stop herself from bursting into laughter.
“What are you laughing at?”
“I’m not interested in you,” she answered. “At all.”
“What did you say?”
She shrugged and told him honestly, “I don’t care whether you believe it or not, but I’m simply here to say goodbye. I have to go now.”
“Hold it right there,” he said. Then, he grabbed her arm and stopped her from leaving. In an icy tone, he asked, “If you’re not interested, why did you show up at the club that night and did that?”
Even though he was holding her wrist, she didn’t struggle and asked in return, “What did I do?”
“You tell me.”
Rachel made a show of thinking about it before suddenly lifting her head and saying, “Are you speaking about that kiss? I had too much to drink that night, so I was a little tipsy. But then, I really didn’t expect that you’re still thinking about it.”
Justin’s expression darkened. He was furious as he tightened his jaw and said, “You had too much to drink?”
“Yeah,” she replied before jerking her hand away from his grip. She smirked as she added, “Actually, you don’t have to take it so seriously. We’re adults now. You know we’re capable of anything with a little liquid courage. Don’t take it for real. It’s getting late, so I’m leaving now.” After that, she left the house without looking back.
When he heard the sound of the car engine starting outside the house, Justin was so furious that his face was red. Such a flirtatious woman can’t possibly be a responsible mother. No wonder I divorced her back then.
Meanwhile, it was already past eleven at night when Rachel reached home. After Jolly learned that Charlotte had found out that Rachel was her mother, she appeared as though she was expecting it when she said, “I’ve told you before your return that you should think carefully about acknowledging your daughter. It’s impossible for you to avoid your daughter if you want to get close to Justin.”
At the end of the day, it was not a secret that Rachel was Justin’s ex-wife, so how could she hide the fact that she was Charlotte’s biological mother?
Rachel opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of beer, feeling frustrated. “I know it’s unavoidable. I just feel… guilty.”
The guilt she had was for her daughter. Back then, she left Riverdale alone to save herself and left her daughter behind. Earlier, her heart was broken into pieces when she heard Charlotte’s cries.
Calmly, Jolly said, “There’s nothing to be guilty about. You had no other choice as well.” She sighed and continued, “But look how great things are now. You can use your daughter as an excuse to visit Justin’s place often. That’ll make it easier for you to look for evidence.”
“I found the safe.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Rachel answered while nodding. “It’s in Justin’s closet, but I don’t know the password.”
“That’s easy. Wait a minute.” Jolly returned to her room and ransacked her drawers before coming out again with a thumb-sized glass bottle. “Here’s some fluorescent powder. Just scatter this on the number pad and Justin will leave his prints behind when he opens the safe. Then, you’ll find out the numbers he’s using for the password.”
“It’s not easy to arrange and combine a six-digit password.”
“It’s still easier than making random guesses. Maybe there’s a pattern to it.”
Nodding thoughtfully, Rachel decided that she agreed with that. “Yeah.” I’ll have to look for another chance to visit his place again then.
The next day, Charlotte woke up in the morning and rubbed her eyes while looking for her mother. In her sheep bedroom slippers, she stood at the top of the staircase and asked, “Madam Mary, where’s my mommy?”
“Miss Hudson left after you fell asleep last night,” she explained.
Suddenly, her eyes popped wide open and she asked, “She left last night?”
“Yes.”
“Then, did she say when she’s coming again? Will she come again today?”
“I’m not sure about that, but Mr. Justin doesn’t seem to welcome her that much.”
“That’s so mean of Daddy!” Charlotte cried out angrily while stomping her foot. “Mommy finally returned, and he’ll definitely drive her away again if he acts like this!”
This is bad, if Mommy doesn’t return, Amber will marry Daddy! At that thought, she said anxiously, “Quick, help me get dressed. I want to go out.”
“You didn’t even have your breakfast yet. Where do you want to go?”
“I’m going to look for Daddy and Mommy at their office,” she answered, her hands clenched tightly to show her determination. “I’ll assert Mommy’s dominance for her.”
At the same time, after her morning meeting, the secretary knocked on Rachel’s door and entered her office. “Chris, the head office wants you to make a trip to the president’s office after your meeting.”
“Right now?” Rachel asked while glancing at her watch.
“Yes. They called when your meeting just started.”
“Did they mention what it is about?”
“No, they didn’t.”
“All right. I got it,” she answered. She was puzzled about why Justin would look for her at this time all of a sudden.
Burton Pharmaceuticals was located on the twelfth floor of the Burton Group headquarters building. It went to show just how important this subsidiary company was to the Group, and the president’s office which belonged to Justin was on the twentieth floor.
As she pressed the button on the elevator, Rachel analyzed in her mind the possible reasons that
Justin was looking for her. Is he thinking of dismissing me?
