After Matteo left the apartment, he found a suitable spot and sat down.
But just as he thought he would not bump into anyone he knew, a car sped by in the neighborhood and someone spotted him.
“Kelly, I’m not sure if I’m seeing things, but I think I just saw your niece’s stepson in Old Town.”
The sky was already dark and the woman in the car was simply taking a cursory glance at the surroundings. If it were not for the sudden beam of light from the tablet that shone right in Matteo’s face in the dark when he switched on the tablet, she would not have even spotted him sitting there all alone.
“Old Town?” Kelly asked, alarmed.
Kelly was at home when her friend called her and told her what she saw.
The family had never had a moment of peace ever since Xandra went to Hayes Corporation to work two days ago.
She was all dressed up and her mood was phenomenally good when she went out. But she came back dejected when she did not even get to enter the company.
“Are you sure you saw that kid?” Kelly asked, her grip tightening around her phone.
“Hm, I think it’s him. Let me go back and check,” the woman said, taking a U-turn and driving back to where she first saw Matteo.
Kelly stole a look at her niece and shook her head. Xandra had been fervently trimming her plants like a psycho for the whole day.
After a few minutes, Kelly’s phone beeped and a photo showed on her screen.
It showed a boy who looked exceptionally familiar. He had a small bag on his back and he was sitting on a staircase, playing with his tablet.
This is really him! This is Xandra’s stepson!
She sprung from the couch and beckoned her niece to come over. “Cut it out, Xandra. You won’t get to go to the company even if you cut away all the flowers in the world. I have something that you might want to see. Come here.”
Xandra looked up at her aunt without saying a word. Tending to plants was never her favorite pastime. But ever since she got back from the company, she had been trimming the bonsai. Even she herself could not understand why she became so compulsive.
She realized she had been cutting the branches a lot ever since that darn woman came back to life and ruined her life.
Snip! The thought of that woman made Xandra’s blood boil and she clenched her grip tight around the scissors, cutting off another branch forcefully.
She looked at the nearly-bald bonsai before throwing the pair of scissors aside and walked over without betraying any emotions on her face.
Kelly held out her phone towards Xandra and showed her the photo. “Take a look. Isn’t this boy Sebastian’s son?”
Sebastian?
The mention of his name lightened Xandra’s mood. She hastened her steps towards her aunt and grabbed the phone over.
“Who sent this?” she asked the moment she saw the photo.
“One of my besties. She said she saw him in Old Town. I wonder why Sebastian’s son is there though. What do you think?” Kelly asked.
Xandra darted her eyes around as she thought hard. “I don’t think he’ll ever go to that place. It looks filthy.”
“I know right. He’s Ian Hayes. I don’t think someone of his status will ever go to a place like that. Why not we probe into this? Who knows what we might find out?”
Kelly’s keen observation told her things were not as simple as they seemed. She pored over every detail of the picture and her gut feeling told her there must be something more to it.
Beside her, Xandra nodded in agreement before instructing their men to do a thorough investigation of the area.
Now that they had started an investigation, it was impossible for Sasha and the kids to remain under the radar. Although Old Town was not as well-surveilled as New Town, there were still security cameras on the main roads.
It did not take long before Xandra and Kelly found out about everything.
“Sasha Wand! She lives in Old Town?”
Xandra exclaimed at the top of her voice when she looked at the footage on her phone. Her face turned crooked in disgust and anger as if she would rip the woman in her screen into shreds.
Kelly was equally shocked when she saw the footage.
But the two did not realize that the little boy in the footage was not Ian, but Matteo since the brothers looked identical to each other.
“So she actually brought Ian to her place? I really don’t understand what’s happening. Ian has grown so fond of her ever since she came into his life. Look at this. He’s following her around wherever she goes!”
Xandra seethed with anger as her slender finger pointing at the screen quivered uncontrollably.
What happened at the company two days ago already made her feel humiliated beyond measure. Now that she saw the surveillance camera footage, she totally lost it.
“Stupid b*tch! I’m gonna kill her! I swear I’m gonna kill her!” she screamed and ran out of the door.
Kelly reacted immediately and pulled her back.
“Are you crazy? Do you want to kill her yourself? Get someone else to do it! She won’t be lucky enough to survive,” Kelly reminded her.
A glimmer of devilry shone in her dark eyes as she drilled her glare through the photo of Matteo.
——
Back at Royal Court One, Frontier Bay.
Sebastian almost went berserk when he saw Ian standing calmly at the door with his bag. The boy stood in front of the gate and looked at his dad quietly.
Sebastian rushed over immediately, his furious glare fixated on the boy as his steps hastened into a run. He raised his quaking hand at the child when he finally came close, ready to teach him a good lesson.
