Chapter80 Caught the Person Who Harmed You
The next day, when Miranda opened her eyes, the space beside her was already empty, without even a trace of warmth left.
Today, after arriving at the company, she didn't drive to the underground garage as usual.
Instead, she stopped her car directly at the company building entrance and handed the keys to the valet who came to meet her.
"Please park it in the garage for me. Thank you."
"Of course, miss."
Golden rays shone on the magnificent glass curtain wall of the office building, refracting brilliant light.
Just as Miranda stepped up the stairs preparing to enter the building, a sense of danger shot up her spine without warning.
Almost instinctively, Miranda's pupils constricted sharply. She used all her strength to take a large step backward.
In that very instant...
Bang!
A loud crash exploded in her ears.
A huge ceramic flowerpot fell from above, smashing heavily onto the spot where she'd just been standing, shattering into pieces.
Brown-black soil mixed with plant debris and sharp ceramic fragments exploded outward in all directions.
"Ahhh...!"
Screams erupted from passersby around her.
Before Miranda could recover from the terror of nearly dying, sharp pain came from her arm and calf.
She looked down sharply to see several sharp fragments deeply embedded in her skin. Warm blood instantly gushed out, winding down along her skin, spreading into shocking red blooms on the ground.
"Miranda!"
Lisa had just walked out of the building. Seeing this scene, her face went deathly pale. She rushed over in one stride, supporting the swaying Miranda.
"Quick! Call an ambulance!" Lisa roared at the stunned security guard.
Soon, Miranda was rushed to a nearby hospital.
In the emergency room, the doctor carefully used tweezers to clean fragments from her wounds. Each piece extracted brought piercing pain.
But Miranda seemed to feel no pain, her face pale but her eyes frighteningly clear.
She looked at Lisa, who was anxiously pacing, and spoke calmly: "Lisa, go back to my office now."
"I'm not leaving!" Lisa refused without thinking. "How can I feel at ease leaving you here alone!"
"Hear me out." Miranda's voice wasn't loud but carried undeniable authority. "Go to the drawer in my office and take out the materials I organized yesterday. Contact our legal department and sue every single troll account and company spreading rumors online. Not one should be spared."
Lisa froze, then nodded firmly.
But she was still worried: "What about you? What if..."
"The hospital has lots of people. I'm fine." Miranda interrupted her, her gaze cold as ice.
"Last night was the underground garage. Today was the company rooftop. The other party dares to act in broad daylight, which means they're confident and must be someone with access to the building interior."
"Go back immediately and contact security. Seal all exits, pull up all surveillance footage from last night until this morning. Don't miss a single frame. We must catch him while we can!"
She calculated quickly in her mind.
The first suspect was naturally Ariana, but the force gripping her neck last night was clearly a man's.
Moreover, with Ariana's current financial resources, buying trolls to spread rumors might be more than enough, but hiring a hitman was probably beyond her means.
The other party was so impatient, repeatedly trying to kill her. This was very dangerous for her.
Now was the best opportunity to catch him. Once he escaped, finding him again would be difficult.
"Okay." Lisa understood the seriousness in her words and hesitated no more, her face full of solemnity. "I'll handle it immediately. Please be extremely careful."
After speaking, she turned and hurried out of the hospital.
The doctor finished bandaging Miranda's wounds. Looking at the thick gauze wrapped around her arm and calf, he warned seriously: "Although the wounds aren't deep, they came into contact with flowerpot fragments and soil, which carry many bacteria. You must stay for observation for two days to prevent infection and high fever."
Miranda wanted to refuse, but thinking of her current weakened state, she finally nodded and stayed in the ward.
She took out her phone, constantly monitoring the online situation.
With the legal department's intervention, those overwhelming rumors seemed pressed down by an invisible hand. Their spread slowed noticeably, and some marketing accounts that had been most active quietly deleted their posts.
The morning passed in tense confrontation.
In the afternoon, the ward door was suddenly pushed open with a "bang."
"Miranda!" Castillo rushed in like a gust of wind. Seeing Miranda lying in the hospital bed, pale-faced with gauze wrapped around her hands and feet, her eyes instantly reddened.
She rushed to the bedside, her voice carrying a sob and lingering fear: "How are you? Where are you hurt? Does it hurt? If I hadn't gone to your company looking for you and run into Lisa in a hurry, I wouldn't have known you'd been in an accident!"
Seeing her friend's anxious state, Miranda's nerves, taut all morning, finally relaxed. She pulled out a reassuring smile: "I'm fine. Just some superficial wounds. I didn't want you worrying unnecessarily."
But Castillo didn't believe her at all. She grabbed Miranda's uninjured hand, her face full of indignation and worry: "You call this superficial? You almost died! But don't worry," her tone shifted as she lowered her voice, "that bastard who tried to harm you has already been caught by the police!"
Miranda's eyes instantly sharpened. She sat up straight, pressing: "Caught? So fast? Did he confess? Who is it?"
At the same time, on the second floor of the police station in a conference room.
The atmosphere was solemn, the air thick with tension.
The police chief, over fifty years old, personally brought a cup of coffee and placed it by the man across from him, his face showing sincere admiration and emotion.
"Clifton, we really have you and your people to thank this time. Without your advance deployment, we never could have dismantled this cross-border criminal organization so quickly. The younger generation is formidable indeed."
Clifton sat in his chair, expression indifferent, the innate cool nobility about him out of place yet oddly harmonious with this serious environment.
He picked up the cup, only symbolically touched it to his lips, then set it down.
"Chief, you're too kind. Just doing my duty." His voice revealed no emotion. "If there's nothing else, I'll take my people back. There's still some follow-up work on the mission to handle."
"Of course, of course. Take care."
Clifton nodded slightly and left the conference room with several subordinates dressed in black tactical gear.
The corridor was so quiet you could hear footsteps echoing.
As the group passed an interrogation room, a man's piercing shriek suddenly came from behind the closed door, as if he were enduring tremendous pain.
"She's just a bitch! A promiscuous, slutty woman!"
Clifton's steps didn't pause even slightly. He'd long grown accustomed to such scenes.
The voice from the interrogation room continued, carrying a sob and collapsed wailing.
"I didn't mean to kill anyone! I just wanted to scare that Miranda. Please, let me go!"
Clifton, who'd been looking straight ahead, suddenly stopped in his tracks upon hearing the word "Miranda."
He whipped his head around, his gaze locking onto that closed interrogation room door, the pressure around him instantly dropping to freezing point.