Stuck in you

Chapter 61 The Past

After a short pause, he asked in a low voice, "What is it?" He wondered what Rachel had to say to him. Maybe his father had already told her about the agreement.

But when she began to talk, he found he was wrong.

"Do you remember the engagement party that we attended a few days ago? The bride-to-be is dead."

Surprise flashed in Jack's eyes. "I know. But how did you know?"

"Her body was rushed into my operating room." She sadly smiled as she saw surprise written all over his face.

It seemed that he had forgotten that she was a doctor.

Rachel hesitated at for a brief moment before asking, "I don't know if it is appropriate to ask you but I've been thinking a lot for the past few days. Do you perhaps know why she jumped off the building?" Both of them fell silent for a brief moment.

After a pregnant pause, he finally answered, "Why are you interested to know?" The question was direct and sharp. Rachel's face slightly contorted, her eyebrows furrowing at the question. She pursed her lips and replied, "Forget it. I'm sorry I even asked."

"Wait, hold on. I didn't mean any malice against it. I just..." Jack stuttered, trying to find the right words to explain himself. "Why do you want to know all of a sudden?"

Perhaps, she just wanted to gossip, he thought. Celine had done a lot of similar things out of curiosity. But Jack wasn't the type to spread rumors and intervene in other people's affairs.

"You see, before I left the engagement party, she asked me to send a message over to her brother, Vincent. The party was really weird. I want to know if she was asking someone for help that day."

For a moment, Jack was stunned upon hearing all of this. "What kind of message did she ask you to send?" Content provided by NôvelDrama.Org.

"She wanted me to ask Vincent to stay out of it and go back. It didn't really make sense to me." Rachel tilted her head and thought for a while.

Jack remembered what happened that day. Celine was fuming mad at him. He had to take her home, leaving Rachel alone. But luckily, Vincent was there and offered her a ride. They must have discussed the message on the way to her house.

After that incident, Rachel fell ill, battling a fever the entire night. Jack grimaced, he still felt guilty for leaving her alone.

He decided to tell her the story between the Cheng family and the Wen family. "There had always been a feud between their families. It is unfortunate that Wendy was involved. She was just another one of the victims of the feud."

Her eyes couldn't conceal the doubts she had. To help her, Jack began to explain everything.

Francis' father and Cole were political rivals. The competition between them was very aggressive, with neither parties willing to give up a fight.

The conflict had escalated to the point that their interests deeply clashed with one another. And that was when Cole had decided to act against Francis' father in order to prevent him from winning.

Francis had been a troublesome boy and his actions gave Cole an idea on how he would be able to beat his opponent.

Francis was rebellious. He frequently skipped classes, fought against people and was feared by the majority of the students.

He dated a girl for half a year and brought her home to his family with the intention of getting married.

He was only seventeen years old at that time and it angered his father. He scolded his son for being a bastard and having the gall to even announce such a drastic decision. Out of anger, he beat his son to the pulp. Bloody, Francis was sent to the hospital.

Despite being weak, Francis left the hospital the next day and eloped with his girlfriend.

His father did not even bat an eye at this because he was too busy dealing with his promotion. He didn't have time to spare to give Francis a thought.

Their happy ending was short-lived. Francis' girlfriend was bullied. As an act of revenge, Francis took his men to teach the guy a lesson.

A fight ensued, leading to the guy's death. It immediately caught the police's attention. They began to investigate him as a prime suspect.

Francis didn't understand what had happened. He swore that they only punched the guy that day. He was still able to go home, despite being bruised. It didn't make sense that he was being pinned as a murderer.

The news about his situation was carried over to his father. He was told that the person his son had beaten up had died of brain damage and internal bleeding.

Francis had admitted that he had beaten the victim but couldn't exactly remember whether he had hit his head or not.

There was no direct evidence to prove that he had caused the victim's death. But he was also responsible for some of the blows that had appeared on the victim's body due to the fight.

His father was furious but couldn't bear to watch seeing his son's life be destroyed.

He used his connections to solve this case. It was such bad timing, especially when still had to focus his energy against his rival.

