After shaking off Karlee, Darnell drove for another ten minutes before arriving at the Bauhinias Residences.
Although it was early morning and there weren’t many people around, there were still some elderly folks out for their morning exercise. As he entered the neighborhood, an old lady walking with her granddaughter dropped her purse.
The purse fell right in the driveway. She bent down to pick it up while holding her granddaughter’s hand. Darnell timely hit the brakes, waiting so that the old lady could safely retrieve her purse.
He watched the old lady and her granddaughter with particularly gentle and warm eyes. A child without a family always yearned for affection.
Beep beep!
While Darnell was waiting, a Ferrari came up from behind, trying to squeeze past but finding the driveway too narrow.
The driver honked desperately at Darnell. Turning his head, Darnell saw two girls in fancy clothes sitting in the car.
One looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing a pink outfit. She had a pretty but haughty face, even more arrogant than Karlee.
She was driving the car, her beautiful face showing impatience as she honked incessantly.
In the passenger seat sat a young woman in her early twenties, wearing sneakers. Her long black hair was casually tied into a ponytail, and her bright eyes sparkled with intelligence and rationality. Her smile carried a hint of allure.
“Hey, idiot in front, move out of the way!”
After honking several times without any response from Darnell, the girl in pink got angry. “Where are your eyes? Can’t you see a car is coming?”
Darnell smiled faintly and pointed ahead. “An old lady is picking up something. Wait a moment.”
“My time is precious. Move along quickly.”
The girl in pink was very impatient. “If you waste my time, you’re dead meat. Are you blind?”
Darnell got angry. He respected the elderly and gave them time to pick up their belongings, yet he got criticized instead of praised.
He hadn’t even had time to demand compensation for being startled when the girl in pink insulted him by calling him blind.
Suddenly, Karlee seemed much more lovable to him.
He grinned and said, “My eyes are this big and this beautiful. Can’t you see them?”
The girl in pink was stunned at first, then she turned angry. This guy was implying she was blind! “How dare you talk to me like that?”
“If I had known, I would have floored it and run you over. Hitting you wouldn’t cost me anything. What’s a little Porsche worth anyway?”
Darnell responded calmly, “Right, a Porsche isn’t worth much. But you are.”
He glanced at her body meaningfully before adding, “Little girl.”
“You!”
Hearing this, the girl in pink got furious and revved the engine aggressively as if she were about to crash into him.
“Bella, stop fooling around. He’s not blocking the road on purpose. Just wait a moment.”
A delicate hand pressed down on Bella’s hand as the woman in sneakers spoke softly, “Otherwise, if Elvis finds out, you’ll get scolded again.”
Bella deflated upon hearing this but angrily pounded the steering wheel. “I’ll teach that bastard a lesson when I get the chance for daring to insult me.”
This was the first person in her life who dared to mock her.
The woman in sneakers smiled faintly and patted Bella’s hand. “Bella, don’t be petty. Think bigger.”
Bella pouted reluctantly.
At that moment, the old lady had left the driveway. Darnell didn’t continue arguing with Bella. He stepped on the gas and left.
Five minutes later, Darnell arrived at Areli’s apartment. Having been there before, he skillfully took the elevator to the eighteenth floor.
Darnell rang the doorbell several times but got no response. He muttered to himself, “Don’t tell me she’s still asleep.”
Although Darnell didn’t think Areli was unreliable, he frowned when there was no answer after ringing repeatedly.
Worried that something might have happened to her, he swiftly entered another password and pulled out a fingerprint scanner from his pocket.
With a click, he opened the door.
“Miss Fanshaw!”
Darnell entered the living room and looked around but saw no signs of a struggle. Everything was neatly arranged.
The dozen computers and monitors on the workbench were also operating normally.
Darnell frowned slightly and hesitated before rushing into the bedroom where he had slept last time.
“Miss Fanshaw!”
However, he only found an empty room with no sign of Areli.
Without pausing, Darnell dashed to the balcony but still found no trace of Areli. Even the windows were intact.
As he walked back into the room, something on the bed caught his eye.
A set of black lingerie, a bra with a cartoon The Flying Little Policewoman design and matching panties, also black stockings and a short black skirt lay there along with silk pajamas that Areli had worn last night.
He also caught a whiff of lemon-scented body wash.
“Damn! She’s just taking a shower.”
Relieved by this realization, Darnell didn’t need to check around corners or peek into bathrooms. Seeing her lingerie told him enough about Areli’s situation.
He mentally kicked himself for worrying unnecessarily but then glanced at his watch. 6 AM wasn’t exactly a typical shower time for most people.
But then, he quickly shivered. Why would Areli be taking an early morning shower? Was it similar to his own ritual after the entanglement with women?
Thinking about her request for two breakfasts made his heart ache inexplicably as his eyes sharpened with suspicion.
He searched for any signs of another man but found nothing related to one throughout the room, a small comfort indeed.
Looking at Areli’s intimate lingerie brought back the memories of their passionate night together. Darnell involuntarily conjured the image of Areli taking a shower in the bathroom at that very moment, but he quickly chided himself for the indecent thought and turned to leave the room. Just as he moved, a morning breeze swept in from the open balcony.
The cartoon panties fluttered into the air.
Darnell swiftly caught the lingerie with a reflexive grab, turning his head to wryly smile at his own absentmindedness. Leaving the balcony open could lead to peeping Toms when Areli emerged.
He stepped back, closed the balcony door, and pulled the room’s curtains shut to prevent any accidental exposure.
As he was about to leave, a faint sound of footsteps approached.
Darnell paused, a thought crossing his mind, and he made to depart, but it was too late.
A woman emerged from the bathroom, her voluptuous body tightly wrapped in a towel, currently drying her face with another towel.
She carried a hazy mist of steam from the bath, her exposed skin flushed and rosy in the air, a hint of blush on her cheeks.
An alluring fragrance emanated from her.
Her bare legs, under the light, were strikingly fair and blindingly tempting.
The scent filled the bedroom.
Darnell couldn’t resist taking a couple of extra glances.
“Ah!”
The aloof woman, preoccupied with drying droplets, hadn’t noticed Darnell, but her intuition sensed something amiss.
So she instinctively raised her head, and Darnell’s eyes widened in disbelief.
The woman wasn’t Areli, but the policewoman he had met at the repair shop.
It was Judith.
Panties with cartoon characters?
“Ah!”
Darnell let out a scream, collapsed to the ground, and pretended to faint.
Judith was taken aback. Wasn’t she the one who should be screaming?