Chapter 184: Chapter 184



Matthew took his daughter’s hand with one hand and held a plastic snack pack with the other, walking out of the supermarket. A bus was pulling away, on it were the woman and her son who had shopped at the supermarket.

As the boy was getting on the bus, he looked at the little girl in her father’s arms.

He realized that the little girl was quite naïve, and also quite cute.

“Hurry up,” his mother urged him.

The child could only get on.

“Where’s Samuel?” Simona looked around. There were cars, buses, and people everywhere. She hadn’t noticed that behind the window of a bus, a pair of black, beady eyes stared at her.

Soon the bus pulled away and the child could no longer see Simona.

“Dad, what are they doing over there?” Simona pointed to the stall where snails were being sold on a stick. There was a group of onlookers.

She jumped on Matthew’s neck. “Dad, I want the candy.”

Matthew looked up at the sky and at the plastic bag in his hands. He decided to buy them because his daughter wanted them.

“Daddy, you’re so kind!” Simona hugged his face, kissing and rubbing it. Even if Matthew was an iceberg, he was sure to melt.

In the past, candy consisted only of sweets. Nowadays, they had various sugar-coated ones with all kinds of fruits. Simona chose a popsicle. The lollipop looked very attractive.

She swallowed. “It must be very tasty.”

Matthew paid for it. “We should go now.”

The girl nodded. She had gotten everything she wanted, so she was quite satisfied.

Back at the trailer, the tank was full of gas. Boyce had already taken Samuel back. Samuel also had a skewer of snails in his hand.

“Why are they so slow? We’ve been waiting a long time.” Samuel glanced at the plastic bag Matthew took and then looked at his little sister.

He understood what had happened. He let out a slight sigh.

Boyce patted him gently on the head. “Little boy, what are you sighing for?”

Samuel curved his lips, munching on the sugar-coated candy as he sat on the couch.

Boyce followed Matthew into the inner compartment. “Armand has settled the matter of Maria Herbert…”

“Wait a second,” Matthew interrupted him. He didn’t want his daughter to hear those words.

Boyce immediately shut up. “I’ll get off and wait for you.”

“Okay.” Matthew left the little girl in the seat and all the snacks on the table. “You stay here with your brother. Uncle Boyce and I have something to discuss.”

“I know.” Simona was quite sensible now. She looked so adorable.

Matthew rubbed her hair.

She twisted her head. “My hair is already messy. You’re messing it up more. If I look too ugly, when we find Mom, she won’t recognize me.”

Matthew laughed, pinching her cheeks. “Who has the nerve to say my daughter is ugly?”

Simona was happy. She grinned from ear to ear, showing her white teeth.

Matthew got out of the van. Boyce was standing in front of the door. Seeing him get out, Boyce stepped back a few paces to give him room.

They moved forward a few steps, but still very close to the van.

“Annabelle Flores is dead.”

Matthew was a little taken aback. He hadn’t expected that she was the one who had died.

At that point, Annabelle wasn’t hurt at all, and Maria had been tortured. They were both left inside the same room, with the goal of having them kill each other. However, he had not expected Annabelle to have died.

He had thought it would be Maria who would die first. Anyway, no matter who died, it meant nothing to him. Whoever survived would have committed the murder, and would surely be imprisoned. If it was a serious case, she would be sentenced to death outright.

“I didn’t expect that from Maria Herbert…” Boyce had the same assumption as Matthew. He thought Maria would be dead. Unexpectedly, he received the report that Annabelle had died.

That meant how tough Maria was.

After being so hurt, she managed to kill Annabelle.

“The evidence that she has killed Annabelle Flores is pretty firm, and she couldn’t respond at all. In addition, she also hired Terry Holmes’ brother to kill Dolores. She has been sentenced to death, suspended for one year. All the guards now this time are my men. The escape Sampson Herbert made last time will not happen again.”

They had deliberately left Maria and Annabelle alone in the interrogation room. There was a surveillance system in the room, which had filmed exactly how Maria managed to kill Annabelle. She had no chance of overturning the case at all. On top of her previous case, she was certainly doomed.

