Chapter 497
Standing Before Love
Matthias waited all night long. Under the influence of alcohol, he pulled through and waited stubbornly in place. Meanwhile, Heather was finding it hard to fall asleep in her room; she didnât take his words seriously and gradually dozed off as she blamed him for his absurd attitude in the middle of the night.
The next day, Heather departed to work early in the morning with dark circles under her eyesâlast night was simply the unluckiest night of her life. When she received some strange photos out of the blue, she contacted Myra immediately; only a fool wouldnât understand what the photos actually meant.
Because of that, Heather and Myra were on video call for a long time. Myra and Tony kept their guard up at once and decided to take note of the matter. After all, it was terrifying to be followed around by a stalker while they were on a trip overseas.
After worrying about it for some time, Heather finally fell asleep out of drowsiness, only to be woken up by Matthiasâ phone call. After that, she spent a long time before dozing off again, but she woke up naturally at the crack of dawn. In the end, she couldnât get a good nightâs sleep at all.
Heather hadnât slept well ever since sheâd returned from overseas. That morning, the Langstons avoided talking to Heather as soon as they noticed that she was in a bad mood.
She left the house without even having breakfast. In the meantime, Matthias was still stubbornly waiting for her in his car. When the front gates opened up, Heather immediately noticed his car outsideâhow could she forget the very car that sheâd crashed into?
Heather fished out her phone. Its screen was horribly cracked, but it was still functional. Then, she tapped into Messenger and saw that Matthias had sent her loads of text messages after his first one.
She skimmed through each and every one of them; his unusual behavior made her forget that she was supposed to check up on Myra first thing in the morning.
A round of hesitation later, Heather got down from her car and went up to Matthiasâ vehicle before knocking on his window.
Matthias wasnât sleeping deeply, so he woke up in an instant. Heather was staring at him while she bore a weary and lifeless complexion as soon as he wound down the windowâthe dark circles under her eyes were distinctly visible.
The woman who was usually elegant with her presentation seemed a little different today. Matthias didnât know what she had gone through to end up looking like that; in fact, he was oblivious that he was none other than the culprit of her sleepless night.
âWhat on earth do you want from me? Youâre even all the way here in the Langston Residence.â
Heather didnât know what to do to make Matthias leave her alone. She was exhausted and no longer had the strength to keep on competing with him.
âI have something important to tell you.â Matthias remembered the reason he came. Even though it was the next day, at least he was finally able to see her.
At the very least, Heather had taken the initiative to come up to his car and knock on his windowâthis could be a good sign. However, he was unaware that the reason behind her gesture was only because she didnât want the Langstons to notice that Matthiasâs car was parked outside their home. She only came over to shoo him away.
âIâm busy today.â Heather rejected him instantly. Just then, she thought of Myraâshe had set an alarm as a reminder to call her friend. If it werenât for Matthiasâ interruption last night, she wouldnât have gotten confused over the matter.
âIâll pick you up at the Langston Group tonight,â Matthias replied nonchalantly and completely disregarded her rejection.
âIâm busy tonight, and Iâll be busy tomorrow. Actually, Iâll be busy for the entire week,â Heather snapped.
She didnât want to argue with Matthias a second longer, for itâd be bad if Blake spotted them together.
âI just need a bit of your time,â Matthias responded to her patiently, and he was trying his best to keep his temper under control.
âPlease leave my home; Iâm going to work.â Heather didnât want to continue this conversation. After all, she had more important things to do.
With those words, she left without another look at him. Her brain was currently bombarded with too many things, and she didnât have the mental capacity to ponder on Matthiasâ sudden change in attitude.
Meanwhile, Matthias started driving as he followed behind Heatherâs car. Right now, Matthias wasnât feeling any better himselfâhe hadnât slept all night, so he was extremely tired as well.
Heather noticed his car from her rearview mirror, and she knew all too well that he was a stubborn man who wouldnât give up before reaching his goal.
From the looks of it, the only way to escape was to hide. She stepped on the gas in effort to lose him as she video called Myra with her faulty phone.
It was currently at night where Myra was, and she was in the hotel with Tony. Theyâd already started taking precautions immediately after hearing about their stalker from Heather earlier in the day.
Fortunately, Tony had always been a careful person; he had hired a bodyguard to protect them from the dark even though they were on a honeymoon trip. It was possible that the stalker was aware of this bodyguard, so he hadnât made his move just yet. Tony speculated that the observer knew quite a lot about their current situation, but they had no clue as to who he wasâthey couldnât even make out his appearance.
Tony had contacted their bodyguard that day; he told him to pay attention to their surroundings and find out if they were actually being followed.
That afternoon, Myra and Tony intentionally took a walk on an open street that was relatively easier to expose the stalkerâs identityâit was the bodyguardâs idea, for it would help him in his mission to capture a photo of the stalkerâs face.
Tony was still upset at their bodyguard for not being able to spot the stalker beforehand; how could he overlook something so potentially dangerous that was lurking right around the corner? Not only that, he only knew about it after it was pointed out by some stranger back home.
At the thought of that, Tony wanted to fire the expensive bodyguard right away, but considering the fact that they were in dire need of protection, he swallowed his anger. Hence, he could only look forward to how the guy would perform from now on.
