Hope listened to Maia's voice and immediately turned in the direction of the door. Upon seeing Maia, she teared up."Sis, you're here. I'm really glad that you came."Hope didn't expect Maia to come. After all, this was where she and her mother used to live. Her mother took over as mistress of the Burgess family, stealing a father’s love from Maia.Hope knew Maia did not resent her, but she had not expected her to come here. Hope was trying hard to hold back her tears.Sorting through parents' belongings is a torturous task for any child. Each item represents their parents' past, and memories flood back, making it unbearable.Later, she always used a line from the poem "To Hope" to console herself."Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed, and wave thy silver pinions o’er my head ..."It's because of this line that she endured pain time and time again, and now she has finally gone from bitterness to sweetness.Hope and her past self shared some similarities at this point. Maia s
"Mom..." She cried out for Yvette, completely unable to stand."Hope!" Buck reached out to support Hope, helping her to stay on her feet.Maia frowned, looking at the time displayed on the video. She muttered, "It's not her... It's not her..."Jordan's speculation was correct. The woman in the surveillance footage is not Yvette. She couldn't be an accomplice to the murderer because this recording was enough to prove she was not a suspect!Hope sobbed and asked, "Sis, what are you saying?""She is not the murderer," Maia affirmed. "Yvette is not the killer. She did not push my mom!"Hope was completely bewildered. Then Maia continued, "She had no time to commit the crime."As she spoke, Maia pointed to the time displayed in the upper right corner of the video and reiterated, "The incident happened at 11 p.m. I received the message at 11.20. However, the time shown here is 1L40. “It would take at least fifty minutes by car to reach the scene of the crime!"With that, Maia concl
Hope didn’t hesitate at all. “I believe in you.”“Good. I need you to listen to me. Just pretend you don’t know anything about this. You’re still drowning in the grief of losing your mother, doing what you usually do.”Maia urged her. “Once you’re back to work, you’ll work on television drama shoots and attend events as usual. Don’t do anything differently or express any other emotion.”Maia was deathly afraid that the culprit was observing her from the dark. She must not alert him!Hope promised. “Don’t worry, Maia. I’m an actress. I’ve got this!”“I’ll get to the bottom of this.”“The murderer is relentless, Maia. You have to be careful.” Hope looked at her, worried. Maia nodded in reply.Then, she and Buck helped Hope stuff everything into the storage box. He was taking the box out when several middle-aged women rushed into the corridor. They had heard that the big celebrity was back. They looked around in front of Hope’s place to catch a glimpse of her.“Looking for someo
Maia had seen it all now. It was hilarious to know people this shameless did, in fact, exist.“There are no mirrors in the world big enough to show you how thick-skinned you are.” The middle-aged women weren’t pleased with what she said.“How rude! How dare you talk to us in that way? We’re much older than you. Show us some respect!”Maia crossed her arms and sneered, “What about all the noise you’re making out here? Isn’t that rude too? Why do you deserve my respect just because you’re older than me? My ancestors are way older than you. Are you going to pay your respects to them, then?”They had nothing of value to say to her, so they raised their voices and hurled profanity at her.“I demand to see that bitch now! What makes her think she could disrespect us just because she got rich?”“Who exactly are you? Who are you to speak on her behalf?”“I’m her older sister! Is that good enough for you? Who are you guys to demand Hope to buy you houses?” The grit in Maia’s voice was
Maia’s eyes widened. Cedric was the last person she would expect to see here!“Maia…” Hope said to her. “What’s Cedric doing here?” Cedric used to be Maia’s husband. That made him her former brother-in-law.Maia frowned. She had no answers for Hope. Hope was frightened to see Cedric advancing toward them. “I’m going to go help Buck!”Hope might be naive, but she had spent a long time in the entertainment industry. Her emotional intelligence and intellect were solid. She knew how to read a situation, and knew when to make herself scarce.Maia started backing off when she saw Cedric taking steps toward her. She needed to keep a distance from him. He suddenly caught her arms when she took another step backward.“You’ll fall into the ditch.”Maia was startled. She turned and saw that there was indeed a ditch at the side of the apartment. “Let me go!” Maia said coldly. She could not even look at him. He did as she asked. Maia could hear humming in her mind as her hand fell. Was th
“Get in the car, now!” Cedric lowered the car window and said impatiently.“Right away!” Baz nodded and hopped in immediately. The air conditioner was turned on in the car. Baz felt much better now. He drove the car out of the old neighborhood. They were in the city very soon. “Has my mom been discharged from the hospital?”“Ms. Rita was discharged two days ago,” Baz answered instantly. Then, Cedric spoke again with a terrifying voice, “Is Josephine still alive?”“She is. We acquired a lot of rotten eggs from farmers and egged her. She stinks to high heaven now.”Cedric tapped his thigh with his fingers. “Take her to the Larkin Manor.” It was time to end this!“Roger.” Baz made a few phone calls and ordered the bodyguards to transport Josephine to the Larkin Manor when the traffic light turned red. Then, he turned the car around and drove to the aforementioned manor.They arrived at the Larkin Manor in about half an hour. Cedric had not been here for the better part of a mo
“Speak carefully now, Josephine. Did someone pull your strings? Did Maia bribe you and ask you to stage the whole thing? You’re such a good girl. How’s it possible for you to do such a thing alone?”Rita smacked her chest to show how heart-wrenching it was for her. She could not stop herself from trying to frame Maia for it. Josephine clenched her fist and closed her eyes. She knew what Maia meant to Cedric. She was not going to fall for the same trick twice. “I did it all by myself. I wanted to avenge Zera.”No one bought what she said. Baz was particularly skeptical about it. Cedric maintained a gloomy face, not saying anything.Then, Judy said, “You let Ms. Rita down, Ms. Josephine! Did you not think about her reputation? She took pity on you and took you to Prismara. I can’t believe this is how you repay her! You deserve everything that’s coming to you!”Rita and Judy did a good job at keeping up the ruse. Cedric grinned slowly. It was amusing to watch them.He lit a cigaret
He applied pressure with the sole of his foot. Moments later a loud snap was heard. Judy’s arm was broken. “Ah!” Judy yelped as her already weakened body trembled. “If you dare hurt her again, I’ll make sure you regret it!” Cedric threatened as he applied more pressure.Judy could no longer yelp from the excruciating pain she felt as she laid motionless in a puddle of blood. “Did you think I would have forgotten what you’d done?” Judy was horrified as her face turned as white as a sheet.Rita immediately tried to ease the tension by warning Cedric, “This is your grandfather’s home. How could you do something so cruel here? Are you trying to kill her? Let her go, she already apologized for it! You should forgive and forget!” “Forgive and forget?” Cedric smiled mockingly at Rita.“Did you ever show that same grace to my wife?” He questioned mockingly. “I never abused Maia. These two incidents are totally different, how could you expect me to do the same?” Rita would never