Chapter 217
Cleo shared her location with Sebastian. Shortly after, he showed up at the door.
Cleo sprang up from her seat and rushed over to him. “What happened? Why did Maxine send you? What’s wrong with her?”
Sebastian gave a slight nod. “Come with me first. I’ll explain on the way.”
This time, he didn’t ask Charles to come along. Once Cleo got in the car, Sebastian turned to her and said, “I need your help.”
Cleo froze mid–action while fastening her seatbelt, her face instantly paling with alarm. “What are you up to?” she exclaimed.
After a brief pause, Sebastian finally told her the truth, Brian had been kidnapped.
“Hamlin isn’t after money. What he really wants is the trial evidence,” he remarked. Since they already suspected Maxine had contacted the police, all they could do now was cooperate with them.
Cleo’s expression darkened. She finally snapped, “Can’t the police do anything about this?”
Sebastian said, “They said to wait for the next call from the kidnappers, but I can tell Maxine can’t sit still anymore. I’m going to find them myself”
Cleo was momentarily speechless, overwhelmed by the flood of information. After a long pause, she stammered, “Then… then does Maxine know about this?”
Sebastian shook his head. Somehow, he just knew Maxine would never agree to this, so he decided to go behind her back. “In a bit, I’ll drop you off at the mansion gate. Go in by yourself and just tell Maxine I went to the office.”
Cleo couldn’t dissuade him, so she reluctantly nodded in agreement.
The car drove on for a bit. Just as they were about to reach the mansion, Cleo’s phone suddenly rang. It was Maxine calling.
Maxine asked on the other end of the line, “Are you guys back yet?”
Cleo instinctively shot a glance at Sebastian, her mind racing. She blurted out hastily, “Almost there, almost there! We’ll be there any minute now.”
Maxine fell silent for a moment before murmuring, “Is Sebastian planning to go after the kidnappers?”
Cleo choked up for a moment, then forced a laugh. “Of course not! We’re just heading back together to figure things out. Who knows, maybe it’d actually be easier to just go straight to Hamlin.”
She was just making things up on the spot.
Maxine knew Cleo all too well. This was exactly how she acted when she was hiding something.
Maxine sighed. “After all, this mess is my fault. I’ve thought it through, I’m going there myself. Doesn’t Hamlin want me to drop the lawsuit? I’ll go talk to him directly.”
Sebastian frowned and said, “Maxine, calm down. Just wait until we get back, your documents are with me, remember?”
Maxine gazed at the glowing screen of her tablet, momentarily lost in thought. “I’ve already backed up the files on my computer. Don’t worry, I’ll take
care of it.”
With that, Maxine hung up. When Cleo tried calling back, no one answered. Sebastian muttered a curse and slammed the accelerator to the floor.
Meanwhile, Maxine carefully packed her laptop into her bag. She wasn’t acting recklessly. She’d spent the past few days ar
even the police couldn’t track.
g possible locations
She thought to herself, ‘It must be somewhere with poor reception. In this day and age, only remote areas have spotty cell service. And with Hamlin
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Chapter 217
being such a control freak…
From the sounds outside the door and the way those two were dressed, it was clear they weren’t Flamlin’s own men, more like hired things willing to anything for money.
Maxine thought to herself, ‘If Hamlin doesn’t keep a tight leash on these guys, they’re basically ticking time bombs. Given how cautious in 15, there’a nës way he’d let things get out of hand. He’d definitely keep those two under his close watch.”
Putting these two clues together, Maxine quickly zeroed in on a remote mountain on the city’s southern outskirts, a place where, as far as the knew, the Jenson family had invested in real estate years ago.
