Chapter 142: I Can’t Fall Asleep
A few minutes later, Tristan walked out of city hall.
When his eyes swept across the road lights, he seemed to see his teenage self from twenty years ago, who was lanky, with stubborn eyes and a heart full of hatred and struggle.
At that time, he was fresh out of the hospital. When he uncovered the gauze on his mother’s face in the inn bathroom, he collapsed. He took a knife and wanted to fight those people who did this.
His mother cried and held him tightly to stop him. She grabbed a fruit knife and pointed it to her chest to force him to give up the thought.
She said revenge was a dish that should be eaten cold.
So he took twenty years.
Or probably all his life.
Before returning to the villa, Tristan parked his car by the sea for some time.
He squatted at the beach, took out the photo he took from Donald’s office and flipped his lighter on.
One of his hands blocked the wind as he ignited the picture. He stared at it. Its corner coiled up as it turned into ash and flew away in the wind.
Tristan murmured in his heart, “Dad, Mom, you can have peace now.”
After Tristan returned home, he saw Kate sitting on the couch holding a book. Her soft profile was breathtakingly peaceful and elegant.
She heard his footsteps and turned back. Her eyes had the satisfaction of long expectations.
Tristan walked a few steps but then stopped and stood there, watching her walking toward him, her eyes carrying anxiety.
Tristan opened his arms to hold her, hugged her tight, and kissed her on the forehead.
“Why are you sitting up so late?”
“I can’t fall asleep.”
“You cannot sleep when I am not here?”
She didn’t reply but leaned her head against his chest. He stroked her smooth hair gently and muttered, “Kate.”
“Yes?” Her voice was soft and seemed to travel directly to his heart and then to his mind.
“Kate.”
“Lulu.”
“I missed you.”
He got the illusion that he was thirteen years old again and had just crossed three decades to come back.
It was a long journey. So he missed her so much.
He lifted his face and checked Kate’s big eyes. Her eyes were clear and pure, like a place that had never been contaminated by this world. He bent down to kiss her lips.
At the same time, under cover of night, a car parked by the yard of a house. A gray-haired man in his fifties walked out of the car. He was deputy director of LAPD Roger Kane.
The person in the house had been waiting for him. “You have time to come today.”
“Yes. I had some time and came to see how you are.”
Roger swept his eyes around the house and said, “You have kept yourself here for months. It is time for you to get some fresh air.”
“No hurry. Come see this.” The young man took out a stack of paper from the drawer.
“After a deep investigation, the boss behind the scenes of Ocean Dew Private Club was Tristan, as expected. It was under the cover of a private club, but in fact, it was a place for trading money and power.
Besides face-to-face trading, there was another innovative form of trade. Each room displayed some art collections. Most of them are private collections of government officials. And they are mostly counterfeit.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.
The bribers bought the counterfeits at a price for genius items, and thus the bribes were carried on in secret. The private club had strict management. We worked very hard to get the cooperation of a newly employed staff and got to know what was going on there. This is the list of part of the guests she sorted out.”
Roger scanned every name, and many of them were familiar to him. He frowned. When he came to the end of the list, he was surprised, “Him too?”
The young man nodded, “It was said that every item in his collection, he had a counterfeit. He kept one and ‘sold’ the other one.”
Roger paused for a while and then said gravely, “This was an unexpected finding. Tristan is powerful and influential. He developed a network so wide and dragged so many people in.”
The young man said, “To be clear, he didn’t drag them in. He just followed the course. He got them into the same network.”
Roger nodded, “Now it is not just a case of just him and Chasin. It involved…”
He didn’t finish his words, but they both understood and looked away to the window.
The night was pitch dark, but they could still see dark clouds roaring in the sky.
The city was going to have a heavy storm.