Chapter 263 A Sincere Confession
Rachel sharply turned around with a start. “Why are you here?” she asked, before suddenly realizing something. “Were you the one who set off the fireworks?”
“Do you like them? Samuel said you like to watch fireworks very much. The conditions here are limited, so please make do with it for now. Once we go down the mountain and get back to Riverdale, I’ll take you guys to—”
“What the hell do you want?” Rachel interrupted Justin before the latter could finish his sentence. Staring at him with a look of displeasure, she said, “You’ve been following me around for so many days. What on earth do you want?”
“Don’t you know what I want?” Justin went a step closer. “If you don’t know about that, I can repeat it.”
Rachel instinctively stepped back. “I’m not interested in playing this kind of love game with you. Charlotte, are you done?” she shouted toward the grass, but nobody answered her.
Justin said, “Charlotte has gone back.”
“How could you even use a kid?”
“No, I’m not the one who used her. Don’t forget about Samuel. He’s your son, not mine.” The initially frosty expression on Justin’s handsome face was obscured by the moonlight as he stared at Rachel. “Rachel!” He grabbed her arm. “Please listen to me before you leave.”
Rachel frowned. “Let go of me.”
“Listen to me.”
While neither of them refused to budge, Rachel caught sight of the two kids hiding in the distance from the corner of her eye. They were hiding behind the grass, but they cast two long shadows on the ground as the moonlight shone on them. In consideration of the two kids, she reluctantly replied, “I’ll listen to you. Let go of me first.”
Justin let go of her. “I know you hate me. At first, I didn’t understand why, but I slowly learned about what I’d done to you in the past. I can understand it now. No matter for whose sake or for what you came back and approached me, no matter what you’ve promised Grandpa, I can understand it. No matter what you want, I’ll give it to you as long as I can. After all, I owed you a lot five years ago. If you mind the fact that I’ve forgotten many things, I’ll receive treatment to recall everything that I’ve forgotten. I’m not asking you to accept me right away, but I hope that you can get along peacefully with me.”
“Are you done talking?” Rachel looked at the man quietly.
Justin was startled. “Yeah.”
“Since you’re done talking, I’m leaving,” Rachel said. Then, she walked past him and headed straight toward the campsite.
Stunned, Justin stood frozen in place. His confession, which he considered sincere, was worth nothing in Rachel’s eyes. After all, words could never speak louder than actions. He had done so many things to hurt Rachel back then, so how could he possibly gain forgiveness with just a few hollow words?
Just as he was stunned, he suddenly heard a scream behind him. “Ah! What are you doing?”
Justin came to his senses at once.
Rachel had just left and was walking along the path when two hefty men popped up from nowhere and stopped her. She asked, “Who are you?”
The two men weren’t of a sturdy build, and it was obvious from the peaked caps and the black face masks they were wearing that they didn’t want to be recognized. With one of them standing in front of Rachel and the other standing behind her, they stopped her and prevented her from leaving. Then, one of them drew out a knife from behind him, and the knife gleamed with chilliness in the moonlight.
Rachel staggered and fell. As she was in a panic, she couldn’t muster any strength. Instead, she could only struggle to back away, and she couldn’t be bothered to react to the pain when the stones on the ground rubbed against her hands. “Don’t come over! I can give you two however much money you want.”
However, the man with the knife closed in on Rachel without saying a word, as though he didn’t hear what she had said. After signaling to the other man to grab her and cover her nose and mouth right away, he raised the knife in his hand and thrust it toward her.
Rachel’s eyes widened, and her pupils shrank.
Just then, her scream was drowned out by the smack of a punch landing on someone’s flesh. She clearly saw the man who had attempted to stab her being kicked away by Justin; he fell onto the muddy ground and rolled about four meters away. Not only that, but the man who had grabbed her was also seized by Justin and dealt with with a few cuffs and kicks.
The man lay prone on the ground while begging for mercy repeatedly. At the sight of the scene, the man who had fallen far away took to his heels and ran away very quickly.
Stepping on the remaining man’s face, Justin asked in a chilly voice, “Who sent you here? Spill it!”
The man gritted his teeth hard while refusing to make a sound.
“What’s the use of asking him like this?” Rachel got up from the ground and let go of her aching arm. Then, she picked up the knife that had nearly taken her life from the ground and held it to the man’s throat right away without hesitation. “Are you gonna say it or not?” she asked, her tone turning more ferocious by the minute, while pressing the knife deeper into the man’s throat. “Who sent you here?”
The man’s face blanched. “D-Don’t do it! I’ll say it. I-It was Master Jason.”
Master Jason? Justin’s expression darkened as he immediately took off the man’s face mask.
The man wanted to stop Justin, but it was already too late. With a strained expression, he said, “Y-Young Master Justin…”
Rachel let out a snort beside them. “Justin, is this the ‘chance’ that you just asked me to give you?”
“Rachel—”
“Please save me, Young Master Justin!” The man clung onto Justin’s thigh for dear life. “All of this was Master Jason’s idea, and I had nothing to do with it. If you don’t save me, I’ll be dead when I go back!”
“Let go of me!”
However, before Justin could shake the man off, Rachel had tossed the knife directly onto the ground with a clank. After casting a chilly glance at the two men, she left without looking back. He’s one of Jason’s men. Janice is right—Jason’s got to have something to do with Hans’ death back then. That’s why he’s so anxious; he didn’t even hesitate to take risks in order to have me killed.
As soon as Rachel returned to the campsite, she called Janice and told the latter what had happened just now.
“Are you sure that he’s Jason’s lackey?”
“I’m pretty certain about it. That guy said it was Master Jason who sent him here, and he called Justin ‘Young Master Justin.’ Moreover, Justin does know him in person.”
“Jason isn’t from the underworld, after all. He’s impatient.” Janice sounded very calm as her voice came from the other end of the line. “It’s a good thing that Justin went there all of a sudden. At the very least, Jason wouldn’t dare to do anything in front of him.”
“I’m still worried. I’d like to go back with the kids first.”
“No, I’m afraid that you might be in danger on your way back. What you need to do right now is follow Justin closely. As long as Justin’s there, Jason will have misgivings about whatever he wants to do. He won’t take anyone else seriously.”
Rachel clenched her fists. “Are ordinary people’s lives nothing in the eyes of these men?”
“To them, ordinary people are just stepping stones that they can get rid of like weeds when necessary. They’ll stop at nothing for the sake of their interests.”
