Chapter 330 The Dusty Truth
Justin supported himself against the table as blood rushed to his head, making him feel very dizzy. Frankie was worried. “President Burton, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Those words had only just left Justin’s mouth when he abruptly stumbled. He could barely stand as all the strength left his knees.
Frankie moved quickly to support Justin. “President Burton, are you feeling dizzy again? I’ll send you to the hospital.”
“No need!” Justin clenched his fists tightly and it took a long while for him to recover his strength.
The difference in Rachel’s attitude almost made her seem like she was a different person altogether. Her voice over the phone was so cold that she sounded like a stranger when he would rather have her show some emotions for him. However, there was nothing—not the slightest hint whatsoever.
“President Burton, please don’t be angry. The Legal Department is urgently working on this matter. Mr. Foster has no contractual integrity either. You originally planned to hand these warehouses to President Hudson out of kindness, but now… What a terrible mess. I’ll go and explain to President Hudson.”
“No need.” Justin leaned against the chair and slowly lowered himself into the seat. “You can leave for now.”
Frankie was slightly taken aback by those words and glanced at Justin a few times with worry. Before he left, he quietly heaved a sigh in his heart. Who could have imagined that things would turn into such a huge mess? I’m sure President Hudson thinks that Mr. Burton is deliberately finding faults with her. At this point, it’s impossible to clear up this misunderstanding.
After Frankie left, Justin quietly sat at his desk alone. A pounding headache threatened to split his head apart as he tremblingly pulled open the drawer on his left to search for his medicine. It took some searching before he found the bottle of medicine, only to discover that the bottle was empty.
A moment of dizziness washed over him, causing him to collapse to the floor. The pain was so intense that he could barely breathe. His entire body curled up into a ball; his complexion was pale and his body was drenched in cold sweat.
He did not know how long passed. All of a sudden, an image of the accident that occurred five years before flashed through his mind.
Crash. There was a loud crash that was accompanied by the sharp squeal of brakes. The car he was driving had slammed into the protective barrier along the highway to the airport, after which the entire car teetered on the edge of the road and his vision gradually turned hazy.
Before he lost consciousness, he was staring up at the sky. A plane swept across the shattered sky beyond the shattered windscreen in an arc, passing through the clouds and heading for the other side of the ocean.
“Ahhh!” Justin suddenly let out a cry of pain and clutched his head.
Resembling the floodwaters that rushed out of a broken dam, various unfamiliar memories flooded his mind. These memories gradually washed away the original and inaccurate memories, replacing them with abusive and violent behavior…
He remembered everything.
He did not know how much time passed, but the hand that was clutching tightly at his head slowly relaxed. Using the chair and desk nearby to support himself, he staggered to his feet with difficulty since he was breathing heavily and his entire body trembled.
At this moment, the dusty memories that had been sealed away for five whole years were swirling madly in his head.
Five years ago, he was the one who wronged Rachel. Everything was a mistake. Be it gratitude or revenge, all of them were wrong.
A layer of mist suddenly covered the man’s eyes. Forbearance, regret, pain… He was flooded with a myriad of emotions that tangled together, which left him feeling guilty and remorseful for the distant past.
Five years ago.
It was the third day since Rachel left. Justin searched the entire Riverdale but failed to locate even the slightest hint of her shadow.
He sat on the couch in the living room of the Burton Residence. A scar stretched from his forehead across his stern face and it was this scar that made him look terrifying as though his entire face had been divided into two. At this moment, his expression was extremely gloomy.
Frankie couldn’t help shuddering when he entered and saw this sight, after which he cautiously said, “President Burton, the person you wanted has been brought here.”
Upon hearing those words, Justin immediately rose from the sofa. “Bring him in.”
The words had only just left his mouth when two of his subordinates entered from outside with an old man who was being restrained.
The old man was none other than Irwin Chase, the human trafficker, whom Rachel called ‘Grandpa Irwin ‘.
Irwin immediately fell to his knees with a thud and shivered in fear like a leaf in the wind when he saw Justin. “I beg you, please let me go. I have no grievances against you. Why do you keep capturing me? Why?!”
“No grievances?” Justin snorted coldly. “Old man, take a good look at me. Have you forgotten who I am?”
Irwin had met Justin before. He looked up only to see Justin’s ferocious expression, which frightened him so much that he shuddered and immediately lowered his head again. “I… I really don’t remember. How can I forget an influential person like you if I’ve met you before?”
“What? That’s not what you said when you kidnapped me and locked me up in the underground dungeon twenty years ago.”
What? Twenty years ago? Irwin stiffened at those words. The man in front of him seemed to be approximately thirty years old. Twenty years ago, he would have been around ten years old.
Those who worked in human trafficking rarely targeted children of at that age. The first reason was that these children were older, so they remembered more things and were more opinionated. Hence, they were not easy to manage. The second reason was that older children were not easy to sell. Their buyers preferred younger children.
Among all the children he kidnapped and sold in the past, there was only one child who was around ten years old or so. His complexion turned deathly pale when that thought occurred to him. “You… You are…”
“Have you remembered me now?” Justin stared at the old man coldly. “That’s good.”
“Please let me go! I beg you! I had no choice back then!” Irwin desperately prostrated himself in front of Justin and groveled. “Please have mercy on me. I’m nothing more than a sack of old bones now. How much longer can I live? Just… Just let me go, for Rachel’s sake. Please let me go.”
At the mention of Rachel’s name, Justin abruptly clenched his fists. “For her sake? Even that would require her to intervene personally. Where is she?”
Irwin was taken aback. “Rachel? Hasn’t Rae been by your side all this time?”
“So, you won’t say?” Justin turned his back to Irwin and coldly instructed, “Drag him back and chop one of his fingers off. If he refuses to speak, then chop another finger off.”
Before Irwin could say a word, he was marched out by the two bodyguards standing beside him. “Save me! Save me! I really don’t know anything! I really don’t know anything! Ahhh!”
A terrible scream came from the courtyard outside. Even Frankie couldn’t help closing his eyes as he lacked the courage to look.
“Young Master Justin, the man has fainted!” The voice of one of the bodyguards came from outside.
Justin didn’t even glance over. “Wake him up.”
“Yes.”
Not long afterward, Irwin was awoken by a bucket of cold water. The intense pain made him lie on the ground as he trembled uncontrollably. “I really don’t know where Rachel went. I have not seen her since her grandmother passed away. She—”
“Chop off another finger.” The cold voice of a man came from within the house.
The bodyguard immediately grabbed Irwin’s hand and placed it on a rock. Then, he raised the knife in his hand again.
When the cold glint of light flashed, Irwin’s eyes widened in fright. In his desperation, he yelled, “I saved your life before!”
Inside the house, Justin raised a hand. The bodyguard’s knife stopped right above Irwin’s finger, nearly chopping it off.
Irwin gasped for breath. Cold sweat dripped down his neck as he shivered uncontrollably. “I was not the one who kidnapped and sold you. Back then, you would have died in that fire if I had not turned the other way and let you escape! I saved your life!”
Justin sneered. “You sure dare to say just about anything in order to survive, don’t you?”
“I’m not lying!” Irwin knelt on the ground, gasping due to the pain. “Rae… Rae can be my witness. Back then… Back then, she was the one who came to beg me. She begged me to save you!”
Justin jerked his head in surprise. “What did you say?”
