“It’s not that easy. You just applied for it, and now you want to go through it again. To start the process again, they will ask for your identification to verify. The entire process itself will take another half a month.”
She had a point.
Nora grew anxious, then she looked at me and said, “Scarlett, listen to me. Let’s go and search every store’s trashcan. We might be able to find it.”
“Why the trashcans?” I asked, in puzzlement.
She thought for a while and said, “I can’t tell you now. Let’s go and search first.”
Having said that, she pulled me towards the store and began to look into the trashcans of every store. She even asked the storekeepers if they had changed the trash bag.
Although I did not understand what Nora meant, I went along with her.
“Found it!” After searching in a few stores, she finally found the documents in a trashcan. She exclaimed in delight, “I found it!”
I was stunned when I saw her retrieved the documents from the bottom of the trashcan.
Armond was just as surprised. Just like me, he never thought that the documents would be in the trashcan.
Nora handed the documents to me and said, “Look through it and see if there’s anything missing.”
Then she walked towards the storekeeper and raised her voice. “What’s wrong with you people? Why didn’t you keep the documents until the owner comes back for them? Why did you throw such important documents into the trashcan?”
The storekeeper was puzzled. She had seen us return to her store twice to look for it, and she was even more surprised that it was found in the trashcan.
She shook her head and said, “It wasn’t us who threw it in the trashcan. Besides, we’ve never seen these documents before. We have a surveillance camera, and if you’d like, you can view the footage yourself. We definitely won’t throw such important documents away.”
“I want to see the surveillance footage,” Nora said angrily. “Other than you guys, who else could have done such a thing?”
“Forget it, Nora. We have a plane to catch. Let’s go now.” All it mattered was that we found what we were looking for.
Stubborn as she always was, Nora insisted, “No. We must watch the surveillance footage.”
The poor, helpless storekeeper turned on the surveillance footage for us to watch. It was the only way for her to prove her innocence.
I glanced at Armond and said softly, “I’m sorry, but this may take a while.”
Armond smiled faintly and said, “That’s alright.”
Nora and a few of the storekeepers watched the surveillance footage together. After a brief moment, the storekeeper said, “See that? We didn’t throw the documents into the trashcan. You threw it yourselves.”
I froze and asked in confusion, “What?”
Nora looked at me and said, “Come and have a look.”
I was a little surprised, so I walked over to them to watch the surveillance footage. In the video, the five of us could be seen shopping around the store.
Because Nora wanted to try on some new handbags, so she handed my bag that was in her hand to Tessa.
The rest of us were so focused on shopping that we were not aware of what was happening around us.
Tessa took the bag, and with her back turned, she retrieved the documents from my bag and threw it into the trashcan.
And then she followed us out of the store as if nothing had happened.
“Damn it!” Nora blew her top. “What was she trying to do? Did she do that so that you won’t be able to return with the lack of those documents?”
I pursed my lips and was lost in thought. After snapping out of my thought, I turned to the storekeepers and apologized to them. After thanking them again, I slipped the documents into my bag and left the store.
Seeing that I was silent, the troubled Nora tugged at me and said, “You can’t keep quiet. You have to say something.”
I looked at her with a faint smile. “Even though the flight’s delayed, we should hurry. In a few minutes, it’ll be boarding time soon.”
She was speechless. “Not that. I mean about Tessa. She obviously has bad intentions. Are you going to keep quiet about this?”
After passing through the security check, we found the boarding gate soon enough. Fortunately, the passengers were still queuing at the passenger boarding bridge.
At the sight of us, Tabitha and Laurel ran over and asked, “Did you manage to find it?”
“How can she pass through the security checkpoint without the documents? She wouldn’t be standing here if we haven’t found it,” Nora snapped as she glared at Tessa.
I glanced at her and then turned to Tabitha and Laurel. “Yes, we found it. How long has the flight been delayed?”
“About half an hour. But there was an announcement not long ago saying that the plane will be ready for take-off soon. That’s why we’re boarding the plane now.”
I nodded with a smile, not saying a word.
Nora, who couldn’t keep anything to herself, walked up to Tessa and said sarcastically, “Are you disappointed to see us here?”
Tessa turned pale and stuttered, “What… What nonsense are you saying?”
Nora looked at her and sneered, “You are a wicked, selfish, and narrow-minded person.”
“Nora, just say whatever you have to say. Don’t look at me if you don’t want to. And don’t come looking for trouble.” Tessa raised her voice, causing other passengers to turn and look at us.
“Do you think I like to look at you? In fact, I feel disgusted when I look at you. I’m not looking for trouble at all. Why did you insist on Scarlett searching for the documents by herself? You’re the one who caused this trouble. You did that because you didn’t want her to return, am I right? You are an ungrateful woman. You make me sick.”
