Chapter 76
Getting the evidence The clock was ticking. It wouldn’t be so much better if Augustus gave me the real
five minutes, but we all knew that he coulde back at any time. Nevertheless, we had to proceed
methodically.
“OK, we took over the surveince cameras in the mansion.” I heard n’s voice in my ear.” We need to
record a loop to y it while you look around the office. Cora, sit behind the old man’s desk and pretend
that you are reading the contract. You need to sit motionlessly and count to fifteen, then flip the page and
count to fifteen one more time.” I did everything ording to n’s instructions. By the time the look was
prepared to fool any potential security guard watching, I was left with no more than four minutes. I pulled
out my phone and turned on my super-scanner apps. The guys, sitting with theirputers in the car
right outside the gates of the mansion, could see everything I saw on their screens. That way, there were
five of us, including Aren and Neil, trying to spot anything unusual. We all figured that the easiest way to
find a sh drive would be to search for it with a metal detector and pray that there wouldn’t be too many
metal elements in the furniture in the office. Fortunately, the bookshelves, chairs, and a desk were mostly
made of wood. Assuming the book covers wouldn’t have any metal pieces embedded, my phone should
lead to the drive as soon as I get near it. I started from the door and scanned every shelf, going
clockwise. Every time my phone app beeped, every one of us held our breath.. “False rm…” I sighed
in frustration. “It’s a tin wire stuck to a book cover this time.” Time was running out. My heart hammered
against my chest, and my hands were starting to sweat. There were only two tall shelves left, and my
restlessness kept rising. Was this whole mission for nothing? “Maybe we should change the scanner?”
Norton suggested. “Perhaps a thermal scanner would be better?”
“There’s no time for that, “I grunted, slowly moving my hand to scan the length of another shelf.
Suddenly, the phone slipped from my hand and dropped, sliding into a two-inch gap that separated the
shelf from the floor.
“God damn it!” I growled angrily as I dropped to my knees and stretched my hand out to reach the
phone.
“Breathe, sunshine.” I knew that Aren’s warm voice was meant to soothe me, but it only reminded me
that I was about to fail him miserably.
It turned out that my stupid phonended deeper under the shelf than I thought. With my head on the
floor, I had to stretch the entire arm just to touch it. Cursing under my breath, I finally touched the screen,
identally turning on a shlight. As the phone lit the floor under the bookshelf, I noticed something
strange… Each bookshelf in the room had four round, wooden blocks footing the entire construction, and
yet the one block in the back of the
N?velDrama.Org owns this text.
bookshelf seemed to be made of stic. Could it be the sh drive that we were looking for? My heart
sped up, filling me with a bit of new hope. Taking my phone with my trembling hand, I turned on the metal
detecting scanner again, directing it to the weird object on the back of the shelf.
“That could be it…” I muttered, reaching my hand out for the stic object and hoping that the bookshelf
wouldn’t fall on me without one piece of support… I grabbed something that looked like a ck stic
box and looked at it closely. As I turned it in my fingers, I found a small button, and when I pushed it, the
USB plug popped out. I exhaled in a rush, wanting to scream, cry, andugh at the same time. “We got
it…” I breathed, exhausted from the unexpected number of exercises.
The shouts I heard in my ear almost made me deaf, but I didn’t me them. I couldn’t wait until we could
celebrate together. Now I only needed to get out of this ce… “What are you doing?” I heard a cold
voice behind my back
I swallowed and turned around slowly while hiding the sh drive in my zer’s pocket. James Winton
was standing behind me, his hateful eyes looking me up and down.
“Um… I was invited by Mr. Augustus Winton,” I responded, fisting my hand to prevent it from trembling
“You?!” Aren’s father scoffed, stepping closer. “You are here to spy on us!” He grabbed my chin and dug
his nails into the skin of my face.
“Let go of me!” I screamed, struggling to push him away.
“What’s going on in here?!” Augustus ran into his office. “James! Let go of her this instant!” he roared.
James chuckled coldly and stepped away, looking at Augustus. “You receive the whore who helped
murder my son. I would be careful if I were you. She was sneaking around and going through your
documents.”
“I didn’t do anything!” I eximed.
“She was alone in here and she was standing by the bookshelves as I walked in!” James announced
mockingly.
“Is that true?” Augustus red at me. “I left you alone so you could read the contract!” he thundered.
“I… I dropped my phone and it fell under the shelf…” I exined, sticking to the partial truth, but James
was determined to prove that I was doing something I shouldn’t be.
“That bitch is a fucking liar!” He grabbed my hand and pulled me to face him. “I suggest someone should
search her and make sure she didn’t steal anything.”
I nced at Augustus, hoping that he would do something in my defense, but his mistrust seemed to be
even greater than his will to get an investor. He nodded at his son and sent me a cold gaze. I kept
struggling and telling them that I didn’t do anything, but they just ignored my cries. Augustus let out an
angry huff and walked to his desk to press the security button.
“Let go of my wife,” Aren hissed, striding toward his father. A secondter, he grabbed James’s arm,
nearly breaking it as he forced him to release me. “You’re going to pay for this!” James roared, rubbing
his hand and squirming in pain. Once I was free, Aren pulled me close, shielding me from the two other
men in the room. “Aren, why are you here?” Augustus nervously cleared his throat. He chuckled coldly.
“Did you seriously expect that I wouldn’t know where my wife is going and who is she meeting?” The old
man frowned. “So you knew that I offered Cora an investment?” Aren smirked. “Of course, I knew. I was
going to let her decide… and I think she has made up her mind now.” His eyes shifted to me. “Sunshine,
do you want to invest your money in this man’s business?” My lips curled up in a wicked smile. I stepped
away from Aren and locked my eyes on Augustus. “Mr. Winton, I don’t think that you would do business
with someone who insults you and mistrusts you. You insulted me and I could easily charge Mr. James
Winton for physical assault. I will not call the police today, but only because it would be troublesome. To
sum up, I will not be your investor. Have a good day, Mr. and Mr. Winton.” Aren smiled proudly at
me before taking my hand and leading me out of the office. I heard James Winton cursing and shouting
something behind our back, but I didn’t want to listen. I counted steps until we walked out of this
poisonous mansion. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get there faster,” Aren said as we walked toward his car. I
hugged his arm, absorbing his warmth. “It’s OK. I handled it because I knew you woulde.
He turned my face and examined my cheeks and chin. “This bastard left bruises on your skin,” he
squeezed out through his teeth. I chuckled. “And you almost broke his arm! I think that’s enough for the
punishment…” “No,” he imed dangerously. “That is far from enough.” I smirked, taking out the ck
sh drive from my pocket. “Then, I hope that we can punish all of the Wintons using this.” Arenughed
and kissed me softly. “I just hope that whatever is on that sh drive will be enough to sentence them…”