Chapter 4

Jasper was in a navy suit, and his hair was slightly long and curled.

He smirked and asked indifferently, “I’d also love to know when you will divorce Esther, Mr. Warner.”

Bradley snickered. “Jasper, as your business rival, consider this a kind word of advice from me. There are plenty of fish in the ocean. Why waste your time on a murderer?”

‘Murderer?’ Jasper shook his head in his mind.

He could not fathom why the sharp and ruthless Bradley in the business world was this stupid about women.

“Bradley, you must be blind not to see Esther’s worth.”

Jasper and Bradley stood at loggerheads. Their commanding presence put their assistants and secretaries in distress.

“If you divorce Esther right now, I’ll marry her right off the bat.”

Bradley smirked cruelly and went straight to the point. “Your family won’t agree.”

Jasper shrugged, saying, “I graduated from Stanford. Even without the Searle family’s background as support, I won’t starve my wife. You, however, shouldn’t you give a title to the woman who has given birth to your child?”

There was a dark glint in Bradley’s eyes.

It was like Jasper did not see it as he uttered nonchalantly, “See you.”

He walked past Bradley and entered the elevator.

As the elevator’s doors were closing, Bradley suddenly turned around and stared at the closing doors, meeting Jasper’s challenging gaze.

It suddenly felt like it was a cold winter.

Cole stepped away discreetly and carefully avoided being hit by Bradley’s frosty aura.

The elevator doors opened. Jasper found the hospital ward Esther was in.

An ache swept past his heart as he saw her like this out of the blue.

In the past five years, Jasper had wanted to visit Esther in prison numerous times, but she refused to see him.

This was their first meeting after what had happened five years ago.

Esther was no longer the bright and sunny girl she used to be. She was all skin and bones, like a walking skeleton. Her empty eyes had lost their sparkle.

Jasper took a deep breath and greeted her hoarsely. “Esther, it’s been a while.”

Esther cracked a smile when she turned around to look at Jasper.

“You look more and more like a boss now, Jasper.”

Jasper gestured for his assistant and secretary to drop the suitcases and entered the ward alone.

“You didn’t want to see me or accept what I sent these five years. Are you punishing yourself, Esther? Or are you blaming me for not saving you?”

Esther paused before she shook her head lightly. She said in exhaustion, “I’ve never blamed you. After what happened, those people I used to know avoided me like the plague, but you were the only one who believed my innocence. I’m grateful for that.”

There was no doubt that Jasper believed in Esther. Thomas had been treating her like family and was the one who had contributed to her marriage. There was no reason for her to kill him.

He even suspected that the video Bradley had shown in court had been edited, but the evaluation of the professional computer expert confirmed that it was original.

Whatever it was, Jasper would not believe that Esther would do anything to harm Thomas.

“Mr. Thomas seemed to have woken up once after you were sent to prison, but the Warners had blocked the news. As such, I can’t be sure how true it is.

“Not too long ago, though, the lawyer announced his will after Mr. Thomas passed. You get to inherit 1/3 of his shares in the Warner Group.

“Esther, I’ll help you if you want to prove your innocence.”

Esther asked self-deprecatingly, “My innocence is no longer important. The truth of the incident doesn’t matter anymore, either. Because even if the evidence is placed before Bradley, he won’t believe it. He’ll only believe what he thinks.”

Jasper then asked, “Will you get a divorce?”

“Divorce? That’s for sure.”

There was an unprecedented certainty in Esther’s tone. She used to see marrying Bradley as her biggest dream in life. To fulfill it, she had given up on her career and thrown her pride away to become Bradley’s wife.

She used to naively think that she would be the happiest woman marrying Bradley, only to find that the marriage was the start of her life to hell.

Jasper was quiet for a moment before looking up gently.

“I can introduce a professional divorce lawyer to you if you want to do that.”

Esther was sincerely thankful. “Thank you, Jasper. But I have something I need your help with.”

“What is it?” Jasper straightened up.

“Please find my kids for me.”

Esther had thought that her children were really dead, so the time she had spent in jail was muddled and agonized.

Now, Bradley had actually told her that they were still alive. She knew him well; he would be too disdained to trick her into the surgery with a lie like this.

Since Bradley had said that her kids were alive, that meant they really were.

“Your kids?” Jasper looked at her in shock and asked in disbelief, “Didn’t you have a premature delivery in prison and they passed?”

At the thought of that, her heart ached so much that it was hard to breathe.

Her eyes were reddened as she answered hesitantly, “I’ve always thought the same, but just a few hours ago, Bradley told me that as long as I go through with the surgery, he’ll tell me where the kids are. Do you think he’ll trick me with it, Jasper?”

Jasper stroked his chin and replied after pondering, “No. He doesn’t have to tell a weak lie like this. If he said that the kids were still alive, they must still be around. It’s just that I’ve never heard of there being other kids around him. Besides, your kids are probably an insult to him.”

Esther had been overjoyed when she found out she was pregnant. Even Thomas had been elated. He had even gifted her an expensive lake-view mansion in the city center that was $90,000,000 in value.

However,, an indecent video of Esther had been exposed on the Internet, and Bradley was immediately teased for being a cuckold.

Thomas had not believed that Esther was someone like that and had wanted to find the culprit behind it. On the way to meet the lawyer, the Bentley he had been in coincidentally had a busted tire, and the accident put him on the verge of death.

Bradley had spent a fortune hiring the best experts from overseas to treat Thomas, but Esther removed his oxygen mask just when the latter turned better.

Even though Esther insisted that she had never done it in court, she was sentenced due to the solid evidence.

This also meant that Bradley had sent the pregnant Esther to prison himself five years ago.

“Jasper, the kids I carried are Bradley’s.” Esther corrected him and said disappointedly, “I didn’t apply for a paternity test back then because I was told they died from the difficult labor. I regret it so much now. Why wasn’t I determined to do it?”