The Silent Wife novel (Rachel and Justin) novel Chapter 244

Chapter 244

“I’m going to help Martha prepare dinner,” Rachel said, thereafter going to the kitchen.

It wasn’t until she left that Justin finally dropped the magazine in his hands with an uncharacteristically vexed expression on his face. In fact, he was very dissatisfied with his previous nervousness.

After all, it wasn’t as if he was a prepubescent boy. He shared a marriage and a child with her, so how could he still get so nervous?

Martha’s and Rachel’s voices floated out of the kitchen, blending with the sound of the two children talking and laughing in the dining room. Just like that, the large, deserted villa was filled with familial warmth.

As Justin looked down at the cake on the coffee table, he couldn’t help picking up the fork once again.

Indeed, the cake was quite delicious.

After dinner, Rachel headed into the bathroom to help Charlotte bathe.

As the four yellow rubber ducks floated atop the bubbles in the filled bathtub, Charlotte said, “These two are Mommy and Daddy. This is me, and this is Samuel.”

Giving her daughter a conflicted look, Rachel started, “Charlotte, if Mommy and Daddy were to separate, who would you want to live with?”

The smile on Charlotte’s face froze and her small, heat-reddened face crumpled up with anxiety. “Are you leaving again, Mommy?”

The word ‘again’ stabbed into Rachel’s heart like the sharp point of a knife, but she steeled herself and persisted, “I’m saying ‘if, Charlotte. If your daddy and I separated, who would you want to go with?”

Instantly, the rims of Charlotte’s eyes reddened. “Why do you want to separate, Mommy? Is it because I was bad?”

Seeing her daughter on the verge of tears, Rachel no longer had the heart to continue asking. Quickly, she wiped her daughter’s eyes and reassured, “It’s not because of you. You’ve been very good. You’re a very good

girl.”

After carrying Charlotte back to her room, Rachel took some time to placate the child and read to her. Only after an interminable length of time where she watched her daughter fall asleep did she finally let out a deep breath.

Children were the most vulnerable party in a parental divorce. Often, their first reaction would be to find fault with themselves, whether it be ‘I wasn’t well-behaved enough’ or ‘my parents no longer wanted me.’ The anxiety of abandonment would wire itself into their brains, leaving them with trauma that would not heal for the rest of their lives.

If it weren’t for the fact that it was her last resort, Rachel would never subject Charlotte to that.

By now, it was late in the night. The wind on the balcony was strong and it looked like it was about to rain.

Rachel’s vibrating cell phone showed an incoming call from Jolly.

“Hey, are you back?”

“I just landed. How are things there?”

“I got what I needed and passed it on to Janice. Barring any accidents, we should see the results soon.”

“Is it truly related to Jefferey?”

“Yes. The person in charge of the transaction that Hans stumbled upon is Stanley Tillery, one of Jefferey’s men. He currently works as Chief of Security at Hudson Pharmaceuticals.”

“Can he be convicted based on one video alone?”

“Janice is looking into him as well as the other people in the video. He’s only the face of the group. The others operate more covertly.”

While ‘Chief of Security at Hudson Pharmaceuticals’ didn’t sound like a particularly important position, it was tantamount to being Jefferey’s right-hand man and monitoring Hudson Pharmaceuticals’ every move when it came to underground business deals.

As for the rest of the men, though they looked unremarkable and unrelated to Hudson Pharmaceuticals, they were actually Jefferey’s way of protecting himself and avoiding scrutiny from the police should any accident

arise.

Presently, Jolly advised, “You’d better stay by Justin’s side these few days to avoid arousing any suspicions.”