“1-I didn’t mean to betray my customer! I never knew Senior Howard would be dead after I said everything!
“But I was really scared of dying. I was scared that I’d never have the chance to see my wife and child… I didn’t have a choice!”
Gwen sighed.
On the other hand, Steven furrowed his brow. “So, you told them all the information regarding Senior Howard’s will?”
Mr. Zink nodded. “But I never told them Mr. Morrison knew about the will and its content, too. I kept that a secret.”
“Okay.”
Steven nodded. “I understand . If Tina and Dan knew Brettley had the content of the will, they’d never be so arrogant and force Brettley to step down.”
Shortly, they arrived at Steven’s mansion out in the countryside.
As Steven stepped out of the car, the guards rushed over.”
Sir, you’re back!”
“Ms. Hughes truly has crossed the line! She-“
“Leave that aside for now.”
Steven pointed to the car.”
Bring that person into the house first. We’ll talk about the child later.”
After that, he turned around and called Brettley while walking “Mr. Zink is safe now. I brought him to my mansion in the countryside . You can take whatever action that you need. That mother-and-son duo… Everything is just as you said. They harmed Mr. Zink, and now Mr. Zink is severely injured.”
Right at that moment, Brettley was standing on the top floor of Howard Group’s building as he stared at the protestors outside of the building. “Alright. I understand.
Once he hung up the phone, he looked to the side and instructed Lucas. “Let’s begin.”
Inside Howard Mansion, Dan could not help curling his lips into a smirk when he read the comments about Thomas and Brettley on the internet.
“That Brettley Morrison has always been a pain in the ass. I’ve always wanted to find some way to get rid of him, but I never thought he’d wind up like Thomas.”
He lifted his wine glass to his lips and took a sip from it. “If I’d known killing that old geezer would bring us so much help, I would’ve done this sooner.
“Not only did we manage to get rid of Thomas, but we even chased that Brettley Morrison right out of Saigen City too. What a pleasant surprise!”
Tina gazed out the window as she took a sip from her wine glass. “That’s right. I never thought that old geezer’s death would solve all our problems like this. We’ve finally reaped what we sowed. I can’t believe that after all these years, we finally lived to see our hard work pay off!”
Even though it was in the middle of winter and temperatures were subzero, Tina could not help feeling a surge of warmth spread throughout her body, as though the sunlight was warming her right to the core.
Dan grinned even wider upon hearing this. “You’re right, Mother. If Thomas hadn’t brought that wretched woman home yesterday, he wouldn’t have accidentally let that bullet loose, and we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to kill that old man!”
He put down his glass and began scrolling through the news once more.
All of a sudden, a news headline popped up at the top of the page, and his smile froze on his face. “How could this be…”
“What’s wrong?”
Tina furrowed her brow when she sensed this. She was just about to ask further questions when her phone rang.
It was the head bodyguard in charge of keeping an eye on Mr. Zink. “Mrs. Howard, we’ve failed -Mr. Zink was kidnapped.”
“What?”
Tina was so shocked that her wine glass slipped out of her hand, crumbling into smithereens on the floor. She furrowed her brows and snapped, “When did this happen? Did you send anyone to get him back?”
The bodyguard sighed. “We…we only found out after seeing the news online. We’re already looking through surveillance tapes, trying to find the culprit, but…I don’t think it’s possible to get him back.”
Tina was outraged by this. “What the fuck were you doing all this while? You only found out Mr. Zink was kidnapped through the internet…wait–what do you mean, through the internet? What news?”
The guard was silent for a moment before finally saying, “You should go check it out yourself.
With that, he hung up the phone without waiting for Tina’s reply.
“What an asshole!”
Tina was irate at the fact that her subordinate had hung up on her. “No worries. Since I’ll take over Howard Group in the future, I can always fire these lazy asses myself!”
Then, she turned to glance at Dan. “Danny, that guard just mentioned some news on the internet. What is he talking about?”
Dan bit his lip, brought up his phone with shaky hands, and pressed play on the video that was trending on the internet.
His voice was trembling as he replied, “Mother… What are we going to do? “I think… I think we’re screwed…”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
Tina despised hearing things like this, so she immediately flew into a rage when she heard her own son talking this way. “Can you not be such a party pooper? We were celebrating our victory! What could’ve gone wrong?”
She strode over to Dan and snatched the laptop out of his hands. “We’ve won. Unless that old geezer somehow was raised from the dead, there’s no way we could’ve failed. Besides, haven’t we already confirmed his death? How could he possibly be revived?”
Before she could even finish her sentence, she caught sight of the image on the screen.
Senior Howard was dead, alright, but at this moment, she was staring at an image of him before his demise.
In the video, Senior Howard was leaning against his headboard, wearing the familiar hospital gown. His face appeared pale, but his voice was just as boisterous as ever.
“If you’re watching this video, it means that I’m probably dead by now, but there are some things I’d like to clarify to the world.
“If I’m still alive, these secrets might never even see the light, but now that I’m dead, I wish everyone to find out the truth.”
With that, he let out an exhale and brought out a stack of documents. “If it weren’t for Mr. Morrison’s help, I would never have discovered that I had raised a son that wasn’t even my own for over two decades!”
He flipped open the folder, revealing the contents inside.
It was a DNA report comparing two samples: one that belonged to Dan and the other to Senior Howard.
However, a row of words at the bottom of the page read, [Sample A and Sample B displayed no genetic similarities to each other.]
Tina gasped when she saw this.
How could this be?
How could Brettley have easily exposed the secret she had been hiding for so many years?
Many years ago, Senior Howard had investigated Dan’s background after accidentally finding out that Dan’s blood type was not a match to his.
At that time, Tina had emptied her bank account and was even forced to sell all the expensive jewelry Senior Howard had gifted her just to bribe the DNA Diagnostic Centers in Saigen City into concealing her secret.
She had switched out the real DNA report for a fake one to convince Senior Howard into thinking Dan was indeed his son.
How could Brettley have sniffed this out within days of arriving in Saigen City and even conducted a DNA test on Dan and Senior Howard without anyone knowing?
“One report won’t prove anything.”
Tina forced herself to stay calm as she glanced at Dan. “Be a man, and don’t let such trivial things scare you. We can always argue that Brettley had bribed the DNA Diagnostic Centers into producing a fake report.”
Since she had been capable of doing the same thing many years ago, she could always turn it around.
Besides, Senior Howard was already dead, and thus, there was no longer any proof to support Brettley’s claims. He would never dare to dig up Senior Howard’s body to prove his point!
Even if Brettley had the guts to do so, she would never allow him near Senior Howard’s body!
Just as she was in the middle of reassuring herself, Senior Howard’s voice rang out once more, “Perhaps you’ll all be thinking, ‘One DNA report can’t prove anything; Brettley could’ve bribed the DNA Diagnostic Center into producing a fake report,’ but clearly, Mr. Morrison had thought of this beforehand.”
He turned the page.
Then another, and another.
There were more than 10 DNA reports contained within the folder, and as he flipped through them, Senior Howard stared coldly at the camera. “How could one have possibly been able to buy out so many DNA Diagnostic Centers?”
Tina’s entire body froze upon hearing this.
She stared dazedly at the man on the screen, her ears ringing so hard that she could not even hear her son calling her name.
Dan was right…
They were screwed.
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.