Female Novel
Chapter 281
Chapter 281
“Dad!”
Rachel didn’t even need to spare an iota of brainpower to figure out who it was.
The hurried clacking of high heels sounded through the mortuary. Then, Amber stood by the door of themortuary, still unable to accept reality even after she had caught her breath. “Dad…”
Rachel couldn’t recall a time when Amber was this panicked. Regardless of how cruel Amber was, shewas still Jefferey’s daughter who he had raised since she was a young girl. Jefferey was her greatestpillar. Now that he was gone, the blow to her was significant.
Amber stumbled inside. Her fingers touched the white cloth draped over the corpse before they wereshakily retracted. All of a sudden, she yelled at the head jailer. “This isn’t my father! You’ve got it allwrong!”
“You’re grieving, miss.”
“Grieving? I told you, this isn’t my father! Where are you hiding my dad? Where is he?” At that, Amber’shand moved toward the head jailer. Her fingers were a stark pale compared to the brightness of her rednails. In the darkness of the room, they were an eerie sight.
The head jailer didn’t manage to back away in time and was caught by the collar.
“Calm yourself, miss.”
“Where on earth are you hiding my father? He’s a healthy man. How can he just be dead?”
“Amber!” Rachel couldn’t stop herself from rebuking Amber. “This isn’t a place for you to show yourtemper. He passed away due to a sudden heart attack. You’re a doctor, if you don’t believe them, you
can examine him.”
“Rachel?” Amber whipped her head around at the sound of Rachel’s voice, seemingly only having justnoticed her presence. At that moment, her red eyes made her look very much like a devil from hell. “Howdare you come here? What right do you have to be here? You’re the one behind his imprisonment!”
Amber lunged at Rachel. Rachel backed away as she already anticipated this and grabbed her arm.“Have you gone mad? Death is already a kindness for him. The greatest punishment would have beenrotting away in jail until old age. Even if I had the nerve to do it, I wouldn’t.”
With that, Rachel shoved Amber away roughly.
As a result, Amber stumbled backward and fell over. Fortunately for her, a large figure had entered theroom, and he reflexively caught her.
Rachel stiffened at the sight of the newcomer.
Amber teared up when she saw the person who helped her up. “Justin!”
It was Justin, indeed.
A few hours ago, Rachel ended up getting into a huge fight with him because she and Janice went tovisit Hans’ grave. He had then stormed out of the house. To suddenly see him here felt like a slap in theface.
Justin released Amber. His gaze lingered on Rachel for a moment before it landed on the corpse behindher. No one had lifted up the white cloth covering the body until now.
Jefferey sacrificed his life for Hudson Pharmaceuticals, yet he died like this.
After they left Riverdale Penitentiary, Amber glued herself beside Justin, sobbing ceaselessly.
“I’ll get someone to arrange his funeral. You… You two don’t have to worry about that,” he said.
Those words were meant for Rachel, but he couldn’t stop himself from being petty when he recalled theincident with Hans, opting to say ‘you two’ instead of ‘you’.
Rachel forced herself to smile. “Thank you.” Having said that, she glanced at Amber, who trailed behindJustin like a wad of chewing gum that just wouldn’t come off. A look of disgust turned up on her face asshe continued, “I’ll be going now.”
With that, Rachel headed straight for the parking lot.
Justin wanted to follow her, but Amber tried to grab his arm. “Justin.”
He instinctively drew his arm back. At the same time, his handsome features schooled in their usualchilly
expression as he pulled some distance between Amber and himself.novelbin
With that, Amber’s hand hung awkwardly in mid-air. A few moments later, she retracted it. “Can you staywith me for a little?”
Justin looked at his watch. “It’s getting late. You should go back. There will be plenty of things that you’llbe handling.”
Amber couldn’t stop herself from clenching her fists when she compared how different Justin’s treatmentwas to her and Rachel. Her nails dug into her palms and pain surged through her nerves.
“Justin, do you think that you’ll be able to get back together with that mute if you distance yourself fromme? Look at her-she isn’t at all interested in you! She’s constantly using you! Can’t you tell?”
“Enough. I didn’t come here to listen to you ramble. You should calm down and go home.”
“I’m being very calm here!” Amber took a step closer. “I’ve been with you for so many years. Regardlessof how I treated others, I’ve always been sincere with you. Don’t tell me that you can’t see that?”
Judging from the frown on Justin’s eyebrows, he was already impatient with her.
Amber knew that it would be futile to keep talking, so she gritted her teeth. “I know that it’s no use tellingyou all this. I just have one final request-if you agree, I’ll consider it repayment for the last six years of myyouth.”
“What is it?”
“Help me manage Hudson Pharmaceuticals.”
Meanwhile, Rachel drove back alone after leaving Riverdale Penitentiary.
“I’ve confirmed it-he did have a heart attack.” Jolly’s voice sounded through Rachel’s bluetoothearphones. “So, this isn’t something premeditated? He ended up getting his own comeuppance?”
“He wouldn’t have suddenly passed away even if the heart attack was an actual thing. They didn’t evenperform proper first aid on him.”
“What do you mean?”
Rachel’s brows remained furrowed as her hands gripped the steering wheel. “There were six people of
committed maior crimes. They various ages inside the cell. The prisoners sharing a cell with Jeffereyhave committed major crimes. They are very alert even when asleep.”
“What are you trying to get at?”
“Wouldn’t someone in the middle of a heart attack make some noise at least? His death was about threehours ago. It was lights-out time at the prison, yes, but who would be so deeply asleep at such an earlyhour? There’s got to be something fishy about the situation.”
“You’re saying that Jefferey was murdered?”
“I just think that it’s something to be considered.”
“He was already locked up. Who would want to kill him?”
Rachel’s eyes darkened a little, but her tone was still languid. “Plenty of people, actually.”
Jefferey had been a key figure in Hudson Pharmaceutical’s smuggling business. He had plenty ofresources at his fingertips. Hudson Pharmaceuticals wouldn’t be the only company involved in this shadybusiness in Riverdale; Janice had mentioned beforehand that the ledger recovered from the Hudsonresidence had implicated Hudson Pharmaceuticals.
The one who killed Jefferey to shut him up had to be tied to that ledger.
The next afternoon, Rachel took Samuel and Charlotte to the community pool for a weekend treat.Charlotte couldn’t swim, so she paddled around in the shallow section, looking like a little duckling withher inner tube.
“Chris!” a man’s voice rang out across the pool, drawing plenty of attention.
Rachel and the children looked in the direction of the voice to see Hernandez stride out from thechanging room in swimming shorts. His muscled frame and the eight-pack he sported made the eyes ofevery woman by the pool light up.
“Charlotte, Samuel, have fun by yourselves,” Rachel told them. Then, she swam over to the edge of thepool.