Love Began with the First Meeting

Chapter 590 The Food Poisoning (Part Two)

"Mr. Eric Long, the... child... Is he okay now?" The manager summoned up his courage and asked.

"Where's the juice?" Eric asked directly, ignoring the manager's question.

"We preserved it as you commanded, sir," The manager hastily replied as he led Eric to the kitchen where the juice was stored, and said, "We also asked that the waiter who served the juice and the man who made the juice stay here. Do you want to see them now?"

Eric followed the manager to the kitchen wordlessly. When they were just nearing the kitchen door, they heard a clatter. Something had obviously broken.

"Why'd you break the juice cup?"

"..."

After a sound of exclamation, there was a silence in the kitchen, and the atmosphere just tensed up.

The manager's face twisted into horror. He rushed to the kitchen to find the cook assistant holding a water pipe. On the ground lay the fragments of the juice cup. The orange juice had already been washed away by the water that spilled out of the pipe. There was no way they could test the juice now.

The manager's face turned so ugly that his lips even twitched as he looked at the almost colorless orange juice on the floor that had been washed away by the water. He couldn't help but cry in his heart, "I am so doomed!" Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

"Ma-, Manager, I, I didn't mean to... "

The manager sprang to his feet, "What good does that do?" If I killed you, can I just say in court, 'Oh, I didn't mean to kill him, ' Does that work for you? Can I do that?"

Eric was seething as he watched the entire scene unfold. Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes and a spine- chilling wicked smile appeared on his face that made all of the people in the kitchen freeze in fear.

"Very well!" Eric said slowly as he looked at the assistant and continued, "How much did you get to do this?"

"What... what do you mean?" The cook assistant didn't know who Eric was, but he was very scared of him.

"Possibly way more than you've ever earned in your whole life as a measly assistant, huh? Or maybe even higher than your chef's salary and perk, right?" Eric spoke again but this time he scowled at the assistant, "Although, you were stupid enough to accept the money. I'm afraid you are going to have to die first before you get to spend it!"

Then, he threw a look at the manager and turned around and left. He didn't even try to find who had touched the cup before. He knew all kinds of tricks because he used them himself quite a lot too. These people were not just money hungry but also they had a weakness—if you knew how to press right, you could get them to do anything.

Eric stalked off to his car and started it. With the roaring sound of the engine, he drove at a crazy speed along his way to the Dragon Empire Group office in A City.

Eric turned his in-car phone on as he waited for the red light. He dialed a group of numbers and spat, "I need all the information about all the people that worked in and out of that restaurant in the last two days. I need them in three hours. Do whatever you can. Stop at nothing. I'm not afraid of anyone,"

The person on the other phone was shocked at how angry Eric was. He wasn't even able to respond because Eric hung up the phone right away. He sped away as soon as the light turned green. Eric's car left a cloud of smoke as he sped through.

In the private hospital of the Dragon Empire Group, there was also a weird and heavy atmosphere.

Molly just kept looking at Mark—never removing her gaze, not even blinking. Since it was getting late, Richie and Shirley went back to their hotel while Brian and Molly stayed—they were waiting for Mark to wake up.

By the end of the bed was Brian who put his hands at the pockets of his pants. He looked pale and his heart sank when he saw the pain in Mark's face. His brows were furrowed together and his eyes were dark and sharp as ever.

Molly didn't move—she just merely sat there, not talking and not moving. Her eyes were dazed not even looking at Mark. It was as if she was too entranced in her own thoughts.

'It's all because of me, because of my selfishness. From the very start, Dr. He already told me that Mark would be born with sequela but I still insisted on giving birth to Mark. And for what?

Just because I didn't want to be alone anymore? Because I wanted a family? How could I have been so selfish? Now Mark's suffering for my own selfishness.'

As Molly's mind raced, she scrunched up her nose and turned aside hastily. She had to keep her gaze fixed on something else because if she just kept staring at Mark, she was afraid she would break down and cry.

The atmosphere in the ward was thick with solemnity. Brian turned his attention to Molly—he could already tell what she was thinking—she was feeling guilty which he also felt.

'Just because the doctor said she wouldn't ever see again, I had to give her corneas to Becky? If that didn't happen, would Molly have trusted him and thus tell him about Mark? If so, would this still have happened?

But...'

Brian continued his thought process, his eyes dimming, 'Even if I had known it all back then, would I just stop and leave things be? Would Mark have been killed back then, and would she just hate me more and more?'

I didn't want to spend my life with Becky as I fell in love with Molly. Back then, she needed an eye transplant or she would have been blind forever. And knowing these, I'm afraid I might have asked Molly to abort the baby.'

Brian turned towards Mark who still hadn't woken up. In his heart, all he could feel was guilt because this sweet child might have never been here in the first place. He would have done it, he just knew it.

Gone was his arrogance and now he was just feeling down. Brian just let Molly be because they seemed to have an unspoken agreement that neither of them would let the other see what they were going through at the moment. It was probably because they were the parents and it definitely hurt to see their child sick knowing that it was both their faults.

The night drew on and all of the hospital staff were still on duty because of Mark. Every now and then, someone would come in to inject something to Mark—something to stabilize his clogged blood from the vitamin C overdose.

It was both intense at the hospital and at the top floor of the Dragon Empire office. The fax machine was constantly making noise as it continued to receive files from the Shadow Organization. Because this was a rushed job, they didn't bother to organize anything anymore—as the files kept coming, they were immediately being sent to Eric. Three hours was a short time for such a task, even for the Shadow Organization and even though the restaurant had surveillance equipment everywhere.

Eric was staring at the monitor as a slideshow of the people involved were being shown. Whenever he saw anyone suspicious, he would take note and ask someone to investigate on the person. They were

also doing another investigation on the background of the people who was ever in contact with the juice and anything found on them should be a weakness, something that can be used against them. For Eric, it was unforgivable that something happened to Mark under his watch.

As he watched the surveillance video on the monitor, Eric's face darkened. He'd been trained since childhood to watch out for suspicious people—he knew how to rule out those who were innocent and a few looked sketchy. As was the situation today, he watched the video that was timed at around noon. This was a lunch rush so tons of people were going in and out of the restaurant. And in addition to that, the restaurant was known for its desserts and some of its main courses. Eric watched closely as people came in and out until two figures by the restaurant door that just caught his attention.

He clicked on the keyboard and switched the video picture to another frame where the two figures sat down by the window and ordered the meal, and the waitress who had served them was the one who also delivered the juice to Mark!

"It was her?!" Eric pressed the Enter key to lock the screen, he gazed into the figure of waitress with sharp and cold eyes as if he had every intention to shoot her.