The flight took over ten hours and finally approached the destination airport. The friendly and sweet voice of a stewardess came on the cabin broadcast, telling all travelers that the plane was about to land.
Summer turned to look out the window. Outside was the vast blue ocean. This country was the only one in the world that had the entire continent to itself with the ocean on all sides. It had a good deal of unique flora and fauna and natural wonders. Incidentally, this was the country that Summer used to dream of visiting, which she had once told Jerome about. But that was a long time ago. She thought Jerome’s purchase of the flight ticket to this country was just a coincidence.
The moment she got off the plane, the warm wave of air blasted against her face. January was the warmest month of the year in this country surrounded by the ocean.
She followed the crowd and headed to the exit. Walking alone with no luggage, her beautiful Asian face stood out, yet she was lonely among the crowd, with people walking past casting a curious look at her. Luckily, she had paid attention in her English class back in school, so communication was not a problem for her.
She took a taxi and checked in to the nearest hotel. Sparing no time to rest, she went out to buy a laptop.
She had just given half of the script to Eliza, who must have found out by now and been mad at her.
Summer logged in to her email and found several unread messages. The first email was from Jerome, sent three hours ago, just about the time the plane landed. The second was from Eliza, and from the third email onward, everything was from Jessica.
She had used this email for school use back then. Few people knew about this email, which was mainly for work. Not even her friends knew it existed. She did not have a separate email for personal use.
Summer moved the mouse cursor to the bottom of the list and clicked open the first email from Jessica, who sent her on the day she set the mansion on fire. She had not used her mobile phone since then, and the only means that Jessica could contact her was through email.
After opening the email and reading the first sentence, she could not help but laugh.
“Summer, where the f*ck have you gone to? You torched the mansion to the ground and went MIA (missing in action). That’s what you call I-know-what-I-am-doing? Contact me when you see this email. Otherwise, I’ll upload your photos to the booty-call website…”
Jessica was a little childish sometimes, especially when she was pissed. She would say things in a threatening manner.
After that, Summer opened the second email.
“I know you are still alive! Give a buzz! Or I will upload your photos tomorrow!”
She opened the third email.
“Damn you, give me some response!”
Summer laughed and sent Jessica a simple reply.
“Everything is fine. Don’t worry.”
She then opened the email from Eliza.
“Summer, you short-changed me? You only gave me half of the script. You…”
Sitting in front of the screen on the other side of the ocean, Summer could nearly feel the heat of Eliza’s anger in her email.
Summer replied, “Send me the agreement and I will email you the second half of the script.”
At last, she came to the email from Jerome. They had known each other since teens. Before they broke up and when she needed study notes during her school days, she would find Jerome for help. So Jerome knew her email address. His message looked more like an SMS with just one word: Arrive?
Summer did not reply. But she owed it to him for being able to escape from Leonardo. Someday, she knew, she had to return the favor. But not now. And she would ignore him for the moment.
After closing this email, she received a new email notification. It was from Jessica.
“Where are you? Do you need money? Are you safe?”
Summer felt touched; only Jessica would still remember and was concerned about her at this time. After replying to Jessica, she packed up and checked out at once. Leonardo was too smart. If he wanted, he would track her down sooner or later. She was not going to count on luck in front of him.
She went online and booked a homestay. The host was a pair of old couples, whose children were working in another city. They ran the homestay just so that the house would look livelier. The old couples were very hospitable to her.
…
In the president’s office of Tip Top Entertainment in Hoover City, as Jessica came in and saw Leonardo’s expression, she immediately thought of backing off. But the bodyguards standing at the door blocked her. Having no choice, she walked in.
Leonardo was now standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window with his back to her, looking lonely. However, she did not sympathize with him a bit. She pretended as if she did not know why he was summoning her.
“Big Boss, are you looking for me? Is there anything I can help you with?” She was all smiles.
Leonardo turned around, his black eyes looking like a pair of black holes, giving out no clue of what was in his mind.
Jessica looked down and swallowed hard as he looked at her. After a long while, she heard him speaking with a low and hoarse voice.
“She contacted you?”
“No.” Jessica was scared but she was not going to tell him.
“Really?”
She thought he would burst, but he did not. Instead, he took some documents from the desk and handed it to her. She took and read it, only to find that it was her email communication with Summer. With the document in her hand, she clenched her hands and told herself, “Screw it!”
“Yeah, she contacted me. What do you want?”
Leonardo had hired people to hack into her computer and email. So what? His face was stony when he spoke.
“Ask her where she is and tell her you’re going to her.”
As soon as her voice trailed off, she felt a fit of depressive anger in Leonardo.
Her family had pampered her since she was little, and Carl had never treated her roughly even though they had many disagreements and quarrels. Jessica took two steps back and tried to reason with Leonardo.
“You know the reason Summer ran away, don’t you? By pursuing her further, she will only keep running and hiding, and you will only make her life more difficult.”
Obviously, Leonardo did not agree with her. He squinted and ordered her with a dangerous voice, “Let her come back to me.”
“Come back to you? What for? Only to become a ‘dead’ person? She has her own mind, and she’s a living person. No matter how many times you bring her back, she is going to run away again!” Jessica scoffed.