Chapter 104 All Dead
Molly guiltily avoided his gaze, opening and closing her mouth. "I... I already told you I don't know that person. Who knows what kind of trouble that Naomi girl got herself into? Ms. Bourbon's type—who knows what kind of character her adopted kids have. I... I didn't do anything wrong."
Anthony's expression darkened as he stared at her. The atmosphere in the car turned ice-cold in an instant. "Ms. Bourbon's type? What type?"
Molly inexplicably shrank back. She didn't know why, but seeing Anthony's gaze made her spine crawl. Instinctively, she clamped her mouth shut.
Anthony stared at her coldly. Time seemed to freeze, the air growing thin. His presence was too overwhelming for a barely ten-year-old child to bear. Molly bit her lip. Though she didn't understand why this was happening, she knew her words had struck a nerve. Anthony was currently the best person to her in the Watson family—she had to hold tight to this lifeline.
"I... I was wrong," Molly lowered her stance. "Mr. Watson, I'm sorry."
Anthony's eyes remained cold as he looked at her for a long moment before leaning back in his seat, adjusting his cufflinks with an icy tone. "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."
Molly kept her head down, resentment filling her heart. If not to him, was she supposed to apologize to Arabella? No way! But she put on an obedient, understanding act, nodding. "If I get the chance, I'll apologize to Ms. Bourbon."
Anthony glanced at her with cold indifference. "If I remember correctly, Ms. Bourbon had already completed your adoption paperwork. Why didn't you end up going with her, but came to the Watson family instead?"
Molly froze. "Ms. Sanders said she liked me, so I..." She hadn't known beforehand that Cassidy's adoption of her wasn't discussed with him. Now she stammered, trying to explain, not wanting to leave the impression of being ungrateful.
Anthony, being a man who controlled an entire corporation, had seen too many traps in the business world. What didn't he understand now?
Cassie must have snatched Molly away from Arabella. But why would Cassie want Molly? They were already married, and she was pregnant—she didn't need a child for appearances. But Arabella... a woman who couldn't have children would need to adopt someone else's child.
A flash of pity for Arabella crossed his mind, but not much. He quickly realized that Cassie probably didn't know about Arabella's plan to adopt Molly.
That was it. Cassie had always been a kind woman. Perhaps she'd participated in charity activities and learned about that orphanage, had some contact with Molly, and adopted her before Arabella could.
Thinking this through, Anthony tapped his fingers on the small table. If that was the case, he should apologize to Arabella. He took out his phone and sent Arabella a message: [About Molly, I'm very sorry. Cassie didn't mean it. If you need, I can help arrange something else for you.]
The message failed to send. Had Arabella blocked him?
His expression darkened as he sent a text message instead. This time it went through, but whether Arabella could actually see it was hard to say, since she'd blocked his number before too. This woman was truly ruthless. After being married for two years, she completely cut contact after the divorce.
Anthony's eyes were unreadable. After a moment, he said to Leo, "Let me use your phone."
Leo quickly handed over his phone. Anthony used it to call Arabella. The call connected quickly, and Arabella's voice came through: "Hello?"
Anthony spoke up: "It's me. About Molly..."
Before he could finish, the call was hung up. Anthony couldn't believe it. He called again, and this time even Leo's number got blocked.
He laughed bitterly, tossing the phone back to Leo with a cold gaze. Did she think he was desperately chasing after her? It had been a goodwill gesture. Since she was so ungrateful, he couldn't be bothered with meddling anymore.
'Arabella, keep being difficult. Someday you'll be abandoned by everyone, and then you'll know how good I was to you!'
Molly watched him cautiously, feeling something terrifying about his aura. When Anthony's gaze suddenly turned to her, he asked coldly, "Have you thought about how to answer?"
Molly jumped. "What... what answer?"
"The question I just asked you." Anthony looked at her. "Who instructed you to lure Naomi out of school?"
