Chapter 40 Fright
Chapter 40 Fright
Late at night, a scream rang out in The Fox Villa, instantly waking everyone up.
Everyone rushed to the living room in a panic.
When Marigold saw that Cordelia had come downstairs but Julie was nowhere to be seen, she immediately jumped up from the sofa and said urgently to Willie, "Quick, take some people upstairs to check."
Willie led people upstairs, but Marigold was still worried and dragged Jack along with her.
Just as everyone reached Julie's bedroom door, another scream came through. This time, everyone clearly recognized it was Julie's voice.
"Julie!"
Marigold called out and said to Willie, "Quick, open the door!"
When the door opened, everyone was shocked by what they saw inside.
Julie's room was full of snakes—at least a dozen of them, flicking their tongues as they slithered around the room.
Julie was crouching on the vanity table nearby, with a patterned snake next to her, its tongue flicking out, about to crawl onto her arm.
"Julie!"
Marigold screamed, then quickly covered her mouth, looking at Julie with terror in her eyes.
Seeing that someone had finally come, Julie uncovered her mouth and cried out, "Dad, Mom, save me!"
Her crying alarmed the snakes in the room. They all slithered toward the sound, and the closest snake had already crawled onto Julie's arm.
Seeing this, Marigold nearly fainted from fright. She clutched Jack's clothes tightly and screamed, "Save Julie!"
"Julie, don't move!"
Jack said, then shouted, "Whoever catches these snakes, I'll reward them five hundred thousand dollars!"
Money talks. Hearing about such a large sum, the security guards who had come upstairs all rushed in.
The snakes on the ground slithered even faster when startled, but with so many people, some catching and some hitting, the snakes were quickly caught.
Those that weren't caught were beaten half to death.
Seeing the snakes on the ground under control, Julie finally calmed down. "Mom!"
She threw herself crying into Marigold's arms.
Marigold held her tightly and comforted her softly, "It's okay now, it's okay."
Jack angrily said to Willie in a stern voice, "Investigate! Find out why there were snakes!"
"Yes."
Willie immediately led people to search inside and out, playing back the surveillance footage frame by frame, examining it carefully.
But after searching everywhere, they found no clues. The snakes seemed to have appeared out of thin air. By the time Julie discovered them, they were already in her room.
They kept at it until dawn without finding anything. With no other choice, Jack called in a team of snake removal experts to search the entire villa from top to bottom.
In Jack's bedroom on the second floor, the frightened Julie curled up in Marigold's arms, trembling. "It was Cordelia. It must have been her!"
Hearing this, Marigold was quite surprised. "Why would she want to hurt you?"
"Because she found out that I was behind the previous incidents. When I came back tonight, she even threatened me."
Julie's eyes were full of terror. "Cordelia wants me dead. She wants to kill me!"
"No, no!"
Marigold held Julie and comforted her softly, but this comfort had no effect at all. Julie cried louder and louder, which brought Jack over.
"What's going on?"
Jack walked into the room and frowned at Marigold and Julie hugging each other.
Marigold looked up, her eyes full of anger. "Where's Cordelia? Call her over. I want to ask her why she's so cruel as to want Julie's life!"
"What are you talking about? How does this involve Cordelia again?"
Jack didn't understand at first, but after speaking, he realized. "You don't think Cordelia released the snakes, do you?"
"It's not suspicion—she did it!"
Julie screamed, "I'm sure she did it! Dad, you have to teach her a lesson. She actually wants me dead!"
"That can't be."
Jack found it hard to believe. He admitted Cordelia was ruthless, but this was different. Releasing snakes to bite someone could kill them if things went wrong. After all, Cordelia and Julie were sisters. Could Cordelia really be that heartless?
Seeing that Jack didn't believe her, Julie immediately threw a tantrum, acting like a madwoman. Jack had no choice but to call Cordelia over.
When Cordelia appeared and saw Julie's miserable state, she crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe, mocking, "A room full of snakes—could it be that even snakes can't stand the bad things you've done and came to settle the score?"
"It was you! You did all this! Cordelia, you have such a vicious heart. You actually want to kill me!"
Julie's accusations didn't bother Cordelia at all. She didn't take them seriously.
"Where's the proof?"
Julie had no proof. All she could do was throw a fit.
Seeing that Cordelia didn't care about what she said, Julie started making a scene again. "Mom, Dad, look! I'm in this state and she's still mocking me. It was clearly her!"
Cordelia acting this way wasn't new. If they were going to blame her just because of her attitude, that was too much of a stretch. But even if she really did it, without evidence, no one could do anything about it.
These past few days had been such a rollercoaster. Jack was exhausted and felt that if things continued like this at home, he'd lose ten years of his life.
He waved his hands repeatedly. "Enough. Tonight, let your mother sleep with you."
He hadn't slept well for two nights in a row. He couldn't take it anymore.
"Dad, Dad."
Julie's repeated calls couldn't bring back even a bit of Jack's fatherly love. Seeing him walk away, Cordelia yawned and said, "Alright, stop making a fuss. Keep it up and the snakes might come back for you."
"Mom, listen! Cordelia's threatening me again!"
Marigold also had a headache from all the noise, but Julie had just been frightened—she couldn't just ignore her.
She could only comfort her softly, but this comfort was useless for Julie, who was scared out of her wits. She kept at it until early morning, when Ryan arrived.
The moment she saw Ryan, Julie threw herself at him like she'd seen her savior. "Ryan, I was almost bitten by snakes last night. I'm so scared."