lody Sumrs stood perfectly still, waiting quietly until the group was far away.
Her palms were slick with cold sweat. She never, ever expected to run into the man who had directly killed her in her past life—the "uncle" Flynn Adler had ntioned, the leader of that criminal syndicate.
Once the group was out of sight, lody Sumrs composed herself and walked back to the front desk. Feigning casualness, she asked the receptionist, "Who were those people who just ca in? What was with the huge entourage?"
The receptionist smiled. "That’s the big boss of the Oceanus Hotel across the street," she replied. "He’s here for a party at our hotel."
lody Sumrs nodded. She chatted casually with the receptionist for a few more monts before turning to leave.
’She was more certain than ever that there was sothing fishy about the Oceanus Hotel across the street. For all she knew, she might have died in one of its rooms in her past life...’
*
lody Sumrs returned to 36-02, lay on her bed, and searched for "Oceanus Hotel" on her phone.
In the hotel’s online profile, she found the founder’s na—Hector Hayes.
lody then searched for "Hector Hayes." The results page was flooded with news articles and promotional photos of his philanthropic work.
lody clicked on a few photos, confirming once again that this was the man she was looking for.
Her finger slowly scrolled down the page. She paused at an image link titled "Oceanus Group’s President Hayes and Family Visit Girls in Mountainous Region" and clicked to view the full-size image.
In the foreground stood a row of plainly dressed young girls. Behind them stood four immaculately dressed, glamorous figures.
Hector Hayes stood in the very center, smiling at the cara.
To Hector Hayes’s left was a man lody had never seen before. He had a scar on his cheek and bore a moderate resemblance to Hector Hayes, but his expression held a hint of ruthlessness he couldn’t quite hide. He looked to be in his twenties or thirties.
But lody was very familiar with the two people standing to Hector Hayes’s right.
One was Sylvia Lancaster’s good friend, Clara Hayes.
The other was Hugh Hayes, whom she had already sent to hell.
"So that’s how it is," lody murmured, staring at the photo. ’Birds of a feather really do flock together.’
Now that she knew the identity of the last enemy from her past life, lody frowned, lost in thought.
’What is the relationship between Flynn Adler and Hector Hayes? What roles do they each play in this criminal network? How many other people are involved?’ lody had no way of knowing.
’But at least I’ve identified everyone on my revenge list,’ lody thought. ’Hugh Hayes basically walked right into the line of fire, so dealing with him was easy. But Hector Hayes goes everywhere with a pack of bodyguards. How am I supposed to get to him?’
’Even if I managed to kill Hector Hayes in secret, what about the criminal network behind him?’
...
Two weeks flew by at the Nimbus Hotel. During that ti, the Sumrs family often went next door to play cards with Joanna and Miss Dunn. The two families frequently participated in the hotel’s various activities together, and life was quite comfortable.
As for lody, she would secretly enter the Arcadian Space from ti to ti to harvest. She had stockpiled a lot of fruits and vegetables in her warehouse, just waiting to sell them for money after they returned ho and settled down.
Today, as soon as she woke up, lody received so good news. After two weeks of effort, the wildfire on the mountain behind The tropolis Residences had finally been extinguished.
The Sumrs family was overjoyed at the news and imdiately started packing, eager to return ho.
Winnie Sumrs said with a smile as she folded clothes, "That’s great, we can finally go ho."
Grace Sutton nodded in agreent. "That’s right. This is a fancy hotel and the beds are comfortable, but it always feels a little stuffy. I still prefer being at ho."
Colin Sumrs clicked his tongue. "This hotel is nice, sure, but when I think about how much one night costs, I can’t sleep soundly. Let’s just hurry up and go ho."
After packing their luggage, the family went next door to say goodbye to Miss Dunn and her mother. lody also sent a quick ssage to Zane Simmons before heading downstairs to check out.
A hotel employee escorted them to the underground garage with a smile, bowing as they left. "Thank you for staying with us at the Nimbus Hotel! We hope to see you again soon!"
In his hotel room, Zane Simmons read lody’s ssage. He then sat motionless by the window, staring at his phone screen, deep in thought.
For the past few days, he had been agonizing over whether to give that antique sapphire necklace to lody, but he didn’t know how to bring it up.
’Ordinarily, it wouldn’t be sothing to agonize over. After all, plenty of wealthy families’ businesses were running into financial trouble these days, forcing them to auction off heirlooms. It wasn’t that big of a deal.’
’But Zane knew all about the drama between lody and the Lancaster family. Knowing all the complicated history tied up in it, could he really give the necklace to his own mother?’
’As for giving it to lody... after three years as classmates, Zane knew her personality. She would never accept a gift this expensive.’
’It was a total hot potato.’
’Zane wished he’d never gone to that auction for the hell of it. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be in such a bind right now.’
Joanne White saw Zane sitting by the window in deep thought, bit her lower lip, and gently leaned over to him.
