Chapter 129
But Emily quickly pulled her thoughts back.
Why was she overthinking it?
Of the entire Brown family, she had only met William and Aiden. She had never seen Raymond, William's parents, his uncle, his aunt, or anyone else.
Saying she was caught up in the Brown family's business was a real stretch.
If she stepped away now, there should still be a chance to do that.
Whatever happened, she couldn't drag Amelia and the two kids into this.
Right now, the most important thing is to take care of William and help him recover.
When Emily arrived at the hospital, William was still asleep. She unpacked everything she had brought and got it all organized.
William had been moved to a new room. While he was unconscious, he had stayed in a regular ward.
But clearly, for someone as wealthy as he, a regular ward was nowhere near his standard.
So while Emily was away, he had asked to be moved to the best VIP room available.
Calling it a hospital room was almost an understatement--it was more like a small apartment.
On the top floor of the hospital, there were only ten VIP rooms in total.
William had one of them. The rooms on either side were empty, so it was very quiet.
The suite was divided into four areas. The bedroom was where William rested. There was also a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom--slightly smaller, but still fully fitted out, even with a fish tank. Everything was perfectly arranged.
Emily went back downstairs and picked up some fruit and other snacks.
Even if she was only staying for a few days, she wasn't going to be careless.
There was no telling when William would wake up. A nurse came by every two hours to take his temperature and make sure he wasn't running a fever.
Meanwhile, things were far from calm on the Brown family's side.
Clarence sat in his study, listening to Felix's report.
He already knew William had been seriously injured. He had spent a long time carefully planting those moles inside the organization well in advance.
The plan was to make a move at the right moment, lure William in, and kill him while they had the chance.
William's organization operated in the shadows anyway, so even if William actually died there, the police would never be able to figure out what happened.
William had been lucky to survive the car accident last time, but this plan had been so carefully laid out--there should have been no way for William to escape.
And yet somehow William had made it through--seriously injured, but alive.
Now, Clarence had just received word that William had disappeared.
Felix stood in front of Clarence and walked him through everything from beginning to end.
Clarence's frown deepened. "He's gone? What is that supposed to mean?"
Felix shifted nervously and quickly lowered his head. "Based on what we know, William has indeed disappeared. No one knows where he went."
"Even his closest people have no idea where he went."
"The whole organization is in chaos right now, searching everywhere for him. But so far, there's no lead."
"How is that possible!" Clarence slammed the table and shouted.
"How does a person just vanish for no reason? Didn't you say William was recovering inside the organization? His people care so much about him--are you telling me they just let him slip away?"
Felix flinched. "That's what our information is telling us."
"Shut up!"
Clarence wasn't buying a single word of it. He let out a cold snort. "You idiot. This is obviously a fake story William put out on purpose."
"He's still inside recovering. He's just afraid we'll raid the place, so he leaked a false story saying he'd already run."
"You're absolutely right," Felix said quickly, trying to flatter him. "So what do we do next?"
Clarence went quiet. He stood up, clasped his hands behind his back, and began pacing back and forth.
What to do next was a real problem. If William was still inside the organization, the obvious move was to sweep the whole operation in one go.
That way, he could kill William and take out everyone under him at the same time. Pull the whole thing out by the roots. Then he would never have to worry about it again.
But something about this didn't feel right to him.
Of everyone in the Brown family, William and Raymond were the most alike--both believed in being careful with everything they did.
And William was already extremely careful. Was it really this simple? Had he just put out a smokescreen, and nothing more?
Clarence thought about it for a long time, then dropped the subject and changed the topic.
"I told you before to look into William's movements. Anything yet?"
Felix answered quickly. "During the time William was living under a false identity, he was with a woman named Emily the whole time."
"He even rented a place near where she lives and went over there often."
"Emily?" Clarence's frown returned. "Who is that? I don't think I've ever heard of her..."
"Wait--actually, that name sounds familiar. I just can't remember where I've heard it."
Felix saw his hesitation and offered a reminder. "Aiden stayed with her for a while, not too long ago."
Clarence's expression shifted sharply, his eyes narrowing. "You mean when Aiden said he was going out to travel--he was actually with her?"
"That's right." Felix nodded. "That's what our information shows."
Felix was about to continue, but Clarence raised a hand to stop him. This was a lot to take in. He needed a moment to process it.
Some time ago, he had staged a car accident to kill William. The car caught fire, and the police found a badly burned body inside.
The body was so severely damaged that no DNA could be extracted to confirm the identity.
At the time, however, the information he received was that William had been the only person in the car. So the police concluded that William had burned to death.
The Brown family was devastated. Raymond nearly fell apart.
But Raymond was also the first to recover. While William's parents were still deep in grief, Raymond had already pulled himself together.
Clarence hadn't thought much of it at the time. Raymond was old. He had seen plenty of storms in his life.
Yes, William was his most valued grandson--but the dead don't come back. What was the point of endless grief? Better to accept reality and figure out how to groom a new heir.
Not long after that, Raymond seemed to have moved past William's death entirely. He was cheerful every day, in good spirits, eating well.
Looking back now, if William had actually survived that car accident, Raymond would have known early on--and suddenly everything made sense.
"No wonder Raymond wasn't grieving!"
Clarence spat on the floor and cursed out loud.