Matthew looked rather expressionless, as if this woman had nothing to do with him.

How it had ended was all her own fault. She couldn’t blame anyone else for it.

In the past, he was quite tolerant of her because she had saved his life, so he didn’t mind her scheming thoughts. Because of those affairs, he had missed Dolores and it had been so many years.

Didn’t he know that Maria was a scheming woman?

Yes, he did. However, because she had saved his life, he did nothing. It was she who had expended all his patience and gratitude towards her.

“Come on.”

He walked over to get into the caravan.

Boyce followed. “Armand is following us now, too. I guess he’ll catch up with us shortly.”

Matthew glanced back at him.

Boyce held up his hands. “He’s always been in the way when he was telling me he’d come here. Besides, I can’t convince him at all. He’s an adult with healthy legs. I can’t cut them off, can I?”

Just then, Matthew’s phone started ringing in his pocket. Matthew pulled it out and saw that it was a call from Abbott.

He didn’t insist on blaming Boyce again for Armand’s action. Instead, he went on to answer the phone. As Abbott was about to report Maria’s affair, Matthew stepped in front of the car window and said casually, “I’ve heard what happened.”

Abbott reported what was going on at the company. Matthew turned on the laptop and read some documents sent by Abbott. After reading them all, he signed them and returned them. He then gave Abbott some orders before ending the call.

It was getting dark outside. They arrived at White City.

Boyce suggested, “Let’s stay in a hotel tonight. We didn’t get enough rest in the car. The kids might as well be relaxed.”

Matthew didn’t seem to hear what he was saying. He continued to browse the web pages. Boyce frowned and walked over to him. “What are you reading?”

Before he finished his question, he had seen the words on the screen. Matthew was reading the information on White City.

The first was its history.

This city was not formerly called White City, but Podon, and it was a county.

An entrepreneur named Nathan White started his business here. He solved the local unemployment problems. In his memory, the name of the county was changed to White City, after his last name.

The population of White City was not large, but it was a thriving town at this time. Almost all of the locals worked for the White Group.

Matthew continued to browse and read. The information about the White Group was not much. There was only mention of their ups and downs during the development of their start-up company. There was nothing about his private life or family information.

“Dad,” Simona called to Matthew in the compartment.

“Are we staying at the hotel? If so, I’m going to get us some rooms now,” Boyce reconfirmed.

Matthew paused as he stood up. He looked at Boyce again and said, “Sure.” Although there was everything in the trailer, space was quite limited. They couldn’t sleep peacefully in the van at all.

“I dropped the button” Simona was sitting cross-legged on the bed. Samuel was lying on his side, now sleeping.

“Let me see.”

Simona handed the button to Matthew and pointed to his neck. “Here. It’s fallen off.”

“I’ll get you another one.” Jessica packed clothes for her, and all of them were in the van closet. She opened the closet and found a blouse for her. “How about this one?”

Simona shook her head. “It’s my pajamas.”

Matthew kept looking. “This one?”

“Let me find it.” Simona had become quite disappointed in Matthew. She got off the bed and looked through all the things in the closet. Then she picked up a blue dress. “I want to wear this one. Mom bought it for me on my last birthday.”

Hearing her mention her birthday, Matthew realized he had no idea when she was born.

Matthew helped her take off her blouse with the button down and put on her favorite blue dress. She was also wearing a small knitted sweater on the outside, looking quite nice. Dolores was very good at dressing her daughter. She knew what looked good on Simona.

Looking at his daughter, Matthew thought for a moment and asked, “Simona, when is your birthday?”

“In May.” She pouted. “Our birthday has been a long time coming. I have to wait for my next birthday.”

Matthew reached out to rub her head.

Just then, the van stopped. Boyce got in. “I’ve booked the room at the hotel, the best in White City.”

Then he held up his hands and added, “It’s run by the White Group.”

There was nothing he could do, since most of the businesses in White City were run by the White Group.

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