Unexpectedly, the person who couldn’t possibly show up at the Langston Residence right at this moment showed up in front of Heather, and she looked at the person with a half-smile. “Heather.” This was probably the last voice she liked to hear. Few people would call her so affectionately, but she felt disgusted whenever this particular person called her name in such a manner.
“What brings you here, Blake?” she asked in surprise. It wasn’t time to clock off yet, so why would Blake come home ahead of time? He even went to the study right away to meet her.
“It’ll be Thanksgiving day tomorrow, so the company closed early,” Blake replied naturally.
Heather almost forgot that the next day would be Thanksgiving Day, the day when one was supposed to have a Thanksgiving meal with their family. She felt somewhat lonely all of a sudden, for she recalled her parents—they had basically been treating her with indifference ever since she came back to the Langston Residence. Naturally, she would be lying if she said that she had no feelings about this. The next day would be Thanksgiving Day, but her parents weren’t at the Langston Residence at all. When rumors about Heather and Matthias spread last time, Stephen was so angered that he took Camille overseas right away with the excuse of keeping their minds off things, but he actually did so to get Heather out of his mind. Heather had sometimes considered changing such circumstances, for Stephen hated his child so much as a parent. Heather couldn’t understand why he hated her so much as if he had never treated her as his daughter.
When he looked at Heather’s ‘masterpiece’ on the table, Blake asked hesitantly, “Are you painting?”
Since she feared that Blake would see her painting, Heather immediately crumpled up the painting that had taken her a long time to draw into a ball and tossed it nonchalantly into the trash can. Then, she replied without a change in her countenance, “I was just killing time.”
Blake gave a knowing look before he smiled. “Did you see Grandpa?” As it turned out, he was here to find Robert.
“Grandpa is away for something.” Heather wasn’t clear about the specific reason Robert left home. Seeing how impatient Blake looked, she wondered why Blake had come to find Robert. In fact, it seemed like he had something serious to discuss with Robert.
“Did he mention when he’ll be back?” There was a trace of anxiety in Blake’s voice.
Deep down inside, Heather grew even more puzzled. “I’m not clear about that; he should be back before dinner.” She wasn’t clear about this since Robert had left without saying anything.
“I can’t get through to Grandpa’s cell phone number, so I’m worried.” Blake took out his cell phone, and its screen showed that he had called Robert a dozen times.
This time, even Heather became nervous as well. “What happened?” she asked in disbelief while taking the cell phone from him. Robert would typically phone Blake back, so this gave her a bad feeling.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know where Grandpa is at all right now,” Blake replied worriedly. Deep down inside, he still cared about Robert, though he often thought that the latter was biased.
“Let’s go out and look for him.” Heather began to turn things over in her mind. There weren’t many places that Robert could go to, so they would definitely find him if they searched these places one by one.
“Perhaps he’ll be back after a while.” Robert took back his cell phone with a deep frown. Unpleasant scenes flashed across his mind since such a thing had never happened to Robert before.
“No matter what, let’s go out and look for him. We can ask the butler to inform us if Grandpa comes back,” said Heather while leaving the study. Then, her voice was heard outside the door. “Butler! Butler!”
As he looked at Heather from behind, Blake thought for a moment before going after her. He didn’t want something bad to happen to Robert; even though it occurred to him that he would be calling the shots in the Langston Family if Robert passed away one day, he mustn’t let anything happen to Robert before he could prove himself. He had to make Robert recognize his capabilities, or he would live in Heather’s shadow all his life.
The two of them quickly reached the garage and moved separately with each person driving a car. At this moment, Blake was unusually reliable; he wasn’t totally worthless, for he looked quite like a brother right now.
Heather’s car was still under repair, so there was no way she could take it back that day. Out of the vast collection of cars in the garage, she chose the smallest one. She used to like driving this car in the past, but after she began working at the Langston Group, she drove a bigger car to make herself appear lofty and impressive while meeting clients.
Since she knew that Robert’s favorite go-to place was a clubhouse specialized in serving the elderly, she decided to go there to take a look, thinking that Robert was probably playing cards and gathering with several old buddies. On the other hand, Blake intended to go to the most luxurious golf course in Bradfort City—it was Robert’s favorite place for holding talks with people. Heather also thought that Robert was more likely to be there, but she didn’t want to go to the golf course. After all, the golf course’s owner was a man whom she hated quite a lot. Coincidentally, the man was on friendly terms with Blake, which was why Blake chose to visit the golf course instead.
Heather sped up her car while praying inwardly that nothing would happen to Robert. She sent him several text messages in a row, asking him to reply to her as soon as he saw her messages. However, there was no reply after she sent those texts; they weren’t even read. It seemed like Robert didn’t have his cell phone with him, and this wasn’t good news. Robert had never made his family so worried before; even if his cell phone was with someone else, the person would have to report to him whenever his cell phone registered any calls or messages. It didn’t make sense for Robert not to reply to their calls and messages, so this was deeply alarming. How could Robert, who always had such a good habit, go off the radar?
