The Substitute Bride: Idiot Or Not? novel Chapter 53

“There's two hundred thousand in this card. The password is 123456. Take the money and travel abroad, or you can return to your hometown. Just make sure you don't appear in Avenport this month. Do you understand?”

Winnie bribed the caretaker that Josiah had arranged for Xavier, temporarily taking over her identity.

This way, she could enter Aqua Moana, the condominium where Xavier resided.

She had also made some preparations earlier.

The caretaker's name was Paulina. She was thirty-five years old and had twelve years of caretaking experience. She was a professional of a few words.

She would never snoop around her patient's privacy, which was probably why Josiah chose her among the many caretakers.

That particular trait of hers also favored Winnie. That way, she wouldn't have to communicate much with Xavier when she impersonated the caretaker.

At this moment, she was holding the caretaker's phone in her hand.

She had just received a message.

It was sent by Xavier's assistant, Louis: Please arrive at the lobby on the first floor of Aqua Moana at three o'clock in the afternoon. I will be waiting at the front desk.

At two-fifty in the afternoon, Winnie arrived at the first-floor lobby of Aqua Moana ten minutes earlier.

Thanks to her cautiousness, she went there ten minutes earlier and entered from the outside instead of her condominium because she noticed that Louis had also arrived earlier and was already waiting in the guest area.

At the same time, Winnie also noticed Louis watching her from the moment she came in. Maybe her blue uniform was too noticeable, or he had previously done a background check on Paulina.

She pretended not to notice Louis' gaze and acted like she didn't recognize him. She took out her phone and sent Louis a message: Mr. Tanser, I arrived ahead of schedule, and I'm already in the lobby on the first floor.

She sent the message to convince Louis that she was the caretaker, Paulina, who had been in contact with him the whole time.

Not long after she sent the message, Louis walked over.

“Hello, I'm Louis. You must be Paulina.”

“Hello, Mr. Tanser. I'm Paulina. Dr. Houghton recommended me. Are we meeting Mr. Fairchild now?”

“There's no need to rush.” Louis looked at her and opened a photo of Paulina on his phone. “Please take off your face mask. Also, please show me your ID card and caretaker certificate.”

Winnie was taken aback. “I had a cold recently, and I just recovered yesterday. I wore a mask because I was afraid that the patient would be bothered.”

Louis maintained his professional demeanor. “Then please put your face mask back on later. I need to verify your identity now. Will that be a problem?”

“Of course not. Here's my ID card and caretaker certificate.” Winnie handed the documents to Louis.

Then, she pulled off her face mask and looked at Louis calmly.

Louis carefully compared the photo with her face and frowned slightly. “You don't have bangs on your ID card and caretaker certificate.”

“My youngest son grazed my forehead and left a long scar, so I covered it with my bangs. Would you like to have a look?”

“That's fine. Come with me.”

“Okay.” Winnie put away her documents and put on her face mask again.

Luckily, she was fully prepared and imitated Paulina's makeup before she came.

Xavier was looking at multiple windows of surveillance footage, and he had seven to eight of them opened on the screen.

The time shown in the surveillance footage was the night when Kylie and Yulissa pushed her down the mountain. The location of the footage was also the Fairchild residence.

The footage contained “Winnie” greeting the housekeepers along the way and getting into the car of Lagune Mansion's driver.

Evidently, “Winnie” in the footage wasn't the real Winnie.

Winnie had heard from her grandmother that someone had impersonated her and went into the driver's car that night. At that time, she guessed that Kylie was impersonating her. Now that she saw the footage, it was Kylie.

Both had similar height and body shape and even looked alike at first glance. Furthermore, it was dark then, and Kylie was wearing a windbreaker and a hat and speaking like Winnie when she was mentally challenged. It was only natural for unfamiliar people not to recognize her.

However, Xavier kept rewinding the footage over and over again. He didn't seem like he had work to do. In fact, he seemed to have a lot of time on his hands.

“Mr. Fairchild, you should take your medicine,” Winnie said again, “Before Mr. Tanser left, he told me that you didn't rest well last night. Do you want to go to bed after your medicine—”

Before Winnie could finish her sentence, Xavier erupted in anger. “Shut up! Put down the medicine and get out.”

Then, he continued with what he was doing. He wanted to zoom in on the video because he noticed something wrong.

Like a gut feeling, he sensed something was amiss.

He quickly turned his head, looked at Winnie, and stared directly into her eyes.

After staring into her eyes for a while, he felt that those eyes belonged to Winnie for a moment.

Xavier's heart suddenly began to palpitate. He instructed anxiously with a coarse voice, “Take off the mask!”