She wrapped her arms around Zane’s and whispered softly in his ear, "Darling, I heard there’s another auction on the 30th floor today. You didn’t take last ti, so can you take this ti? Please?"
The very word "auction" gave Zane a headache. He clicked his tongue and replied irritably, "Go? Why? You’re heavily pregnant; you shouldn’t be running around. The wildfire near The tropolis Residences is out, so I’ll have the driver take you ho."
Joanne White froze. "What about you? Darling, aren’t you coming back with ?"
Zane pinched the bridge of his nose without a word, grabbed his phone, and walked out the door.
Tears welled in Joanne White’s eyes as she watched Zane’s retreating back. She felt incredibly wronged. She was only a month away from giving birth, yet Zane was growing colder and more distant by the day.
At this rate, the fantasy she’d had of the "Canary" becoming the official wife was a pipe dream. Joanne was even starting to worry that she’d be kicked to the curb the mont the baby was born.
Hormonal shifts during pregnancy can wreak havoc on one’s mood. Joanne tried to hold back her feelings, but in the end, she couldn’t, and she broke down crying...
*
The Sumrs family drove into The tropolis Residences through the back gate. The distant mountain peaks were still hazy, and the gray smoke had not completely dissipated.
Grace Sutton stared at the villas on the side closer to the mountain. Their walls and windows were blackened by smoke, and she could vaguely see people inside, cleaning up.
"Oh dear, I hope our house isn’t like this," her grandmother said worriedly. "Look at the windows on these houses—the glass is completely black. Can any light even get through? And the walls... they’re black too. Can those even be scrubbed clean?"
Winnie Sumrs said comfortingly, "It’s alright, Mom. It’s just from the smoke. The glass will be clean after a wipe. As for the walls, we can renovate the exterior later on. I guarantee it’ll look beautiful again."
Hearing this, her grandmother could only nod helplessly.
lody drove the car into the underground garage. The family was finally ho.
As soon as they opened the door, a wave of heat hit them. lody quickly started the generator and turned on the air conditioning.
The rest of the Sumrs family ran to the storage room to get cleaning tools, and lody took the opportunity to sneak out to the backyard. The pond in the backyard was almost dry. Fortunately, they had taken out all the fish and shrimp from the pond and sent them to Crystal Mart before they left, otherwise the pond water would have started to stink.
lody transferred the remaining pond water to the farmland in her space for irrigation. Then, she drew so water from the Arcadian Stream, gave the pond a quick rinse, and quickly refilled it.
After dealing with the pond, lody returned to the living room to find the rest of her family had returned from the basent with cleaning supplies.
Colin Sumrs said, "I’ll wipe down the glass in the sunroom first, then I’ll put the solar panels back out. The generator uses too much fuel; solar is more efficient."
The others nodded. Her aunt added, "I just did a walk-through of all the rooms. Luckily our doors and windows are well-sealed, so no smoke got in. I’ll start by wiping down all the glass."
Her grandmother, Miss Lowell, and Winnie Sumrs went to clean up the yard. The vegetables they had planted in the yard before were all dead. Desert Vines were crawling everywhere. In just two weeks, so vines had even climbed up the wall to the windowsill.
Fortunately, the few fruit trees in the backyard were still alive. Although they were on their last legs, after a drink of water from the Arcadian Stream, it looked like they could be saved.
Winnie Sumrs wore rubber gloves and used a shovel to pull up the vines by the roots. Miss Lowell dug up all the dead vegetables and packed them into bags.
Her grandmother brought a bucket of water from the backyard, held a packet of seeds, and began to re-sow as she watered the ground.
lody went to the kitchen to prepare lunch. The contents of the refrigerator had been cleared out before they left, so she couldn’t cook a proper al for the ti being.
lody decided to just take a few bags of wontons from the freezer—crab roe with shrimp, fresh pork with ham, shepherd’s purse with pork, and chicken with fresh mushrooms. She cooked a mix of them, then opened two packets of pickled vegetables and arranged them on a small dish.
The family worked together in perfect sync, each to their own task. By noon, the villa was sparkling clean.
Colin had also reinstalled the solar panels. Once they had stored enough electricity by tomorrow, they could turn off the diesel generator and switch to solar power.
After a busy morning, everyone went to their rooms to wash up before gathering comfortably at the dining table for lunch.
"There’s no place like ho," her grandmother remarked. "No matter how expensive a hotel is, it’s never as comfortable."
Winnie nodded. "Let’s eat. I need to go check on the supermarket after this."
Colin nodded as well. Apparently, the supermarket had been giving out free sand vine cakes for the past few days, and long lines ford every day. It was ti for them to get back to work.
lody sent a text to Sophie Thorne, telling her she was back. Sophie replied that her housekeeper was cleaning the villa today, and she would be back tomorrow.
Just as the family finished their al and began clearing the table, the doorbell rang.
This was followed by the sound of a group of people walking into the yard.
Colin shot to his feet. "Damn it!" he said, rushing outside. "I was wiping the outer wall earlier and forgot to close the gate properly! Soone’s co in!"
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