Officer Rhodes tossed the files in his hands aside, sighed, and said to lody Sumrs with a hint of resignation, "Alright, it’s getting late. I just notified your mother and uncle to co pick you up. They should be here by now. Let walk you out."
lody Sumrs quickly waved him off. "I can see myself out, Officer Rhodes. Please, get back to your work."
Roman Rhodes nodded. "Go straight ho with your family," he urged, "and don’t wander off! Even though we’ve caught the gang from The Crestview Hotel, there are still other kidnappers out there using the cover of darkness. A young woman like you absolutely, positively must not go out alone for the ti being!"
lody Sumrs nodded eagerly in agreent.
Just as she reached the door, she suddenly thought of Joelle Lawson and turned back to ask, "Oh, right, what about the girls they kidnapped and forced into prostitution? Will they be looked after properly?"
Officer Rhodes replied, "After we verify their identities, we’ll notify their parents one by one to take them ho. For those who have nowhere to go for now, we’ll place them in governnt ergency shelters."
lody murmured, "Oh." ’Even though Adam Lawson is dead,’ she thought, ’the police should be able to find Noelle Quillan among the victims. As her mother, Noelle is bound to protect Joelle Lawson. At least Joelle won’t end up holess.’
’I don’t like Noelle Quillan, the mistress, or her illegitimate daughter, Joelle Lawson, but Adam Lawson was the true culprit here. Now that he’s dead, all debts are paid. The rest of them can just be left to fate.’
Lost in thought, lody walked on, only to run right into Clara Hayes in a first-floor hallway of the police station. Clara had just been summoned for questioning!
Clara Hayes had been summoned by the police quite suddenly, and she still had no idea what had actually happened at The Crestview Hotel. The police had shown up at her door today and told her to co to the station to cooperate with an investigation into Flynn Adler. She hadn’t even had ti to contact her father or brother before following the police here.
Clara had been on edge the entire way. ’Could it really be?’ she wondered, bewildered. ’Am I being summoned by the police just because I had Flynn Adler take a nude video of Nina Walsh and lody Sumrs?’
’I’m completely baffled. Hugh and I have done this sort of thing many tis before, and we’ve never been summoned by the police. What’s so different this ti? Why is this blowing up into such a big deal?’
Now, seeing lody Sumrs, Clara grew even more certain of her suspicions.
Inwardly, she cursed Flynn Adler for his incompetence, for actually letting lody Sumrs escape to the police. Outwardly, however, she glared at lody and snarled, "You actually dared to call the police? Aren’t you afraid..."
Clara stopped mid-sentence, glanced at a uniford officer walking past, and cut herself off. She simply stared at lody, her eyes full of venom.
lody Sumrs knew what Clara was thinking. She also knew that Clara was completely clueless about the real situation. ’It makes sense, though,’ she mused. ’Flynn Adler spent his days at The Crestview Hotel whoring himself to death. There was no way he’d let Clara in on any of it.’
However, what happened at The Crestview Hotel was sothing the police would tell Clara about later. Right now, lody only wanted to tell her one other thing...
lody let out a soft, cold laugh and said in a mocking tone, "Clara Hayes, you always said I stole Sylvia Lancaster’s family, which is why you had to stand up for her, right?"
Looking at Clara’s dark expression, lody sneered and continued, "If you ask , you can forget about all that. You’d better focus on standing up for yourself first."
Clara asked, confused, "What’s that supposed to an? ...What do you an, ’stand up for myself’?"
lody nodded. "You’re always going on about how much you hate illegitimate daughters and people who destroy families," she said. "But did you know that Sylvia Lancaster *is* your father’s illegitimate daughter? She’s the biological daughter of your father and Lily Adler!"
Clara’s eyes flew wide. She stared blankly for a few seconds, then scread in disbelief, "What are you talking about?! That’s impossible!"
lody watched Clara’s shocked expression with unhurried composure. "Whether I’m spouting nonsense or not," she continued, "you’ll just have to wait and see."
’They’ve even done a paternity test,’ lody thought. ’Sylvia Lancaster must be looking for an opportunity to confront Hector Hayes. Perhaps Clara throwing a fit at ho today will give Sylvia the perfect opening to reveal the truth.’
"Oh, right. There’s one more thing..."
As she spoke, lody took out her phone and pulled up a file she had backed up from a recording pen. It was an excerpt of her conversation with Flynn Adler in room 1108.
lody hit play, and her voice and Flynn Adler’s ca clearly from the phone’s speaker—
"Flynn Adler, are you coming after for Clara Hayes, or for Sylvia Lancaster?"
"What’s that supposed to an?"
"Wasn’t the baby in Sylvia Lancaster’s belly your child? Now that the baby’s gone, aren’t you sad?"
"How could you know about this? Did Sylvia Lancaster tell you?"
As Clara stared in shock, lody fanned the flas. "See, Clara Hayes? It wasn’t just your family. Sylvia Lancaster stole your fiancé, too! That baby Sylvia lost? It was Flynn Adler’s."
"So, Clara Hayes, how are you going to stand up for yourself now? I can’t wait to see."
With that, lody paid no more mind to Clara’s thunderstruck expression, turned on her heel, and walked briskly out of the police station.
Standing in the police station lobby, lody let out a long sigh. ’In my past life, Clara Hayes constantly accused of stealing Sylvia Lancaster’s parents, brothers, and fiancé. She made my life difficult at every turn, always looking for trouble. Now, the tables have turned, and Clara is the one having her family and fiancé stolen by Sylvia. The star of this little drama is Clara herself now. I just hope she puts on a good show and doesn’t disappoint.’
Just as she reached the entrance of the police station, soone blocked lody’s path.
Looking at Nina Sumrs standing before her, lody asked with so confusion, "Why haven’t you gone ho? Is there sothing else?"
Nina Sumrs had just been released after giving her statent. Having survived her ordeal in that den of wolves, her face still showed signs of lingering terror.
Her knit cardigan had been taken off earlier to be used as a gag for Joelle Lawson, so she was now wearing only a thin blouse.
The night air was chilly. Nina felt the cold and wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing them vigorously to try and stay warm.
Under lody’s questioning gaze, Nina opened her mouth to say sothing, but then seed at a loss for words.
Seeing Nina hesitate, lody frowned. "Where’s your family? Didn’t they co for you?"
Nina Sumrs shook her head, her gaze dropping to the floor. "M-My dad," she said in a small voice, "he said he’s busy and can’t make it... He told to find my own way ho..."
As the words left her mouth, Nina felt her eyes start to burn. She had asked the police earlier and only then did she learn the truth: during the entire ti she was missing, her father, Caleb Sumrs, hadn’t even filed a report.
For almost two weeks, Nina had endured a living hell at The Crestview Hotel. The only thing that kept her going was the belief that her father would co and save her. But she never imagined that her own father, the man she saw as her savior, hadn’t even bothered to file a missing person’s report.
’If lody Sumrs hadn’t co to The Crestview Hotel and called the police,’ Nina thought, ’I’d probably be dead by now...’
On top of that, when Nina had called Caleb Sumrs just a mont ago to ask for a ride, he had been audibly impatient. He said that Chester Sumrs wasn’t feeling well, and he was taking him to the hospital. He didn’t have ti, so he told Nina to figure out her own way ho.
It was so unsafe outside right now, yet Caleb Sumrs was still telling her to get ho on her own...
At the thought, Nina’s lower lip trembled, and she felt the urge to cry all over again.
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