“Since the children are so worried about you, you should rest at home for a few days,” Lucian spoke up. “I have said it before, but my goal isn’t to prove Jack did something bad. I merely want to catch the perpetrator who hurt you. You can just relax.”
She didn’t expect he would say something like that in front of the children and blushed. Then, she reflexively turned to them to see their reaction.
Thoughtfully, the children pretended not to hear anything.
Upon seeing their lack of unusual reaction, Roxanne sighed in her mind. “In that case, I’ll tell Dr. Galloway to grant you entry into the research institute in the afternoon.”
Lucian nodded. Since it was already noon, she asked him to stay for lunch. Once lunch was over, he left. Estella stared at her father with hope. “Can I stay, Daddy?”
When he turned to face her, he saw her grabbing onto the hem of Roxanne’s shirt tightly. It was apparent the girl was unwilling to part with Roxanne so soon after what happened yesterday.
Hence, he furrowed his eyebrows and said, “Ask Ms. Jarvis. If she’s willing to let you stay, you can.”
Lucian’s reply took Roxanne by surprise. I didn’t expect Lucian would allow Essie to stay or even ask me to decide if she could. Immediately upon receiving her father’s approval, Estella turned to Roxanne. “Ms. Jarvis…”
The boys approached them. “Please let Essie stay, Mommy!”
Roxanne hesitated for a moment when she saw the anticipation in the boys’ eyes. In the end, she found herself unable to say no. “Fine. If Essie wants to stay, she can.”
Delight colored the children’s countenances as they cheered. Roxanne couldn’t help but grin upon seeing that. As Lucian’s expression softened, he shifted his sight toward her.
Upon detecting his gaze, she suddenly tensed up. Even her expression was slightly frozen. “Since you don’t mind, I’ll be counting on you to take care of Essie for the next few days, Ms. Jarvis,” Lucian uttered.
In response, Roxanne pursed her lips and smile. Before he left, he informed, Til arrive at the research institute at two in the afternoon.” She nodded. “I’ll let Dr. Galloway know and ask him to head over there earlier.”
When their conversation ended, Lucian turned and left. Roxanne and the children watched his car disappear from their sight before returning to the mansion.
It was nearly two in the afternoon, so she swiftly gave Colby a call. Meanwhile, Colby had just left the surveillance room. He stayed up for the entire night scrubbing all traces of his misdeed.
After learning Lucian would investigate the matter during the morning from Roxanne’s call, he inspected all the surveillance footage again.
He only dragged his exhausted body out of the surveillance room after he found no problems with the footage. To his surprise, he received another call from Roxanne just as he left.
She said, “Mr. Farwell will be heading over there at two in the afternoon. So, you may need to reach there a little earlier.”
Colby’s heart sank when he heard that. I know it’s only a matter of time before Lucian comes, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon! Still, he agreed to her request. “Got it. I’m at the research institute right now, so he’s free to visit whenever he wants.”
It was almost two when he ended the call. Hence, he immediately returned to the surveillance room to recheck the surveillance footage. Just as he did that in suspense, he heard someone knocking on the door.
“Mr. Farwell has arrived, Dr. Galloway, the receptionist informed while Lucian stood next to her Colby’s expression shifted drastically before he forced himself to calm down as quickly as possible.
A few seconds later, he turned to the entrance with a polite smile. “You should’ve called me when you arrived, Mr. Farwell. I could’ve welcomed you at the building entrance.”
Lucian’s line of sight landed on the surveillance footage on the screen and inquired, “What is this, Dr. Galloway?
I couldn’t help but feel something was amiss about what happened yesterday. Thus, I decided to check the surveillance footage in hopes of finding anything fishy. Since you’re also planning to investigate yesterday’s incident, how about we examine the footage together?”
Silently, Lucian gazed at him for a few seconds. Meanwhile, Colby felt his heart pounding. Yet, he had to stifle his anxiety and pretend as though nothing was going on.
After a while, Lucian shifted his icy look away from Colby, to which the latter responded with a calm sigh of relief. Then, Colby reflexively stepped away and allowed Lucian to take his seat while he stood at the side.
Both of them then watched yesterday’s surveillance footage, starting with the experiment Roxanne was performing with Jack. In the footage, they saw Roxanne joking around with Jack.
