Ch. 1626..1630
Chapter 1626
Chapter 1626 Agleam of horror flashed past Julie’s eyes
Before she could say something to distract them, Emerence jabbed a finger at her and proclaimed,” Because she messed with the brakes!”
Julie stammered as she spoke, “I didn’t’ | didn’t even know there was a problem with the brakes!”
“Hmph Emerence snorted with disdain. “You went running to Madam as soon as you saw Ms. Sherry taking Ms Caprice with her If it weren’t for you, Madam would not have been as agitated as she was and tried to chase after Ms. Fowler herself! It was you who orchestrated the entire thing. You tampered with the brake ahead of time!”
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Julie protested. “What do you mean | orchestrated the entire thing? How was | supposed to know that Sherry would take Caprice with her?”
“| don’t know why Ms. Fowler took Ms. Caprice away, but one thing | am sure of is that you were behind it in one way or another! If | had to guess, you already saw it coming from a mile away. That's why you told Mia to keep an eye on Sherry and wait until she made her move so she can go to Madam. You encouraged her to get into the car and chase after Ms. Fowler, the same car that you tampered with!”
Julie's eyes were filled with shock. She looked at Emerence and seemed utterly offended by these accusations. “Aunt Emerence, how are you so sure that | did it? Do you have any proof?”
Emerence frowned. Julie smirked coyly
That was when another voice suddenly interjected. It was the cold, bitter voice of John. “Bring Mia in here. I’m going to talk to
her. They all turned toward the entrance.
Two of the bodyguards promptly brought Mia into the room as soon as the order was given. Julie shot a look at Mia.
Mia was trembling all over Trickles of cold sweat streamed endlessly down her forehead, and she hardly dared to look anyone in the eye.
Zip! One of the men tore the tape off her mouth and grabbed her by the chin, forcing her to face John. John bore his terrifying presence upon her “What has she been telling you to do all this time?”
Mia’s voice was quivering. “No... no, Ms. Julie has only ever entrusted basic housework to me. She’s never asked me to do anything else.”
Julie heaved a silent sigh of relief.
However, it was too early for her to relax Immediately after that, John spoke again. He addressed Mia like she was an entirely inconsequential, insignificant being, “You're from Glanchester, aren’t you?”
Mia could not tell where this was headed, so she murmured weakly, “Yes.”
“Your parents and relatives live in Glanchester as well.”
Mia was getting nervous now. “Yes.” John smiled at this point. It was a glacial, terrifying smile and he went on, “I can make their lives hell on earth if | want to
Mia caught on immediately and grew frantic. She pleaded desperately, “Please don’t do it! Young Master Stockton, | beg you, don’t involve them in this! They are just common folks!”
John peered into her eyes and assured her, “All | need is for you to be honest and tell me what dirty work Julie had you do for her, then I promise that | won't touch your family and relatives Who knows? | might even spare you entirely if you behave ”
This was a game changer for Mia, and she seemed to consider it. Julie suddenly cried out, “Mia, I’ve never asked you to do anything for me. Don’t you dare lie-” “Shut her up,” John cut off her sentence and ordered irritably.
His bodyguards sprung to the task immediately. They held Julie down and slapped duct tape over her mouth the same way they did to Mia when she entered.
All that came out of Julie’s mouth were desperate, muffled cries. There was a definitive look of horror in her eyes.
Chapter 1627
Chapter 1627 John turned to Mia. “Tell me, what did she make you do?”
Mia swiped a glance at Julie, then turned back to John with an unnerved look “Master Stockton, would you promise to not lay a finger on my family if | told you everything?”
John agreed, “I promise to not hurt your family.
Mia took a deep breath and began her confession, “Madam has made me do many things for her that | can’t even keep count of Those pictures of you that you see in the secret room and those wax figures? | was the one who made them for her.”
John frowned. “What did she have you do for her recently?” Recently?
Mia racked her mind and began spilling her secrets, “After you took Ms. Fowler back home, she has been trying to come up with some ways to get Ms. Fowler to leave you for good At first, she went about it by trying to sow conflict between Ms. Fowler and Madam Stockton, hoping that Madam Stockton would get upset with her and try to boot her out of the house. At one point, Ms. Julie found out about it and gave her a stern lecture.”
“It was around that time when | began noticing that you two haven't been sleeping together, and so | informed her about it. That was when she began to have me spy on you two now and then until this one time when Ms. Fowler got drunk and slept over at your room. When she found out about it, she got so frantic that she forgot to lock the secret room because she was in such a hurry, and that was how Madam Stockton found out about the existence of the room.”
“Madam Stockton wanted to find her a new husband so that she wouldn't have to stay here all the time, but she didn’t want to be away from you, so she began plotting...”
