Putting on his shoes as he got ready to leave, Finnick turned to Vivian with a heavy heart.
“Vivian, Evelyn is already dead.” He left after leaving her with those words.
I have only you by my side to walk with me for the rest of my life. Evelyn was my past but you’re my present and future. Don’t you understand all these, Vivian?
He did not express it explicitly to her.
Thereafter, Vivian collapsed onto the floor, crumbled on her knees and wailed her heart out.
That’s true. Evelyn’s dead. Why am I making her my imaginary rival?
She realized that she was being ridiculous. Finnick had never hidden anything from his past from her. Moreover, Evelyn lost her life due to Finnick, so she should not have behaved the way she did.
However, all of the things relating to Evelyn kept creeping up in her life. From her favorite perfume, flower, fashion, to the news all over the Internet, the frequency of Evelyn appearing in Vivian’s life was too high. She was going insane thinking about all these, especially Finnick’s attitude toward the matter.
She frantically removed the clothes and chucked them into the trash can. She darted into the bathroom and scrubbed herself harshly under the running shower. Hot or cold matter felt nothing to her. All she wanted was to wash herself thoroughly clean from her tears along with any possible traces of the impact Evelyn had on her.
Vivian came out after an hour. Dressed in her pajamas, she curled herself into a fetal position. Scanning the spacious but empty room, she buried her head in between her knees and broke down, wailing uncontrollably.
Not knowing how she fell asleep the night before, she was awoken by a series of phone calls the next morning. None of it had a caller ID shown.
She picked it up and answered in a coarse voice, “Hello…”
“Vivian, is that you?” the other party tried to confirm her identity.
She propped herself up and cleared her throat before answering. “Oh yes, it’s me, Grandpa. Anything?”
“Did you fall sick? You sound terrible.” Mr. Norton was worried.
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me, Grandpa.”
“Good to know that you’re fine. Young people must always take good care of yourself, all right?” reminded Mr. Norton.
“I have some answers to what you wanted me to investigate. It’s hard to talk over the phone. Why don’t you come over to my place so that I can tell you everything in person?” Mr. Norton said in a serious tone.
Vivian was anxious to learn that more information about the kidnapping case had been discovered. “Sure, Grandpa, I’ll be there in a jiffy.”
Hanging up the phone, Vivian pulled herself together, washed up, and rushed to the Norton residence.
At the study room, Mr. Norton passed an envelope to her. “Have a seat and take a look at this.”
She hurriedly emptied the envelope and scrutinized the information.
To her disbelief, she found out that there was evidence to show another person leaving the fire scene besides Finnick.
However, there were only two of them at the scene. If Evelyn was dead whereas Finnick made it out in time, then who was the other person?
“Grandpa, what’s going on?” She looked at Mr. Norton in confusion. “Why was there a third person?”
He looked at Vivian and said, “Actually, the fire caused an explosion at that time and Evelyn’s body was completely destroyed beyond recognition. It was also challenging to verify via DNA testing. In the end, they confirmed that it was her from some remaining hairs found at the scene.
“Therefore, it’s likely that it wasn’t Evelyn’s corpse that was found.”
His stare became sharp and resolute. If that’s the case, then it wasn’t just a clear-cut kidnapping case ten years ago. There must have been more to it. I’ll find out who wanted to harm my grandson deliberately and make them pay for it.