Colby was also in the footage, but he was a few steps behind Roxanne and Jack with an expression completely different from theirs.
Overall, it seemed as though Colby was the only one focusing on the experiment while the other two were not involved in any work. Lucian always thought Roxanne was way too intimate with Jack.
However, it was the first time he saw the two of them interacting with each other without his presence. They don’t look like business partners at all! It’s completely different from how Roxanne describes their relationship.
The longer he watched the footage, the colder his expression became. Even the surrounding temperature was dropping.
He was further enraged when he saw Jack and Roxanne only needed to exchange a glance to know what each other was doing. When did the two of them start having this tacit agreement in whatever they do? If someone who doesn’t know the true nature of their relationship sees this, they’ll think they’re a couple!
His fury reached its peak after he saw Jack attempting to wipe Roxanne’s sweat away with tissue paper.
On the side, Colby was confident if Roxanne hadn’t dodged Jack’s attempt, Lucian would’ve probably smashed the screen into pieces. As he continued watching the footage, he grew tenser.
Even though he had ensured his doctored surveillance footage was flawless, he was still worried because Lucian was the one inspecting the footage with him.
Lucian’s presence alone gave him a lot of pressure. When the screen displayed the footage he modified, it took him everything he got to remain composed. Carefully, Colby observed Lucian’s expression.
Lucian merely furrowed his eyebrows. It was difficult for anyone to tell what he felt from his expressionless countenance, but that didn’t stop Colby from getting cold feet.
It wasn’t until the surveillance footage showed Jack carrying Roxanne out of the laboratory that Lucian suddenly moved. Fear flashed past Colby’s eyes.
In response, he bit his lower lip hard, so much so that he could taste blood in his mouth, to steady his nerves. “Replay that section of the footage again,” Lucian ordered imposingly as he glanced at him.
Colby shuddered slightly in response and did as Lucian asked. It was the part right after the poison gas leaked into the room, and the laboratory was thrown into chaos. Holding his breath, Colby blinked as he watched the footage again. From his perspective, he didn’t see anything odd..
However, he was concerned Lucian had discovered something was out of place. Why would Lucian ask him to roll back the footage. otherwise?
Therefore, he steeled himself and asked, “Did you see anything odd in the footage, Mr. Farwell?” The look in Lucian’s eyes remained grim as he watched that section of the footage until the last second.
There’s nothing odd, which is precisely the problem. Aside from Jack, Roxanne, and Colby, no one else approached the lab table. In that case, the only suspects are Jack and Colby, yet they didn’t act suspiciously in the footage at all!
Colby was getting very nervous because Lucian still hadn’t replied to him yet.
Meanwhile, he kept telling himself the reason Lucian wasn’t speaking was that the latter hadn’t spotted anything fishy. As long as I didn’t mess up while doctoring the footage, Lucian’s
biggest suspect will only be Jack! When his train of thought ended there, he suddenly gained confidence, and he relaxed. After an unknown amount of time passed, Lucian left his seat without any facial expression.
Promptly, Colby asked, “Where do you want to check next, Mr. Farwell?”
Lucian was still thinking about the footage he watched. Hence, when he heard Colby’s question, he said, “We’ll take a look at the research facility.”
“All right!” Colby was relieved to hear that. Based on his expression, I’m pretty sure he didn’t notice anything. I’ve successfully fooled him with the footage. As for the research facility, I’ve already swapped out all the medicine on the research table. There’s no way I’ll be exposed!
As he thought about that, he cheerfully brought Lucian to the research facility.
On the way there, Lucian passed by many researchers. All of them were so taken aback by his imposing demeanor that they didn’t have the nerve to greet him.
Soon, the duo arrived at the research facility. Without Colby’s guide, Lucian strode straight toward the research table Roxanne used yesterday.
After sweeping his gaze across the table, he noticed all the medicine on the furniture was brand new. Frigidly, he questioned, “Who changed them?”
Hearing that, Colby promptly explained, “Dr. Jarvis and Mr. Damaris almost finished using them yesterday. Additionally, we weren’t sure if the medicine contributed to Dr. Jarvis’ condition after what happened. Thus, we replaced all of them with new ones to prevent the same tragedy from occurring.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.