Almost at the same time, Fred and Barry turned their heads away from what was now Jack's corpse. They did not have the heart to see such a gruesome scene. Although Jack had betrayed Matthew, they didn't want to see him die like that because they had been friends since they were very little. They practically grew up together. Despite their sentiments, they would not save him either. Since he committed a very serious crime by betraying Matthew, he deserved to die. The only thing that they could do was turning away so they wouldn't be able to watch him die.
Then, Harper released her grip on Jack and his dead body slammed onto the ground with a thud. She turned around and was about to leave. But suddenly, she noticed that there was something wrong with Jack's face. After his neck was broken and he died within seconds, the complexion of his face did not change at all.
Meanwhile, Matthew's eyes had only been focused on Harper. At that time, he was still thinking about how to deal with the poison that was inside Harper's body. He asked, "What is the Terminalia Chebula?"
Unintentionally ignoring Matthew's question, Harper sat on the floor and closely examined Jack's face. After a while, she still couldn't find anything wrong. She then hesitated for a few seconds before taking out a silver needle. With one quick sweep over his face, she finally found something.
"Matthew, this man is not the real Jack," Harper concluded decisively.
Upon hearing that, the other three men were stunned. The first one to approach Harper was Fred. After checking on Jack's body, he immediately found something wrong with Jack's face. He then stretched out his hand and tore off a layer of mask that was securely plastered atop his face.
Everyone looked at the strange face in front of them and silence fell on the room. The dead man was certainly not Jack, even if he had been by their side for so long. The two most important questions by then were what happened to the real Jack and if he was still alive. Everyone was having the same doubts.
At that point in time, the furious state that Matthew was in did not melt away. Instead, it became more and more intense. Fred and Barry immediately noticed this. Slowly but consistently, they moved away from Matthew in order to spare themselves. Before long, they had already run away, leaving Harper and Matthew alone in the remote small yard while they stared at each other in dismay.
"Well... I'm sorry. Darling, I apologize but I'm not pregnant," Harper finally said. She couldn't stand the silence anymore. Then, she carefully and passively moved to his side and pitifully held on to his sleeve.
Matthew raised his head to look at her with a ghastly expression on his face. He even looked like he wanted to skin people alive. When Harper was in the Phoenix House, she was very cautious. He knew how high her defenses were towards other people. She was only able to calm down when he arranged the servants to prepare food for her. Now, it was not her fault at all. But she still apologized when she noticed that he was mad. The truth, however, was that Matthew was not upset at her for not being pregnant. He was angry with himself for giving the fake Jack the opportunity to hurt her. He felt guilty. Although a part of him was certainly a bit disappointed about not having a baby yet, another part of him actually felt a bit relieved with this news.
He sighed before reaching out to pull Harper into his arms. "I'm sorry. It's all my fault," he whispered into her ear.
Harper breathed a sigh of relief when she heard that. As long as he wasn't mad because she wasn't pregnant, Harper was at ease. She knew how happy he was when he found out that he was going to be a father. But now, he had been informed that she had only been poisoned by Terminalia Chebula and wasn't carrying a baby. Harper thought that he would be very disappointed. After all, they just took a piece of heaven away from him.
"I didn't protect you well. I was so stupid. I didn't notice that it wasn't Jack but an impostor!" Matthew lamented. He was extremely annoyed by his own foolishness. But, as luck would have it, Harper was not pregnant so he didn't have to fall into a dilemma.
"To be honest, I'm very curious about who is actually capable of replacing your bodyguard without your noticing," Harper said. She couldn't think of a person who would be able to do that. No matter how much she tried to search in every corner of her brain for a suspect, she couldn't think of anyone.
"I'm curious about it too." Clenching his jaw, Matthew thought about the matter thoroughly. The entire situation was a huge slap in his face. Someone had been able to replace his bodyguard, poisoned his wife, and even delivered news about him to others. The worse thing was that it wasn't even him who found out about the discrepancies. If it weren't for Harper and Fred, he was afraid that he wouldn't have known that there was an intruder around him.
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