If he lost his campaign, all his efforts would be in vain. But he knew that his son was in danger and he couldn't neglect that.

He had to decide whether to choose his son or himself. But it felt like he had no choice. He only had one son. Everything would be ruined if his son went to jail.

In the end, Francis' father made sure that his son's crimes were wiped away. His lawyers were able to bail him out of jail, but now it was impossible for him to be promoted.

It should've ended by then. But someone had been spying on them and this caused another big friction.

Francis' father was interrogated by the Committee of Discipline Inspection, and Francis was brought back to the police station for a review.

In a spur of a moment, it came to his senses that someone had been framing him.

After the interrogation, he asked for his private investigators to conduct another inspection without Francis' knowledge.

Francis only knew that it was because of his frivolous behavior that he and his father had come to this point.

Just as his father was able to receive information about the matter, he suddenly died. His body was found in a river along with Francis' girlfriend. The police report stated that both had died in a car crash past midnight.

The new had manipulated the entire situation, insinuating that he had been in a promiscuous relationship with son's girlfriend.

The situation was aggravated and it felt that someone was plotting against them.

Francis' father had been the most important backbone of his family. After his death, his whole family became a mess. His wife was overwhelmed with everything. She tried to find an arrangement to help her son, to hide the family affairs, and sort out the funeral.

To make things worse, Francis was sentenced to imprisonment for ten years under the prosecution of negligent homicide. She used her relations to reduce his sentence and because of his good performance, he was freed after five years.

However, five years had drastically changed Francis.

After he was released from prison, Francis conducted his own investigation about what had happened in the past. Somebody had told him something and gradually, those previous events unfolded themselves.

Francis spent almost two years for the investigation and he knew his father had done the same thing before he died.

He found that all the clues led to Cole's involvement. It was not a surprise that Cole was his father's biggest adversary. It was even more surprising that nobody had decided to investigate him.

After discovering the person who had caused shame in his family, Francis began to secretly plot his revenge. His hatred became his biggest motivation, wanting to see the death of the Wen family.

Cole had conducted the trap and unfortunately, Francis, his girlfriend, and his father were dragged into it.

Francis vowed to avenge his father's and girlfriend's deaths.

Francis trained himself and grew stronger within a short period. He carefully planned his revenge on Cole.

There was not enough evidence to prove that Cole had committed those crimes.

As he investigated, Francis got to know Wendy. She was a charming and beautiful girl, but what made her important was that she was Cole's adopted daughter.

He had approached her, his plan in his head. He was motivated by anger and hatred.

He tried to woo her and succeeded, but he also lost his heart to her.

He even placed a bet on his marriage with her. He wanted to know whether she would stay by his side forever.

However, that all came to an end when she decided to commit suicide.

After hearing this, Rachel was speechless. She didn't know that there was so much complication and history running in between those families.

Wendy had never resisted him, and she probably knew about his attitude. She was probably so in love with him that she was willing to be held under his mercy. What a shame that she was only used as a tool in humiliating the Wen family.

Jack explained that Francis had regretted his actions. She shouldn't have died to punish him.

Rachel scoffed and sarcastically smiled. With venom laced in her mouth, she said, "Maybe he thinks too much. Was it really punishment? Perhaps Wendy just felt that she had nothing left to live for."

Jack didn't know how to respond because it had nothing to do with him. Yes, it was undeniable that he was shocked upon hearing the news about her suicide. But it simply wasn't enough to make him want

to go into detail about why she had died.

But Rachel wanted answers. She wanted to know why Wendy had reached out a hand for help. She truly didn't expect that Jack would provide a lot of information to her curiosity.

She was in a complicated mood now. According to Jack, Wendy chose to die not to punish someone. She just really didn't want to live, and felt that suicide would've been the best choice to run away from her problems.

She recalled the time when Wendy was rushed to the emergency room. It was a tragic scene to watch.

"Such Jerks!"

She sighed, her tone filled with contempt. "Some people only regret what they have done when their loved ones leave. This could have been prevented if they didn't hurt them in the beginning."