Ex husband's Plea for Forgiveness

"Who the hell are you people?" Daniel demanded aggressively. "I could report you to the police for suddenly showing up and raising a racket."

"You’re very welcome to involve the police," Kent said with a faint smile. "I’m sure they would be very interested in the case of this car, and would no doubt take the matter into their hands."

He had barely finished speaking when the couple’s heads swiveled to look at each other nervously. The woman’s lips trembled in visible fear.

Kent only continued to look at them, his gaze swinging back and forth between the man and woman, his smile still in place.

Daniel cleared his throat. He never expected the prank to be so serious; the instructions he was given were rather straightforward. He took the money and did as he was told.

Nobody said anything about a dangerous prank that could possibly qualify as a crime and would bring the authorities to their doorstep.

"I don’t know anything," the man said to Kent, although his eyes shifted suspiciously. "I was only told to rent a car."

They were at a stalemate. Daniel and his wife were given a hundred thousand in cash to keep silent on the matter.

It was such a huge amount that even if he, or any of his lot, were to work for the rest of their lives, they would never amass such wealth.

But now that they were faced with the threat of being imprisoned, the money didn’t seem enough. Daniel was suddenly thankful that the person who hired him didn’t deem him worthy of the details to the transaction.

"Is that so?" Kent said slowly, a cold glint to his eye.

Daniel and his wife stuttered their denials, swearing they had no direct involvement whatsoever to the accident, and repeatedly begged Kent not to call the police.

"What should we do, Sir?" his assistant finally asked. They could both tell that the couple knew more than they were letting on, but obviously less than what Kent required.

As he looked around the surroundings and the living conditions within the area, he felt slightly sorry for the members of this community.

Still, that was no reason for them to risk what little they had by hanging on to the edge of a knife’s blade.

"Forget it," Kent exhaled. "Let’s just go." Any method of polite query was clearly just a waste of time. If the couple was unwilling to divulge what they knew, then he couldn’t do anything to force them.

Besides, he was sure that if the Gu family were really determined to look into the matter, they certainly would have the necessary connections and would definitely nail the culprit in no time.

He only walked the extra mile in hopes that he could provide some sort of explanation to Melinda sooner.

He called her later that night to relay what little he uncovered, and asked her if she wanted him to dig into it any further.

"Never mind. I don’t have a lot of enemies anyway. I'm sure that whoever is behind this is now on the run, and can’t possibly be hanging around for another scheme. I’ll be careful in the future."

She had, in fact, spent a great deal of the day pondering over the possible culprits. She had the usual suspects of course: the women who so openly despised her. But she had no proof, and could come up with no rational explanation behind the deed.

Well, whoever it was, Melinda concluded that the person didn’t have enough guts to inflict their actions directly on her. The car probably only served as an outlet for their anger. As long as her life wasn’t threatened, she wouldn’t waste her precious time worrying over the matter.

"In order to thank you for your help," she told Kent over the phone. "Why don’t we have dinner this weekend?" Kent’s concern and kindness really touched her.

really had a proper chance to get together ever since Kent returned to the city,

up for that," Kent agreed readily. While it was true that the magazine office was busy these days, the weekends were

settled for Sunday, which was the day after tomorrow, and decided on the time and place for their meet

it slipped from Melinda’s mind to mention it to Jonas. Kent’s return had a lasting effect on Jonas, and his temper ran short

to go about his feelings.

the case, Melinda’s outing was never brought up in recently curt

her painting studio. She had discovered a few days ago that Melinda was talented in the arts as well, and Nelson all

events. Queena seemed keen on sharing her studio

discovered her painting skills...

the best spot to paint at any given time of day, as if she were sharing a very valuable treasure. "How is it?" the older woman

to their craft, and being inside Queena’s studio gave her a glimpse into the latter’s mind from a perspective that was no doubt

bit of emotion, surrounded as she was by all the paint and heaps of

she had drawn a paintbrush

to this room." Melinda swung her head to look at her mother-in-law in surprise.

how Queena was, after all. If she took a liking to you, she tended to shower you with... anything she could, really. And if you let

spent the whole day in that room, and Melinda finally gave in and allowed herself to be pushed to a corner with her own easel

painted the day away. Perhaps it was because she was in such a good mood; perhaps it was because of

reeling from a myriad of heavy

Queena later huffed as she looked at Melinda’s canvas. "You are too modest

just a hazy mix of colors, but she could tell that her daughter-in-law had real

like Queena’s good mood had translated well to picture. "I’ll probably be able to finish it tomorrow," she smiled contentedly.

from experience that she could do a whole lot better than this. He was no artist himself, but the brush strokes

draw?" he commented absentmindedly, thinking back on a painting they had both made for Nelson’s birthday in the

right headspace today," Melinda

'Not in the right headspace? Is she saying that she's

voiced out his mind on the matter, though, and in turn he himself was distracted all

breakfast, and left

showing up suddenly on his side. "I thought it best to let you know that the younger madam drove herself out

A thunderous expression took over Jonas's face. "Isn’t she afraid

words; the younger man’s tone sent an abundance of chills down

quickly realized that this rather violent reaction was a testament to

of the elders in the family stepped in to investigate the matter, because they wanted Jonas to handle it

redeem himself in

infuriatingly cavalier in the aftermath, and to say that they were irked was an

say it was no big deal. She insisted it was all a ruse to frighten her, but look at her now, obviously undaunted. The younger madam

The butler was quite pleased with himself, totally unaware of the direction the young man’s

Is it Kent?' Jonas was aware that these days, all his negative thoughts and feelings always circled back to

was teetering out of line, but he couldn’t help it. And knowing that he couldn’t only fueled his

He had the phone to his ear for only a

across the surface and went over the edge, falling to the floor with yet another painfully loud bang. It landed face up, and as it did, the screen

it clearly, the name "Emily." Keeping his eyes down, he picked up the mobile device and handed it gingerly to Jonas. He stood by as the young master said