Chapter 584
Standing Before Love
There was light rain outside. This yearâs winter was particularly rainyâeven more so than summer.
Heather only liked to watch the snow during winter, as opposed to feeling the heavy rain.
Opening the window, Heather was still thinking about the strange things that happened yesterday. Up till now, Myra hadnât called her yet.
She didnât even reply to Heatherâs message on Messenger. Resting her cheek on her hands, Heather recalled Myraâs tone on the phone yesterday.
Occasionally, the rain would splash onto Heatherâs face, freezing her to the bones, so she closed the window. This kind of weather wasnât suitable to have the window open.
The raindrops slid down Heatherâs cheeks, but she didnât care at all and appeared dispirited.
Previously, she had vowed to Leon to postpone the opening time to a later date in order to investigate the explosion.
A few days had passed, yet Heather hadnât started the investigation. Deep down, she feared that she had already agreed with Leonâs statement.
She only had a handful of friends on Messenger. Like Instagram, the users could hide their online status.
After clicking into Myraâs profile, Heather looked at it for a long time as she contemplated whether or not to send her another message.
A new message came in, so Heather returned to the home page and saw that it was from Matthias.
Matthias sent Heather messages almost every day, rain or shine. She couldnât deny that she found his perseverance admirable.
When she thought about it, there wasnât anything particularly outstanding about her, so she wondered what exactly Matthias saw in her.
Women were always like this. Sometimes, they would think that they were exceptionally beautiful and simply flawless; other times, they would think that there was nothing special about them, and that they were no more than an ordinary woman.
Today, Heather was feeling insecure. Looking at herself in the mirror, she reckoned that she wasnât even that good-looking.
She touched her face, which was haggard because she didnât sleep until it was late last night.
Heather wasnât in the mood to respond to Matthias. But the more she ignored him, the more diligent he was in texting her.
Three messages came in succession. Heather gave them a sweeping glance, secretly in awe of Matthiasâ typing speed.
The things he was saying were of no importance, so Heather set her phone aside. When she looked at her phone, all she would think about was whether or not Myra would reply to her.
Since the phone call yesterday, Heather felt a strong sense of uneasiness, and this emotion was messing with her thoughts.
Myra just needed to respond with one message for Heatherâs mood to return to normal. Since meeting Matthias, she was ready to reveal the incident from back then at any time.
Heather couldnât think of any other explanations. She was worried that Myra knew about it already, so she was ready to confess.
Then again, she couldnât do it nowânot when Myra was pregnant. Pregnant women couldnât be agitated, as it wasnât good for the unborn baby.
Besides Matthias, who else would know about this? The only person Heather could think of was him.
Yes. I have to confirm this with Matthias. If he wasnât the one who revealed it to Myra, then someone is secretly manipulating all of this.
Heather quickly replied to Matthias by asking outright, âHave you met Myra in private recently?â
Matthias was puzzled by Heatherâs words. Why would she ask this out of nowhere? Because of Heatherâs request, Matthias didnât meet Myra in private.
âNo,â Matthias answered bluntly.
Heather took the initiative to invite Matthias to a video call. Without seeing him or his expression, Heather couldnât confirm whether or not he was lying.
Matthias quickly picked up. Through the video, it was obvious that he was in the office. He actually had on a pair of black-rimmed glasses when he was working.
It was rare to see Matthias like this, and it brought about a touch of refinement.
The call came in on such short notice that Matthias didnât have time to take off his glasses, so Heather asked casually, âYouâre short-sighted?â
âNo. These are anti-radiation glasses to relieve eye fatigue.â Matthias took off his glasses as he spoke, then rubbed the bridge of his nose, looking rather tired.
âDid you work overtime last night?â Heather guessed. In the beginning, she wanted to chat with him about their daily life so that she could come to that topic without appearing too abrupt.|
âYeah.â Instead, after starting his video, Matthias felt a little restrained.
Heather was being even more unusual. She rarely took the initiative, much less be the one to find topics to talk about.
The more he studied her through the screen, the more he felt that there was a reason behind this. He feared that Heather had something to trouble him with again.
âDid you turn on your camera to confirm whether or not I was lying?â Matthias saw through Heatherâs behavior at a glance, as people like her liked to judge whether or not someone was lying by looking at their facial expressions.
âIt seems that you werenât lying.â Heather forced out an awkward laugh. Matthias had exposed her purpose, which made it difficult for her to continue the video call with him.
âDonât turn off the camera. Did you encounter any problems?â Matthias wanted to look at Heather a little longer, so he quickly thought of various excuses just so he could prolong their video call.
âNo. Youâre overthinking it.â Heather denied, as she would never tell Matthias the truth.
âIt must be about Myra.â Matthias was sure that it was because of Myra due to the fact that Heather usually acted unusual because of her.
This made Matthias feel a little dejected. Just as Leon mentioned, he too was beginning to wonder if Heather was in love with Myra.
As he pondered this, Matthias was somewhat envious of Myra. He didnât know when he would have a place in Heatherâs heart.
