Rachel slowly closed her eyes. She didn’t care about being his wife or if the baby would be a b*stard. Ever since she got her memories back, she knew the both of them could never be together again.
It had been a month since Janice and her subordinates started the search in all the riverside neighborhoods. “Still nothing?” Julian asked as he handed her a bottle of water.
The wind was blowing against Janice’s hair. She took a sip and shook her head. “We searched all the riverside neighborhoods. One by one as well. No clue until now.”
“Maybe she’s locked in a mountain somewhere?”
“No. It’s mostly manors there. The Bureau of Real Estate has records of the manors’ owners.”
Bureau of Real Estate? All of a sudden, Julian had a stroke of inspiration. “I think we’ve been looking at this the wrong way. Even if Justin locked Rachel up, he wouldn’t put her in a place unrelated to him.”
“What are you getting at?”
“She’s either in a hotel or a personal estate he owns.”
Janice gripped the water bottle and she realized what Julian was getting at. “Hotels are out. There are too many people there.”
Which meant there were only estates left.
With how cautious Justin was, he would never take Rachel out of Riverdale, so she must be in one of the estates in the city.
Julian frowned. “But what’s up with ‘river’? What’s she trying to say?”
“Probably the neighborhood’s name.” Janice then made a call. “Hello? It’s me. I want all the details of Justin Burton’s estates in Riverdale ASAP.”
Janice received an email not long after she hung up. “He has a lot of properties in Riverdale.”
Julian nodded. “Good thing it’s still just this one city.”
“I’ll get my men to search the neighborhoods that have ‘river’ in their names. If we still can’t find her, we’ll expand the range. Don’t worry about it too much. No news is the best news.”
“I know.” It had been more than three months since Rachel’s disappearance, and Julian knew Janice was worried as well.
At the same time, Gloria came to the Burton Group to settle some matters. However, she ran into a janitor coming out of the other elevator when she arrived at her floor. He was pushing the cart as he went toward the president’s office. The janitor was lanky and a tuft of yellow hair sprouted from under his cap. Gloria’s heart sank when she realized who the janitor was, so she chased after him.
Justin’s secretary would usually stand guard outside his office when he wasn’t in. When the secretary had to leave, she would lock the door to keep any unauthorized personnel out. So when Gloria came to the office, she saw the ‘janitor’ trying to unlock the door. “What are you doing?”
The ‘janitor’ leaped in shock, revealing the face underneath the cap. It was none other than Victor. Before he could say anything, they heard someone talking just around the corner. Hence, Gloria quickly grabbed him and put her finger on the fingerprint scanner. The door swung open a moment later and she dragged him in with her.
After the door swung shut, they heard the secretary’s voice saying, “Who left this cart here? Assistant Beckham’s going to yell at someone if he sees this.”
“I’ll get the janitor to pick this up.”
Meanwhile, Gloria and Victor were in the office. “Are you mad?” She glared at him as she questioned, “Why did you come here? How did you manage to even get in?”
Victor took his face mask off, his face as handsome as ever. That being said, he looked more gaunt and there were a few bruises on his face.
Gloria was surprised to see that. “What happened to your face?”
“Ask Burton.” Victor looked at her in disgust, which in turn angered her.
“Why are you looking at me like that, silly kid? I just saved your *ss! You’re so ungrateful.”
“I don’t need your help, you hypocrite.” With that, Victor went to Justin’s desk, leaving Gloria behind.
“Hey, what are you doing? Don’t go through someone’s stuff without permission.”
Victor rummaged through all the drawers and cabinets.
“What are you looking for?”
“I’m seeing where he has hidden Rachel!”
“Are you mad? She can’t be here! What do you think she is? A rabbit?”
Upon hearing that, Victor snapped, “Do you have any better idea, then? I’ve tailed him for three months but I got nothing!”
He had tailed Justin almost every day for the last three months but every time, he would end up losing
Justin’s track or getting beaten up by his bodyguards.
“Be quiet! Someone might hear you!”
“So what? I’m taking this straight to Burton anyway.”
“You-” However, someone opened the door before she could say anything. Gloria’s face fell and she dragged Victor into a cubicle in the room. She managed to close the door before the people outside could come in. Victor tried to break free, but she held him back. “You’d better stay put if you don’t want to get messed up.”
Victor didn’t want to listen, but she had a point. He would only get a beating if he went out right now.
A moment later, Justin and Frankie came in.
“We bought the video and everything related to Hans with five million, just like you asked. But we didn’t expect another one to pop up. Seems like Windfall wasn’t the only one who got it on camera.”
Hans? Victor was angered, but Gloria quickly covered his mouth and glared at him.
Justin answered, “Not quite. Perhaps we paid them the five million too readily, so they let their greed get the better of them. They’re working with another outlet to get more out of us.”
“You’re saying Windfall has a backup?”
“Hans saw Winston at the hospital by accident. It’s only by chance Windfall’s reporter got it on video. There’s no way a reporter from another outlet was there.”
Frankie nodded in assent. “That’s true. This is no coincidence, and they could have asked us for the money if they had gotten it at the same time as Windfall. This is just extortion with extra steps.”
“Settle this as soon as possible. I want it to end here.”
“Roger that, President Burton.”
Meanwhile, Gloria was still in the cubicle. Since the door was ajar, she could see that the cabinets and
drawers were open. If Justin were to approach his desk, he would know someone was here. At that thought, she cursed deep down.
Just as she feared, Justin stood up after he was done talking. From the looks of it, he was going to go to his desk.
Suddenly, Frankie’s phone rang. “Hello? I see. I’ll be right there.” After he hung up, Frankie said, “President Burton, the doctor is in the underground car park. When are you going over?”
Justin nodded and put down the file he was holding. “Right away.”
After they left and locked the door, Gloria finally heaved a sigh of relief. However, Victor pulled the door open and made a beeline for the desk.
