Chapter 85 He Didn't Ask, Yet He Believed Her Words
When she got home, it was already close to 9:30.
She went upstairs to take a shower. When she came out of the bathroom, Steven had already warmed up the milk but was standing at the doorway without stepping inside.
Since the day he was kicked out to the guest bedroom, he'd been pretty good about following the rules. Every time he came in to get something, he would ask her first and only enter with her permission.
Rachel walked over and took the milk from him. "Thanks. You've worked hard. Get some rest early."
With that, she closed the door.
Steven stared at the closed door, words of sympathy-seeking and playing pitiful stuck in his throat - he couldn't say them, but couldn't swallow them either.
After all these years with Rachel, this was the first time he felt she was so hard to please.
In the past when she got upset, two days at most and she'd be fine.
He found it hard to understand, but didn't dare say much, afraid of making her angry again.
He stood there for a few minutes, finally sighed, and turned back to the guest bedroom.
Rachel heard the footsteps outside gradually fade away. After finishing her simple skincare routine, she walked to the edge of the bed and dialed Benjamin's number.
But the phone rang for a full half minute with no answer. She hung up and called again. Soon, Benjamin's deep, slightly hoarse voice came through the receiver.
"What?"
Rachel froze, feeling like her ear had been touched by a small flame, something brushing past her heart, bringing a slight tingling sensation.
She instinctively moved the phone away from her ear and asked politely, "Were you resting?"
Benjamin on the other end had just come out of the bathroom, casually drying his wet hair with a towel, his cool tone carrying a rare hint of laziness.
"No. What's up?"
Rachel asked, "Are you in Maple Grove City?"
Benjamin's eyebrows moved slightly.
He'd been in Maple Grove City for three or four days. Only Nathaniel knew about this trip.
How did Rachel know?
Did Nathaniel tell her?
He responded calmly, "Yes. I'm in Maple Grove City."
After hearing this, Rachel didn't beat around the bush anymore and got straight to the point. "You went there to investigate the Stellar Voyager cargo ship grounding case, right? And you're going on the ship tomorrow."
A flash of surprise crossed Benjamin's previously calm eyes.
This couldn't have been from Nathaniel.
Going on the ship tomorrow was a last-minute decision he'd made today.
After hesitating for two or three seconds, he asked, "What's wrong?"
"Don't go! Tomorrow Lachlan will find a way to have someone push you into the sea."
Benjamin's eyes narrowed.
Lachlan?
The day before yesterday at the dock, he had run into Lachlan. Lachlan had recognized him first and invited him to dinner.
But after that meal, he clearly felt someone secretly watching and following him nearby.
He guessed it was someone Lachlan sent.
But he couldn't quite figure out what Lachlan's purpose was in following him.
And what would make Lachlan disregard the current danger and want him dead?
"Lachlan hid 20 pounds of drugs in the fruit on that ship."
While he was thinking, that calm and clear voice on the phone answered his question.
His pupils contracted. "What? 20 pounds of drugs?"
"Yes! He's probably afraid you'll find out."
In Celestria, a few dozen ounces of drugs would get you a death sentence.
With his 20 pounds, ten lives wouldn't be enough.
No wonder Lachlan was so desperate.
But thinking about it, it made sense.
At sea was the best opportunity to make a move. Just make up some excuse about losing footing, and with no witnesses, no surveillance, no evidence, it would be a case with no proof.
Otherwise, once he returned to Dawnlight City, it would be much harder for Lachlan to make a move.
Benjamin's expression became somewhat grave and dark, his voice slightly heavy. "I understand. Thanks."
Rachel paused.
Benjamin didn't ask how she knew.
But even if he had asked, she had no way to explain.
It was good that he didn't ask, yet believed her words.
After hanging up, the somewhat anxious heart suddenly calmed down.
A good night's sleep without dreams.
The next afternoon, while she was discussing the joint exhibition planning with Autumn and Leo, she received a message from Benjamin on her phone: Back in Dawnlight City.
Rachel just glanced at it, turned off the screen without replying, and continued discussing the core theme design concept for this joint exhibition with them.
The snow in Dawnlight City fell for two days before stopping, but it didn't clear up - still gloomy.
On the morning of the 23rd, around 9:30, Rachel had just arrived at Stargaze Gallery when her phone received a notification that the bug had uploaded backup recordings to the software - six recordings in just one hour.
Each recording was ten minutes long.
She clicked on them one by one. Besides Heather's voice, there were two unfamiliar middle-aged women's voices.
But from their greetings, she could tell those two were the underground business shareholders Dorothy and Maya.
Later they were calculating revenue and dividends.
Every amount was enough to shock Rachel.
The gold-digger training class had a longer cycle - training on one hand, approaching targets on the other, both requiring lots of time.
Take Hestia going after Asher - half a month in, they'd only added each other on WhatsApp and chatted a few times. Asher hadn't fully shown signs of taking the bait yet.
The underground business's income for the past six months mainly came from the male escort industry.
The dozen or so male escorts were divided into two tiers, each naturally priced differently, but even the lowest was five figures per night.
For those rich women, this was pocket change.
Rachel listened to everything word for word. Her expression wasn't great. She saved all the recordings and deleted the backups from the app.
A text message popped up at the top of her phone.
[After 3 PM, a cleaning person will be arranged to clean Heather's office. Heather took that evaluation document out of the cabinet and put it in the first drawer on the right side of her desk.]
Rachel looked at the text content and frowned.
Cleaning?
Heather's office was usually cleaned twice a week, and by a specific cleaning person.
Before, she thought Heather was just being cautious - after all, the office had many important internal documents about Radiant Beauty Spa.
