Chapter 23: Detective’s Suspicions, Mother-in-Law Arrives!
Royal Care Hospital.
The automatic doors gently slid open, and Detective Silvia Farnsworth stepped through with an uninterested look on her face.
She was attractive in a way that made heads turn without her even trying.
Her beige overcoat hung loosely over her shoulders, doing little to conceal the generous curves beneath... a body that had been honed by years of chasing criminals through the rainy streets of Dragon Ridge City. The dark-blue turtleneck she wore hugged her figure, emphasizing a bust that was easily a 36D, while the leather mini pencil skirt she paired it with gave her hips a tight and sexy look.
Her milky thighs were wrapped in glossy leather thigh-high boots with stiletto heels.
Thin-framed glasses sat perched on her nose, and behind them, her calm, assessing eyes took in everything at once.
A burning cigarette dangled from her rosy lips.
Helena rushed forward the moment she spotted her.
"Detective Farnsworth! Oh my! Thank you for coming on such short notice."
Silvia blew out a plume of smoke.
"You said a man was abusing his wife."
"I have video footage."
"Show me."
Nurse Helena led her to a small security office and handed over a tablet. Silvia settled into a chair, crossing one long leg over the other as she began scrolling through the footage.
If it were any other case, she might not have bothered coming all the way to the upper districts. The rich heads here always treated detectives like they owned them, expecting special treatment and looking down on anyone who dared to investigate their precious little lives. She preferred operating in the middle districts, where people were honest about their crimes and at least had the decency to be embarrassed about it.
But a man abusing a woman? That was new. And since Nurse Helena had offered to cover her expenses if this turned out to be a false alarm, Silvia had nothing to lose.
She watched the footage in silence.
Then she relaxed back in her chair and took a long suck of her cigarette.
Nurse Helena shifted awkwardly.
"Uhm, Detective... smoking in or around a hospital is a federal offense."
"Fine."
Silvia sighed and turned the cigarette off.
"What do you think of the footage?"
Silvia adjusted her glasses.
"Aside from the missing tooth, she’s wearing less luxurious clothes than her boyfriend. That’s odd. Either he’s a spoiled brat from some rich family with plenty of cultivation resources, which would explain why he thinks he can beat a woman without consequences... or he felt guilty for hitting her and decided to pay for the implant."
She paused, tapping the screen.
"Notice how he looked so impatient waiting for her? He’s probably scared she would’ve told the nurses the truth. But she seems too scared to do that."
Nurse Helena nodded vigorously.
"That’s what I thought too!"
"And then, after everything..."
Silvia uncrossed her legs and frowned bitterly.
"What self-respecting couple does a lip-to-lip kiss like fucking preschoolers?"
Truly a foul-mouthed lady.
Nurse Helena blinked.
"Uhm... every couple in public?"
Silvia crossed her long, sexy legs and nodded slowly.
"Fair point."
She straightened in her chair.
"I’ll investigate Chrome, but it won’t be serious until I get more information. I won’t waste my time on a case without real evidence."
Nurse Helena nodded firmly.
"That’s fine. Thank you, Detective."
---
Meanwhile, in the rickety silver sedan, Chrome gripped the steering wheel as the engine sputtered along the shiny streets of the upper districts.
A black van had been following them for the past ten minutes.
Every turn he made, the van made.
Every stop, it stopped.
Chrome checked the rearview mirror repeatedly, but Lana was too busy admiring her new tooth in the small mirror from her makeup purse to notice anything.
Chrome smiled at Lana to take his mind off it.
"You sure you’re hungry? You only ate half a pancake and coffee this morning."
Lana smiled nervously. "No, I’m fine—"
Her stomach growled so loudly that Chrome jerked in his seat and asked:
"Was that a monster?"
Lana’s face turned red.
She looked away shamefully.
"Okay... fine, I’m hungry. But everything around here is so expensive! We should go to the markets in the middle districts and buy ingredients. You can cook for us."
Chrome spotted a fancy restaurant nearby.
"No need. Let’s eat here."
He glanced at the rearview mirror.
The black van slowed down. It pulled into a nearby parking lot but didn’t leave.
Lana, oblivious, started twiddling her thumbs.
"But eating in any restaurant is so expensive! I’ve never eaten out before. What if your card bounces and we have to work here for the rest of our lives? Who knows how much they sell food here? And—and—"
She was spiraling, the way she always did.
Chrome got tired of listening.
He stepped out of the car, walked around to her side, and pulled a hesitant Lana out.
"Can you stop worrying about the prices?"
He looked her straight in the eyes.
"If it was above what I can pay for, I wouldn’t do it, okay? I’m not dumb."
