After hearing that, Elissa’s hand suddenly trembled and the ash tumbled to the floor.
“Did he say anything at all?”
All of a sudden, she opened her eyes wide and turned to look at Ritchie in panic. Ritchie’s face darkened visibly. He lowered the volume of his voice and asked, “Mom, were you behind this?”
Even though he had his doubts, he hadn’t been able to confirm them yet. Elissa swallowed nervously. She was very anxious now and was willing to tell Ritchie the truth.
“I was the one behind it. I even used our men. I thought we would succeed in getting rid of Sebastian this time. As long as he’s dead, even if the authorities wanted to investigate this matter, with the Klein family’s connections, we could sort things out and shift the blame to the constructors. We could arrange it so that it looks like an accident,” Elissa said as cold sweat poured from her forehead. She had been keeping a close eye on this matter the whole time and knew that investigation had just begun.
Ritchie became anxious almost at once. He clenched his teeth tightly and said, “Mom, do you have any idea how serious this matter is getting? I get it you want to get rid of Sebastian, and so do I. But the truth is Sebastian didn’t die and he’s now even helping the police with the investigation! The government and the public have attached great importance to this matter and they won’t stop any time soon. These days, those hurt in the incident keep showing up at our company, protesting. This means they know that the Klein family has something to do with the accident! This happens to be no small matter. I heard that a total of more than a dozen audience members and staff was injured or even died in the accident!”
Ritchie said, “If this happened in Seacisco, we could probably do something about this and get away with it. But no, this happened in Barnes! Mom, what in the world were you thinking?”
The Klein family had a lot of power in Seacisco, but not in Barnes. Now that Sebastian had reported the Klein family to the police, the police thought they were persons of interest now. In a panic, Elissa made her way out of her room and went down the stairs anxiously. Seeing that there was no one downstairs, she shook from head to toe with fear again.
“Why isn’t your father back yet?” Ritchie followed her downstairs and answered, “Dad should still be at the company. This matter has kept him busy for the past few days.”
During the entire dinner, Elissa was feeling listless. Just as she was feeling tortured by news updates, the sound of a car engine came from outside. A few minutes later, Patrick walked in with his suit jacket in his hands, looking clearly exhausted. Elissa made her way up to him uneasily and wanted to take the suit jacket from him.
“Patrick, why are you back so late?” Patrick angrily glanced at Elissa and suddenly it looked like he had snapped. He threw the suit jacket at her face and said, “Bitch! Were you the one who sent people to kill Sebastian?”
The suit jacket, with a strong smell of nicotine, was thrown at Elissa’s face, and the huge force forced her to take a few steps back. Frightened by Pattrick’s fury, Ritchie immediately retreated and hid in the kitchen. As the patriarch of the Klein family,
Patrick was intimidating and domineering.
Elissa was so scared out of her wits that her heart seemed to have stopped in her chest. She clutched Patrick’s suit jacket tightly and fell to her knees.
“It was me.” Elissa knew that she couldn’t hide it anymore, so she admitted to her crime.
Time seemed to stand still. The room fell deathly silent. Patrick strode over to her and slapped her across the face without warning. The servants who were cleaning up the table nearly jumped at the loud sound and quickly scurried out of the room like mice. Shocked, Elissa gingerly touched her swollen cheek, where a red palm print gradually appeared.
“Elissa, you’re a terrible woman! Even after so many years, you haven’t changed at all!” Patrick roared at the top of his lungs.
“Sebastian is still my son. Even if I never liked him, I’ve never thought of killing him! Moreover, he’s the president of the Larson
Group now!” Patrick glared at Elissa, gnashing his teeth in anger. He had known for a long time now that Elissa was not a kind person. Ever since she had married into the Klein family, she had done a lot of things behind his back, but he had always turned a blind eye to them.
“I knew you didn’t like Sebastian. I didn’t care what you did to him in the past. But now, he’s not just Sebastian Klein. He’s also Brandon
Larson! Did you ever stop to think about the consequences you’ve brought upon the Klein family?” Patrick continued to berate the woman.
Whatever Elissa had done in the past didn’t endanger the interests of the Klein Group.
But things were different now. The Larson Group was a force to be reckoned with and could easily topple the Klein family.
Cradling her stinging cheek, Elissa glared at Patrick with hatred. Her eyes were so sharp, they could’ve pierced through Patrick.
She had never been hit by anyone before in her whole life. How dare he slap her in the face? She too came from an affluent family in Seacisco.
When she married into the Klein family, Patrick was just the owner of a small, developing company. If it weren’t for her family’s support, could he have achieved what he had today?
“Patrick, how dare you hit me?!” Elissa flew into a rage.
“He’s just a bastard! He shouldn’t even have been born! How dare you blame me now? If you hadn’t fooled around with all those women back then, there wouldn’t even be a Brandon Larson today! The Klein family would’ve been even more powerful!”
Patrick was so angry at the woman’s arrogance that he rolled up his sleeves to deliver another slap across her face.
“Ah! How dare you hit me again?! I’ll kill you, Patrick Klein!” Elissa’s face was red and swollen from Patrick’s slaps. She shrieked and raised her hands to scratch Patrick’s cheeks. Regardless of their noble image, the couple fought each other in the living room like two barbarians.
Hearing the commotion, Ritchie poked his head out of the kitchen. When he saw what was going on, he sprang into action to protect Elissa.
“Dad, what the hell are you doing?” he cried, standing in front of his mother. Patrick didn’t reply. Instead, he punched Ritchie square in the face. Ritchie tumbled backward from the impact.
“You dumbass! You think I don’t know that you’re also a part of this? You stupid fucking idiot! You have no wits!
You’ve learned nothing but filthy tricks from your mother!”
“What? I know nothing about it! Don’t involve me!” Ritchie protested.
“How dare you talk back to me?!” Patrick was so angry that he slapped Ritchie across the face.
‘I’ve spent a fortune for you to study abroad. And this is the thanks I get?” This was the second beating Ritchie had received today. He was a grown man and felt utterly humiliated.
“Damn it! Damn you! I already told you that I have nothing to do with it! It’s all mom’s fault!” Ritchie couldn’t hold himself back anymore and spat on the ground angrily.
“You sent me abroad because you were afraid that I would end up in some shitty community college and disgrace the whole family! You think I don’t know that? You’ve always been ashamed of me! You’ve always thought that Seth and Sebastian were way better than me! You’ve always wanted to beat me up, right, Patrick Klein?”
Ritchie finally gave vent to all his pent up feelings over the years. Patrick stomped his foot angrily. He hated it when people tried to go against him. In his eyes, Ritchie was just trying to piss him off.
“How dare you?! I’ll beat the crap out of you!” He was so angry that his face turned as red as a tomato. He looked around the room until his eyes fell on a mop. He grabbed it and raised it above his head, poised to hit Ritchie.
But Ritchie acted fast. He jumped up and ran around in the living room.
“Mom! Help me! He’s trying to kill me!” Ritchie hid behind Elissa like a little child.