Thinking about it now, her feeling wasn't wrong.
With that underground business, Heather had to be cautious.
Since they were cleaning, the flower stand with the potted plant might be moved. Although it wasn't easy to discover, what if the cleaner lifted the stand?
She already had the recordings. Better to remove that bug.
After thinking it through, she grabbed her phone and bag and walked to the door. Just as she pulled it open, she saw Nancy about to knock.
Nancy was holding two insulated takeout bags and two bottles of drinks.
Nancy's hand froze in mid-air. "Rachel, are you going out?"
Rachel looked at her coolly. "What's this?"
Nancy smiled. "It's already 11:30, isn't it? I ordered takeout, and there's this sandwich I thought was pretty good. See if you like it - give it a try."
Rachel looked at the things in her hands and pressed her lips together.
Since that juice incident, Nancy had been sending her food on and off these past few days, but she hadn't eaten any of it. She refused most of it, and what she didn't refuse, she threw away.
She smiled faintly. "Sorry, I have lunch plans."
With that, she closed her office door, walked past Nancy, and headed straight for the elevator.
Nancy opened her mouth, watching her back, a flash of malice and resentment in her eyes. Her hand holding the bag kept tightening.
Rachel wouldn't take anything from her, so she couldn't even lay the groundwork. How was she supposed to slip in the remaining drugs?
She bit her lip, so angry she wanted to throw away the food in her hands. Just then, the assistant office door opened and Carol walked out. She immediately hid the hatred and viciousness on her face.
She forced a smile. "Carol, want to have lunch together?"
Carol glanced at her and said coolly, "No, thanks."
When Rachel arrived at the beauty salon, she happened to run into Heather and two wealthy ladies coming out of the elevator together.
Heather seemed surprised to see her.
Rachel had been coming to Radiant Beauty Spa quite frequently these past few days.
She lowered her eyes to hide her expression and waved with a smile. "Rachel, perfect timing. We were just about to go eat."
She then introduced the two wealthy ladies beside her to Rachel.
That's when Rachel matched faces to Dorothy and Maya.
Both were well-maintained, with few traces of time on their faces.
You could tell that in their youth, they were top-tier beauties.
Well, that made sense. If they weren't beautiful, it wouldn't have been so easy to climb up.
After exchanging greetings, Rachel went to the restaurant with Heather and the others.
During their conversation, she got a superficial understanding of Dorothy and Maya.
Their personalities were somewhat similar to Heather's - soft-spoken, gentle-looking, elegant and dignified in manner.
They all got along well. After eating, Rachel returned to the beauty salon with Heather.
In the office, she instinctively glanced at the flower stand, and seeing no signs of it being moved, naturally looked away.
Heather handed her a glass of juice and asked with a smile, "Why did you come over today?"
"I was actually planning to come have lunch with you at noon."
"Really?" Heather looked at her. "You came specially to have lunch with me?"
Rachel knew she wasn't that easy to fool. After thinking, she lowered her eyes. "I... I keep feeling like Steven's been acting a bit strange lately."
Heather was surprised. "Strange? How so?"
"I can't quite say. Just a gut feeling. I feel uneasy."
"Afraid Steven has someone else?"
Rachel pressed her lips together without speaking.
Heather laughed, saying with certainty, "Impossible! Steven is devoted to you. How could he have someone else? Are you overthinking things because of the pregnancy?"
"If you're really worried, I'll sound him out later."
Devoted?
Rachel laughed mockingly to herself, but obediently agreed outwardly.
They hadn't talked long when Juniper came in saying the scheduled clients had arrived.
These clients had originally planned to cancel their memberships but were persuaded to stay by her efforts.
Heather put down her teacup and stood up. "I'll go now. Rachel, sit by yourself for a bit."
"Mom, go ahead with your work, don't worry about me. After what you just said, I feel better. I'll head back to Stargaze Gallery after finishing this juice."
Heather smiled. "If you feel uncomfortable about anything in the future, come find me anytime."
With that, she left the office.
The large office suddenly became quiet, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Rachel slowly sipped her juice. A few minutes later, she put down the glass, got up and quickly removed the bug from under the stand, then walked to the desk and opened the first drawer on the right.
She immediately saw a folder labeled "Employee System Forms."
The first page was Asher's information and evaluation form, two pages stapled together.
The information included his height, birthday, hobbies, family background and family members, including characteristics of girls he'd dated before.
It was extremely detailed.
As for the evaluation form, there were 16 conditions regarding his financial capability, personality and other aspects. Meeting 11 conditions meant a three-star target, 12 to 15 was four stars, and 16 was five stars.
Asher happened to be five stars.
Below, the pursuer's name was listed as Hestia.
She flipped through a few more pages. Several were names she was very familiar with. All evaluation forms were the same, but each person met different conditions.
The rich kids' information here was basically from Dawnlight City and Harborview City.
There were 47 target profiles in total.
At the bottom were profiles of wealthy women from elite circles, 24 of them, also listing their hobbies, what type of men they liked, and family situations.
After roughly looking through it all, Rachel felt her heart pounding.
Heather had actually figured out the elite circle's situation so thoroughly.
She didn't dwell on it, quickly opened her camera to take photos as evidence. When about to close the folder, she paused, and specifically recorded a video of flipping through the pages.
About half a minute, making sure the text in the video was clear.
After putting it back, she finished the little juice that was left in one gulp, didn't linger, left the office, took the elevator and successfully left the beauty salon.
In the car, her phone suddenly chimed with a notification.
[Hestia will discover Nancy and Steven's affair tomorrow.]