Chapter 158
She thought, ‘Bob brought his most trusted people with him this time-they were all sharp and alert. There is no way it would take them so long to send word back, especially with it happening right in the middle of Charles’s birthday party:
And then there was the truck driver who caused the accident. His son was seriously ill and needed surgery, but the family was desperate and out of options.
Then, out of the blue, he got a call saying someone was willing to help with the money. Overjoyed, he hurried home to tell his family the good news.
But on the way, he tried to make it through the last seconds of a red light-and that’s when the tragedy happened.
The person who offered to donate was a well-known local philanthropist. Besides the truck driver, there were a few other families who received donations this time.
Everything lined up so perfectly, not a single thing seemed off-it was just like a perfectly staged accident.
But Emily’s gut told her it wasn’t that simple. She remembered how, when she was on the phone with Bob, Lydia just happened to be eavesdropping outside the door-right when Bob was warning her to watch out for Lydia.
She was sure Lydia had something to do with this.
Seeing the look on Emily’s face, Charles knew exactly what she was thinking. He said, “You don’t think this was just a simple accident, do you?”
Understanding the meaning behind his use of the word “just,” Emily nodded. But she just couldn’t bring herself to say out loud that she suspected Lydia.
Even though Emily knew Charles had never truly accepted Lydia, they were still bound by blood. She never wanted to force him to turn his back on Lydia for her sake. It was Charles who, without fail, stood firmly behind her.
Charles affectionately patted her head and said, “Emily, you are always clever. I trust you to look into this.”
He was getting old, and he could feel that his body probably wouldn’t be around for much longer. He had to get to the bottom of what happened to Bob, and Emily needed something-or someone-she could truly rely on.
All he could do was make the most of the time he had left, doing everything he could for Emily while he was still here.
Charles didn’t say any of this out loud, but Emily was no longer the naive Bennett heiress she’d been two years ago-she knew exactly what he meant.
Her eyes reddened again, and she fought back tears as she took Charles’s hand. She said, “Don’t worry, Grandpa Charles. I’ll find out the truth.”
She thought, ‘Bob left Cloudridge because of me. I was the reason he got caught up in all this. I owe it to him to make things right.’
With Charles waking up and showing up at Bob’s funeral, all the rumors and gossip outside finally died down.
It looked like everything had ended as just an accident, but Emily kept secretly investigating the truth behind the crash, using the power Charles had given her.
But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find a single clue. Even when she tried to dig into Lydia’s involvement, she still came up empty.
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Chapter 158
Everything was just too perfect-it really did seem like an accident.
But that was exactly what made Emily uneasy. It was too perfect, and that just made her more determined to keep digging
While she was looking into what happened to Bob, Emily was also using Charles’s connections to help her track Quiaria
down.
Quiana was in the same year as Emily at Shandell High School, but she suddenly transferred out just before the SAT
Emily made it out of St. Gabriel Reform Academy alive just to carry out the obsession Zack couldn’t let go of
Quiana was the one Zack could never stop thinking about, not even in their dreams. He’d asked Emily to deliver a message to Quiana for him.
With all the investigations keeping her busy, Emily spent her days either at the hospital with Charles or running around town. It had been a long time since she last went back to the Bennett residence.
That cold, suffocating cage was the last place she wanted to go back to. When she was exhausted from everything, she preferred staying at her little rented place.
Little did she know, Andrew had been leaving work early for days, waiting at home for her, but she never came.
