"Mom, I'm doing this for a better future for me and your grandson. You won't blame me, right?"
As he spoke, Ricky placed his hand on the old lady's oxygen mask.
Just as he was about to remove it, a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed his.
At that moment, Lance entered the room with Xavier.
"It's you?"
Ricky's face changed drastically as he questioned, "Why are you here?"
Lance remained silent.
Xavier sneered on his behalf, "We were waiting for you. I can't believe you'd do something as heinous as matricide for money!"
"I didn't kill my mother! Don't talk nonsense!"
Ricky instinctively denied it.
Xavier took out his phone, showing a recording.
Without giving Ricky a chance to speak, he played it.
The next second, Ricky's earlier words echoed through the room.
Lance's face turned cold as he ordered, "Take him to the police station and let them investigate thoroughly."
Almost as soon as he finished speaking, a weak voice came from the bed.
"No..."
The old lady looked at Lance pleadingly, her voice frail. "Please, let my son go. I... I won't hold Dr. Deanna accountable."
Lance looked at her with cold eyes, unmoved.
"I gave you a chance. Now it's too late."
With that, Lance turned and left.
Xavier escorted Ricky to the police station.
...
The next morning, after dropping the kids off at school, Lance went to visit Deanna.
He voluntarily brought up what happened the previous night. "Ricky was arrested for attempted murder."
"Attempted murder? What happened?"
Deanna was very surprised.
Lance explained Ricky's attempt to kill his mother, his eyes filled with disgust. "If we hadn't shown up in time, that old lady would have let her son kill her."
"Why would this happen..."
Deanna's eyes widened in shock, feeling an indescribable sadness.
She had no enmity with them; why were they plotting against her?
Seeing Deanna's distressed expression, Lance tried to comfort her. "Money can corrupt people. Fortunately, nothing happened. Now we just need to find evidence that they framed you, and you'll be free."
"Yes, thank you!"
Deanna nodded, looking at him gratefully.
Lance didn't like her polite tone and smiled faintly. "If you really want to thank me, cook me a meal when you get out."
"No problem." Deanna agreed immediately.
In fact, she would have done so even without Lance asking.
After chatting for a while, Lance left the police station.
Instead of going to the company, he went to Hughes Pharmacy.
After so many days, he thought Old Hughes might have found some information.
Indeed, Old Hughes was about to contact Lance when he saw him walk in. He smiled and said, "You're just in time. I was about to look for you. We have a clue about the medicinal herbs."
Upon hearing this, Lance's expression became serious.
"What did you find?"
"I found a small herbal shop in the suburbs with records of Ricky purchasing musk."
Old Hughes shared the lead he had found.
After hearing this, Lance couldn't sit still. He stood up immediately and dragged Old Hughes towards the door.
As they walked, he said, "Since we've found out, let's get Dr. Deanna out first."
Poor Old Hughes was almost dragged off his feet by Lance and nearly fell.
Finally seated in the car, Old Hughes tidied himself up while grumbling.
"I know you're eager to save Anna, but consider my fragile body. Do you know how hard I've worked these past few days to investigate this?"
"I'll send you two rare medicinal herbs afterward."
Lance offered compensation with an awkward smile.
Unexpectedly, Old Hughes didn't care for it at all. "Who wants your herbs? If anyone should give them to me, it should be Anna."
He chuckled as he spoke.
He thought helping Anna would give him an opportunity to learn more ancient prescriptions from her without her avoiding him anymore.
Lanceread his thoughts and shook his head with a smile.
Soon, they arrived at the police station.
Lance accompanied Old Hughes to submit the evidence to the police.
With the evidence submitted, the officer in charge of the case interrogated Ricky again.
"Let me out! I'm innocent!"
Ricky shouted as soon as he saw the officer.
The officer glanced at him and handed over the evidence provided by Old Hughes. "Is this your handwriting?"
Seeing the evidence clearly, Ricky's face changed dramatically and he panicked.
"This isn't mine! It's not mine!"
He shouted while lowering his head, refusing to look at the evidence.
As if by doing so, he could deceive himself into thinking it wasn't true.
Seeing his reaction, the officer knew the answer. "It seems this is indeed your handwriting. Even if you don't admit it, I've already ordered an investigation into the shop's surveillance footage. We'll have results soon."