Chapter 62
Hudson was stunned. Did his grandmother hate Emely that much?
Seeing her grandson’s expression, Agatha tried to explain her decision, “Hudson, I’ve always loved and proud of you and Luis. But ever since you treated Cherise badly during your marriage with her, I’ve been disappointed in you. That wasn’t how I raised you to be.”
Once again, guilt struck Hudson. Hard. He knew he had made a terrible mistake.
“Grandma, I-”
raised her hand to
Agatha raised her hand to stop him from speaking any further.
“There are ways for you to fulfill your promise to Luis, but you chose the wrong way to do it,” Agatha continued. “And if you are going to sleep with a woman who used to carry your deceased brother’s baby…”
Agatha couldn’t continue her words because the thought of it made her sick. It was just wrong.
“Grandma, I’m not going to sleep with Emely,” Hudson insisted.
“But you’ll need an heir, and as you are marrying her, it goes without saying that she will be the one carrying your heir.”
Hudson shifted in his chair, feeling uncomfortable with the way Agatha was looking at him. This visit really made him feel like he was a small kid, and this time he felt like he was being chastised after doing something wrong when he was small.
“I love you, Hudson, but this time I can’t support you,” Agatha said. “That’s why I won’t go to your engagement banquet.”
“I’m sorry, Grandma,” Hudson could only apologize sincerely.
Agatha looked at her grandson for one last time and shook her head in disappointment before turning around to enter the mansion and go to her room with the help of her maid
Hudson’s heart sank as he saw the disappointment in his grandmother’s eyes. He knew he
ssed up a huge time this time.
He didn’t think this through, especially about the heirs s‘ part. Just like his grandma had implied, to sleep with someone who had once carried Luis‘ baby was just sick.
Even thought of it made Hudson’s stomach churn. Not that he would sleep with Emely. But he also wouldn’t and couldn’t take a mistress. It was not in his blood to do something so despicable even though his marriage with Emely would be fake.
God, what had he done?
But what could he do now? He couldn’t cancel their engagement since it was only less than a week now and everyone thought Emely’s baby was his. If he canceled it now, they would think he was a heartless asshole for abandoning a woman who had lost his baby
Not that the media had not painted him badly because he had a mistress and impregnated her, but at least he had decided to marry her and not abandon her.
And everyone knew how he despised Cherise, so when the news of him bringing Emely home and about her miscarriage was circulated, no one was really shocked.
It was the norm for men in upper society to have mistresses, but most of them were discreet about it and most probably would abort their illegitimate sons or daughters.
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So, his mother’s idea to hold a conference about his engagement with Emely had actually saved his reputation. Moreover, with the story that she was Hudson’s first love, it made a romantic headline.
But he didn’t feel good about it now.
Should he come clean about the truth? Held a conference about it? That the baby Emely had carried was Luis‘ and not his? That he was just marrying her to fulfill his promise to Luis? That he never thought of Emely other than as a good friend and soon–to–be sister- in–law ever since she chose Luis over him?
But the media would turn to Cherise and implicate her, hounding her and asking her questions. That was the last thing he wanted to happen. He didn’t want to hurt Cherise anymore. He didn’t want anyone to disrupt her life because of him. He couldn’t do that to her
anymore.
Never had in his life Hudson felt so down and disappointed in himself. He had disappointed his grandmother who had raised him to be the outstanding man he was now, and he had hurt the person whom he should’ve loved instead.
Hudson left the Amery Mansion with a heavy heart. In the car, he looked out the window and silently watched the scenery fly by.
Miles, who was driving, felt there was something wrong with his boss. Usually, Hudson would read documents or do some work on his laptop during their drive, but this moment he was just gazing out the window.
This had never happened before. Did he and Agatha have a fight? It seemed unlikely since they were always so close.
Agatha loved her grandsons too much to stay mad at them, as did both Luis and Hudson who loved their grandmother with all their
hearts.
“Miles, how is the investigation about Emely’s doctor going?” Hudson suddenly asked, nearly making Miles swerve the car as he was shocked by the sudden voice interrupting his thoughts.
Luckily he was able to keep the car steady or he would lose his high–paying job.
I went to the doctor’s house, but no one answered and the neighbors said he had moved out a few months ago,” Miles told his boss
of his findings.
Hudson frowned as he listened to Miles’s result of the investigation.
“Do any of the neighbors know where he moved to?” Hudson asked.
“No,” Miles replied as he concentrated on the road in front of him. They said he just packed and left suddenly.”
Hudson tapped his finger on the car door and his frown lines became more pronounced. That felt very suspicious. Why would the doctor resign and move so suddenly? It was like he was fleeing from something.
Knowing Miles would not be able to procure any more information, Hudson didn’t ask him to investigate further.
Instead, he texted Keith and asked him about it, to which Keith replied that the doctor had fled the country, but he couldn’t find any
more information yet.
Sighing, Hudson closed his eyes and knew he needed to do the digging by himself. It should be a piece of cake for him, and he promised himself he would do it during his free time today.
He arrived at the office and went about his business and meetings until Miles told him he had an hour before another conference call would start.
Miles left him alone and Hudson quickly typed in codes on his laptop and waited for a while until all the information about the doctor
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was displayed on his screen.