Molly had thought he'd forgotten about this, but he still remembered and seemed determined to get to the bottom of it. "I don't know them." She wasn't lying—she really didn't know them.
"How much money did they give you?" Anthony had now seen through Molly's true nature. Without any beating around the bush, he asked directly.
Molly was silent for a long while before saying somewhat shamefully, "He gave me... gave me a hundred thousand dollars."
"A mere hundred thousand." Anthony sneered. "Truly pathetic!"
Molly's face flushed with embarrassment, her eyes growing wet with grievance. Her heart ached. Was a hundred thousand really so little? In all her years, she'd never even owned a hundred dollars. A hundred thousand was a lot to her.
She bit her teeth, forcing herself to swallow her tears, telling herself it was okay—she now had a whole black card and could buy whatever she wanted. No one would ever mock her for being poor again.
Anthony glanced at her, lit a cigarette, took a drag, and asked, "Was it an adult who approached you? A man?"
Molly nodded. At this point, there was no meaning in hiding anything. She continued proactively: "It happened last night. A man in black clothes found me and asked me to help him get Naomi out of school the next day."
She'd initially thought the guy was crazy. She'd just arrived at the Watson family, and no one had arranged a school for her yet. How could he be sure she'd be at the same school as that girl?
But seeing the hundred thousand dollars and thinking it would be foolish not to take it, she casually agreed. She never expected Leo to actually come the next day and take her to that school.
After hearing Molly's account, Anthony's expression grew much darker. He ignored Molly and said to Leo, "Pull up the villa's surveillance footage."
Leo responded and made a phone call. Soon he said, "Mr. Watson, it's ready."
Anthony scrolled through last night's surveillance records and indeed spotted a man in black clothes in the corner by the villa's main gate. He stared intently at the man until he completely disappeared from the surveillance footage.
He looked up and coldly ordered, "Get out. You take Molly and catch a cab back."
Leo was stunned. Though he didn't know why, he got out of the car with Molly. Anthony moved to the driver's seat, floored the gas pedal, and the car shot away.
Molly felt somewhat uncomfortable and asked Leo, "Do we really have to take a cab back? Could we have the family send a car to pick us up?"
Leo looked at her strangely. Was this kid's brain okay? Had she been reading too many novels? Having the family send a car would be such a hassle—how was that more convenient than taking a cab? He wanted to retort but remembered her status and finally just said, "Let's go."
He hailed a taxi and got in first. Seeing this, Molly had no choice but to follow, still feeling unhappy. She was now the Watson family's young lady, yet she was riding in a taxi. How embarrassing.
Anthony drove all the way to the suburbs, stopping in front of a small workshop that produced body bags. He got out, his long legs striding toward the tightly closed workshop door. Suddenly, he lifted his leg and kicked the door hard. The flimsy door couldn't withstand such violence and swayed open.
Anthony walked in with a cold expression. A worker came up to him asking, "Who are you looking for?"
Before he could finish speaking, Anthony grabbed him by the collar, lifted him up, and coldly demanded, "Where's Jake?"
The worker said in terror, "Mr. Gomez went home... We're just workers, we don't know anything. Put me down..." Anthony threw him roughly aside and turned to leave.
He drove to the Gomez family home. Jake was drinking heavily at home. Seeing Anthony, he backed away in fear, nearly falling to the ground. "Why are you here?"
Anthony grabbed him and demanded harshly, "You went to my house last night? Billy's wife and daughter—you kidnapped them?"
Jake struggled twice, pushed him away, then frowned. "So what if I did? I..."
Before he could finish, Anthony punched him in the face! Though Jake was quite built, he was no match for Anthony's years of fitness training and fighting skills. Within a few rounds, Anthony had him pinned to the ground, choking his neck, pressing his head down, with one foot on his lower back. Jake couldn't move at all.
"What are you doing!" he yelled in fury. "Anthony, we all rise and fall together! You dare touch me? Believe it or not, I'll..."