John frowned menacingly. “How did she do it?”
Mia’s voice was trembling. “It was that time when you went on a business trip and were away for a few days. When she found out that Ms. Fowler was taking Miss Caprice to the park, she had me tip off Master Mason and arrange a coincidental meeting between the two. While they were are the park, | took pictures of them together | also heard about them making plans to go out for dinner. You know what happened after that...”
The ceiling lights above cast a harsh, brilliant glow on the man’s face. Despite that, it could not erase the heavy gloom on his face.
Madam Stockton, Queenie, and Emerence were equally surprised by the confession. For a moment, nothing but silence lingered in the air around them.
John’s voice broke the hefty silence, “Continue.”
There was no going back at this point.
Mia decided to spill everything she knew. She hoped that the man would not cause trouble for her family, and if possible, for her to receive forgiveness as well.
“It was the night when Ms. Fowler and Master Mason had dinner and you took Ms. Fowler back home. | was hiding in the courtyard the entire time spying on you two, then | went to tell Ms. Julie about your argument with Ms. Fowler. After she found out about what went down, she deduced that Ms. Fowler was going to take Miss Caprice away and sent me back to hiding in the courtyard before the break of dawn. Just as she suspected, | did see Ms. Fowler sneaking out with Miss Caprice away, and | immediately told
her what I saw Shortly after that well, the car accident happened” John looked at her pointedly and asked sharply, “Was it her who messed with the brakes?”
Mia threw a fleeting glance at Julie who was pinned to the ground, completely harmless in her current state since she was at John’s mercy She gulped and confessed, “She got a professional hitman to do the job.”
A thick, looming silence consumed the room.
John’s murderous gaze cast itself over Julie.
He was surprised by the amount of self restraint he displayed at this moment. In his mind, he had already. delivered a swift, furious kick to her head.
“Ugh.” Julie could feel the sheer intensity of John’s gaze. She recoiled and instantly burst into tears.
Madam Stockton grimaced and sighed.
Queenie wore a tight frown the entire time. She was filled with equal shock and disbelief! She was completely oblivious to all the nasty things Julie had done to their family. Even Sherry’s attempt of running away with Caprice was part of the wretched woman's scheme!
The air inside the room was nothing short of suffocating. John looked at Julie, then turned to Mia again. His voice was chilling. “Is there anything else you want to tell me?”
Mia suddenly recalled something and quickly informed, “One more thing, the reason she came here just now was that she wanted to take Madam Stockton off life support to finish her off for good. She even hired several hitmen and told them to have Ms. Fowler assassinated!”
John’s pupils instantly widened upon hearing this., “What did you say?! Who did you say she was going to assassinate?”
Mia recoiled from the man’s sudden outburst and whimpered in fright. “She told them to burn... to burn. the house you had Ms. Fowler locked up in. She wants Ms. Fowler burned to death in the house...”
Chapter 1628
Chapter 1628 John sensed something disastrous had happened, so he quickly pulled the phone out of his pocket
His phone just happened to ring as soon as he pulled it out. It was a call from his bodyguards entrusted to keep an eye on Sherry
The tips of his finger trembled as he answered the call
The bodyguard’s voice sounded incredibly anxious, and John already knew what this was going to be about “Master Stockton, this isn’t good! There’s a forest fire! It spread way too fast for us to react. The entire house is burning now!
John asked frantically, “Where is Sherry? Tell me where she is right now!”
The bodyguard’s voice was quivering, “Ms. Fowler is inside the house, but the fire is too big The entire forest is burning by this point. We can’t get in there to save her!”
“What do you mean you can't get inside?! Can’t you run in through the garden?!” “We tried to rescue her, but the water source is cut off and the area around the water tank is burning, so
we can't fix the water pipe connection. Without water, there’s no way we can get inside! The living room is burning. We can’t charge inside even if we wanted to!” The bodyguard cried out with desperation in his voice, “Master Stockton, we tried everything we could. One of our men tried to go inside and ended up burning his arm. We would've all burned to death if we didn’t manage to get into the car and drive out of
the area in time.” John snapped. It was as if his soul had been pulled out of his body, and he stood still like a totem for a while.
He quickly pulled himself out of this state and roared from the depths of his being. He was going to lose his mind. “Call the police right now! Call the fire department! Get her out of there no matter what!”
The bodyguard responded immediately, “We already called the police, and the fire department should be here soon.” John hung up. He looked at Julie with murder in his eyes.
Julie trembled all over and whimpered with fright. Her eyes were drenched in tears, she looked weak and vulnerable.
No words could describe the demonic look on John’s face.
Madam Stockton, Queenie, and Emerence were huddled tightly together as well and did not dare utter a word. Mia did not budge from her spot the entire time.
Thwap!