He read through every bit of information, then typed in some more codes and found out the doctor had left for a small country just two days after Emely was discharged.
Did he go back to his hometown? But from the information, he was from Country B. So, what was he doing in a small country when he had a career in a prestigious hospital in Country B?
Hudson quickly hacked into the doctor’s bank account to see it had been emptied and all the money had been transferred to another bank in that small country.
But his gaze stopped on the name of the account holder. It wasn’t the doctor’s name.
As his mind was questioning why the doctor transferred all his money to someone else, a small black screen popped on the right corner of his screen.
Ace: Yo, what’s up, King?
Hudson’s eyebrow raised and he typed his answer.
K: King?
Ace: Isn’t K an acronym for King?
K: Who said?
Ace: Me and Q. Ace, Queen and King *grinning emoji*
K: Q is Queen?
Ace: Yup.
K: Q is female.
Hudson never thought Q was a woman. It wasn’t that he looked down on female hackers, but were good, but none even were as good as Ace, whose ability was still below him.
were only a handful of them who
So it wouldn’t be a surprise if he never thought of Q as a woman. The whole hacker community might even be shocked if they knew
Q was a woman. Her skill was paralleled to him, and God knew he was the best hacker in the world.
Ace: Oh, shoot! Don’t tell her I told you, please *puppy–dog eyes sticker*
- And she knows I’m a man.
Ace: It was just our speculation. But you are, right?
K: I Am. Who is she?
Ace: I don’t know. We chatted just like you and I are now.
Most hackers prefer to stay anonymous, so he just brushed it off and did not press Ace to tell him more about his and O’s conversation or her identity.
K: Want to help me with something?
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Chapter 62
He still needed to prepare for the conference call, and getting help from Ace would certainly be beneficial in speeding the
investigation up.
Ace: Hell yeah! Working with you and Q is always a ‘yes‘ for me.
Hudson’s lips twitched. This Ace sounded young. And from Ace’s choice of words, Ace should be a male.
Hudson could easily find out his identity if he wanted to, but he respected every hacker’s choice to remain anonymous
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Though he did try to find out once who Q was out of curiosity, but he couldn’t find any information about her. Not a surprise there with her being as good as he was. No one could find his information as K too.
K: Help me find out the address of this man,
Hudson provided the information he had gathered the name of the doctor and the country he had moved to, and the name of the bank account holder as well.
Ace: On it!
K: I’ll come back in an hour. Let’s see if you have improved.
Ace: You are just as bad as Q!
Hudson chuckled and logged out of his hacker account.
The preparation and meeting took around 1.5 hours, and Hudson let Miles have some free time while he logged into his K account
again.
Ace: K! I’ve found out everything.
- Tell me.
Ace: There is no known address for the doctor in that small country. I thought he might have moved, but then I searched for
information on the bank account holder and found out it was a fake name.
K: A fake name?
Ace: Yes. He doesn’t have a past, like none at all. No information about him. So I dig around.
K: What did you find?
Ace: Your doctor has changed his name.
K: They are the same person?
Ace: Yeah. I found the doctor’s ID and the bank account holder’s ID. They have the same face. And there is a difference of five million dollars between his balance on his Country B account before he moved with the balance when he opened the account in the small country.
- You mean he deposited an additional five million dollars when he moved?
Ace: Yup. And it’s a cash deposit.
Hudson thought about it and couldn’t come to a conclusion. Who would carry 5 million dollars in cash while traveling between
countries?
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Ace: Is he trouble? His record seems clean.
K: Forward me everything you found.
Ace: Sure thing.
A minute later, Hudson received all the information Ace had found.
K: Thanks a lot.
I I
Ace: Hah! I think I might have surpassed your ability now if you couldn’t find all this information by yourself.
K: Don’t be too cocky. I had other things to attend to and you were here so I used you.
Hudson quickly transferred him two million dollars for his help. Even though he didn’t need to, Ace still helped him and his research was thorough.
Ace: Oh wow, thanks a lot, man! At least you are not as stingy as Q.
Hudson’s lips quirked up. Ace seemed to have no filter when it came to Q.
K: A token of gratitude for going further than what I asked you to do and saving me time to search for the information myself.
Ace: Q trained me to search for every angle when we want to investigate something.
K: You and Q are close.
Ace: She’s my boss. She gave me some of the jobs from her clients.
Ah, no wonder, Hudson thought.
K: Need more jobs? I could forward some to you too.
Ace: Just those for my level, please. Don’t give me jobs that need you or Q’s level of ability. Q” when I tell her the jobs are beyond my level.
Hudson chuckled. It seems the relationship between Q and Ace is closer than he initially thought.
Ace: And please don’t be as stingy as Q *begging emoji*
give me those and scold me
Hudson shook his head and chuckled again. Ace was like a child who kept whining about his big sister.
- That depends on your ability. I’ll forward you some jobs and just let me know when you’ve finished each one of them so I can assess your ability and how many percent I should give you
Ace: I don’t know whether to feel hopeful or terrified.
Hudson opened up a list of jobs offered to him and chose the challenging ones to forward to Ace.
K: Done forwarding. I have to go now.
Ace: Sure thing.
Hudson swiftly saved all the information gathered by Ace and went to Keith’s office. He needed to talk to Keith about this and also hopefully to have a glance at Cherise.