Luckily, Tony wasnât disappointed this timeâthe bodyguard successfully completed the mission and took a photo of the stalkerâs appearance. Later on, Myra and Tony studied the photos sent over by the bodyguard. The two of them racked their brains to identify the mysterious follower, but they didnât make any breakthroughs.
Hence, Tony told the bodyguard to find out the stalkerâs identity as soon as possible; the stalker was likely receiving orders as well since he was a stranger to both Myra and Tony.
That night, the couple had trouble falling asleep, so they started discussing this matter. Just then, Myra received a video call request from Heather and immediately accepted it.
Before long, Heatherâs tired face came into view, and Myra stared at her screen with a surprised look on her face. It was still night time over there during their previous call, so Myra hadnât noticed her friendâs haggard demeanor. Now that it was daytime, she could see it clearly.
âWhy do you look so tired?â Myra asked worriedly.
Heather was driving as she responded, âI didnât sleep well last night.â At that moment, Matthiasâ face popped up in her mind again. He was indeed a bad luck charm to herâher life was never smooth-
sailing whenever he was involved!
âLess talk about meâhowâs it going over there?â Heather was confident in Tonyâs abilities, and she believed that he could definitely settle it without a hitch.
Despite that, she couldnât help but feel concerned for their safety. Moreover, with Myra being pregnant, there was no room for risks. Last night, Heather suggested that they return home as soon as possible under their bodyguardâs watch. At the very least, it was safer in Bradfort City since things werenât as convenient in a foreign country.
âItâs all in control and everythingâs going according to plan. Also, my guess was right,â Tony replied calmly as he squeezed into the cameraâs view.
âYouâre saying that the stalker has been hired by someone else, right? Are you able to find out whoâs plotting against you, then?â It wasnât good newsâthe issue wouldnât be as difficult to handle if the stalker was someone they knew.
If they knew the stalker, itâd be easier to deduce his intentions. However, the problem right now was that he was a strangerâit definitely made things a lot harder. Nobody could say for sure if his target was Myra, Tony, or even the both of them.
More importantly, they didnât understand why they were being followed in the first place. Theyâd been followed for quite some time now; since the stalker hadnât taken any action up until now, his goal seemed to be even more complicated than a simple assault.
It was unknown when he would make a move or what dangerous stunts he had planned. Nothing could be deduced at the moment, and this was quite a troubling matter indeed.
âIâm still investigating; itâs highly probable that this could be the work of a family enemy.â Tony had a bad feeling about this. After all, âenemyâ was quite a broad word in his case.
After many years of mingling around in the corporate world, the Hart Family had gained quite a few enemiesâit was the same for Tony. However, as he gave it some thought, he found that those disputes werenât deep enough to send a stalker on their tail.
Investigating the identity of the enemy wasnât an easy task, and right now, Tonyâs hands were tied. On the other hand, Myra also considered her own familyâit could be one of the Stark Familyâs enemies as well.
âCould it be Cameron?â Heather made a wild guess. Cameron had mysteriously disappeared after failing to acquire the Stark Group, and she thought that someone like him wouldnât give up so easily.
âI canât say for sure,â said Myra as she voiced her opinion. She had the same suspicions too, for she couldnât think of anyone else besides Cameron.
She wouldnât be surprised to see him pulling any absurd tricks, but deep down, she hoped that this had nothing to do with him.
Was Cameron planning to willingly ruin Myraâs life before letting it go? Sorrow welled up within her chest as she thought about her own father doing something like that to her.
Tony caught the disappointment and pain on her face as she recalled the things Cameron had done which were more barbaric one after another. He quickly said, âItâs probably not himâitâs most likely one of the Hart Familyâs enemies.â Aside from offering Myra comfort, Tony sincerely hoped that it wasnât Cameron, though the latterâs disappearance was rather strange.
âHave you guys captured a photo of the stalkerâs face?â Heather immediately changed the subject.
Cameron was Myraâs father after all, and Heather felt that she shouldnât have brought up his name.
âYeah.â Myra nodded and Tony raised his phone to display it in front of the screen.
Heather studied the manâs face and gave it a thought before she said to them, âSend me the photo; Iâll help you out with the investigation.â
Heather was the only one who knew of the situation so farâTony didnât want to spread the news, so he hadnât told his brothers. Things were still under his control, and he had confidence that he would be able to settle it on his own.
It didnât take long for Heather to receive the photo from Myra after their call ended. Her eyes narrowed at her screen; unfortunately, she couldnât see the photo clearly as she had shattered her screen last night. As a result, she had to get a new phone right away.
With that in mind, Heather decided to make a stop at the store since it was still too early for work.
However, she wasnât sure if the store was open yet at this time.
Right now, Matthias was still following Heather behind her car. She took an annoying look at his car from her rearview mirror, wondering why he was being so persistent. He kept repeating that he had something important to tell her, but every time heâd told her those words in the past, it turned out to be an exaggeration compared to what he actually had to say.
Heather made a turn into an alley which was still empty at this hour while Matthias followed behind.
She eyed the rearview mirror before making a sharp turn all of a suddenâshe was so quick that Matthias didnât have time to react at all.
With that, the two cars collided into one another and their airbags inflated immediately. Heather had already considered the possibility of an injury before she decided on that stunt, and she didnât do it on impulse. She simply wanted to give Matthias a piece of her mind.