Filed To Story: Returning to Her Not-So-Poor Family
Mirabella knew what he was up to – he wanted to flaunt their love in front of others.
“Alright then.”
Romeo hadn’t expected her to agree so quickly, his eyes shimmering with joy, “I’ll arrange a time and let you know in advance.”
“Sounds good.”
Hand in hand, they strolled through the garden until ten at night when Mirabella suggested he head back to rest.
Romeo went to say goodbye to Darren and the others, who warmly saw him to the door, piling gift after gift into his car until the trunk was full.
“These are little tokens from your grandparents, uncle, and aunt, you can’t say no!” Darren insisted, saying affectionately, “Come over for dinner anytime. We all like you a lot, and so does Bella.”
“I really shouldn’t accept this.”
Romeo’s protest was cut short as Darren and Bard escorted him to his car, with Belinda and Eunice on the side saying, “You gotta take it, and once you do, it means you’re one of us. Drive safe, take it slow, and come over whenever you have time.”
Romeo felt their warmth and replied gently, “Alright.”
He turned to Mirabella, his tone as tender as ever, “I’ll call you when I get home.””Okay.”
“I’m heading out. Thanks for the kind hospitality tonight. It’s chilly outside, you guys should head in.”
“Ah, sure, sure.”
They watched him leave before slowly heading back into the house.
An hour later.
After her bath, Mirabella was catching up with Romeo on WhatsApp when she was startled by a rapid knocking on her door.
“Miss. Collins, are you asleep? Mrs. Griffith needs you.”
Opening the door, Mirabella was met with a hushed voice, “She looks a bit under the weather, seems like it’s got something to do with the fright Serena had.”
Serena??
“What happened to her?”
“They say Serena came bolting out of the basement so scared she lost a shoe, pale as a ghost. I don’t know the details, just bits and pieces from the other staff.”
Mirabella knew the basement held some unsavory characters; surely one of the grisly sights down there had spooked Serena. She followed the servant’s lead to the study.
Inside the study.
Eunice sat with an austere expression, gazing down at the figure huddled in the corner.
Serena was curled up, shaking uncontrollably.After closing the door, Mirabella turned to Eunice, “Aunt Eunice, what happened?”
Eunice looked at Serena, her face etched with gravity and silence, before finally speaking, “The man’s dead.”
That was unexpected.
Two days ago, someone on the dark web had put a hefty bounty on her head.
Eunice had traced the IP address to its source, dragged the perpetrator to the basement, and gave him a beating within an inch of his life.
At that time, the man refused to divulge who was behind it all until Mirabella had offered him a deal:
reveal the truth and she’d help fake his death so he could start fresh under a new identity.
As he seemed to waver, Mirabella gave him two days to think it over. But now, on the final day, he was dead.
“How did he die?” Mirabella inquired, “When did it happen?”
“Half an hour ago, asphyxiation,” Eunice explained, her gaze shifting back to Serena with a complex emotion, “Serena saw him last.”
“It wasn’t my fault. The staff told me he wanted to see me. When I got there, he said I wasn’t the one he wanted to see. But he said he’d made up his mind, that he wouldn’t spill the beans. Said it didn’t matter who came, and that he’d rather end it himself than suffer at our hands. Then, suddenly, he went silent.
When I looked again, he wasn’t moving. I didn’t know what happened.”
Serena was beside herself with fear, speaking incoherently, “He was already so terrifying, covered in blood, and the basement was so dark and dreadful.”She was clearly terrified!
Mirabella saw her hugging her knees, sitting on the floor, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably. She should be really aghast at it.
“What did the servant say?” Mirabella asked Eunice.
“The servant said that guy wanted to see Miss. Collins, and she thought he wanted to see Serena, so she asked Serena over. She wasn’t there to see what happened next, just waiting outside. Not long after, she saw Serena running out of the basement. When I checked, he was already dead.”
“It’s really not my fault.” Serena’s tears cascaded down her cheeks uncontrollably, “I swear I didn’t know him. I have no idea why he wanted to see me. He even said it himself – he was looking for Miss Collins, my sister, not me. It was the maid who got it wrong. As for what he called the truth, how he died, I’m totally clueless. Aunt Eunice, you have to believe me. How could I possibly commit murder!”
Serena seemed to be traumatized, sobbing without any regard for her appearance. She looked utterly pitiable.
