It was safe to say that Abbie and Valeria had completely ignored Raymond during their dinner.
Distressed, Raymond checked his phone and found that there was still no reply from William.
He couldn’t help but send another text to William, “Are you coming to get Aunt Valeria away or not?!”
And William didn’t text back until a while later, “Coming later.”
Finally getting a confirmed answer from William, Raymond brightened up. Now he only had to wait for William to come over and bring Valeria away so that he could spend some time alone with Abbie.
Then, with a sense of relief, he realized that they hadn’t had any drinks so far. So, he got up and filled the ladies’ glasses with juices, and poured himself a glass of beer. Then, they raised glasses to toast and took a sip of their beverages.
A moment later, Valeria began to feel dizzy. She rubbed her forehead and asked, “Why am I feeling dizzy?”
“I felt that too,” Abbie said, trying to stand up but failed.
Shocked to see Abbie and Valeria fainted almost the same time, Raymond wanted to check on them, but he didn’t even have the strength to stand up.
It was at that instance that he realized something had gone wrong. And his first instinct was to call William. However, the drug in the beer was too strong. He lost his consciousness before he could even reach his phone.
After the three of them all passed out, someone opened the door to the private room and took a peek inside. Then, the man made a call, “They’re fainted, so what now?”
“Spray the mist on Raymond and Valeria,” the soft, cold voice from the other end of the phone ordered. “And leave doing nothing else.”
After he hung up, the man snuck into the private room and aimed the spray in his hand at Valeria and Raymond. He made sure to spray more than enough of the mist on both of them before he left the room hastily.
On the other side of the city, William left for the Thai restaurant after replying to Raymond’s text. On his way there, Marcus called, “Mr. Howard, something’s not quite right. Charles’s man, who was supposed to watch Raymond, left.”
“What did he do before he left?” William asked.
“He was in the restaurant for about half an hour or so. I don’t know what he did.” Marcus continued, “There are already journalists around the front door, and they come prepared. But as far as we know, there’s no public figure in the restaurant. So, it’s strange for the journalists to gather here.”
William’s heart sank after he heard Marcus’s debrief. He instructed, “Where are your men? Send them to Valeria’s room. Now!”
Meanwhile, he sped up.
A few minutes later, Marcus called again, “Mr. Howard, they all fainted!”
“Get someone to bring Raymond away immediately! If he wakes up, knock him out,” William barked without thinking. “I’ll be there in a minute.” Then, he made another call to Richard as he began speeding through the red lights.
Richard answered the call rather quickly, “Yes?”
“I know you have people following Abbie. Ask them to stop the journalists gathering right outside the restaurant. Now. Fists before questions.”
“What?” Richard was dumbfounded. “What happened?”
“Disaster,” William’s answer was curt. “Valeria, Abbie, and Raymond are all passed out in their private room. And I think Savannah and Charles are behind it. Just call your men and ask them to prevent the journalists at all cost!”
Meanwhile, Charles and Savannah were already celebrating in Charles’s study room.
“Everything’s sorted out,” Charles grinned. “Now, we just have to wait for the news coverage on Valeria and that son of a b*tch. It’ll be the headline of the year, don’t you think?”
Savannah sipped at her wine, “I told you my plan is much better than yours. Knock them out, drug them, and lead the reporters who have a grudge with Archer to the restaurant. Just a picture of that b*stard and Valeria got out there, and there will be no way back for them.”
“Everything is going according to plan… Since the reporters don’t see eye to eye with Archer, they will surely add color to the situation. Oh, just imagine how mad Mr. Gavin will be. There’s no way he’s still going to accept Valeria as a family,” Charles smiled.
“Also, that b*stard will be besieged on all sides. Not only is Archer going to hate him even more, but William also will be turning against him. I mean, he can’t possibly still help someone who slept with his fiancée. So, Raymond has no choice but to come to you, and Valeria will be the lamb to slaughter.”
Meanwhile, the Thai restaurant was surrounded by a swarm of journalists. Earlier that day, they all caught wind of gossip that Raymond, who had a salacious reputation during his days abroad, was going to meet up with two women here at this restaurant around this time.
Naturally, they weren’t going to miss anything that would definitely make the headline. So, the reporters all gathered near the restaurant several hours before the provided time.
As expected, after waiting for a long time, they saw Raymond walk into the Thai restaurant.
Since the tip-off had partially proven itself wasn’t going to be a bootless errand, the reporters stayed for the women that were allegedly involved with Raymond.
Roughly half an hour after Raymond entered the restaurant, an anonymous person texted and instructed them to go to the private room on the third floor for the headline in another half an hour.
So, they were all eagerly waiting to barge into the restaurant, wondering what was happening in the private room as they waited.
Once it was time to move, the reporters immediately jumped off their cars with their hidden equipment and ran towards the restaurant.
However, two burly men in uniforms came out of nowhere and started hitting people without a word.
Everything happened too fast. The first few reporters were already knocked out cold on the ground when the rest of them finally realized what had happened.
But that didn’t stop the two men. In a few steps, they headed towards their nearest targets and put them down without hesitation.
Now, only a handful of the reporters were still standing, and their first instincts were to turn on their equipment to start recording. Yet, they were met with the same fate as their colleagues.
The burly men had every one of the reporters knocked on the ground.
Then, the men moved nimbly to take away the hidden equipment on the unconscious reporters, as well as the other usual equipment in their cars.
As they were doing that, a few of the reporters regained their consciousness. They laid on the ground, groaning in pain, and wondered what they did to deserve such a beating.
At the same time, they noticed that someone was supporting Raymond leaving the Thai restaurant.