In the evening, Amelia Bright was cooking porridge in the kitchen.
An engine stopped outside, and through the kitchen window she saw a tall, straight figure get out of the car and walk hurriedly into the yard.
Once inside, Farren Austin didn’t even change his shoes and walked straight toward the kitchen, questioning in a cold voice.
“You were the one who accused Calla Moon in front of the police?”
“Yes, I did.”
Farren Austin grimaced.
“Why on earth would you do that?”
“I just told the truth.”
Farren Austin clenched his fists, a look of annoyance on his face, and his voice drew up a few notches.
“What’s the truth? The truth is what you said about Calla Moon killing Grandpa? Calla Moon was with me all day, military training, and the entire Hounslow military district can testify to her.”
The room was as quiet as death when he finished that sentence.
Amelia Bright looked at him quietly, her face overly calm, and
“I take responsibility for what I said, I don’t know what Grandpa saw, but what Grandpa told me, it was Calla Moon, and it was for you, to watch out for Calla Moon.”
“So you accused her and had the police department take her into custody?”
“I have a clear conscience.”
“Amelia Bright.”
“If you’re going to keep talking to me about this, it’s pointless, if she really didn’t do anything, then let the police investigate and clear the air.”
“Do you know that or not? All the evidence now points to you.”
When she heard this, Amelia Bright stopped what she was doing and looked up.
“What are you trying to say?”
“I can believe you, but right now, you’re coming with me to the police station to clear everything up and pick up Calla Moon.”
“And if I don’t go? Will you suspect me of deliberately throwing dirt on Calla Moon in order to clear myself of suspicion?”
“Wouldn’t you?”
The word ‘isn’t’ stung her eardrums.
She looked at the man in front of her for a long time in a daze, her clenched fingers whitened.
“Is that how you believe in me?”
Probably realizing that she had spoken too forcefully, Farren Austin wrinkled his brow tightly, forced down his dissatisfaction, and tried to soften his tone.
“You simply don’t understand what kind of people are behind the CID, once Calla Moon is in their custody, what happens after that will be completely out of our control, the special operations team needs Calla Moon, you can’t gamble on this matter.”
Amelia Bright was disappointed, even with the heat rising from the pot, she still felt the cold pounding in her face.
“Is it that no matter what I tell you, you’re going to insist that I’m the one gambling with you on this matter?”
“…”
“This is not negotiable, there’s no way I’m going to the police to retract my previous statement, and I take responsibility for every word I said.”
Farren Austin’s face was clear and cold, without any expression, and said in a deep voice that
“Even if you don’t go, getting Calla Moon out won’t be difficult for me.”
“Is that so? So I’m supposed to thank you for coming back to me today, for giving me the opportunity to undo the mistakes I’ve made?”
“Unless you tell me that there are two Calla Moons in the world that look exactly alike, how are you going to convince me that it was Calla Moon who killed Grandpa.”
“Good,” Amelia Bright let go of the spoon and turned toward the living room, pulling out a contract under the coffee table, folding it back and handing it to Farren Austin, looking up for a moment, her eyes turning distant and cold.
“If you don’t put Calla Moon under investigation and just let her out, we’re divorced.”
She knew that threatening a man was not a smart way to get a divorce, especially for someone as high-minded as Farren Austin, who would never be controlled by threats.
But she didn’t have any leverage, she was isolated in the Austin family, everyone was on her side, she couldn’t get any leverage to win the war except this relationship, this marriage.
The enemy is in the dark, she is in the light.
Farren Austin’s face changed all of a sudden, seeing the proposed contract, just one page to cut the property all clear, she does not want the Austin family a penny, in the lower right corner of the agreement, has signed his name.
“You want a divorce?” The shock in his eyes was clearly visible.
“Yes, if you insist on letting Calla Moon out without any investigation.”
“You’re threatening me.”
Farren Austin’s face sank another point.
“Not a threat, a death sentence.”
She bet on Farren Austin’s feelings between her and begged for a truth that would save everyone, and as long as Calla Moon accepted the investigation, she would definitely find a way to find out what was wrong with her, and when everything came out, she could bear the misunderstanding Farren Austin had about her in the meantime.
“What if nothing comes out?”
Farren Austin’s rhetorical question echoed in the room, like the evening breeze of a bamboo forest, cold and sluggish.
She was slightly stunned and said through clenched teeth, “No way.”
There must be something wrong with Calla Moon.
Farren Austin’s face, however, sank, “If nothing is found out, this divorce agreement I will sign, and even if that is the case, you insist?”
There was a moment of silence that seemed as long as a century of frozen time.
When Farren Austin said these words, the weightlessness in her heart was already very clear, yet she still gritted her teeth and stubbornly nodded her head.
“Yes.”
Without another word, Farren Austin walked away with the divorce papers, leaving only one sentence, “Okay, I’ll have the police investigate and never interfere in the meantime.”
The house was empty, except for the sound of the wind whistling through the window.
The porridge in the pot gurgled for a long time, a hint of burnt smell spread in the air, Amelia Bright sucked her nose, snapped back to her senses, busy turning off the induction cooker, reached to remove the lid of the pot when a burnt feeling exploded in her fingers, she let out a cry of surprise.
“Clang,” the pot lid fell at her feet with a loud clang.
The kitchen was a mess.
It suddenly occurred to her that if Calla Moon really hid well enough, if the CID people really couldn’t find any suspicion, or even if Grandpa really wasn’t killed by Calla Moon, then would Farren Austin really divorce himself?
If there is really this day, even if Farren Austin does not mention it, she will also take the initiative to leave this place.
Because of Calla Moon, the disconnect between her and Farren Austin is already clearly visible.
—
Three days later, the funeral of the old man Austin was held in a low profile at the West Side Cemetery.
The Austin family notified only a few close relatives and close friends of Austin’s, as well as his former subordinates, to attend, and Steven Austin carried the urn and placed it in the grave.
Amelia Bright drove herself here, four months pregnant, but not quite visible yet, her wide black down coat wrapping her figure around her, holding an umbrella to block the snowflakes overhead as she walked toward the crowd.
“What are you doing here?”
A shrill voice exploded from the crowd, Steven Austin’s cousin, the woman she should have called a cousin to Farren Austin.
“It’s not enough that you got Halyn killed, you got the old man killed, and you dare to come to a funeral?”