Chapter 177: Chapter 177



Boyce’s men caught Bess just after she returned from the hospital. Then they took her to the second floor.

“Is this your house?” asked Armand. Although he already knew the answer, he asked her anyway, intending to check if she was an honest woman.

Bess looked at the men in the room and answered truthfully, “Yes, she is.”

She was quite intelligent. Sampson, who used to stay here, didn’t seem to be an ordinary man, and neither were the men who were currently staying at her house.

“Who have stayed here before?” asked Armand again.

“I don’t know them. The man gave me some money to stay here for the time being. There was a woman with him.” Bess didn’t dare lie at all.

Matthew, sitting on the couch, closed his eyes tightly at Bess’s words, frowning deeply.

Armand glanced at Matthew and asked, “Where are they now?”

“They’re gone. The woman was hurt. They went to see a doctor at the hospital, and she was fine. Then they took her away.” Armand’s eyelid twitched hard.

So Dolores was really hurt, was she?

He cast another wary glance at Matthew. Boyce, standing beside him, dared not utter a word.

The atmosphere had become more and more stressed. The coldness coming from somewhere made them so timid that no one dared utter a peep.

Matthew stood up and turned to Bess. He looked at her, “How did you hurt yourself?”

Obviously, Bess could sense how angry this man was. She couldn’t bring herself to tell him.

Lowering her head, her whole body trembled.

“Speak!”

All the people in the room were shocked by his sudden outburst of anger. Bess directly dropped to her knees in fright with a loud thud. She winced and stammered, “I… I don’t know. I was downstairs at the time. Mr. Herbert wouldn’t let me come up.”

She seemed to understand that Matthew was coming for that woman, “Are you here for Miss Flores? She was always locked on the second floor. The day she was injured, it seemed that Mr. Herbert wanted… wanted…”

“What did he want?” Armand was almost dead anxious. Why couldn’t he finish his words?

“I don’t know. I only saw that Miss Flores was not in decent clothes and that blood was oozing from her head. Mr. Herbert was naked. I heard them arguing upstairs. I guess Miss Flores was unwilling, so she wanted to kill herself.”

He didn’t say it quite clearly, but the implication was quite simple and obvious.

Everyone knew what had happened.

Everyone held their breath in the room, looking at Matthew.

His face was furious and the muscles in his face were trembling. He looked horrible.

His eyes were filled with the flame of anger. As if Bess had the guts to lie to him, he would kill her outright, he said in a low, deep voice, “Tell me. Where is she now?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know. He took her straight from the hospital. But I saw him look up the routes on his phone, and her destination seemed to be Sichuan Province. Really. I’m telling the truth. I dare not deceive you. I realized that Mr. Herbert lied to me when he mentioned that Miss Flores was his girlfriend. I found out that Miss Flores did not love him at all. By resisting him, she preferred to hurt herself. That’s all I know. That’s all I know.”

Bess began to plead, “I only rented my apartment to them. I haven’t done anything. I’ve told you everything I know. Please have mercy on me and let me go.”

“If she has told the truth and they were heading to Sichuan Province, our men checking at the pass would find them. As Sampson Herbert was not willing to be found, he did not dare to pass through the road and did not dare to take the plane. Even IDs are required to take the train, so he could only take the roads,” Boyce said analytically.

“I agree with Boyce. If we go after them now, we can probably catch up with them,” Armand agreed.

Matthew clenched his fists, blue veins appearing on the backs of his hands. If it weren’t for the rest of reason that remained reminding him not to lose control, he might have already lost his mind, and he wouldn’t be able to accurately plan his next steps either.

“Armand, you stay here with Abbott. Boyce, you come with me.”

Armand knew why he had that arrangement. He would take care of Maria and the fake Dolores. However, he could not delay the search for Dolores. Therefore, it would be more efficient to take care of both matters at the same time.

Besides, Boyce was not as talkative as Armand. At that moment, Matthew did not want to be disturbed by other noises.

As they were leaving the apartment, the woman who had driven them here was behind them. She wanted to say something, but stopped several times.

Armand glanced at her. He wrote her a check. Although they had not found Dolores, this woman was quite cooperative. He could see that her family situation was not good.

The woman didn’t know much and was not polite. After hesitating, she asked, “Is this money?”

It was a piece of paper. She wondered if they wanted to cheat her, since they could tell she was uneducated.

“Take it to a bank and they will exchange it for cash. There’s a hundred thousand in all.”

One hundred thousand!

The woman continued swallowing saliva. Her family’s savings was only eight thousand, less than ten thousand. This was a huge amount of money to her. She could hardly believe that the money came so easily.

“You don’t want it?” Armand frowned. This was the first time he wanted to be nice, but the other party doubted his sincerity.

“I want it.” The woman took it immediately, holding it in her hands carefully. She was afraid it would break and be useless when she took it to the bank.

Armand got into the car and drove off. He headed in a different direction than Matthew was going. He went to the detention house and took care of the matter of Mary and Annabelle.

Boyce went to organize the cars and the men they were to take. Mathew went back to the villa first.

When his car was parked at the entrance to the villa, he did not get out immediately. Instead, he sat in the car and watched the lights of the villa. From time to time, he could hear Simona’s voice, which was soft and sweet. The clear childish voice was a pleasure to the ears.

The tremendous horror was like an invisible spider’s web that was closing in little by little. It squeezed him so tightly that he found it hard to breathe.

He was horrified that his unconsciousness, his carelessness and his mistake had put Dolores in distress.

She had been hurt….

He didn’t know how to look at the two children.

He had blamed himself for Dolores’ abduction.

In the large living room of the villa there was an echo when they spoke. Simona was very restless. She stepped on the stool, trying to climb onto the piano. Her thigh pressed a key, letting out a sound. Samuel frowned and approached, “Simona, why are you so naughty?”.

He didn’t think a girl looked graceful going up and down.

Pouting, Simona pointed out the window, “I can see outside when I’m here. I want to see if Dad’s back.”

Samuel’s face tightened. Dad had gone to look for Mom. He wondered how she had gone and if Dad had found her.

He was very worried.

He was worried that something might happen to Mom.

“Hey, Samuel. Is that Dad’s car?” exclaimed Simona.

Samuel followed his sister’s gaze and found the car parked in the yard. He helped his sister down, “Come on down. Hurry up.”

Simona blinked, “Why?”

“No reason. If you don’t come down, I’ll leave. Then, when you come down, you’ll fall.” Samuel’s voice sounded anxious.

Jessica stepped closer, “Samuel, why are you so anxious?”

“No reason. I’m afraid you’ll fall. Since you’re here, take care of her.” After finishing her words, Samuel trotted out the door as fast as he could, running to Matthew’s car. He stopped in front of the car window and blurted out, “Did you find Mommy?”

There was only silence in the air.

The atmosphere between the two of them was quite stressful.

“I’ve been so anxious. If you had found her, I would have come back with you.” Samuel tried his best to hold back, but, after all, he was a child. His whole body was shaking and he said in a trembling tone, “I miss her now. What should I do?”

Matthew got down and hugged him tightly. He said in a hoarse tone, “I’m sorry. I didn’t protect her well… I miss her too.”

.

.

.