Chapter 242: Control Your Wife
Harriet curved her lips, "So the Stewart family likes to have private meetings in crowded places."
"Harriet, watch your tone," Quinlan said righteously. "My mom is an elder after all. You should call her aunt. How can you talk back to her?"
Harriet looked at them coolly. "I'm not in the mood to argue with her, but if she wants to pin something on me, she's not qualified."
Brielle was furious. "Tristan! I'm an elder after all. Your wife is so disrespectful, and you're not going to do anything about it?"
Tristan stood with his hands in his pockets, just staring at Harriet silently without saying a word.
Xavier immediately flew into a rage and rushed forward to scold her. "Harriet, Tristan likes you, so you'd better do your job properly and stop getting tangled up with this bastard!"
Harriet withdrew her gaze and looked at Xavier in front of her. "I understand you just lost your mom and you're upset, so I won't teach you a lesson today. Goodbye."
After saying this, Harriet ignored Xavier's gloomy face and went straight to the roadside to hail a cab.
The next second, someone grabbed her wrist.
Tristan pulled her directly toward the parking lot.
Harriet didn't struggle and let him pull her into the car.
The Rolls-Royce soon drove away.
"Bitch!" Brielle cursed under her breath, her eyes full of gloom. "She just has a pretty face, what's so great about that! Our Quinlan has one, too!"
"Quinlan, are you really confident? If not, just get plastic surgery. Get your face done to look like Harriet's, then Tristan will have to like you!"
"Mom, there's no need for that," Quinlan said confidently. "Don't worry, Tristan will be mine very soon."
In the back seat of the Rolls-Royce, Tristan raised the partition and asked, "Harriet, what did you just say to Griffin?"
"Nothing much." Harriet looked at the night scenery flashing by outside the window. "Tristan, what kind of person do you think your mom is?"
Tristan froze, then quickly caught on. "Griffin told you something, didn't he?"
Only then did Harriet turn to look at him. "So you knew about everything all along."
"If you're talking about Amara, yes, I know." Tristan admitted frankly. "I investigated them, mother and son, and confronted Griffin about it."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to ruin Ms. Wallace's good image in your heart, and I didn't want to make you hate my mom even more."
Harriet's voice trembled as she spoke each word forcefully. "Ms. Wallace did work as a prostitute, but in my heart, she's still pure, because she was forced into it!"
"Do you know what a good person she was? But her life was ruined by your parents!" Harriet looked at him coldly. "Tristan, the Lancaster family is truly terrifying."
Tristan panicked!
He pulled Harriet into his arms. "Harriet, don't look at me with that cold, disgusted look. I can't choose what kind of people my parents are. All I can do is make sure I'm different from them."
"Different?" Harriet's tears fell. "Then what about Ondine's death? Did she deserve it? In the eyes of the Lancaster family, are Ms. Wallace's and my godmother's lives as insignificant as ants, something you can control? You are different from your mom—you're better than her. You gave my godmother a quick death."
"It's not like that!" Tristan hugged her tightly. "Harriet, you should have told me about your relationship earlier. None of this would have happened. You should have told me sooner."
Harriet's tears streamed down. "I tried! After it happened, I kept calling you, but you never picked up!"
Tristan froze.
When Gemma suddenly died, he was caught off guard and didn't have his phone on him all the time.
After missing Harriet's first call, he had called back, but Harriet's phone was off.
Later, Ryder told him she was already on a plane back to the country.
When he missed her second call, he was on his way to the hot spring villa to meet Ondine.
Because he was so tired, he had fallen asleep in the back seat with his phone on silent.
When he arrived at the hot spring villa, he didn't take his phone and got out of the car directly.
It was his fault. If he had answered Harriet's call, maybe things wouldn't have turned out this way.
The next day, Harriet began investigating Gemma's death.
She had already seen the autopsy report, which stated that Gemma died from potassium cyanide poisoning, with no external injuries on her body.
Harriet questioned the bodyguards who were outside the hot spring villa that day. No strangers had entered the villa.
And to avoid disturbing Ondine while she treated Gemma, the bodyguards couldn't enter the villa without permission.
This was confirmed by the surveillance cameras around the villa that covered every angle. There were two RVs for them to rest in, and indeed, not a single bodyguard had entered the villa that day.
There was also another RV with doctors on standby.
Because Gemma's condition showed no abnormalities that day, the doctors hadn't gone in either.
Inside the villa, there were only Ondine and Uma.
The maid who was supposed to clean and cook had asked for leave that day because of something.
No wonder Uma insisted it was Ondine who did it. Apart from her, Ondine was indeed the most suspicious.
Harriet believed what Tristan said.
So why didn't Ondine deny the poisoning on the phone? And why did she insist that Tristan come to the villa to talk in detail?
What did she want to tell Tristan?
Unfortunately, with Ondine's death, these answers would never be known.
But Harriet wasn't planning to give up.
She wanted to find clues from Gemma's body.
The body had already been cremated, and the only person who had contact with it was the medical examiner.
She decided to find the medical examiner for a face-to-face inquiry to see if there were any overlooked clues.
Harriet called Ryder to ask for the medical examiner's contact information.
"Mrs. Lancaster, let me contact her for you, then I'll take you directly to see her."
"That would be even better, thank you."
A few minutes later, Ryder called back, his tone panicked. "Mrs. Lancaster, something's happened!"
"What is it?"
"The medical examiner died in a car accident last night!"
"How could this happen?" Harriet asked. "Was it an accident?"
"The other driver was drunk driving, crashed directly into the medical examiner's car. She died on the spot."
"How could there be such a coincidence?" Harriet suddenly felt a chill down her spine. "She did Gemma's autopsy, and just as I was about to go see her, she died?"
"It is unusually coincidental. I'll keep investigating to see if I can find any leads."
"The medical examiner's death confirms my suspicion even more. Gemma's death is definitely not as simple as it appears!" Harriet said firmly. "Ondine was definitely framed!"
Ryder investigated the driver who caused the accident and found that he had been in prison for theft before, just released six months ago after serving his sentence, and was unemployed.
More importantly, he was allergic to alcohol and normally didn't drink at all.
This further confirmed Harriet's suspicion. The medical examiner's death wasn't an accident at all—it was murder!
Harriet felt that behind this series of events, there was an invisible hand pushing everything forward!
She couldn't see this hand, but it could strike at vital points again and again!
Who would be next?
Harriet didn't dare to think about it.
Ryder's investigation continued, but he couldn't find any trace of evidence.
The driver was most likely bought off by someone, but neither his own accounts nor his family members' accounts showed any unusual fund transfers.
Even the call records revealed nothing suspicious.
The investigation hit a dead end and couldn't move forward.
All of Harriet's suspicions couldn't be confirmed either.
She was in a terrible mood, staying at Cloud Bay every day with no desire to work.
She even started feeling anxious, needing alcohol to fall asleep every night.