Chapter 5

Nicholas pursed his lips and asked, "Maddie, how are the children at Starry Orphanage recently?"

Madison froze for a moment before quickly replying, "They're all doing great. There's even a boy who got into college. Why are you asking me this all of a sudden?"

Nicholas's fingers trembled, almost losing his grip on the phone. "Maddie, Winnie is a girl."

The orphanage tended to accept girls. There was only one boy, and he would now have been no more than five years old if he had survived the fire.

It was something even Nicholas knew, but Madison gave the wrong information.

"Oh, I was mistaken. It was indeed a girl. I even gave her a dress. Nicholas, let's talk about the orphanage later. Have you found Astrid? If she doesn't come out to clarify things soon, my acting career will really be ruined. My parents are also mad recently. I've never seen them so furious..."

Nicholas could no longer make out what was being said on the other end of the line.

I watched him repeatedly try to question her, but he swallowed his words when they were on the tip of his tongue. He had no choice but to hang up.

A look of fear appeared on his face again. Something he was resisting and unwilling to believe seemed to be emerging uncontrollably.

A security guard nearby saw him and handed him a USB drive. "You're looking for information about the orphanage, aren't you? I've seen you come twice. This is CCTV footage from the old orphanage site. I was going to give it to the police, but no one has come to investigate, so I kept it to myself. Take a look and see if it has what you need."

In the car, Nicholas opened his laptop in the back seat and quickly reviewed the footage.

I sat next to him, slowly looking over his appearance.

I recalled how thin and small he was back then, yet he held me firmly when I fell. Later, I learned there were many sharp rocks under the tree. Without him, I would have died from the fall.

I held on for years because of this life-saving grace. Today, it had finally come to an end.

Suddenly, Madison's face appeared on the computer screen. Her eyes flickered with fury as she spoke viciously into the phone, "Astrid, give me Nicholas's heirloom ring within half an hour or all these people will die! Don't blame me, blame yourself. When you were four, I made you impersonate me so you could suffer in the Rhode family in my place. Who knew that the Rhode family would make a comeback? You enjoyed 18 years of blessings that weren't yours, so this is the price you have to pay!"

Nicholas widened his eyes in disbelief. His first instinct was to make a call, but his finger tapped to check the home surveillance footage from the cameras he had installed last night out of worry for Madison; only he knew about this.

On the screen, Madison was pleading humbly into the phone. "Mr. Whittaker, even if I sleep with ten more men, I still won't be able to gather a billion! How about... I give you a woman who looks like me? You like my looks, right? Astrid can be yours to play with as you please. Just delete the rest of the video backups and we'll write off my debt..."

Nicholas's back stiffened. His breathing was rapid and his veins bulged as if he wanted to crush the phone.

At the same time, the person in the seat in front of him exclaimed, "Mr. Jennings, Astrid died four years ago!"

I did not hear the rest as Death had arrived. "The time has come, Astrid. Are you ready for your soul to be annihilated?"

I gently stroked Nicholas's cheek and nodded slightly. "Yeah, let's begin."