Chapter 358 Would You Like to Know Who She Is?
“So, tell me: Why did you appear in the surveillance tapes of Louis’ house?” After they returned to the side hall from the courtyard, Alexander flipped out an old score immediately without giving Oliver any chance to guard against him.
Just two weeks ago, he had specially gone to the military hospital to look for him because of this issue as well. If it wasn’t because of that, he wouldn’t have found out the relationship between himself, Oliver, and Fiona. Even though the misunderstanding from back then had been resolved, the investigation regarding Louis was stuck at the surveillance tapes.
Courtney paused for a second while drinking her tea and glanced at Oliver out of reflex, feeling nervous for no reason.
“Are you suspecting me of killing Louis?” Oliver asked instead.
Composedly, Alexander said, “The innocent have nothing to fear. If you didn’t do it, just explain why you were at Oreus instead of returning home. Furthermore, you so happened to appear in Louis’ place.”
The air felt still for a second. Even though Alexander had just acknowledged him as his younger brother, it wasn’t enough to earn his respect. Because of Oliver’s identity, he was even more anxious to know whether he was connected to Louis’ case.
“Okay, I admit that it was Britney who sent me there to find out something,” Oliver said; his voice was ringing in the living room, breaking the silence and making Courtney’s heart drop at the same time.
Is he going to tell the truth? she wondered. Including the truth about Jordan and what happened back then?
“Britney Price?” The look on Alexander’s face changed, and a trace of anger appeared. “What did she ask you to investigate?”
“Jordan’s birth.” Maintaining the calmness in his voice, Oliver kept his face straight as he elaborated, “Britney wanted to know who Jordan’s birth mother is and asked me to investigate it. Judging from all the various signs when Louis left back then, I guessed that it had something to do with you looking for a surrogate mother, and that led me to Oreus.”
Gripping the cup tightly, Courtney gradually turned pale. From the corners of his eyes, Alexander noticed the abnormal look on her face, and he furrowed his brows ever so slightly.
“Back then, something went wrong with the surrogate mother who was in charge, and I found out the entire truth. I even found out who was the woman who gave birth to your child by mistake. Alex, would you like to know who she is?” Oliver asked suddenly.
An inexplicable silence fell over the living room, and Alexander turned to steal a look at Courtney. After seeing her uneasiness, he was quiet for a while and turned Oliver down. “It’s alright. Just tell me how Louis died.”
Stunned, Courtney gawked at Alexander’s face from the side with an indescribable feeling in her heart. He probably doesn’t want to hear it because he’s worried about my feelings, she thought.
At the same time, Oliver glanced at Courtney, and a complicated look flashed across his eyes. The truth is right in front of our eyes. Whether it started as a mistake and continued on as a mistake or whatever, this can be considered as a godsent relationship. However, it will produce a different result if I say it out now, so I might as well wait for them to announce it themselves officially.
“Britney knew that you were also looking into this matter, and she was afraid that you’d look for Jordan’s birth mother because of his condition. So, she wanted to seal Louis’ mouth and sent me to take care of him. I pretended to agree, but not only did she not trust me, she even laid out a trap for me by sending a few men and planned to burn me and Louis alive in the house.”
Both Alexander and Courtney already knew what happened afterward: Oliver fortunately escaped from the fire but suffered from temporary memory loss because of the fall. Of all people, he ran into Courtney, who happened to be there for work, and she brought him back to Melrose by a twist of fate.
“Later, I already recovered my memory when I checked into Sunhill Hotel, but I couldn’t reveal myself. I had to find out if it was really Britney who tried to frame and kill me, so I kept pretending that I didn’t recover my memory.” Then, Oliver mentioned everything that happened when he ran into Britney at the hotel. “In fact, I tested her out with an incident. From that, I can be sure that the accidents Jordan kept encountering time and again were mostly planned by her.”
“The incident of the kitchen fire?” Alexander asked next with a frown.
Oliver nodded. “I was the one who asked her to do it. From the whole process of how she contacted the hotel staff until the way she threatened Mikayla to be the scapegoat to take care of that matter, it seemed that she was very familiar with Sunhill Hotel and was very well-versed in her modus operandi. Therefore, I deduced that it was definitely not her first time committing a crime.”
Actually, he regretted asking Britney to do such a thing. Back then, he merely wanted to test her out. Even if anything happened, he would be there to ensure that the two children wouldn’t be hurt, but he didn’t think that he would be in another place helping Courtney to investigate the truth behind Jordan’s speech loss three years ago when Britney was committing the crime. If it wasn’t for Mikayla, who came to her senses and saved Jordan, he couldn’t imagine what would be the outcome then.
While he was bringing up this matter, he lowered his head and avoided Alexander’s eyes as his own eyes filled with guilt.
All the dots had been connected into a clear timeline. All these years, there were times when Alexander suspected Britney, but she was so good at covering her tracks that he couldn’t find out anything. Now that he knew the connection between Britney and James, and putting in together with the facts that Oliver found out, everything became clear to him now.
When he thought of everything Jordan went through because of this woman, Alexander scowled and clenched his fists so tightly that the veins on his arms were visible, showing just how high his flames of fury were burning.
“Let’s just hand this matter over to the police,” Oliver suggested, reading Alexander’s mind. “It won’t work well for you if you settle this in private. Quite a few issues have cropped up with Sunhill Enterprise recently, and the journalists are keeping an eye out for you.”
Given Alexander’s temper, it would be possible that he might send someone to drop Britney off on an uninhabited island. However, Oliver had a point. Times were different now, and since the Duncans already made it public that they had found the missing Fiona Duncan and her son, many eyes were now fixed on Sunhill Enterprise, waiting for the latest scoop.
So, Britney’s case could only be handed over to the police.
The night was waning, and since Oliver hadn’t fully recovered yet, they returned to their own rooms after chatting a little longer.
Seated in front of her makeup mirror while applying cream on her hands, Courtney appeared worried and didn’t even realize it when Alexander was standing behind her.
“What’s on your mind?”
Jumping in shock, she popped her eyes wide and turned to him. A few seconds later, she recollected herself and stammered, “N-Nothing. I was I just thinking about some things from the past.”
“Does it have something to do with what Oliver mentioned earlier?”
“Yeah.” Courtney rubbed her fingers awkwardly. “Alex, are you really not interested in Jordan’s birth?”
“No.” Grabbing her hand, he explained, “She’s a woman I don’t know, so what can I do even if I found out? Rather than making you feel awkward, it’s better that I don’t know anything at all and take it as this woman didn’t exist. Since Jordan is still young now and thinks that you’re his mother, just let it be, then. I consider you his birth mother.”
In fact, Alexander’s idea was very simple. Previously, when he found the woman who posed as Belle, it had already created a rift between them. It just goes to show that it’s not the best thing to find out who Jordan’s birth mother is, lest there be more misunderstandings. It’s better to just give up the investigation, he thought.
Meanwhile, Courtney appeared to be in a daze. Many things had been hidden in her heart for too long, and she didn’t know where to start.
