I could see Ashton’s eyes darkened as he lifted his head and gazed out the window. “You only knew both died in a car accident, but you did not know that both happened on the same day, separately in J City and A City. The day before that, they were meeting up for a business deal. What seemed to be two unrelated accidents was actually a long-planned scheme to eliminate the scapegoats.”
I was stunned momentarily in puzzlement. “But what did this have to do with Grandpa?”
Ashton took a deep breath and said, “Why do you think that my parents would be willing to become the scapegoats without any fight?”
He looked at me sternly and revealed all the truths that happened years ago.
Ashton’s parents had signed some important documents due to their close friendship with Nora’s parents. But unbeknownst to them, those were some illegal documents regarding heavy crimes. On the day of the car accident, Ashton would have been in the car too, if not for George, who kept him behind. Three hours after that, Ashton’s parents got killed in a crash from J City to K City. At that same time, George brought Ashton to meet an old friend, whom Ashton later found out to be the mother of the murderer.
Both accidents were carried out so flawlessly that the cops concluded them to be pure accidents even after thorough investigation. With their deaths, the ones who should have paid for their crimes remained at large. And the real culprit went unpunished up till this day.
“A week before the accident, Grandpa had been hanging out with that particular friend. Thus my parents failed to detect any suspicion. They thought it was a deal with a trustworthy friend, so they signed those documents without hesitation. Grandpa, who knew all along about the friend’s criminal background, did not say a word to prevent this. Undeniably he was an accomplice.”
I could hear the malicious hatred in Ashton’s last word of his sentence.
Never would I have thought that George would conduct this kind of secret crime. My brows furrowed as I asked Ashton. “So the reason you are so desperate to expand now is to revenge for your parents?”
However, the more I thought, the more unconvinced I was at Ashton’s plan. “If that’s so, you should be more careful to maintain your power, shouldn’t you? Based on your recent reckless move, anyone can see that you are aiming the skies. Ashton, both of us know perfectly that if you fail this time, you will lose everything. Since you have waited for so long, what do you have to lose to wait a little longer? Please at least wait till our baby is born.”
“I am running out of time.” Ashton shook his head unyieldingly. “I spent five years moving Fuller Corporation to K City. I cannot afford another five, so I’ve got to defeat him within these two years. If all those officials who were behind this got ranked up, then I’ll lose this chance forever.”
Ashton sounded calm but extraordinarily persuasive. I agreed that if he did not do this now, he might regret it for his whole life. Sometimes opportunity could not stand the test of time.
That night, I hugged Ashton to sleep, but I could not close my eyes the entire night. I was fully aware of the danger my husband was in, yet I failed to find a good reason to stop him. I had never been in such a dilemma, between the fear of losing him and the love to support him. With those train of thoughts in my mind, I dozed off somewhere around dawn.
The moment I woke up, Ashton was not by my side. Mrs. Eriksen said he had gone back to the office.
It had been a long time since I last accompanied Summer to eat breakfast. Even though I hardly had any appetite, I drank a bowl of soup together with her.
I did not expect Jackson would come back again so soon, this time with a lawyer. The two tall men stood in front of me and looked at me with determined expressions. Jackson knew that I would never give up, so he might as well proceed with the judicial process without wasting time.
