Chapter 590: Let Go of the Past, Start Anew

Gazing at Joy Jennings’s furious face, Yuri Walsh raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. He had absolutely no desire to speak with her.

He sidestepped past Joy Jennings and headed straight for the study.

When Yuri Walsh ignored her, Joy Jennings’s anger flared even hotter.

She ran after him, shouting, "Yuri Walsh! Stop right there! Did you hear a word I said?!"

"If I ever see you with that woman again, I’ll have her captured and locked away in my uncle’s lab! I’m not bluffing. If you don’t believe me, just you wait and see!"

"Don’t forget my family name is Jennings! I will never let any man cheat on me!"

As Joy Jennings continued to berate him, Yuri Walsh silently entered the study.

Then, with a CLICK, he locked the study door, shutting Joy Jennings and her voice out.

’Go ahead and lock her up,’ he thought. ’It’s not like Melody Summers hasn’t been locked up before. She was imprisoned in the basement of The Serene Leaf Teahouse, just one wall away from the lab, and she still managed to escape...’

Tonight, he’d had his first-ever confession rejected and had even been zapped with a stun gun by Melody Summers. Yuri Walsh felt utterly exhausted, body and soul. He slumped into his chair and heaved a deep sigh.

Just then, his phone rang.

He pulled out his phone and saw a video link pop up on the screen.

Frowning, Yuri Walsh clicked on it. The video appeared to have been secretly recorded—

The person filming was hiding behind a door, peeking through the crack to film the scene in the hallway. They must have been terrified; the camera was shaking violently, the focus was blurry, and the background audio was filled with a man’s piercing screams.

Yuri frowned, his eyes glued to the screen. In the footage, a long-haired woman was clutching a man’s head, tearing at his face with her teeth. She seemed to have lost all reason, her actions utterly crazed. The man repeatedly punched her in the head, but she wouldn’t let go. The screams in the video were coming from him.

In the final moments of the clip, the woman appeared to bite through the man’s neck. A spray of blood splattered across the hallway, even hitting the camera lens.

A second later, as if startled, the cameraperson flinched. The lens jerked violently, and the video cut out.

Yuri’s expression grew darker the more he watched. A horrifying suspicion began to form in his mind. Clutching his phone, he shot to his feet, threw open the study door, and strode out...

******

Early the next morning, Melody Summers was already awake. Officer Tristan Tanner arrived with several other police officers to remove the bodies from the Summers family’s backyard.

Melody Summers watched impassively as Cameron Summers and Clark Summers were zipped into body bags and carried away.

Some family ties are a blessing, others are a curse. For the Summers family, Cameron and his son were a curse. Now that they were dead, that curse was finally broken.

Their bodies would be cremated along with the other assailants, and their ashes buried on the spot. From this day forward, they would have no further connection to the Summers family.

Before he left, Officer Tristan Tanner glanced up at the shattered glass roof of the sunroom. "This must have cost a pretty penny," he remarked with a sigh. "A shame to see it smashed like this..."

In times like these, repairs would be difficult to arrange.

Melody Summers sighed as well, a wry, helpless smile on her face. "It can’t be helped. Between natural disasters and human-wrought chaos, some things are just unavoidable... The important thing is that we’re safe."

Officer Tanner nodded. Seeing she was down, he tried to console her. "Try to look on the bright side... At least you’re better off than your next-door neighbors. Their house burned down. A full renovation will take at least a year or so."

Melody Summers: "..."

Melody asked, "What caused the fire next door? Have you found anything out?"

Officer Tristan Tanner shook his head wearily. "Not yet. We just don’t have the manpower right now."

Yesterday, they’d been working with the military and armed police to hunt down the rebels, conducting door-to-door searches late into the night. On top of that, they had to get the wounded to hospitals and collect the bodies of the dead. There was simply no time to investigate a fire.

After seeing Officer Tanner off, Melody went to the kitchen. The rest of the Summers family had heard what happened to Sophie Thorne and Roman Rhodes. They’d been busy since early that morning preparing meals to bring to the hospital.

Miss Lowell stirred a pot of porridge with a ladle. "I don’t get it," she said, puzzled. "How could a fire just start out of nowhere? It rained last night and into the early morning. With the humidity so high, a fire shouldn’t have been able to start."

Her grandmother chimed in, "Exactly. Our houses are so close, but we didn’t hear anyone yelling ’fire!’ or anything. And she has so many housekeepers and bodyguards. Why was not a single one of them making a peep last night?"

Her grandmother had put her finger on exactly what Melody couldn’t understand. Sophie Thorne usually had a whole entourage of bodyguards with her, and her villa employed three cooks alone. ’So why were there only two bodyguards there yesterday? Where did everyone else go?’

As she pondered this, she ladled the stewed pear soup into a porcelain thermos, planning to ask Sophie about it at the hospital.

On her way to the medical center with the food containers, Melody’s phone buzzed. She pulled it out and was surprised to see that the neighborhood residents had started a new group chat—and she’d been added to it!

"4-1209 Slacking Off: Yesterday was so scary. Is everyone okay?"

"Nina from 4-2009: What’s this? A new group?"

"Holly from 6-2702: Finally, a new group!"

"Holly from 6-2702: I heard gunshots outside last night and wanted to ask in the group what was happening, but the group was already gone!"

"Coco from 2-1908: Must be about that."

"4-1209 Slacking Off: Probably."

"Coco from 2-1908: Sigh. I guess being too close to the reconstruction zone isn’t a good thing. The supply depots and warehouses are all here, so everyone’s got their eye on it."

"Nina from 4-2009: @4-1209 Slacking Off @Coco from 2-1908 What are you two being so cryptic about? I don’t get it. What happened yesterday?!"

"Lawson from 12-1803, AAA Building Materials - Closed: The rebels! Those guys attacked our neighborhood!"

"Lawson from 12-1803, AAA Building Materials - Closed: It’s okay to talk about it. I already tested it in another group. Talking about this won’t get the group shut down now! They’ve probably all been wiped out!"

"4-1209 Slacking Off: @Lawson from 12-1803, AAA Building Materials - Closed There you go again... You’re the reason the last neighborhood group got shut down."

"Lawson from 12-1803, AAA Building Materials - Closed: @4-1209 Slacking Off But we’ve got a new one now, right? Out with the old, in with the new, hehe."

"Lowell On Deadline from 4-1009: I mean, you have a point, but..."

"Lowell On Deadline from 4-1009: The old group chat had all our memories of encouraging each other through the three years of the Calamity. It’s just gone now... Such a shame!"

"Lawson from 12-1803, AAA Building Materials - Closed: @Lowell On Deadline from 4-1009 Look forward!"

"Lawson from 12-1803, AAA Building Materials - Closed: The Calamity is almost over! We should all let go of the past and start fresh!"