When she put the key into the lock, Kate had a second of hesitation, but she pushed it in and twisted it immediately afterward.


    With a click, the door opened.


    The ce was quiet and peaceful like thest time she hade there.


    The files she copied from Tristan’sputer, after an initial check, turned out to be mostly bookkeeping files and contracts of recent years. But she had been told that hispany’s operation in recent years was normal and the illegal activities should have happened way back, in the period where the original capital was umting.


    So she thought of this apartment. He told her that he moved out of here five years ago. And this was a ce with special significance to him.


    When one was into something, one usually was obsessed or paranoid about it. This task she took on was possibly motivated by ethical concerns, or her curiosity or pregnancy hormones now made her feel like she was possessed by Sherlock Holmes.


    In the photo on the wall, that woman whose name she didn’t know yet was looking at her gently.


    Kate said sorry to her in her heart.


    And then she went up to the second floor.


    Hours passed by, and she had broken a sweat on her forehead.


    The hair that was pinned up came loose, and one strand fell on the side of her face. Based on her little knowledge of Tristan’s personality and her own instincts, Kate searched the study first. After she removed one-third of the books from the shelf, she found a concealed cab on the floor.


    Sliding open the door, she found a metal box of simr size to the shoebox in the cab. This should be what she was searching for. She took the box out and put it on the floor, but then she frowned-there was a coded lock on it.Published by N?v''elD/rama.Org.


    An 8-digit sliding wheels lock. She put in his birthday, wrong—their wedding date, wrong.


    Kate sighed. She tried these two dates on the studyputer, and they were wrong there too. But she could not think of any other numbers. If she just took the box, she wouldn’t have to think about it, but she abandoned this idea.


    Finally, she put in another number.


    And she heard the incredible clicking sound! She had no time to be surprised at her idental sess. The things inside the box consumed all her attention.


    The box was filled with many cassette tapes and discs, along with a few brown envelopes and a thick notebook.


    She carried the box to the next room, where there was a media yer.


    She took out the cassette tapes on the topyer on the right. There was abel attached to it on which a long number was written. She put it in the cassette yer and pressed the y button. The maic head started to run, and there was the sound of a man’s voice.


    After she finished that tape, she took it out, put it back in the box, and took out a DVD.


    On the screen, a man and a woman spoke only a few words and then started to take off their clothes and roll around on the bed. Their fully naked bodies tangled together. It was very stimting to the viewer.


    And then, in subsequent scenes, there were different actors and actresses featuring almost the exact same screenys. Kate put her hand to her mouth and rushed to the bathroom.


    After throwing up what was in her stomach, she sat on the floor. She looked at the bathroom nkly and could not get away from the world she had just seen. It was a world full of dirty and filthy things.


    There was a familiar voice in those videos. And there were two voices that she didn’t know. They talked about trades, sometimes vaguely, sometimes tantly.


    And in the NC-17 rated videos, the bloated lead actor, after putting back his clothes and sses, went back to be a conscientious civil servant.


    Parasite, vampire. She squeezed the words from her teeth.


    And the man was ying a role no less disgraceful and outrageous in the scenes.


    Familiar music came from some distance and pulled her back to reality.


    She put her hand on the toilet to support her up and then went back to the video room. It was her cell phone ringing.


    She suddenly got nervous. Tristan called at irregr intervals every day to check on her. He was on a business trip and would spend a few hours on the ne. So she took the excuse of going to have a facial at the beauty parlor toe here.


    She drew a long breath and took up the phone, and was rxed at the number on the screen.


    It was from Max.