âStop making random guesses. Iâm going to hang up.â Heather hung up relentlessly, regardless of the struggles Matthias was facing.
The light drizzle outside was just like Matthiasâ moodâsplattering and cold. With Heather, he truly didnât feel the feeling of being in love. She had always been harsh to him, so he was completely unable to feel her fondness for him.
Since Heather no longer bothered with him, Matthias continued burying himself in his work and the never-ending pile of documents.
Tasks came in one after another, so there was always something on hand that he had to deal with.
Matthias wanted so badly to toss this pile of documents straight into the shredder.
Sometimes, he would get irritated after reading all the information. It felt as if he would become illiterate after just rapidly glancing through several lines. Shaking his head, Matthias tried to clear his mind.
Caleb had been in Bradfort City for so long, and he was the representative of the Moriarty Family, yet he had never once come to look for Matthias.
There were many issues regarding their cooperation waiting to be discussed in person, but it seemed like Caleb wasnât in a hurry at all.
During this period, Matthias had sent someone to follow Caleb in order to find out his whereabouts.
Unfortunately, Calebâs counter surveillance methods were too strong, so it was hard to trace him. Once, a photo of Caleb and a woman was taken.
The woman in the photo was wearing a high-end custom-made dress, and she looked like a rather fastidious woman. Without a clear picture of the womanâs face, they were unable to confirm the womanâs identity from the blurry picture.
Matthias had studied the photo for a long time, but it was a pity that he came up with nothing.
Nevertheless, he felt a vague sense of familiarity when he looked at the woman in the photo; he seemed to have seen her somewhere before.
However, after going through the process of elimination, he found that apart from Myra, it couldnât possibly be any other woman.
But Matthias clearly remembered that he had met with Myra that day, and he was sure that she wasnât wearing that dress at the time. Myra didnât even own such a dress.
Matthias instructed the stalker to continue following him and to try to be on the lookout for clues, as he wanted to see just what Caleb was playing at.
Matthias couldnât even tell when he started cooperating with the Moriarty Family, as the person who was in close contact with them was Chester.
Had it not been for his special instructions, Matthias might not have any dealings with Caleb at all.
Today, the stalker sent another set of photos. Matthias put on his anti-radiation glasses, and he even zoomed in on the photos more than ten times.
The stalker had unexpectedly captured a photo of Caleb and Tony talking and laughing together. The two of them were even having a meal together; they looked like a pair of old friends who hadnât seen each other for a long time.
The Locke Group had always been against the Hart Group. Since Caleb had a cooperation with the Locke Group, he shouldnât be so close to the Locke Groupâs competitors.
The stalker sent a message with the photos. âCaleb sought cooperation with the Hart Group, but Tony flat-out refused.â
This sounded the alarm bells in Matthiasâ heart. Looking at the photos on the computer, he was a little troubled.
He was rather upset that Caleb had played such an unconventional card, and he couldnât understand Calebâs purpose at all.
However, one thing was certainâCaleb had no regard whatsoever for the Locke Group. Otherwise, he wouldnât have made such a move.
Matthias filed the photos and sent them to Chester. Seeking his instructions, Matthias asked, âShould we continue to cooperate with the Moriarty Family?â
The answer was yes. Due to Heather, Matthias seemed like he wasnât particularly eager to cooperate much lately.
But, despite Matthiasâ implicit hints to Chester, there had been no substantial progress.
It seemed like it was a stupid thing for Matthias to have sent someone to follow Caleb, as the incidents captured were probably things that Caleb wanted to show him.
Now that he was aware of his problem, Matthias immediately adjusted his combat strategy and removed all the people he had sent after Caleb.
Before this, Matthias was still hung up on finding out who the woman next to Caleb was, but now, he no longer bothered.
Matthias suspected that the woman was either Calebâs right-hand man or a woman who had an ambiguous relationship with him.
Once he withdrew his manpower, it would be even harder to find out the identity of the woman.
However, Matthias didnât want to waste manpower and material resources anymore. Chesterâs determination was so firm that Matthias couldnât possibly persuade him to offend the Moriarty Family, let alone not cooperate with them.
âAsk Nikolai to come in,â Matthias told Lara, who was outside.
After getting the order, Lara immediately informed Nikolai. In just a few seconds, he pushed open Matthiasâ door and saw the man sitting in a chair, his expression entirely grave.
âSir, you asked for me?â During working hours, Nikolai dared not casually address Matthias, so he called him âSirâ most of the time.
âThereâs something I need your help investigating,â Matthias said straightforwardly. This caused Nikolaiâs heart to thump, as it was definitely not a good thing. At this moment, he was tempted to rush out of the room.
To have his help personally requested by Matthias meant that the task had a high difficulty, so Nikolai was worried about whether or not he could complete the task.
âDonât be nervous. Itâs a very simple task.â Noticing how nervous Nikolai looked, Matthias deliberately spoke in a relaxed tone, as if whatever he was talking about was no big deal.