Lana hid her red cheeks and nodded shyly.
He grabbed her hand and walked straight into the super high-end restaurant.
The interior was overwhelming.
There were crystal chandeliers, white tablecloths and the soft hum of classical music.
A minimum spend of about $5,000 per table.
Lana felt like a fraud. The female staff here looked better dressed than her. She’d been in too much of a rush to go out with her boyfriend that she’d totally forgotten to dress up. If only she’d worn her yellow evening dress—the one that always made her look pretty.
Chrome squeezed her hand to calm her slightly.
A male server in a sharp uniform approached.
"Good evening. Table for two? Would you like to dine in VIP or the normal section?"
Lana shouted before Chrome could answer:
"Normal! Normal is fine!"
Eating in VIP would cost a few thousand dollars if you didn’t make reservations. She couldn’t let her boyfriend waste money so pointlessly.
Chrome smiled at her.
"I was actually gonna pick that. VIP probably has a lot of snobs we’re better off avoiding."
Lana nodded shyly, relieved.
They took a seat near the window. But in a hidden corner of the restaurant, Detective Silvia Farnsworth sat with her face hidden behind a guns weekly magazine, peeping at Chrome little by little.
---
Chrome could see Lana was uncomfortable.
He gave her hand a little squeeze.
"You okay?"
She nodded weakly.
The server returned.
"Are you ready to order, madam?"
Chrome turned to Lana.
"Scan the QR code and see what you’d like."
Lana brought out her cracked phone and hesitated.
The QR code sat on the table, mocking her.
Hm? Chrome looked lost.
’Why is she wasting so much ti—’
He understood instantly.
He placed a hand on her phone.
"Don’t worry. I’ll scan for us."
He remembered now—her phone was so outdated it couldn’t easily scan QR codes.
He’d have to get her a new one today along with the car and clothes shopping they also had planned.
He scanned the code and the menu appeared on his screen.
Lana gasped. "Wow! Tech is crazy! Before, menus used to come in paper. It’s really been some time since I’ve been to a restaurant. A lot has changed."
Chrome smiled.
"Well, only high-end restaurants bother using these."
He handed her his phone.
"Order whatever you want."
Lana scrolled through the menu, and her head began to spin.
’AIYAAAH, THIS IS ROBBERY! How does a cake cost this much?! A sundae for that price?! Burger Shack would give you a whole meal for this amount!’
She was lost in the menu for so long that Chrome had to call her name.
"Lana."
She jerked in her seat. "Uhm... uhm... I’m not sure!"
She shoved the phone back into his face.
"Just order for us! I’ll eat whatever you pick!"
Chrome sighed.
He looked at her with both affection and sadness.
She couldn’t even order for herself without spiraling.
He went through the menu himself.
Detective Farnsworth watched from across the room as she nodded to herself.
’Interesting. He’s been a gentleman so far, but now she’s too scared to order for herself. I’ve never seen a lady lack so much confidence. There’s more to this.’
Chrome ordered luxury dishes for himself, but for Lana, he picked soft foods—lobster bisque, beef tartare, crab cakes with no crust, foie gras for appetizers; mashed potatoes and polenta for sides; risotto and fettuccine Alfredo for entrées.
Anything that wouldn’t hurt her newly implanted tooth.
To Lana, the names sounded like Greek or Aramaic.
She’d seen some of them before—maybe—but foie gras? She’d never even heard of it.
When the server left, she smirked.
"Since when do you know so much about fancy foods? I worked at a top company—well, used to—and even I don’t remember the names of most of these things."
Chrome chuckled.
"I’m just reading out anything that looks good."
Lana giggled. "I figured."
---
Just outside the restaurant, across the street, President Olivia Hilton stood in an elegant purple blazer over a white dress shirt and purple pencil mini skirt that maximized the attraction of her child-bearing hips.
She’d seen the rickety sedan he arrived in.
She’d seen his shabby-looking girlfriend.
And she was disgusted.
"I’d like to see for myself... how he managed to trick Quinn into liking him."
She raised a finger.
The female guards behind her immediately dropped to their knees and greeted with reverence.
"Greetings, Grandmaster!"
"Go," Olivia said. "You know what to do."
One of the women hesitated.
"But isn’t it too extreme for you to be so involved? Why use an ox cleaver to butcher a chicken? You’re making too big a deal out of this ordinary man."
Olivia’s eyes turned cold.
"I’ve achieved a lot in business and cultivation at a young age because my mother trained me well. I’ve put that same care into my daughter’s training. I want to know what Quinn sees in this dog."
She glared at them.
"I told you to go. So go. My precious daughter will not marry this worthless rat."
The guards rose and dispersed like shadows.
