With all the formalities complete, the legal representative of the Windsor family stepped forward and demanded the release of the Windsor family leader on an immediate basis.
"Since you have no evidence against our family leader and the true culprit has already confessed to his crime, you have no authority to hold our family leader without a cause. Release him immediately."
The lawyer was a little overbearing as he was confident that the police couldn't keep Marico in custody anymore.
Violet on the other hand didn't share the same attitude. She was polite but cold as asked the police officer, "Can I see my father now?"
The police officer didn't delay any longer and nodded his head vigorously while saying, "He can be released temporarily but he has to appear for the hearing of his case when called upon."
Violet nodded in return as if she understood the necessary procedures that had to be followed.
The police officer didn't say anything either and immediately ordered a constable to go inform the warden about the progress on the case.
…
The case proceedings didn't take very long after Grace confessed to his crime and Marico was soon released from police custody as a free man. All the charges against him had been dropped by the law and the embargo on the sale of cane sugar was lifted as well.
The case was highly publicized since it was a high-profile case that involved one of the most powerful families of the city. Although the rival families tried to keep the news under wraps, not a single one of them was able to prevent the sale of the sugar in the market after it was allowed by law.
The reputation loss that the Windsor family experienced due to the poisoning incident was soon recovered after the verdict of the court. The people began to trust the product again as none of them were able to keep themselves from experiencing the heavenly sweet taste of the product for long.
The sugar supply chain that had been dormant all this while and the stock of sugar that had been stored in the warehouses was transported out of the city in bulk.
Christina was exceptionally busy during this period because the high stock build up allowed the export quantity to increase by several times which needed her continuous monitoring in order to finalize the routing and scheduling of the trucks for each day. Still, she wasn't one to complain. She did her best to fulfill the expectations of the Windsor family which was her prime purpose in this city.
…
While there were celebrations and rebuilding going on in the Windsor family mansion, there was darkness and gloom in the Hunter family mansion. An oppressive pressure plagued every individual in the mansion which strained their breathing and forced them to tread cautiously as if there was some fearsome beast lying in wait ahead.
The reason for the overwhelmingly repressive atmosphere was the violent temper of the head of the Hunter family who was currently fuming as he paced around in the living room. The servants standing around him all cowered in fear. They were terrified of making any mistake at this time.
"That bastard; I admit I underestimated him a little too much. The son of such a bastard was bound to be a bastard. I should have known better." Hogan muttered to himself in anger as he berated himself for thinking lowly of his opponent.
He had previously believed that Zach was too wet behind the ears to pose a threat to his elaborate schemes. In the end, Zach had been the one to sabotage his carefully thought-out plans.
While Hogan was busy pacing around the room, a gaunt man dressed in rags stood respectfully to the side as he bled from his mouth. The amount of blood from his mouth suggested an internal injury instead of an external and superficial one. He was probably vomiting blood continuously.
The man was the object of Hogan's fury at the moment as he would punch his guts out from time to time in order to mitigate his anger and to calm down the boiling fury inside his veins. The gaunt man had in fact been the only survivor amongst the people tasked with keeping an eye on Taylor. He had luckily survived Christina's onslaught but had reported back too late.
As a result, Violet had made her move decisively and had saved her father.
Hogan was left twiddling his thumb as his plans were brought to a naught instantly. Therefore, he was busy taking out his anger on the gaunt man while the servants watched on in horror.
Burning with fury, Hogan once again began to punch the man with all his strength as he kept screaming on top of the man's cries, "You bastard deserve to die after getting in my way. I'll kill you…I'll kill you…I'll kill you…I'LL KILL YOU…"
Hogan calmed down after a long while. The gaunt man was lying on the floor in a fetal position as he squealed like a pig about to be slaughtered. His voice was both hoarse and weak after such a long beating.
Hogan on the other hand was brimming with bloodlust. The idea of killing Zach took root in his mind after this failure. He had unconsciously begun to associate Zach with his supposed father, the rumored dark mage Wood Smith who had oppressed him when he was young. As such his killing intent grew more and more intense when he needed to take this unstable element into account while formulating the new plans to slow down the progress of the Windsor family.
In the end, Hogan came to the conclusion that the Windsor family would fall easily if only he could take control of the only element, he could not control despite all his schemes. The methods of the dark mage were far from ordinary and far from what he could anticipate in advance. As such he could only eliminate the irregularity before advancing any further with his plans.
Having come to a decision, Hogan didn't want to wait any longer.
He had visibly calmed down after raining down punches on the gaunt man. Grunting heavily, he called for one of the servants standing at the edge of the living room.
"Call my son here. I want to see him in front of me in the next second."
The servant left in a hurry as he stumbled on his feet from fear of the family head.
Next Hogan turned towards one of the guards who had been standing motionless besides one of the doors to the huge hall and bellowed, "Get ready, we are going to leave the mansion soon."
The security measures taken for the head and the young master had been increased by a lot these days as Hogan was afraid of the retaliation of the Windsor family. Therefore, he wasn't willing to leave the mansion without his security detail no matter how angry or frustrated he was.
Nelson arrived soon after as if he had been waiting for his father's summons all this time.
"Father, you called for me?" asked Nelson in a probing manner. He wasn't sure if his father's anger had calmed down yet or not. Therefore, he didn't want to push any of his buttons in a reckless manner.
"Go pack up some essentials, we are going to travel for a bit."
Although there were several questions in Nelson's mind like, 'How many days would it be? Where are we travelling to? How much I need to pack?', he didn't have the guts to ask them for fear of his father turning on him all of a sudden. After his recent failure with Violet, his father had been very averse to his existence already.
With no guts to ask anything, all he could do was comply with the order he received from his father without complaint and hope to do it all right.
When everything was ready, Nelson followed right after his father as they marched to the carriage waiting for them outside. The luggage for the trip had been loaded on another carriage and dispatched to the docks ahead of them.
Stepping out of the carriage, Nelson took a look all around him as if this was the first time he had come into the world and was taking in everything like a whale gulping down seawater.
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