However, Eunice watched her with a complex expression in her eyes. Logically speaking, Serena simply didn’t have the nerve to kill someone. But that man wanted to see Miss Collins, which meant he had figured something out and wanted to confess the truth to Bella, hoping she would help him create a new identity to start over.
But upon seeing Serena, did he hesitate? Change his mind?
If it was a homicide, the most likely suspect was this weeping girl before her, wasn’t it?
“I’m going down to the basement.”
Mirabella left the study to inspect the man’s body for wounds. Aside from the bruises from a beating a couple of days earlier, there were no new injuries.
After a thorough examination, Mirabella returned to the study.
The study, lit with a warm glow at one in the morning, seemed somewhat eerie against the pitch-black night outside and the occasional rattling of the windows in the wind.
“Did you find out anything?” Eunice was the first to ask.”There were no signs of a struggle or a fight, nor did he ingest any lethal poison. His hands and feet were bound just as they were before he died, but he definitely died of suffocation.”
At these words, Serena’s tears flooded again, “It really wasn’t me. He said he wanted a quick end –
could he have not wanted to live anymore? Maybe held his breath until he suffocated himself.”
Mirabella had to clarify, “It’s impossible for a person to commit suicide without external help, including holding one’s breath.”
When pushed to the limit, the brain stem and autonomic nervous system, which control breathing, automatically kick in. They are not governed by conscious thought. It’s not like the brain can tell the body to stop breathing indefinitely without it eventually taking a breath.
In simpler terms, if one holds their breath to the point of brain hypoxia, muscle relaxation would naturally occur, interrupting the breath-holding and preventing death.
“Could it be that he had some kind of disease, a sudden death?” Serena speculated, looking pale with fear.
“I checked. It was mechanical asphyxiation, plain and simple. In other words, someone smothered him.”
Serena turned even paler, “Not me. When I saw him covered in blood, I was so scared I went weak all over. How could I have gotten close to him, let alone have the strength to smother him?”
Mirabella’s gaze also turned complex. Logically, Serena didn’t have the courage or strength to kill a grown man, especially an assassin. If he had wanted to resist, even with his hands and feet tied, he could have easily overpowered a frail girl.But if not her, could there be a mole inside the house? Or had someone else infiltrated the estate unseen?
However, this possibility was quickly dismissed by Mirabella.
The crime scene still had Serena. If someone had come in with the intent to kill the man and done so in front of Serena, she wouldn’t have survived either, not to mention still being here to weep and wail.
Moreover, if someone had wanted him dead, he would have fought back, yet there were no signs of a struggle.
If he was intent on dying, why would he want to see Miss Collins? It seemed like he wanted to reveal the truth to her – not like someone desiring death.
What on earth was going on?
Mirabella was deep in thought.
“Aunt Eunice, I swear it wasn’t me. I didn’t even know who he was. How could I possibly kill him? For one, I had no grudge against him, and for another, I don’t have the guts or the courage. I had no motive and certainly no means to kill him. Why would I do such a thing?”
Serena was crying, the picture of injustice personified.
“Besides, it was the maid who summoned me. I was just about to hit the hay when she said someone wanted to see me. That’s the only reason I went down there. I had no clue about all those people locked up in the basement. I’m no psychic, how could I have predicted that the maid would call the wrong person, much less that it’d be me? And I have no reason to do such a thing.”
Eunice, however, couldn’t wrap her head around the situation, but given that Serena was the last one to see him alive, suspicion naturally fell on her.
“You’re a doctor. Can’t you check for fingerprints or something? Aunt Eunice, you know some pretty influential people. If I had smothered him, I would’ve left some evidence.” Serena sobbed, “It really wasn’t me, Aunt Eunice. You might not believe me in other things, but murder, that’s something I could never do.”
As Serena seemed on the verge of passing out from her tears, there was a sudden, urgent knock on the study door.
Without further ado, Belinda burst in, finding Eunice and Mirabella as if interrogating Serena, who was sobbing uncontrollably, looking as pitiable as a frightened little lamb.
“What’s going on here? What happened?” Belinda rushed in, concerned.
“Grandma.” Serena opened her arms, seeking comfort from her grandmother, her body trembling with fear, barely able to stand.She desperately needed someone to hold her and offer solace.
Belinda hurriedly walked over, questioning, “What in the world happened? Eunice, it’s the dead of night.
What are you doing?”
Darren, too, peered in from the door, his expression a mix of confusion and concern, “What’s all this?”