Heather was on tenterhooks as she was about to arrive. Of course, she hoped that Robert was at the clubhouse, but she had a hunch that he wasn’t there. She hated having such a strong intuition since this wasn’t a good thing.
She stopped her car at the clubhouse’s entrance with her mind in a whirl. This clubhouse was run by a former subordinate of Robert, so he often patronized this place. Moreover, Heather was on good terms with the owner since Robert often brought her here when she was a child.
When Heather showed up at the clubhouse’s front desk, the receptionist—a young lady who was new at the job and didn’t know Heather at all—was baffled by Heather’s presence here. After all, this place was a paradise for the elderly, and young people seldom came here.
After the young lady and Heather looked at each other, Heather said politely, “Could you call your boss over?”
After walking into the clubhouse, Heather became more certain that her hunch was right. She couldn’t feel Robert’s presence here at all, but now that she was here, she had to confirm it first. After all, her grandpa could’ve been here earlier that day.
“Boss isn’t here today.” The young lady blinked her innocent eyes, and Heather knitted her brows instantly.
Heather’s aura made the young lady feel very uncomfortable, and she looked at Heather in fear. When she saw how afraid the young lady was, Heather continued, “Who’s in the clubhouse today?” After asking the question, she felt as though she was a narcotics agent.
The young lady looked at Heather even more suspiciously. “There isn’t anyone,” she answered nervously.
Seeing that the young lady was so timid, Heather opened Robert’s photo on her cell phone right away and showed it in front of the young lady. She then asked directly, “Has this old man been here?”
The young lady shook her head. The photo on Heather’s cell phone showed an elegant and refined old man. The young lady would’ve recognized him at a glance if she had seen him, but she really had never seen him before.
“Are you a new employee?” Heather’s head hurt as it occurred to her that this young lady knew nothing.
“Yeah, I’m not so familiar with this place yet,” the young lady answered evasively while wondering if this clubhouse had a secret that couldn’t be told. She even guessed Heather’s identity—the more she looked at Heather, the more Heather looked to her like a plainclothes police officer coming for an investigation. The young lady felt extremely aggrieved, and she thought that she must ask her boss what was going on when he came back.
As expected, he isn’t here, Heather thought to herself. Feeling somewhat disappointed, she left right away since she had no time to explain. Since Robert wasn’t here, he was probably at the golf course. Even though she didn’t like the golf course manager, she couldn’t care less about it at this moment.
When Heather hurried to the golf course, she saw Blake’s car. Blake should’ve arrived a long time ago, so Heather didn’t understand why his car was still parked here. Moreover, she had been sending him messages on her way here to ask him about the situation here, but she received no reply.
After parking her car, she entered the golf course without hesitation; it never occurred to her that a golf course would become so dangerous one day. She kept having a bad feeling, for she found that the golf course was unusually quiet on this day. As she walked inside, she didn’t see anyone receiving her.
Since when did the golf course’s management become so careless that anyone can easily get inside? At the thought of this, Heather immediately dialed Robert’s number, but the call was disconnected right away after a few beeps. She felt even more suspicious by this, and she immediately sensed danger. With that, she decided not to continue going forward; she looked at her surroundings and wondered if she should call the police.
Just then, a man’s voice spoke. “Miss Langston.”
Heather turned around to see the golf course manager, and she felt rather uncomfortable at the sight of him. “Hi, Mr. Cullen,” she replied politely. Nonetheless, she felt greatly alarmed since the golf course manager shouldn’t have been here. She kept some distance away from him so that she had time to react if anything unexpected happened.
“How big you’ve grown! It’s been a long time since we last met,” said the golf course manager as he tried to cozy up to Heather.
Heather looked at the golf course manager with disgust, for this man was a pedophile. Back when she followed Robert here as a child, he had shown her perverted care that one shouldn’t have shown toward someone younger. Heather was sensitive, so she never came here with Robert again after that. Moreover, this guy was especially good at disguising himself. Pedophiles would only give themselves away in front of young girls, so he definitely wouldn’t give himself away in front of a bunch of guys.
Back then, Robert was especially curious about why Heather disliked Mr. Cullen so much. After all, this man had put in a great deal of effort to please Robert, so Robert’s impression of him was quite favorable. This was precisely why Heather didn’t expose Mr. Cullen’s special preferences.
“Yeah, I’m no longer a kid.” Heather reminded him that she was no longer the young girl back then—she was a mature woman now.
“What a shame,” the golf course manager responded with regret. After all, he had a preference for young girls and wasn’t very interested in mature women. He had been unable to forget the sharp look in Heather’s eyes when she was a child, for it was simply intoxicating. What a stubborn and unyielding little girl she was back then, he thought to himself.
