Chapter 86: Can I Send It To You?
His attitude was more resentful to Arianna than before. She patiently asked, “Uncle Luke, do you want cash, or do you want me to wire it to your account?”
“Arian, I was just joking with you. How could you take it seriously? Ha-ha, what a silly girl.” Chester’s attitude was totally reversed. Arianna was speechless.
“I have to go abroad for a while, maybe I won’t come back again. I have something here that is useless to me, but it may be very meaningful to you. It is your grandfather’s work memo and some of your father’s handwritten notes. You give me an address. Can I send it to you?”
“What do you want this time?”
“It’s hard to be a good man these days. Don’t you want it? Then I have to throw it into the trash can.”
“Excuse me, have you sold my ‘infamous reputation’ to someone at a good price?”
“Hey kid, I told you I was just teasing you that day. Well then, I will put these things in the cake shop of the old Jenkins in West Street. Still, remember the old Jenkins’ in West Street? That’s the shop you often went to when you were a child. You can just go there and get these things.”
Arianna was silent.
“You are suspicious enough. The old Jenkins’s shop is next to the police station. Are you afraid that I will kidnap you? Listen, that shop is about to be closed soon, and you will never get those things that your family had left by then.” Chester hung up the phone.
Arianna suspected that this was a trap, but she still got to the perimeters of old Jenkin’s shop at three o’clock in the afternoon.
She did have a lot of memories of this place with her family and her childhood companions.
And the things Chester said were very tempting for her. She really wanted to keep the writings of her father and grandfather now. She used to ask Manager Jenkins to collect some of the handwriting of her grandfather and father in the company, but she got nothing except their signatures on files.NôvelDrama.Org content rights.
There was nothing to do in the office on Friday afternoon. The office director saw her in a bad mood for several days, so she gave her a half-day leave.
Arianna slowly drove the car out of the campus and bought something at the nearby supermarket. When she got in the car again, she felt she was being stalked.
She had the feeling of being stalked these few days. Today the hunch was even stronger.
Maybe because she was carrying 500, 000 dollars with her now, she transferred 500, 000 dollars to a bank card yesterday. Now, this small card made her feel unsafe.
She did not find any abnormal phenomena or suspicious people in the rearview mirror of the car, but her sixth sense clearly told her that someone was always near her.
She had never been to this old town area since she graduated from high school. Because it was in a very inconspicuous location, it had not changed much in the past decade. Those buildings, street signs, and storefronts were still familiar to her. The road was still narrow and in poor condition. A few guys were playing poker cards on the side of the road. Two dogs were fighting. There were only a few pedestrians on the road at this moment.
Then she saw the cake shop with a big sign on its door saying “will move soon.”
The words made her mood a little fluctuating, but she also had a sense of security. She intuitively felt that there was no danger to her here. She stopped the car and got off.
She wore a pair of sunglasses that could cover most of her face. She pushed open the door of the shop and said to the man looking like a boss who was behind the counter, “Are you selling cakes now?”
The boss said, “Still cooking.” He looked up, and Arianna stepped back. She did not recognize the black and thin man wearing a baseball cap standing behind the checkout counter was Chester in person. His looks changed a lot, and she might not be able to recognize him when they met on the road.
“Dear Arian, you really came. You are more beautiful and braver now.” Chester bent over and took a large envelope from under the counter and put it on the counter, “The cakes are not ready. Will this do?”
“What do you want to do?”
“Nothing, just want to send you a small gift.” He poured out the contents of the big envelope and turned them over on the counter to prove there was no problem. Then he put the things back into the envelope and smiled at her.
Arianna felt the situation was too creepy. She secretly observed the surroundings.
There was the noise of some machine in the kitchen. Two waiters of the shop were busy arranging the tables and chairs, and no one paid attention to her and Chester.
Arianna held the envelope on the counter, took her bank card out, and pushed it to Chester.
“These things are rubbish for me, no value, so you don’t have to pay. As for that conversation between us that day, Arian, you are worth much more than half a million, why bother to insult yourself. Forget it, I said I was just teasing you.” Chester stuffed the bank card into the envelope.
“Then thank you, Mr. Luke.”
Arianna returned to her car with a foggy expression. When she was starting the car, she looked around her car, and everything seemed to be just fine. She felt ridiculous.
From the rearview mirror, she took another look at the cake shop she had visited many times before. She also saw Chester’s shadow flashing through the doorway. Some childhood memories came to her mind again: When she was in kindergarten, Chester often hugged and carried her to watch cartoons in the cinema. When she was in high school, Chester gave her the latest version of Barbie. When she was in her freshman year in a domestic college, he went to visit her when he was on a business trip. He was more careful and patient than her parents.
Arianna tried to put these thoughts out of her mind because they made her weak. But when she drove farther away from the shop, her sense of uneasiness grew stronger.
When she turned a fork, there was probably a car accident in front. The cars on one side of the road were crowded into a pile, and it was difficult to drive. Many cars turned around and changed lanes.