Chapter 131: Chapter 131: Don’t Let Suspicious People Approach Her
Ann Vaughn ran all the way back to the servant’s quarters and only then did she breathe a sigh of relief, patting her flushed cheeks with her hand, biting her lip in frustration.
Not only did she fail to discuss the matter, but now that Cyrus Hawthorne knew she wanted to leave the estate, he certainly wouldn’t let her go so easily.
But she had to go, there was no room for hesitation.
When it was late at night and all the lights in the villa were off, Ann Vaughn quietly left the villa through the kitchen’s back door.
She carried the powder with her just in case.
Ann Vaughn originally thought that trying to leave this tightly guarded estate, without confronting and drugging those guards head-on to escape before raising any chaos, was practically impossible.
—Until she was about to exit the estate, Ann Vaughn was still thinking that way.
"Could the guards have been withdrawn long ago? Do they just pretend to be there usually?" Ann Vaughn muttered a couple of confused words and then walked down the mountain.
Luckily, as she stepped out of the forest path, she saw a taxi driving by and quickly flagged it down.
"Driver, please take me to Maplecroft District in the city center." Ann Vaughn said to the driver as she sat in the back seat.
"Okay, please sit tight." The driver, wearing a black baseball cap, kept his head down, making his face unclear, and spoke before starting the car to leave.
An hour later, Ann Vaughn paid the driver and hurried into Maplecroft District.
Not long after she left, the driver took out his phone and dialed a call, "Sir, Miss Vaughn has safely arrived at her destination."
Soon, a lazy, deep voice came slowly from the other end: "Keep an eye on her, don’t let suspicious individuals approach her."
"Yes, sir, please rest assured."
-
Outside the Vaughn Family villa by the lake in the residential area, Ann Vaughn pressed the doorbell for quite a while, but no one came to open the door.
The lights in the living room were still on, indicating that someone was inside.
After a while, the door opened, and Jade Shepherd was about to lash out, but upon seeing Ann Vaughn, she was quite surprised, "What are you doing here so late?"
"I’m here to retrieve the relics Grandpa left for me." Ann Vaughn said indifferently, ignoring the surprise and disdain in Jade Shepherd’s eyes.
Jade Shepherd rolled her eyes and stepped aside to let her in, "Really, no manners, disturbing people’s rest late at night. Wait here."
With that, she went upstairs.
Ann Vaughn gave a slight tug at her red lips, her bright eyes lazily sweeping over the paintings on the stairwell walls. She had lived here for quite a long time.
Yet when she stood here, there was an unexplainable sense of confusion and unfamiliarity.
She didn’t wait downstairs aimlessly for Jade Shepherd. Instead, she went upstairs to the room she used to live in, opened the door, and saw a room full of piled-up mess.
The books and everyday items she had left behind were already gone.
The room had been turned into a storeroom.
Even though Ann Vaughn didn’t hold much attachment to this home anymore, their eagerness to erase traces of her life here left her with an indescribable chill in her heart.
Soon, Jade Shepherd came out of the room with something, saw Ann Vaughn standing in front of the storeroom lost in thought, and frowned.
"The Hawthorne Family has all those rooms for you to stay in. You won’t need the rooms at home in the future, so it’s just right to use them for storage."
At her words, Ann Vaughn lowered her gaze, pursed her lips without saying anything, and looked at the antiquated box in her hands.
"Here, take it." Jade Shepherd shoved the box into Ann Vaughn’s hands, clapped her hands as if dusting off nonexistent dirt, "If you have nothing else, hurry back. There’s no place for you to sleep here."
Ann Vaughn didn’t care about the sarcasm embedded in her words, looked at the lock on the box, and frowned slightly, "Why did Grandpa specifically ask you to hand this over to me?"
She grew up by her grandfather’s side. Her parents looked down on traditional medicine, considering her grandfather obstinate, and therefore never actively visited him in the countryside.
It was only when her grandpa had to make a long journey that she was sent to the Hawthorne Family for the summer. But they disapproved of her behavior and soon found an excuse to send her back to the countryside.
There was no reason for Grandpa to take the trouble to have Jade Shepherd give her something.
Jade Shepherd impatiently pursed her lips, "How should I know? Your grandfather handed it to us shortly after you were born, telling us to give it to you after he passed away."
"And your grandfather said that you must take this to his grave to pay your respects before you can open it."
"Is that so?"
Ann Vaughn still felt something was odd, but seeing Jade Shepherd’s demeanor, she knew she wouldn’t find anything more. So, without lingering to suffer more disdainful looks from her, she bid her farewell and left.
Watching Ann Vaughn finally leave with the item, Jade Shepherd’s eyes flashed with malice.
The old man’s plan was truly well thought out. If she hadn’t checked what was inside, they wouldn’t have known they were almost being sabotaged!
-
Returning quietly to the estate the same way she left, Ann Vaughn realized that no one had noticed her absence, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
"Where did you go?"
It was already the early hours, and the villa was dimly lit. The sudden magnetic, hoarse voice almost made Ann Vaughn jump from the stairs.
Fortunately, she grabbed the stair railing in time, and when she turned on the overhead light, she saw Cyrus Hawthorne standing at the top of the stairs, hands in pockets, with an inscrutable expression, bringing cold sweat to her back.
It scared her to death.
But it seemed that Cyrus Hawthorne’s terror wasn’t any less than that of a ghost...
"I-I was thirsty, so I went downstairs for water. I’m going back to sleep now." Ann Vaughn’s bright eyes flickered, her voice transitioning from guilty to certain.
Judging by the situation, Cyrus Hawthorne shouldn’t have discovered her sneaking out.
After all, who would think she’d sneak out through the dog hole under the wall in the middle of the night?
If she showed any hint of guilt, given Cyrus Hawthorne’s acumen, he would definitely notice something was wrong.
Lowering his gaze to scrutinize the guilty expression of the little woman trying to appear as if she’d done nothing wrong, Cyrus Hawthorne’s thin lips curled slightly, his heart faintly itching.
Only this foolish woman wouldn’t question why the estate’s guards suddenly loosened or why a taxi appeared on a mountain that usually doesn’t allow vehicles.
Thinking of this, the amusement in Cyrus Hawthorne’s eyes deepened as he deliberately focused his gaze on Ann Vaughn’s flushed face from her run.
Ann Vaughn, under his gaze, felt increasingly uneasy, with a tension that was about to snap.
Just when she thought he might say something to test her, he stepped aside without a word and left.
—What a close call.
Ann Vaughn felt her heart was about to jump out of her chest, dragged her tired body back to the servant’s quarters, and was quickly asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
So it passed quietly for two days.
Cyrus Hawthorne seemed busy and didn’t appear over these two days.