Chapter 96 Laura Hutchinson''s Tomb
On the tombstone, there was a ck-and-white photo of a beautifully smiling girl at her flowery age,
whose stunning beauty had been frozen in the picture forever.
"Sorry," Horace suddenly said in a deep voice, while ra immersed in associating with the tomb, "Are
you mad that I brought you here without asking you beforehand?"
ra soon shook her head when she came to herself.
Sure she wouldn''t feel mad, and quite the contrary, she was sort of delighted.
Ever since she had learned from Stephanie about the kidnap, she had been trying to talk it out with
Horace.
But it was his privacy after all and it was such a heavy history, so she failed to bring herself to do it.
To her surprise, Horace talked about it himself, and wouldn''t it mean that he was ready to open up?
His eyes faintly twinkled as he stared at the tombstone, holding ra''s hand, feeling the warmth of
their touching palms. "I guess you know who she is?"
ra hesitated for a while before she nodded. "A bit."
"And you''ve heard the rumor?" Horace''s face remained nk, voice dry. "That I left her behind and ran
for my life without her."
ra felt a little tense, not knowing what to say.
Compared to her unease, Horace was calm and even smiled slightly. "Don''t be nervous, and just tell
me the truth."
"Yes, I did hear about the rumor," said ra honestly, after hesitating, and she soon added, "But I don''t
believe it."
There was a weak light glittering in his unfathomable eyes, "Why not?"
"Because I don''t think you would ever turn your back on others, especially your girlfriend," ra said
quietly, while looking at him with a little uncertainty. "Am I right?"
Horace didn''t answer her directly, and instead stared at the tombstone, murmuring, "You really think
so? Actually, I.. I don''t know..."
ra was startled.
He didn''t know?
What did he mean he didn''t know?
Without continuing with the subject, he then said, "Laura and I grew up together. She was a
Hutchinson. The Hutchinsons and the Kirnds have been friends for generations."
ra froze there.
The Laura turned out be the daughter of the Hutchinson family.
The Hutchinson''s, the Jakovich''s (stair''s family), as well as the Kirnd''s were the three prestigious
families in Stratmont for generations.
Sure enough, that Laura had been a pretty and precious daughter of an old money.
ra smiled wanly, feeling bitter inside somehow.
She must have looked like a weedpared to a woman like that.
She repressed the upset feelings and asked, "And then?"
"I thought we would grow up and get married, just like any other ordinary couple," whispered Horace,
"But then she was abducted along with me during the kidnapping ten years ago."
ra had heard that from Stephanie, and what mattered was what had happened after the incident.
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"We were shut inside a warehouse, and when they got the ransom, they didn''t let us go, but tied us up
and injected something into us to make us sleep. Then they set the ce on fire."
Horace''s remained poised when he said that, but ra could hear the concealed madness and
murderous intent.
"They put you to sleep?" ra was shocked at the part that she had never heard from Stephanie. "So
you saw their face and they had to kill you?"
"No." Horace frowned. "The kidnappers wore mask and gloves the entire time. No evidence was left on
the scene."
ra was then confused.
She and Stephanie had thought that they had seen the face of the kidnappers, who was afraid to be
recognized, so they burned down the warehouse.
But then as told by Horace, there had been no need for them to murder.
The magnitude between kidnapping and murder waspletely different. If those kidnappers had got
thatrge sum of money, they should have left the country quickly, but why would they have chosen to
murder?
"Then why did they have to kill you?" ra couldn''t help but ask the question.
An evasive look appeared in his eyes for a second. He seemed to know something, but he didn''t
answer, and simply continued with his words, "I was then woken up by the smoke of the fire."
ra was surprised.
Why did it sound so much familiar with the fire she got gone through before?
But without thinking further, she pricked up her ears and kept listening, because she knew he was at
the most important part of the story.
How did Horace run away after he woke up? Did he run without his girlfriend Laura?
Horace continued to say, with his eyes rested on the tombstone.
"When I was awake, I realized that my hands were no longer tied up and Laura, who had been lying
next to me, were gone."
ra was perplexed.
She had been wondering how Horace struggled free from the rope, only to be told that it had been
undone itself.
Also, where was Laura?
ra had never expected such a story, so she couldn''t help but ask, "Are you sure?"
Then Horace looked at her ant, "So you don''t believe me either?"
"That''s not what I mean," ra soon exined. It was just that the whole thing had been so weird, and
she noticed that the word "either" used by Horace, so after hesitating for a while, she asked, "So
people didn''t believe what you say?"
"No," Horace slowly lowered his eyes, "After the fire, nobody believed my story. Even the police said I
was lying. But whether I was lying or not, I didn''tmit any crime, so they ended up letting me off the
hook."
ra was struck numb.
To her surprise, that was the "truth" she had been dreading to find out.
Anyway, she really wanted to believe Horace and that he would never have done such thing as
abandoning his girlfriend, so she racked her brains toe up with a more reasonable exnation. "If
you remember it right, then there are two possibilities. Laura had left by herself, or been taken away by
someone else."