Seeing him like this, Raina couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy. "Aren’t you afraid this is a trap set by soone else?"
"So what if it is? Whether it’s a trap or an opportunity, I’ll only know once I’ve braved it."
Raina quickly drove to the entrance of the conference center. Miles Hawthorne, enduring the pain, shifted his leg toward the car door.
"Are you going to be okay?"
"I’m fine."
Miles Hawthorne pushed the door open. When he stepped out, he was once again the picture of a dapper gentleman, as if his earlier dishevelnt and injury had been nothing but an illusion.
Raina watched his back as he walked. ’He must be enduring it with all his might. Every step must feel like walking on knives, right? Otherwise, there’s no way he could hide it so perfectly.’
Not far away, a car window was rolled down. A man retracted the cara in his hands. "This chase wasn’t a waste of ti. This is sensational!"
"What’s so sensational?" his companion, who was driving, asked, not having noticed.
"A classic car quickie, no doubt," the man said, replaying the photos he’d just taken. "See? The pants he was wearing when he got in the car—aren’t they different from the ones he had on when he got out?"
"They are!" the driver exclaid. "It really was a car quickie!"
"This is great. We’re set for the rest of the year."
"What do you an? Let’s publish it now! It’s guaranteed to cause a huge stir."
The man carefully put his cara away. "Are you an idiot? How much is a single headline worth? Just imagine how much hush money Ethan Lancaster will pay us for these photos."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go—"
Raina was already late when she got to the hospital. Following Miles Hawthorne’s instructions, she deleted the footage from the dashcam.
Around noon, Raina took her car to a nearby car wash during her break. The attendant jumped in fright the mont he opened the door. Raina had to explain that she had rescued a patient on the road. Luckily, she was a regular custor, and everyone there knew she was a doctor, so they didn’t call the police.
「Conference Center.」
Miles Hawthorne was standing on the steps. Beside him, Frederick Lynch’s gaze shifted from Miles’s face to his leg. "Miles, we had a burglar at the house today."
"What?" Miles Hawthorne looked surprised. "Is everyone okay? Was anything stolen?"
"Everyone’s fine, but I think the burglar was injured. He climbed out of a third-floor window."
Miles Hawthorne sneered. "Just injured? He jumped from the third floor and survived?"
"Being lucky isn’t always a good thing. If I ever get my hands on him, I’ll make him wish he were dead."
Frederick Lynch’s words were laced with insinuation. His fingers tightened around his wine glass. They had been just one step away, but their target had found the very person they’d been searching for.
The n he had sent out hadn’t gotten a clear look at Miles Hawthorne’s face. They only saw a figure jump from the third-floor window and quickly duck into an alley, but not before his leg was pierced by a piece of rebar from the dilapidated building.
"Has Hannah’s appetite been any better these last couple of days?"
"Much better."
Frederick Lynch nodded. Miles Hawthorne descended the steps one by one, his expression composed. A piercing pain shot through his taut leg. If Raina hadn’t wrapped it so thoroughly with gauze, the seeping blood would have surely given him away.
Frederick Lynch saw nothing unusual about Miles Hawthorne’s deanor. ’Could I just be overly suspicious?’
After her shift, Raina was about to go get her car when she spotted Ethan Lancaster’s vehicle at the hospital entrance.
She quickly lowered her head and tried to walk past. The sound of a car horn, HONK HONK, reached her ears, but she pretended not to hear it. Annoyed, Ethan Lancaster simply pushed his door open.
"Raina!"
She had no choice but to stop. By the ti she turned around, he was already standing in front of her. "Are you deaf?"
"I didn’t see you. What are you doing here?"
"Where’s your car?"
Raina stuck both hands in her pockets. "Getting it washed."
"It’s a brand-new car!"
"I just thought I should return it to you sparkling clean." Raina started walking away quickly. "The car wash is filthy. You can just wait here."
Ethan Lancaster actually didn’t follow her. Raina breathed a sigh of relief, drove the car back to the hospital entrance, and he strode over to the passenger side, pulling open the door and getting in.
The two cars drove back, one after the other. As they reached the entrance to The Verdant Garden, Raina saw a black Chery parked by the roadside.
Raina slowly drove in. The Chery’s engine started, and it followed her closely. A security guard imdiately stepped out of his booth to block it. "Unauthorized vehicles are not permitted inside."
A man got out of the passenger seat and ran toward the car behind them—the one Ethan Lancaster usually rode in. Unable to see who was inside, he began banging on the window. "Fourth Master, Fourth Master! I have sothing extrely urgent to discuss with you."
Raina drove inside. Ethan Lancaster told her to stop. He pushed open the passenger door and leaned halfway out. "Who the hell are you?"
The man froze, his hand still raised to bang on the window, then turned and ran back toward them. "Fourth Master, I have sothing urgent to tell you. It’s an ergency."
"Then say it."
"Here?"
"Then where do you want to talk? Or were you hoping I’d invite you into The Verdant Garden for a cup of tea?"
The man looked uncomfortable, his "precious" cara still hanging around his neck. "Fourth Master, this is a serious matter. We need a little more privacy."
Ethan Lancaster glanced at the cara, then settled back into his seat. "Get in."
Raina drove into the garage, and the Chery followed close behind. When she got out, she saw the caraman already waiting by the passenger side for Ethan Lancaster.
The man’s eyes t hers for a mont before he quickly looked away. Raina found this strange. She grabbed her bag, intending to head back to the house.
"Wait for here," Ethan Lancaster called out, stopping her. He turned to the man, his expression full of displeasure. "What is it?"
The man stood on his tiptoes and whispered a couple of words into Ethan Lancaster’s ear.
Raina watched Ethan Lancaster’s face darken like a gathering storm. It was like a sumr sky, changing in an instant. His mouth twitched, and the look he shot the man was as sharp as a blade. "What did you say?"
"It’s true. I have crystal-clear photos."
Ethan Lancaster grabbed the man and pulled him close. "Do you believe I won’t rip your mouth right off your face?"
"Fourth Master, it’s the truth! I have photos for proof. You’ll understand once you see them..."
Ethan Lancaster shoved the man away again, hard. He didn’t imdiately demand to see the photos. Instead, he looked at Raina, who was standing across from them.
He didn’t know what he was afraid of, but a pit of uncertainty opened in his stomach. He was furious, vexed, and felt a naless rage burning inside him.
"Fourth Master, take a look." The man held up the cara to show him the pictures.
And weren’t they crystal clear? Miles Hawthorne getting into the car, then Raina getting in. Then, her getting out. And last of all, Miles Hawthorne getting out wearing a different pair of pants.
’He changed his pants inside that car!’
Ethan Lancaster’s gaze shot toward Raina, so intense it made her skin crawl. The words rose to his lips, but he swallowed them. ’The photos could be fake,’ he thought, ’or just shot from a misleading angle. There’s a dashcam in the car. If sothing really happened, it couldn’t have missed it, right?’
Ethan Lancaster yanked the car door open. Raina watched as he reached for the dashcam inside the car.
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