John dashed up to Julie and delivered a powerful kick to the side of her face, sending her flying off to the side
She rolled several times on the ground before hitting the foot of the bed and coming to a stop.
She cried her eyes out from a mixture of the pain after having been kicked and from seeing the look filled with contempt on John’s face.
John roared, “If anything happens to Sherry, I'll kill you myself!” With that, he stormed out of the room. Agiant patch of forest was engulfed in flames like a bonfire Even the sky above was illuminated by its deep orange glow
Some distance from the house, Carl had just dragged Sherry out of an underground hole, and they crept their way along the edges of the forest. He carried Sherry into the car and let her slump into the seat.
Then, he quickly got into the driver’s seat and started the engine.
“Damn, | got here just in time What's with the sudden forest fire?” Carl muttered to himself while he stepped hard on the gas pedal.
Sherry looked in the direction of the house. Her vision was blurry, but she could make out the giant flames.
Terrible licks of flames had completely devoured the house.
If Carl had arrived several minutes late, she would have been reduced to ashes.
She suddenly recalled how John had the bodyguards cut off the water source from the house The irony of the situation stung like a needle, and she could not help but chuckle bitterly.
Carl asked in a confused voice, “Sherry, what are you laughing about?” Sherry shook her head and brushed him off. “Nothing.
She had assumed that the man had only wanted to let her continuously suffer inside the house without end. Never in her wildest imagination would she have foreseen him wanting to have her burned to death.
How very heartless.
This opened her eyes for good. She told herself that she would never be foolish enough to think John still had a trace of affection for her.
Carl glanced at her face through the rearview mirror and took a deep, tired breath. The car picked up speed again.
The two did not speak and let the silence hover in the car like a thick mist.
Chapter 1629
Sherry stared at the passing scenery outside the window and broke the silence at last, “Carl, | thought you went back to Coastrock. Why are you here and how did you know | was here?”
Carl smacked his lips and answered, “You just suddenly disappeared for so many days. Even your assistant could not get in touch with you. That made me curious and worried, so | decided to investigate what was going on. You might have mercilessly dumped me, but | will always remember what you've done for me, so | came back for you.”
He continued to drive and suddenly mentioned, “As for how | found you, well, let’s just say I’m smarter than | look.” “Heh.” Sherry chuckled.
Carl relaxed when he saw how he had made Sherry laugh, then he said, “Well, it wasn’t so hard actually. | heard about Madam Stockton getting into an accident and figured that you had to be involved somehow, so | went from there and figured out that John must have had you locked up again. | did some digging and got a list of all the properties he owned and went through them one by one until | found you at last.”
After that, he began boring an underground tunnel to get her out of there.
Things happened to work out for them since he managed to rescue her just as the forest fire started. Fortunately, he came just in time.
Sherry’s lips quivered. She muttered softly. “Thank you, Carl.” “No need to be so formal with me. Besides, you’ve helped me out many times too.” Sherry tucked her lips and stayed silent.
After a while, the car finally drove out of the forest. From the rearview mirror, Carl noticed that the flames. were no longer as bright as it was.
Sherry suddenly asked, “Where are you taking me?”
“Where else? The hospital, of course.”
Sherry looked terrible and in need of immediate medical assistance. Even the sheer sight of her filled Carl with sympathy. Sherry frowned and objected, “No.”
Carl pretended to not hear her objection and continued driving.
Sherry insisted, “I want to go back to Coastrock. Take me back to Coastrock first, then we can worry about going to a hospital.” Carl frowned. “Are you sure you can hang on until we get to Coastroack?”
Sherry grinned confidently. “Of course, | can. Who do you think | am?”
Carl knew that he had to take her to a hospital. Suddenly, another thought occurred to her, “What about Caprice? Are you just going to leave her behind?”
As Sherry gnashed her teeth, the sheer remembrance of her daughter evoked a bitter taste in her mouth. She made her decision. “No.”
She was going to completely sever ties with John. He would take good care of Caprice for her. One thing. she knew for sure was that John would give their daughter a good life. She hoped that at her young age, Caprice would come to forget about her eventually.
She decided that she would just forget about ever having a daughter. Hopefully, Caprice would forget about her mother as well. With that, she shut her eyes and tuned off the world. Carl took a deep breath and continued driving steadily down the road.
He passed a forked road, and immediately after he swerved into the left junction, another car came rolling in from the opposite direction on the right junction. The car was headed to where Carl came from, toward the dull spot of flame shining through the thicket of trees that was slightly visible from a distance.
Inside the car was a man seated by himself in the backseat. He peered through his gold-rimmed glasses and observed the fire in the distance that was growing larger as they drew closer.
Shortly after, they were stopped by a brigade of firefighters.
