Chapter 280

Chapter 280

Francis wasn't surprised to see Ewan here.

"I heard you're going back home?" After Francis and Ewan sat down in the living room, Francis spoke first.

Ewan nodded, holding a cigarette in his hand. "There's going to be a meat party to celebrate Katya being able to eat meat. I need to go back to handle security."

He knew about Katya's upcoming meat party - William had even sent him an invitation. From the information on it, this meat party was being co-hosted by the Brown family and the Thomas family, so it was bound to be a grand affair.

However, Francis most likely wouldn't have time to attend.

He had just sent someone to Cordelia's house to get that codebook, and it should be delivered soon.

When the codebook was brought over, Ewan was about to leave. As he was heading out, he saw the person coming in and frowned. "What's this?"

He pointed at the codebook the subordinate was handing to Francis - it looked like something important, no matter how you looked at it.

Francis had just received the codebook. Hearing Ewan's question, he made a sound of acknowledgment and passed the codebook to Ewan. "The codebook Cordelia mentioned - take a look too."

Upon hearing this, Ewan took the book and first flipped to page three. After a glance, his brow furrowed slightly. He quickly turned to page ten, his furrowed brow rising. He tore out page three before handing the book back to Francis.

"This thing is all yours to deal with."

Francis took it, initially puzzled by Ewan's words, but when his eyes caught the flowing handwriting on the page, he immediately understood.

[Pinnacle Bank, 306, four hundred million dollars...]

The handwriting was messy, but Francis could still make out what was written. However, this line wasn't finished, and below it were two strings of numbers, one long and one short.

No wonder Cordelia ended up in prison and was worried about dying.

Francis couldn't help but laugh, holding the book in his hand, wanting to throw it away but reluctant to.

"No wonder Mr. Brown had you go see her." Ewan stroked his chin and laughed. "You really are the most suitable person."

Francis looked at him, smiling slightly. "Such a huge favor..."

"Come on, if Mr. Brown asked you to take it, he never expected you to repay it." Ewan waved his hand, interrupting him. "Alright, I need to hurry back. I'm leaving."

He turned around, waved his hand, and left.

Ewan returned three days before Katya's meat party.

But after getting off the plane, he didn't immediately head to the Brown Group. Instead, he had the driver take him to a small alley.

He got out of the car, walked into the alley, and found a restaurant called Evergreen inside.

"What would you like to eat?" the restaurant owner asked.

Ewan took out the torn page three and placed it on the counter. "I'm here to pick this up."

The owner glanced at it and understood. She pulled out a small box from under the counter. "This thing has been sitting here for over ten years. She finally remembered it. How is she? Why doesn't she come visit me anymore?"

"She's busy." Ewan took the small box, left a stack of money, and turned to leave.

"I'm not taking your money!" The owner chased after him, but she didn't expect that, despite being short, Ewan walked quite fast. By the time she came out with the money, Ewan was nowhere to be seen.

Ewan took the box to see William.

William glanced at it, and his brow furrowed. He lowered his head and raised his hand, covering his eyes with his palm. "Alright, you can go now."

Ewan nodded and quickly left.

William sat in his office chair and let out a deep sigh. He opened the box again.

Inside was a diamond-studded hair clip - Giselle's.

He wasn't sure how this ended up in Cordelia's hands. After taking out the hair clip, there was a note underneath. After ten years, the paper had yellowed, and the writing was somewhat blurred at the creases, but still legible.

The content was simple, explaining just one thing.

Cordelia had once visited Giselle. When Giselle learned that Cordelia was now someone's mistress, she became quite emotional and pulled out this hair clip to give to Cordelia.

However, before Cordelia could sell the hair clip for money, she heard about Giselle's death, so the hair clip was kept.

Cordelia had tried to contact William, but because of Nicholas's orders, she couldn't meet with William at all.

The timeline was written very clearly.

After reading it, William understood something - Giselle might not have committed suicide because she couldn't bear the chemotherapy, but because he had gone to the Brown family for money.

Giselle was proud and had never asked the Brown family for money because of this.

She had refused Cordelia's pleas back then, turning a blind eye to Cordelia's suffering and hardship, which led to Cordelia becoming someone's mistress. But then, her son went and got a huge sum for treatment from the Brown family.

If she had put aside that bit of pride back then, how could Cordelia have possibly become someone's mistress?

William sat in silence, putting everything back into the box. He hesitated, then pulled open a nearby drawer and carefully placed the box inside.

Just as he finished, Chase knocked on the office door.

"Mr. Brown, the Thomas family has arrived."

Milan came to Harmony City for Katya's meat party. The Thomas family took this very seriously, so he came early to oversee things.

But before Milan met with William and the others, he went to see Amelia first.

Amelia hadn't expected Milan to come specifically to see her. When the servant said Milan had arrived, she thought she had misheard and didn't react for a while, until Vincent, sitting beside her, spoke up.

"Please show Mr. Thomas in."

She suddenly looked at Vincent, her voice panicked. "Why would he come? I haven't caused any trouble recently, have I?"

"Why the panic?" Vincent chuckled, raising his hand to grab Amelia's hand, but missed because of his limited vision. His expression didn't change, though, and he continued speaking. "With Katya's meat party coming up, he has to come by anyway."

Hearing this, Amelia's expression eased a bit. She patted her chest. "That scared me. I thought some new accusation was being pinned on me."

As they were talking, Milan had already walked in, led by Wyatt.

He had clearly heard what Amelia just said. He snorted lightly without commenting, his gaze sweeping over them before settling on Amelia.

"You've been behaving yourself lately."

He said this as he sat down on the sofa across from Amelia.

"Why wouldn't I behave? Waiting for you to dock my money?" Amelia said somewhat irritably.

Milan didn't get angry at her attitude. Instead, he smiled. "It's good that you're behaving."

He then looked at Vincent. "You've both been very well-behaved lately. What, planning to spend the rest of your lives like this in the country?"

"Mr. Thomas, isn't this exactly the result you wanted?" Vincent smiled, raising his arm as Amelia leaned into his embrace. His voice continued, "Unless you have to drive us out of the country before you can feel at ease?"

"Not necessarily." Milan crossed his legs, raising his eyebrows slightly. "It's fine for you to maintain this status quo - there's no real difference whether you're in the country or abroad."

Vincent knew why he had come. He smiled. "Don't worry, Mr. Thomas. Things are good as they are now. I'm not about to risk everything for a situation that's bound to fail."

Milan looked at Vincent's face again, as if trying to determine whether he was telling the truth.

But soon, he withdrew his gaze and slowly stood up. "Alright, I understand. If you two get married, I'll send you a gift."

"Thank you, Mr. Thomas."

Vincent accepted this with peace of mind.