Justin noticed the solemn look on Rachel’s face, and the last bit of reservation he had finally dissipated. He didn’t give a dent about how others regarded him, so he had actually offended many people throughout the years of organizing work in the charity foundation.
There were many people who appeared to be fine with him on the surface but actually wanted to kick him out of the foundation. At this point, he only had the support of the old chairman.
“What’s so funny?” Rachel noticed the slight curve on Justin’s lips and she was perplexed. “Did I say the wrong thing?”
“No.” Justin looked out of the window. “I was just thinking that sometimes, perhaps we should consider other people’s opinions when. carrying out something.”
Although the opinions of others were indeed not as important as doing the right and proper thing, words could be quite brutal and it was important to maintain a good reputation too.
“You’re odd,” Rachel commented under her breath and used the little knife to halve the apple. Subsequently, she handed one of them. to Justin. “Here you go. Do you want this?”
He was momentarily stunned and he paused for a moment before reaching out for it. “Thanks.” Rachel frowned slightly. “What happened to your hands?”
She didn’t notice earlier on, but both of Justin’s hands were bandaged up. There was a thin layer of gauze on his hands, and only his fingers were exposed to the air. It looked as if he had on half a pair of gloves.
Justin glanced at her and said, “I’m alright. I just had a slight graze.” As he spoke, Frankie walked into the room with some hot water. “President Burton, President Hudson.”
Rachel greeted him by nodding in response. Frankie handed over a handbag and a sealed transparent bag to Rachel. “President Hudson, this was found in your car. The sealed bag contains your cell phone, your identification card, your driver’s license, and some random objects.”
Rachel’s car was completely written off, but there were plenty of items inside so it was fortunate that Frankie had gone and retrieved them. “Thank you, Assistant Beckham.”
“It’s my pleasure. You’ve done us such a huge favor, so there is no need to thank me for that. It was fortunate that nothing bad had happened to you. If something bad had happened, it would have been my fault.”
Frankie shuddered at the thought of it. His worst nightmare had actually come true. If something bad had happened to Rachel, then it was very likely that Justin would have ripped him to pieces.
Frankie had come over from the canteen and got some takeaway. Subsequently, he helped to adjust the side table attached to the bed.
Justin had gone out to take a call, so Rachel ate as she put her phone on charge and powered it up. “I’ve got to give Jolly a call and inform her. She must be worried sick right now.”
“You don’t have to worry about Miss Carter. President Burton gave her a call personally and informed her that you’re safe.” “What?” Rachel was slightly taken aback. “When did he do that?”
“Last night. After confirming that you were fine,. President Burton called Miss Carter immediately. I heard them talking because I was coincidentally at the entrance.”
Frankie was clearly still frightened from last night’s ordeal as he recounted the matter to Rachel. “President Hudson, you must be unaware of this, but I actually thought that President Burton would collapse as soon as he found out that you were fine, so I was prepared to support his weight. However, he calmly started to make phone calls to tell everyone you were safe. He also started to make arrangements for the distribution of supplies and responded to the people from the foundation…”
“He wouldn’t possibly collapse.” Rachel was slightly resigned as she spoke. “You’re exaggerating.”
“That’s not true. You didn’t see him. After you lost consciousness in the car, he dug at the boulders with a crazed expression, and his hands were bloody and injured from that.”
Rachel was caught by surprise. “After that, the fire brigade arrived and escorted you to the waiting ambulance. His knees. immediately buckled and fell to the ground with a thud.
At that instance, I didn’t even manage to catch President Burton because he scrambled up from the ground to rush over and get on the ambulance. I heard from one of the nurses that President Burton held tightly to your hands. without letting go the entire journey, and his. face was deathly pale.”
Shocked, Rachel clenched her hands into fists, and it was as if she could still feel the warmth she experienced while asleep. His hands are bandaged up because he injured himself while rescuing me. Those last words I spoke to him in my dreams must have actually happened then.
“President Hudson, actually, there is something that I wanted to tell you since a long time ago but I never got the chance. Now that you nearly suffered an accident, I reckon that I shouldn’t wait for a better chance, so I have to tell you this.”
Frankie’s words pulled Rachel back to her senses. “What is it?” Frankie responded, “Do you know why President Burton ended up losing his memory after you left back then?”
“I thought it was because he met with a car accident on the way to the airport?” “It was a car accident, but that was just part of the reason. The main reason was because he had an issue with alcohol, and the excessive amount of alcohol he consumed damaged hist brain.”
Rachel was in disbelief and she was caught by surprise. “Furthermore, he consumed a lot of alcohol as well on the day that he drove to the airport.
From his purchase history, there was a record of him buying a plane ticket for himself, as he had intended to go overseas to look for you.”
“To look for me? How did he know where I was?”
Julian had put in a lot of effort to bring Rachel over to Montenegro successfully, and she was clearly aware of all that. In order to prevent Justin from finding her, Julian and her hadn’t taken a direct flight to Montenegro. “President Burton knew it.”
Frankie had a complicated look on his face. “Ever since you left Riverdale, President Burton was in a frenzy and he practically upended Riverdale to look for you. Finally, he found Irwin Chase.”
“Grandpa Irwin?”
“Yes. Irwin revealed everything, including the fact that you were Katie. After that, I found out that you were recuperating in a hospital in Montenegro, but President Burton started to consume an excessive amount of alcohol and kept himself cooped up at home. He refused to listen to any advice regardless of who it came from…”
“Alcohol problem?” Rachel was in disbelief. Frankie had a complicated look on his face as he heaved a sigh. It seemed that he was quite reluctant to recall that moment in the past.
Long term excessive consumption of alcohol could cause hallucination, and no one knew what Justin saw that day. However, they only knew that after that, he bought a ticket on his own accord and drove to the airport. Along the way, he was involved in a car accident under the influence of alcohol.
“He didn’t actually mean to forget everything between the two of you, but Old Mr. Burton stopped everyone from bringing you up.”
Arthur had seen Justin during his drunken wild moments, and Justin had gone from a normal and well person into someone out of his mind just because of a woman. At that time, Justin lived his life like a walking dead. He was the only grandson of Arthur so obviously, it pained Arthur to see Justin in such a state. Arthur couldn’t bear to see that.
As such, Arthur forced everyone around them to cooperate with him after that. Everyone came together to weave a lie that could easily. be exposed, but neither of them wanted to let Justin recall anything that had to do with Rachel. They pretended that nothing had ever happened, and that Justin and Rachel never knew each other.
Unfortunately, some things seem to be fated. For example, Justin seemed fated to be entangled with this woman called Rachel Hudson for the rest of his life, ever since the moment he was kidnapped when he was thirteen.
Rachel arrived back in Riverdale and those well- kept memories suddenly hit him like a wave quite effortlessly. With her return in Riverdale, the memories hit him hard and from then on, he was riddled with utmost guilt.
“President Hudson, I realize that there are a lot of things that I haven’t gone through as an outsider in this, so I can’t judge what’s right or wrong. However, I’ve been observing by the side all these years, and President Burton only cares about you. There has been no one else ever to hold a spot in his heart.
Perhaps to you and Miss Carter, President Burton has been living at carefree lifestyle due to his loss of memories for the past five years, but consider this-prior to his marriage with you, he had been fixated upon seeking revenge over the past ten years.
If he hadn’t gotten into that car accident, he would have to live the rest of his life riddled with guilt toward you, and the torment he experienced would definitely be way more than. just five years.” At that point, Rachel clenched her fists and shel felt quite troubled.
