Reclaiming Her Heart

"My company's not getting many roles for our actors right now," Selena said, typing away with a blank look on her face. Raymond watched her open a chat window with Austin and send a message.

He saw her type: [Let's meet at the office tomorrow. I'll go over the upcoming plans with you.]

Austin replied almost instantly, like he was just waiting for her message: [Okay, Ms. Fair.]

He even threw in a shy emoji, which made Raymond's blood boil. "Selena, do you even know what that emoji means?"

Raymond wasn't one for small talk, let alone decoding emojis. But even he knew what that shy emoji meant. Anyone could see it, except maybe Selena. Selena asked, "What does it mean?"

Raymond was stunned for a second, thinking she had to be joking.

Then she opened a chat window with Ronald.

Raymond stayed quiet for a few minutes before finally saying, "He likes you."

Thinking he meant Ronald, she quickly shot back, "No way, don't say that."

Raymond finally got what John meant when he said you need a good body to get anywhere.

Raymond tried to knock Austin down a peg, "Austin's pretty sneaky, messaging his boss in the middle of the night."

Selena said, "I messaged him first."

That shut Raymond up completely. He felt like he had a lump in his throat, unable to swallow or spit it out.

Raymond took off his headphones, got up, and slowly went back to bed, pulling the blanket over himself without a word.

Selena didn't even look up, just kept typing away.

As soon as Raymond lay back down, he regretted it a bit. He'd ruined their rare time together all by himself.

But he couldn't swallow his pride and go back, so he made some noise, like dropping his phone on the floor.

"Selena, can you pick up my phone?" he asked.

Selena, wearing headphones, genuinely didn't hear him.

Raymond kept up his act for almost ten minutes. When she still didn't move, he grudgingly reached down and picked up his phone himself. At 1 AM, Selena finally shut down her computer.

Raymond thought she was coming to bed and felt a flicker of hope.

But Selena immediately left the room.

He thought she was just putting away the computer, but half an hour passed, and she still hadn't come back.

He called John, who said Selena had already gone back.

John reported, "Ms. Cooper said she's gonna be really busy for a while, and since you're cooperating with the treatment, she won't be coming for the next few days." Raymond's face darkened, and he hung up without another word.

Selena had already made it back to Ashbourne Manor, barely able to keep her eyes open from exhaustion. Earlier, while working, she had messaged everyone who had been at the dinner party, asking them to let her know when they got home safely. But Ann hadn't replied yet.

That wasn't like Ann.

Selena was about to call Ann when her phone rang. It was Betty.

"Ms. Fair," Betty's voice was shaky, and Selena could tell she was on the verge of breaking down.

"Betty, where are you? I'll come to you," Selena said, her concern evident.

Betty, trembling, sent Selena her location. Sensing something was seriously wrong, Selena grabbed two bodyguards and headed out. When they arrived, they found Betty kneeling in the middle of the road, with traffic police already cordoning off the accident scene. Selena got out of the car and rushed over.

As she got closer, she saw two bodies lying not far away. From the license plate, she recognized them as Hubert and Donna. Selena's heart sank, and she instinctively hugged Betty tightly.

The police were trying to maintain order at the scene.

It was two in the morning, and there weren't many cars on the road, but a lot of passersby were taking photos.

Journalists were already reporting on the car accident. The victims' car had been hit by a large truck, and after catching fire, the truck driver didn't try to save them or back up. Instead, he just watched the fire burn.

Truck drivers like this usually had big insurance policies. If they killed someone, the insurance company paid out, so they weren't afraid of accidents. Sometimes, if the person they hit wasn't dead, they might run over them a few more times. The payout for a dead person was much less than the cost of keeping someone alive in the hospital.

Betty, still in Selena's arms, couldn't say a word.

Betty calling Selena at this time showed that, in her heart, Selena was the only person she could rely on.

Even as an outsider, Selena was already shaken by the sight of such a tragedy, let alone Betty, whose parents were the victims.

Selena didn't even know how to comfort her.

Half an hour later, several limos pulled up beside Betty and Selena.

Nathan, dressed in casual clothes, got out of one of them. "Selena, let go of Betty!"

His disdain for Selena was clear, and he looked like he wanted to kick her away.