The maid answered in a choked voice, "Mrs. Su said that Miss Su was so weak that she was almost scared to death by the snake, so it was attempted murder..."

"All right, all right. Tell the Su family that I did this, and it has nothing to do with you. Let them come to me if there is something wrong with Phoebe!" Erica's words were steady; she'd mentally prepared herself for this.

"Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Huo!" Shuddering in relief, the maid thought, 'Mrs. Huo is really a good person. She always keeps her word!'

In the meeting room of ZL Group

Paige followed Matthew into the meeting room, where they found Lyman, Fanya and Phoebe waiting. Standing in the corner like a human statue was a lone security guard, gripping a box in his hands.

Murmured greetings were exchanged, and everyone sat down except for the guard.

Smiling perfunctorily, Fanya asked, "Mr. Huo, hasn't Mrs. Huo arrived yet?"

Matthew had a look at his watch, then answered, "My wife is busy. When I called her, she was still taking photos in the suburbs.

I imagine she's just gotten into the city at this time." This came as an unpleasant surprise to the Su family. They had already been waiting for more than ten minutes.

Now Matthew told them that Erica had only just entered the city itself? It would take her at least another half-hour to get to the ZL Group!

Despite her best efforts, Fanya's smile evaporated. "Mr. Huo, I don't need to tell you how precious our time is. It will take half an hour for Mrs. Huo to arrive. What are we going to do until then—nothing? I don't think this is appropriate."

Matthew leaned back in his chair and played with the diamond ring on his ring finger. As usual, his whole manner was relaxed and emotionless. "Why is it not appropriate? I came here ahead of time, didn't I? I'm waiting here, just like you. My time is more valuable than yours. So, Mrs. Su, is there anything you are not satisfied with?"

Fanya was left speechless. She was perfectly aware of the reality behind Matthew's words. The man could make tens of billions of dollars in a minute, while the Su family could make at most hundreds of millions in the same time.

So, of course, Matthew's time was quite literally worth more than theirs.

Nevertheless, Fanya really didn't have the patience to wait for Erica. "Then I'll get to the point. Give the box to me!"

Matthew did not object, and the guard came over to the conference table. With considerable care, he placed the box on the opposite end, two or three meters away from the Su family.

The box itself was covered with a layer of black cloth, and it was quite impossible to see what was inside.

Glancing at the box, Matthew said nothing.

Fanya minced no words, speaking with barely-contained fury. "Mrs. Huo has bribed our maid to sneak in and put a snake on my daughter's bed. Do you know that, Mr. Huo?"

'So there's a snake in the box, is there? How bold Erica is!' Matthew thought to himself. "Do you have any evidence for this accusation, Mrs. Su?" he asked indifferently.

"Of course we do. The maid has already admitted that she had received one hundred thousand dollars in cash from Mrs. Huo. She's outside in the lobby. If you don't believe me, Mr. Huo, we can bring her in and hear it from her personally."

Matthew was a man who would defend his wife, whether or not this incident was all her fault. "My wife is a weak young woman," he protested, drawing out the words. "It's very hard for me to imagine her doing something as devious as this. Not to mention, the difficulties she would have in practically carrying it out. There might be some misunderstanding!"

Paige was stunned to hear how good her boss was at turning black into white.

Two days ago, Matthew had asked her to investigate Erica's one hundred thousand dollars and to find out where it had been spent. She'd found out that it had been given to the maid of the Su family. As for what the maid had done for such a sum, Matthew didn't ask Paige to investigate. Of course, the Su family's visit today gave him enough to guess what had happened.

But he admitted to nothing.

Phoebe, on the other hand, did not feel inclined toward restraint. She had kept silence for a long time, only to find that Matthew had been protecting Erica all the while. "Matthew, it's all true!" she blurted. "Erica not only killed my child, but also wanted to kill me too! I don't even dare to go to bed at night."

Indeed, the discovery of the snake on Phoebe's bed had left her traumatized. Every night since then, she'd had a maid search her room from top to bottom to make sure there were no snakes anywhere.

But whenever she managed to sleep, her dreams were full of the vile creatures.

The mere thought of them sent shivers down her spine.

Matthew cast a sharp glance her way, and his voice turned low and dangerous. "If I hear you blame Erica again for your child's death, you will regret it."

Phoebe took a deep breath and avoided his eyes. "It doesn't matter if you don't believe me," she murmured. "We can put that side for now. But the snake on my bed—that absolutely was Erica's doing! There is security camera footage of her coming to our villa just before it happened!"

Matthew paused, feeling somewhat helpless. If only his wife wasn't so careless and inexperienced! At least then, she wouldn't leave a trail behind every time she went out to cause trouble.

He opened his mouth to say something else in her defense when a series of screams came from outside the meeting room.

Matthew went rigid, and everyone else present shuddered. "Mr. Huo, I'll go see what's going on!" Paige offered.

But she'd only made it two steps when the door of the meeting room

"Ah, excuse me!" the intruder said hastily. "Didn't mean to cause a stir, but as you can see, my hands are full."

She looked like—and indeed was—a troublemaker.

A camera dangled from her neck. With her hair unkempt, and her face and rumpled clothing stained with dirt, she looked like an amateur hiker or jungle explorer. In her own mind, that wasn't far off from the truth. With childlike frankness, she lifted up the things in her hands.

Paige, who had frozen halfway to the door, remembered herself then. With a scream, she stepped back.

That sound was echoed several times over when the rest of the room's inhabitants saw what Erica was holding.

Even Matthew's stoic countenance cracked. It wasn't actually that he was frightened; in fact, he was proud of his wife. She was a braver woman than he had given her credit for.

Feigning confusion, Erica looked first at Lyman, whom Phoebe and Fanya had hidden behind, and then at the two snakes that were coiled about her wrists and hands. One was green, the other red. Erica smiled and said, "Mr. and Mrs. Su, Mistress Su, aren't my pets cute?"

Phoebe didn't seem to think so. She was shivering, curled up in one of the office chairs, her arms locked around her head.

"M-Mr. Huo..." Lyman swallowed nervously. "Don't just sit there—discipline your wife! This is outrageous!"

Snakes in general bothered him, and colorful ones even more so. 'What a bizarre woman!' he thought in astonishment. 'I can't believe Mr. Huo would like somebody like that.'

Having mastered himself again, Matthew addressed his wife calmly—but also sternly. "Erica, put those back where you found them!" Although the snakes appeared to be docile at the moment, he was afraid that his wife might still get hurt somehow. This was, after all, something of an odd situation.

Erica misunderstood his words, thinking that he was afraid for himself. To the utter mystification of the room, she said, "Oh Paige, would you please close the door behind you when you go out?"

Ashen-faced, Paige decided that that was as good a time as any to excuse herself. "No problem," she said weakly, and took her leave.

After making sure the door was closed, Erica abruptly dropped her snakes to the floor and trotted over to Matthew to comfort him. "Don't be afraid, honey. I'll protect you!"

Startled, the snakes hissed in dismay and wriggled where they had fallen. Meanwhile, Fanya and her daughter forgot their dignity and scrambled atop the conference table.

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