Chapter 281 Final Request
“Dad!” Rachel didn’t even need to spare an iota of brainpower to figure out who it was. The hurried clacking of high heels sounded through the mortuary. Then, Amber stood by the door of the mortuary, still unable to accept reality even after she had caught her breath. “Dad…”
Rachel couldn’t recall a time when Amber was this panicked. Regardless of how cruel Amber was, she was still Jefferey’s daughter who he had raised since she was a young girl. Jefferey was her greatest pillar. Now that he was gone, the blow to her was significant.
Amber stumbled inside. Her fingers touched the white cloth draped over the corpse before they were shakily retracted. All of a sudden, she yelled at the head jailer. “This isn’t my father! You’ve got it all wrong!”
“You’re grieving, miss.”
“Grieving? I told you, this isn’t my father! Where are you hiding my dad? Where is he?” At that, Amber’s hand moved toward the head jailer. Her fingers were a stark pale compared to the brightness of her red nails. In the darkness of the room, they were an eerie sight.
The head jailer didn’t manage to back away in time and was caught by the collar.
“Calm yourself, miss.”
“Where on earth are you hiding my father? He’s a healthy man. How can he just be dead?”
“Amber!” Rachel couldn’t stop herself from rebuking Amber. “This isn’t a place for you to show your temper. He passed away due to a sudden heart attack. You’re a doctor; if you don’t believe them, you can examine him.”
“Rachel?” Amber whipped her head around at the sound of Rachel’s voice, seemingly only having just noticed her presence. At that moment, her red eyes made her look very much like a devil from hell. “How dare you come here? What right do you have to be here? You’re the one behind his imprisonment!”
Amber lunged at Rachel. Rachel backed away as she already anticipated this and grabbed her arm. “Have you gone mad? Death is already a kindness for him. The greatest punishment would have been rotting away in jail until old age. Even if I had the nerve to do it, I wouldn’t.”
With that, Rachel shoved Amber away roughly.
As a result, Amber stumbled backward and fell over. Fortunately for her, a large figure had entered the room, and he reflexively caught her.
Rachel stiffened at the sight of the newcomer.
Amber teared up when she saw the person who helped her up. “Justin!”
It was Justin, indeed.
A few hours ago, Rachel ended up getting into a huge fight with him because she and Janice went to visit Hans’ grave. He had then stormed out of the house. To suddenly see him here felt like a slap in the face.
Justin released Amber. His gaze lingered on Rachel for a moment before it landed on the corpse behind her. No one had lifted up the white cloth covering the body until now.
Jefferey sacrificed his life for Hudson Pharmaceuticals, yet he died like this.
After they left Riverdale Penitentiary, Amber glued herself beside Justin, sobbing ceaselessly.
“I’ll get someone to arrange his funeral. You… You two don’t have to worry about that,” he said.
Those words were meant for Rachel, but he couldn’t stop himself from being petty when he recalled the incident with Hans, opting to say ‘you two’ instead of ‘you’.
Rachel forced herself to smile. “Thank you.” Having said that, she glanced at Amber, who trailed behind Justin like a wad of chewing gum that just wouldn’t come off. A look of disgust turned up on her face as she continued, “I’ll be going now.”
With that, Rachel headed straight for the parking lot.
Justin wanted to follow her, but Amber tried to grab his arm. “Justin.”
He instinctively drew his arm back. At the same time, his handsome features schooled in their usual chilly expression as he pulled some distance between Amber and himself.
With that, Amber’s hand hung awkwardly in mid-air. A few moments later, she retracted it. “Can you stay with me for a little?”
Justin looked at his watch. “It’s getting late. You should go back. There will be plenty of things that you’ll be handling.”
Amber couldn’t stop herself from clenching her fists when she compared how different Justin’s treatment was to her and Rachel. Her nails dug into her palms and pain surged through her nerves.
“Justin, do you think that you’ll be able to get back together with that mute if you distance yourself from me? Look at her—she isn’t at all interested in you! She’s constantly using you! Can’t you tell?”
“Enough. I didn’t come here to listen to you ramble. You should calm down and go home.”
“I’m being very calm here!” Amber took a step closer. “I’ve been with you for so many years. Regardless of how I treated others, I’ve always been sincere with you. Don’t tell me that you can’t see that?”
Judging from the frown on Justin’s eyebrows, he was already impatient with her.
Amber knew that it would be futile to keep talking, so she gritted her teeth. “I know that it’s no use telling you all this. I just have one final request—if you agree, I’ll consider it repayment for the last six years of my youth.”
“What is it?”
“Help me manage Hudson Pharmaceuticals.”
Meanwhile, Rachel drove back alone after leaving Riverdale Penitentiary.
“I’ve confirmed it—he did have a heart attack.” Jolly’s voice sounded through Rachel’s bluetooth earphones. “So, this isn’t something premeditated? He ended up getting his own comeuppance?”
“He wouldn’t have suddenly passed away even if the heart attack was an actual thing. They didn’t even perform proper first aid on him.”
“What do you mean?”
Rachel’s brows remained furrowed as her hands gripped the steering wheel. “There were six people of various ages inside the cell. The prisoners sharing a cell with Jefferey have committed major crimes. They are very alert even when asleep.”
“What are you trying to get at?”
“Wouldn’t someone in the middle of a heart attack make some noise at least? His death was about three hours ago. It was lights-out time at the prison, yes, but who would be so deeply asleep at such an early hour? There’s got to be something fishy about the situation.”
“You’re saying that Jefferey was murdered?”
“I just think that it’s something to be considered.”
“He was already locked up. Who would want to kill him?”
Rachel’s eyes darkened a little, but her tone was still languid. “Plenty of people, actually.”
Jefferey had been a key figure in Hudson Pharmaceutical’s smuggling business. He had plenty of resources at his fingertips. Hudson Pharmaceuticals wouldn’t be the only company involved in this shady business in Riverdale; Janice had mentioned beforehand that the ledger recovered from the Hudson residence had implicated Hudson Pharmaceuticals.
The one who killed Jefferey to shut him up had to be tied to that ledger.
The next afternoon, Rachel took Samuel and Charlotte to the community pool for a weekend treat. Charlotte couldn’t swim, so she paddled around in the shallow section, looking like a little duckling with her inner tube.
“Chris!” a man’s voice rang out across the pool, drawing plenty of attention.
Rachel and the children looked in the direction of the voice to see Hernandez stride out from the changing room in swimming shorts. His muscled frame and the eight-pack he sported made the eyes of every woman by the pool light up.
“Charlotte, Samuel, have fun by yourselves,” Rachel told them. Then, she swam over to the edge of the pool.