"You'll what?" A murderous glint flashed in Anthony's eyes as he asked viciously. "You think you don't have enough trouble already? You want to attract police attention? I don't care how you want to die, but don't forget—that incident three years ago, we're all grasshoppers on the same string. Instead of keeping a low profile, you come out stirring up trouble?"
Jake cursed, "Damn it, my sister is dead! Is it wrong for me to go after Billy? I want to drive him to death! If it wasn't for him, my sister wouldn't have died. I have a blood feud with him. I don't just want to go after his wife and daughter—I want to go after his parents too!"
Anthony's chest heaved violently as he glared at Jake with vicious eyes. "Your sister's death can't be blamed on Billy. If you want to blame someone, blame whoever was targeting her. You don't even know who that is, yet you recklessly made your move. You're giving others leverage against us, understand?"
Hearing this, Jake's face flashed with panic. Uncertainly, he said, "I was pretty secretive about it. I never showed my face from start to finish. No one should be able to trace it back to me, right?"
Anthony sneered coldly. "Isn't it a bit late to think about this now?"
Jake quickly said, "Anthony, what should I do now? Give me some advice."
Anthony released him, turned to grab a tissue to wipe his hands, then sat in a chair and said coldly, "Release that mother and daughter. Don't get involved in Billy's affairs anymore. Keep your head down and be a good dog!"
Jake's eyes shifted evasively. "Ah, this... I..."
Anthony felt a bad premonition and looked up at him sharply. "Where are they?"
Jake avoided his gaze, saying somewhat uncomfortably, "They're dead..."
Anthony's pupils contracted sharply. "What? Dead?"
---
"What? Dead?"
Arabella struggled to breathe, grabbing Alexander's arm and asking with difficulty, "What do you mean... dead? Are you talking about Naomi or her mother?"
Alexander grasped her hands, looking at her with concern as he said gently, "Arabella, don't get excited. Sit down, let me tell you what happened."
Arabella was like a walking corpse, letting him help her sit in the chair. She'd rarely faced death directly in her life. Growing up in a warm, loving environment, the only time she'd experienced it was three years ago when her parents had a car accident and her mother died on the spot.
Death was an indescribable pain for her, something she'd always struggled to accept. Let alone the death of someone she'd wanted to help.
After returning from Naomi's school today, she'd been restless all afternoon, so she'd taken two hours off to come home. She hadn't expected Alexander to be there too. She'd told him about what happened at school at noon, and Alexander said he had friends who could help investigate.
She hadn't held much hope, but unexpectedly, in just half an hour, he was telling her they were dead? The police hadn't even released any information yet. She couldn't accept what Alexander was saying.
Seeing her devastated state, Alexander felt a flash of guilt. This was something that could have been prevented. But since Naomi and her mother were only casual acquaintances to Arabella, not people she cared deeply about, he'd only casually assigned two people to watch Naomi's school area without paying too much attention.
But at noon today, those two had sent word that Naomi had been taken away. He'd guessed that whoever kidnapped Naomi might be the same people who kidnapped her mother, so he didn't have them intervene but told them to follow instead. Those two had indeed tracked down the kidnappers' hideout and seen Naomi's mother.
They'd planned to rescue both Naomi and her mother, but Naomi's mother had been tortured for days and could barely walk. When they tried to leave, they alerted the kidnappers. Who could have known the other side had guns?
They first shot Naomi's mother in the head. She died on the spot. When his people tried to take Naomi away, she suddenly rushed out and threw herself on her mother's body, saying she wanted to be with her mother forever. The kidnappers shot her too.
In the emergency, his people had no choice but to escape quickly. If he'd known this would happen, he should have been more careful with the arrangements. At least it wouldn't have ended like this.
Looking at Arabella, who was still in shock and unable to accept this reality, he finally spoke softly after a long moment, answering her question: "Naomi and her mother—they're both dead."