Chapter 305 The Carrot and the Stick
Still holding the keys in her hands, Gloria blamed herself. “It’s all my fault. I insisted on dragging you guys here to eat.”
Rachel commented with a calm expression, “I don’t blame you. Even if you didn’t bring me here, what could I do when a certain individual doesn’t want to let me go?”
A speechless Justin had a tense expression.
“Let’s just eat.” Looking through the menu, Rachel ordered, “The codfish is the signature dish here, right? We’ll have one of those.”
Upon seeing Rachel act like nothing had happened resulted in Gloria taking her seat as she recommended, “Their prawns here are tasty as well.”
“Is that so? One of those too, I guess.”
When all the dishes had been served, Rachel ate and drank like a normal person. It was Justin and Gloria who felt uncomfortable instead. He particularly felt like he was sitting on a bed of needles.
At that moment, although he did not want to admit it, reality had revealed the truth to Samuel’s words: he was a fool.
He just had to push Rachel’s buttons for no reason again.
Looking at the large bowl of peanut soup on the table, Gloria signaled with her eyes at Justin and even kicked him from under the table.
When he finally understood what she hinted at, he immediately filled a small bowl with soup and intentionally gave it to her first before passing a second bowl to Rachel in an attempt to make the scene more natural. “Have some soup.”
“Thank you.”
What came out of Rachel’s mouth was flat and carried no emotion in it.
“Oh, right, Charlotte and Samuel are still at your place, aren’t they? How are they doing now?”
“They are quite obedient. I have left them with my assistant, so you guys don’t have to worry about anything.”
“I can pick them up later today.”
“You don’t have to. Let them play around in the theater group for a few days. Since I’ve discovered that Samuel seems to be musically talented, I was thinking that for the final concert in two days’ time, I might bring him onstage to perform as a final act of thanks to the audience.”
“Samuel?” Rachel thought that she had misheard Gloria’s words. “Can he do it? He hasn’t taken a music lesson before, has he?”
Since Samuel was still young combined with the fact that he had grown up abroad, Rachel had always thought that he needed a relatively free and happy childhood. That was the reason why she never forced him to attend any extracurricular activities.
Then, Gloria added, “Samuel does have a great sense for music. I coincidentally wanted to ask for your opinion on the matter. If you agree to it, I’ll arrange for him to perform onstage.”
“I don’t have any opinion on this. I’m just afraid that he might affect the level of the group’s performance.”
“He won’t.”
Justin, who couldn’t barge into the two women’s conversation, could only helplessly look on.
Although Rachel didn’t express her anger, it was actually more tortuous for him to be ignored like this. He would rather have her scold him thoroughly and be done with it.
Sadly, she treated him as if he was invisible throughout the entire meal.
“Where are you going, Miss Rachel? I can send you there.”
While holding onto her car keys, Gloria and the other two walked out of the restaurant.
As Rachel held her purse, she replied, “No need. I’ll just take a cab and yes, I’m going to look for Bucky.”
“Doesn’t he already know the truth, though? Why are you still going to look for him?”
“I have to know the truth about what happened to my grandmother. If blackmail and threats don’t work, maybe I can try to bait him with something irresistible.”
Justin suddenly commented, “You cannot go.”
As soon as he said that, Rachel’s expression darkened. “What? Even though I’ve clearly explained everything, are you still going to stick your finger in my pie?”
“What I meant was that you cannot go there alone.”
While opening the car door, he said in determination as his deep gaze landed on her face, “Gloria and I will accompany you there.”
“Yeah, Miss Rachel. We can accompany you.”
“It’s just me investigating some private matters, so there’s no need to be this cautious.” A frustrated Rachel then continued, “What do you intend to do with so many people?”
“You can allow Justin to accompany you then. It just so happens that I have something else to do, so I’ll be leaving first.”
After that, Gloria thrusted the keys into Justin’s hands before turning around and leaving. “I’ll just take a cab. Bye!”
“Hey!”
Rachel attempted to call out to Gloria, but couldn’t stop her as the woman had quickly left.
The only ones remaining were Justin and Rachel as they stood at the car door and stared at each other.
Then, he broke the silence with a question. “You drive? Or, shall I do it?”
“What do you think?”
Rolling her eyes, Rachel snatched the keys and mumbled angrily, “Can you even drive?”
Even if Justin really dared to drive, she did not have the guts to sit in it. After all, although he might not have any plans to continue living, she still wanted to live her life.
Bucky’s home was situated at the west side of the old district. The houses there were all dilapidated and most of them had a demolition sign glued on it. Even though the demolition had already occurred, it did not seem like the residents there had moved after all these years.
Getting out of the car, Justin frowned as he looked at the ruins in front of him. “Are you sure that people are still living here?”
Rachel looked at a faraway point and noted that the houses here had all been demolished with its debris spread all over.
“Young Master Justin, of course you won’t know about the sufferings of mere mortals. When a person is truly broke, they would already be thanking God if there was a place that could shield them from the elements.”
Passing around the ruin, she walked to an alley, after which Justin immediately followed.
Since it was already afternoon, the sun was scorching the ground with its heat. However, the old houses that were half-demolished had a pathway so narrow that the two of them found it hard to traverse without any sunlight. As a result, it resulted in a depressing atmosphere.
Justin asked, “Have you visited this place before?”
“I haven’t, but I have been to similar places like this.”
“When was it?”
“It was a long time ago. I still haven’t left Riverdale at that time. Victor and his grandmother lived in this kind of place too.”
As she reminisced the first time that she went to Victor’s house, she had also walked in a similar alley and it was even at night back then. The air was filled with the smell of dust with rubble and rocks underneath her everywhere. Although there was no streetlight, the dim light from within the alley had more warmth than the moonlight itself.
Victor was in the same situation as her—their only relative had already passed on.
When Justin saw Rachel spacing out, he reminded, “Be careful when you’re walking. You’re wearing heels, after all.”
“I know.”
Moments after she replied, she screamed in shock and it was his quick reaction that prevented her from falling as he held onto her waist.
Lowering her head, Rachel saw that the heel of her right shoe was stuck inside the mesh of the drain. It refused to budge, no matter how hard she tried.
“Let me try.” After making sure she was standing properly, Justin kneeled down and twisted her shoe a few times.
With a crack, she also felt her heart breaking.
As expected, he was holding a shoe that had separated itself from the heel.
The man’s usually stern face had a rare awkward expression. “I didn’t think that it would be that weak.”
Feeling the corners of her mouth twitching, Rachel responded, “It’s fine. Just give it to me.”
“How are you going to wear that?”
Not wanting to waste words on him, she took the shoe from his hand and wore it before limping further into the alley.
As the surface of the road was full of potholes caused by the stones, coupled with the fact that one of her shoes was missing a heel, she wobbled around as she walked with one leg higher than the other. It looked like she would lose her balance at any moment.
“This can’t be done!”
“I don’t need you caring about me.”
Rachel hadn’t even taken two steps when she heard Justin readily approaching her from behind. By the time she exclaimed out of shock, her waist had suddenly tightened as her legs were swept up from the floor.
When she finally realized what had happened, she was already in Justin’s embrace.
The strong scent of pheromones attacked her as she lifted her chin to look at the man in disbelief.