The driver stopped the car. John pushed the door open and strode outside.
There was a crew of firefighters in the middle of the road. They were stationed there to stop people from heading toward the center of the forest fire.
One of them recognized John and informed him courteously when he approached, “Master Stockton, there's a forest fire on the other end there. We are keeping the situation under control. Still, it’s very dangerous for you to be here, so please head back.”
John barely heard him. He was staring at the giant spout of flame devouring everything in its path.
The house where Sherry was locked up was completely engulfed in its brilliant radiance. He could hardly make out the shape of the house. The only thing that could be seen was a giant sprout of infernal, hungry
blaze.
There was no saving the house. There was not a chance that a single being could ever come out of the hellscape alive! His gold-rimmed glasses reflected the glow of the fire. Tears slowly swelled in his eyes, he stood stiff as
a totem.
After what seemed like forever, a voice echoed in his ears again, but he could not make out the sentence. It was the firefighters urging him to leave.
Without any warning, his legs gave out and he dropped to his knee as if he had been hit by a bullet. He crouched over with his hands pressing over his chest. There was a painful throb in his heart.
Chapter 1630
The fire raged on for the entire day. If not for the miraculous rain, it might have consumed the entire forest. Alas, the rain put an end to it.
What was once a beautiful display of nature, an endless stretch of lush and thick blankets of greenery were now burned away, leaving behind only large and gray husks of tree trunks and piles of ashes blanketing the ground.
It was still drizzling. The firefighters made one last final round of the area as unauthorized vehicles were still not granted entry into the sectioned ring.
A tall figure of a man stood directly in front of the barrier, overlooking the burned remnants of the forest. In just one day, he looked like he had lost a considerable amount of weight. He seemed frail and defeated.
A pair of empty eyes concealed behind the lens of his glasses stared blankly at nothing in particular. After a lengthy investigation, several firefighters stepped out from amidst the smoldering forest and approached the barrier..
One of the firefighters, who appeared to be the chief, turned to John and informed regretfully, “Master Stockton, we found your house.”
John turned to him, his eyes were bloodshot.
The chief firefighter expressed with remorse, “The house was completely burned down. We were not able to salvage anything.” “Where is she?” he asked, his voice raspy.
The chief firefighter hesitated to form a reply.
John suddenly stepped up to him and seized him by his shoulders. He was rattled and itching for a resolution of any kind. “Where is she? Did you find her?”
The chief firefighter seemed puzzled by this question. “Do you mean someone was residing in the house? When we went inside, we only saw piles of burned furniture. There were no signs of a burned corpse anywhere.”
No bodies? She was gone the entire time? Did she manage to slip away?
John’s eyes glowed with a faint trace of hope. He pushed the chief firefighter away and quickly marched into the smoldering forest since he knew where the house was.
Several bodyguards who managed to escape from the burning house last night joined him.
It took a second for the chief firefighter to register what John was up to. He recovered from his shock. and hurriedly turned to his crew. “Follow me. We're going in back there for a second look!”
Deep in the forest was the burned wreckage of what was once a villa.
Despite the raging fire, the bare-bones structure of the villa managed to remain intact. At the very least, one could recognize a faint shadow of what was once a well-built villa situated here.
Since the weeds were plucked out of the garden, there was not much damage caused by the fire because there was not much fuel for the fire to spread.
John trampled through the garden and walked into what was once the living room.
Sherry only ever spent time inside the living room. Judging by the poor state she was in, there was not a chance of her having gone upstairs since she was too weak to make the climb.
John knelt on the ground and began shoveling with his hands, prying away scraps of burned wood and rubble.
Every time he shoveled piles of rubble, he would be filled with nerves and tension, afraid to discover a burned body buried underneath. Fortunately, he did not chance upon such a horrifying sight.
He went through every corner of the living room and dug out everything he could.
The bodyguards that came with him helped him search as well. Despite their best efforts, they were not able to make any discoveries.
After some time passed, several firefighters emerged from the other sections of the house.
The chief firefighter reported, “Master Stockton, we searched over this section of the house and can’t find anything as well. Are you sure that there was someone inside this house when the fire broke out?”
John grimaced, but there was now a spark in his eyes. He barely heard what the chief firefighter asked. him. The only part he heard was the mention of there being no bodies found.
He had rummaged through the entire living room as well. Could it be that Sherry was still alive?
The crew of firefighters observed the abashed look in his eyes, then they turned to the bodyguards and exchanged a confused look.
The bodyguards however hung their heads low. The fire had spread so fast last night that they only barely managed to make their escape.
Sherry did not have a car and was in such a poor state that they doubt she could even walk half a mile. Even if she managed to escape from the burning building, the odds that she could make it out of the forest were next to nil.
She must have been toast.