When the cable car came for them, everyone stopped talking and got into it. After they came back to the villa, Sonia saw the cook sending off the doctor.
“Seems like Tina’s fine.” Rebecca crossed her arms.
Charles pouted. “Of course she is. That woman’s not gonna die that easily.”
“Alright, stop arguing and let’s go.” Sonia looked away and went into the villa, followed by Charles and the others.
Toby was making calls when they came in. When he saw Sonia and the others, he averted his gaze.
“Is Miss Gray okay, Toby?” Zane knew Tina was fine, but he asked Toby out of courtesy so that he wouldn’t look too indifferent.
“She’s fine. The snake wasn’t venomous.” Toby put his phone down.
“What a shame,” Rebecca suddenly said.
A frown creased Toby’s forehead, and his anger flared. He looked at Rebecca coldly before turning his attention to Zane. “You’d better keep her in check,” he said coldly.
Before Zane could reply, Charles laughed. “Well, I think Miss Harper’s right. It’s a shame the snake was harmless. Bet you don’t know this is all her own doing, Mr. Fuller.”
“What are you trying to say?” Toby squinted. At that moment, he realized this accident might not be a coincidence at all.
Charles wrapped his arm around Sonia’s shoulder. “What I’m saying is that Tina knew the snake was there all along. She wanted to get the snake to attack Sonia, but Rebecca managed to get Sonia to duck in time, so the snake ended up biting Tina instead.”
Toby froze for a moment, apparently shocked by the truth of the accident. “Is this true?” He looked at Sonia.
Sonia looked away, refusing to have any eye contact with him. Her silence annoyed Toby, but he didn’t let it show.
“Of course it’s true. We aren’t liars, unlike a certain someone.” Charles rolled his eyes.
Toby gazed at them for a moment. When he realized that they didn’t look like they were lying, he clenched his fists. Tina…
“So how are you gonna settle this, Mr. Fuller? Don’t leave us hanging.” Charles sneered at Toby, who was staring at the ground.
Toby stood up, pursing his lips. “Give me some time. I’ll settle this.”
“Sure. We can wait, but don’t disappoint us, Mr. Fuller.” Charles grinned.
After that, Toby went upstairs without another word.
“Wait for me, Toby.” Tyler quickly followed his brother. “I need to talk to you.” I have to get Toby to break up with Tina no matter what.
After the Fuller siblings were gone, Charles huddled closer to Sonia with a smile. “I wonder what Tyler’s going to tell Toby.”
“It’s a wonder indeed, but I’m not interested.” Sonia smiled at him and took his hand off her shoulder. “I’m going to my room to change.”
With that, she went upstairs as well, leaving Zane, Rebecca, and Charles in the living room. The trio looked at each other in silence for a moment.
Rebecca yawned. “I’m going to my room too. Gonna take a shower and nap.”
“I’m going for some horseback riding,” Zane said.
Thus, Rebecca went upstairs, while Zane went out, leaving Charles alone. He looked at Rebecca and Zane, then he sighed. “Where am I supposed to go then? Nowhere?” Since he had nothing to do, he plopped down on the couch and watched some TV.
Later, Zane went to pick a horse in the stable and led it to the track, but it was under cleaning, so he had to wait. Since that was the case, Zane tied his horse against a pole and leaned against the fence, holding a glass of juice as he watched the staff cleaning the track.
Suddenly, one of the staff members bent over to pick something up, then he shouted at the staff member with a red hat, “Hey captain! You might want to see this.”
“What is it?” The captain trotted toward his team member.
The staff member handed a glass bottle to his captain. “I found this. Took a whiff, and it seems to be musk.”
“Musk?” The captain frowned.
“Yep, and there’s two of them.” The staff member nodded. “But judging from the size of the bottle and the musk, there should have been three of them in here. This might be the one we lost.”
“I’m sure this is it, so the question is: where did the third one go?” the captain said.
Zane’s curiosity was piqued. “What’s the matter?” He went up to the staff.
The captain knew he was a client, so he told Zane honestly, “Our men found a bottle of musk pills on the ground.”
“Musk pills?” Zane arched his eyebrow. “What’s that?”
“It’s a kind of pill extracted from the fluids of stallions. Commonly used to arouse mares. Horses don’t get in heat that easily, so us breeders would use this to get the mares in heat. Makes them easier to breed,” the captain explained.
Zane nodded in realization. “I see. But why did you find it here out of all places?”
“No idea. When we did an inventory check yesterday, three pills were missing. Didn’t think we’d find them here.” The captain scratched his head in bafflement.
“Seems like someone stole it and used one of the pills,” Zane answered.
“But it’s useless unless you want to get a mare in heat. Why’d they steal this out of all the things here?” the staff member asked.
“Wait. You said it’s lost yesterday?” Realization struck Zane, and he got serious.
The captain nodded. “Yes. We do inventory checks every day, so I’m sure the pills only went missing yesterday. ‘Tis not an important thing, so we didn’t pay it any mind.”
Zane squinted. These pills can only affect mares, and they were stolen yesterday. Sonia’s mare got in heat on the track all of a sudden yesterday. This is no coincidence. Someone wanted Sonia to fall from her horse. The culprit managed to get Sonia’s mare in heat with one pill, so they threw everything else away, including the bottle. The culprit probably threw it onto the field because they thought it wouldn’t be found. The field’s really big anyway, so finding a tiny bottle like this would be difficult. “Do you guys have any surveillance cameras in the storeroom?” Zane turned to the captain.
The captain shook his head. “No.”
Zane thought that was a shame, but he didn’t dwell on it. “Can I have that?” He pointed at the bottle the captain was holding.
The captain wondered why Zane wanted the pills, but he gave it to Zane without any questions.
“Thank you.” Zane went back to his seat with the bottle in hand. It won’t be easy finding the thief without any camera footage, but I can still track that person down with his or her fingerprints. I hope the thief left some traces here.
Actually, Zane could guess who the culprit was. Who else could it be but Tina? But he needed evidence to back his guess up, so he decided to keep this a secret until he got the results of the fingerprint test.
That night, they had dinner in the dining hall, but as usual, they were split into two groups.
Tina was there too, but she was looking pale, perhaps still shocked from morning’s events. She was looking weak and needy for love, but nobody spared her that.
Everyone usually ignored Tina as much as possible, but after what happened that day, they simply pretended she wasn’t there; even Toby was looking indifferent. He didn’t care about Tina as he usually did.
Tina thought that was unfair, so she gripped her cutlery tightly and stared at Toby. “You seem upset, Toby.”
