Unexpectedly, they met with the police again even though they did not want to.
However, the case had to be handled no matter what.
“The truck driver is still in custody, and preliminary findings indicated that he was drunk driving,” said the policeman.
“Drunk driving?” Matthew asked with a piercing look in his eyes. “With the strict law enforcement in D City, who would dare to drive under the influence at night? How old is the driver? Does he have any criminal records? How on earth did he crash into Dylan’s car?”
Since this policeman was somewhat acquainted with Matthew, he replied frankly, “Mr. Tyson, are you suspecting foul intent from the truck driver?”
Matthew twitched his fingers as he felt the sudden urge to smoke, but smoking was prohibited in the hospital.
Moreover, he rarely smoked in front of Clarissa.
Baffled by his speculation, Clarissa asked, “Are you saying the truck driver deliberately caused the accident? Was he trying to attack you or me?”
The answer was obvious. Anyone who wanted to ambush Matthew would have investigated his whereabouts beforehand.
The car was clearly meant for Clarissa that night.
Her face turned pale instantly as she was hit by the realization. “The last time I went to Ellie’s studio, I was almost hit by a falling vase. Could that have been a deliberate act as well?” she questioned.
Matthew’s gaze suddenly turned cold as he was not aware of that incident.
His suspicions would have cropped up sooner if he had known about this earlier.
He then asked a more pressing question, “When your employee Mandy was attacked that day, she was wearing your jacket, wasn’t she?”
Everyone was stunned by his revelation, and the policemen were immediately able to connect the dots together.
“Ms. Channing mentioned before that they said she wasn’t pretty enough. Perhaps they think Ms. Quigley is the prettier one?” one of the policemen commented.
Clarissa clenched Matthew’s hand firmly while her entire body turned cold. She trembled with fear as she felt terror creeping up from the soles of her feet.
If all these moves are really targeted at me, that means they are planning to kill me!
She didn’t dare to think any further, and Matthew immediately held her in his arms to comfort her.
“Clare, there’s nothing to be scared of. I’m here, alright?” He lowered his head to kiss her on the forehead.
The policemen decided to make a move so they could further investigate the matter. Mere speculation was not enough to prove that those actions were targeted at Clarissa.
“Clare, don’t be scared. I’ll take you home first, okay?” said Matthew.
It was unsafe to be outdoors right now if there were really people after her.
Clarissa knitted her brows into a tight frown, her eyes full of worry, confusion, and fear.
Despite that, she didn’t want to leave.
“If there are really people out to get me, then Dylan has taken a major blow for me. I can’t just hide at home knowing that he’s fighting for his life in the hospital. My conscience won’t be clear,” she insisted.
Matthew knew how feisty she could be, so he simply hugged her and let out a sigh. “Alright then. I’ll wait together with you,” he said.
“Okay,” she agreed.
After a long wait, the surgery finally came to an end, and the doctor announced that Dylan was no longer in critical condition. Clarissa was worn out by the long wait, and Matthew had to hold her to prevent her from collapsing.
She heaved a huge sigh of relief and said jokingly, “Your expensive car sure wasn’t a waste.”
He chuckled in response. “Yeah.”
Later on, the two of them returned to Zen Highlands, but Clarissa remained worried even after relaxing.
Who on earth is trying to hurt me?
How deep is this person’s hatred for me that he or she wants me dead?
This person must really abhor me!
Clarissa simply couldn’t understand why anyone would want to hurt her to this extent. She felt like there was a hidden danger constantly creeping up to her, and at her most vulnerable moment, it would suddenly appear and kill her.
Matthew was aware of how worried she was, so he held her close in his embrace and comforted her by saying, “Clare, we don’t know anything for sure yet, so try not to overthink. Perhaps those accidents are just mere coincidences, and we’re being overly suspicious. As of now, I can assure you that our home is the safest place to be. As long as I’m by your side, you don’t have anything to be afraid of. Come on, let’s go to bed now. It’s getting late. You always say that beauty sleep is important, right? If you don’t get enough sleep tonight, you’ll wake up looking unpleasant tomorrow morning.”
Clarissa brushed off his joke and replied in a serious manner, “I know, but I can’t help wondering who I’ve offended. How vicious is this enemy of mine that he or she wants me dead? Even if I have committed any heinous acts, this is not the right way to deal with me as the law will naturally take its course. This person must be a psychopathic murderer.”
“Clare, nothing has been proven yet. You should get some sleep instead of thinking about this,” Matthew interjected.
“But I… Hmm…” Clarissa was cut off abruptly by a kiss on her mouth.
Just as she was getting engrossed in the kiss, Matthew suddenly stopped and patted her on the back, then gently whispered, “It’s time to sleep now. I’ll be here.”
Clarissa then fell asleep with her hands around his arm.
The next day, Clarissa and Matthew went to the hospital to visit Dylan. Since Dylan wasn’t awake yet, he sent her back to Zen Highlands.
Matthew wanted to ensure that Clarissa was safe at all times, so he ordered everyone at Zen Highlands not to let any strangers in. On top of that, she had to seek his approval whenever she wanted to go out.
He also assured her that he would handle the police investigation so she wouldn’t need to worry unnecessarily.
Under Matthew’s instruction, Clarissa’s freedom was rather restricted.
Her current situation wasn’t very different from her life in Zen Highlands before this. She would often stay indoors and laze around all day without doing much.
Nevertheless, she used to live like that out of her own choice. On the contrary, she was now being restricted by Matthew deliberately, and she did not feel good about this.
After some time, Ellie finally came to know about Clarissa’s situation.
She quickly rushed to Zen Highlands and asserted her views to Clarissa. “It’s definitely Sienna. She’s the only one who knows about you and my Uncle Matt, and she was recently jilted by him. Who else could be holding a grudge against you besides her? It must be her.”
Despite Ellie’s accusations, Clarissa didn’t believe that Sienna was such a malicious person.
Sienna was a shrewd person, and she would have used her wits to get rids of her rivals instead of resorting to such violent methods.
“We don’t have any evidence that proves it’s her. All we can do is wait for the police to carry out their investigation,” said Clarissa.
“You still want to wait for the police? It’s been such a long time, and there hasn’t been any outcome. You can wait all you want, but I’m going to get someone else to look into the matter,” Ellie replied.
She then made a phone call and started talking before the other party could even address her, “Hello, Clarissa Quigley is my future aunt, and someone is after her life right now. It’s clearly a criminal case. Are you not going to do anything?”
She continued babbling, “Oh so you know about this…? Why aren’t you doing more? Okay, okay, whatever. It’s none of your business. Hmph.”
Just like that, Ellie hung up the phone.
She then turned to Clarissa and said, “My uncle is on top of all this. He’ll make sure the police do their job.”
Didn’t she just question that person’s capabilities?
Clarissa chuckled and said, “Since when did you have a friend in the police force? One who’s in charge of criminal cases too.”
Ellie felt uneasy as she answered, “I have tons of friends. You can’t possibly know every single one of them. Seriously though, I really think Sienna is the culprit. She absolutely hates you because of your relationship with Uncle Matt. After all, not many people know about you two.”
“You think she went through all this trouble to hurt me just because of your uncle? What if her attacks towards me have nothing to do with him?” Clarissa doubted her.
“Do you have any other enemies?” Ellie challenged.
Clarissa thought about it for a while then shook her head.
“See, if the culprit is not your love rival, then it’s probably one of Uncle Matt’s business rivals. I don’t think this possibility is likely, but it cannot be completely ruled out. Whatever it is, just listen to Uncle Matt and stay at home obediently. After all, you are pretty much a homebody who likes lazing around the house doing nothing,” said Ellie.
Clarissa let out a light sigh and said, “Does that mean I can never leave my house as long as the culprit is not caught? I can’t possibly live in fear forever. That would be too reactive.”
“Accepting defeat is better than losing your life, right?” Ellie retorted.
Clarissa had no choice but to go along with what she said.
As days went by, Clarissa spent most of her time chatting with Jeremy and the others in their WhatsApp group chat. They tagged her in the group every day as they exchanged news and gossips about the gentry.
Soon, the group suggested that they should drop by Zen Highlands to try her cooking.
So every now and then, Clarissa received visitors. Sometimes, it was the entire group; at other times, it was just two or three of them from the group. As long as she had visitors to entertain, she had to keep herself busy.
After one of the visits, Clarissa sent Yarick off and said to Matthew, “Why do you keep letting them come over? Even if I’m not tired of hosting them, they are probably sick of coming over! It’s not as if they have nothing else to do.”
She realized that Matthew had asked this group of people to keep her entertained so she wouldn’t be bored at home.
Feeling moved by his thoughtfulness, Clarissa hugged him and gave him a peck on the lips.
“Uncle Matthew, thank you for being so thoughtful, but I’m actually feeling better about the situation now. We’ve been so careful and vigilant lately. I believe the culprit has probably gone into hiding now,” she said.
Matthew patted her on the head and said with a smile, “If you want to go out, I’ll take some time off to bring you out.”
“No, I wasn’t saying I want to go out. But on second thought, do you really have that much time to accompany me if I wanted to go out?” Clarissa replied.
“I can always make time for you,” he answered.
Clarissa sighed quietly and felt emotionally down as Matthew still restricted her movements.
Being restricted to the confines of one’s home was different from wanting to be indoors voluntarily.
Matthew knew what was going on in her mind, but he only gave her a kiss on the forehead.
He simply didn’t want her to be in a vulnerable position.
