Sebastian’s heart sank when he heard this. Anxious to get more details, “Tell me everything. Now.”
“We… She… I don’t know… It happened so fast. This is all my fault. oh, God! This is all my fault…” Lila seemed to be scared out of her wits. She couldn’t stop crying nor could she speak coherently. Sebastian rubbed his temples and took a deep breath.
“Stop crying, will you?” Why was this woman so useless? She was wasting his precious time. It seemed that Lila didn’t understand what he was asking. She just kept sobbing into the receiver. Sebastian tried asking her again, but no matter what he couldn’t get any useful information out of her. He was so angry that he hung up the phone directly. Then he dialed his assistant’s number. His tone was bone-chillingly cold.
“Check all the parachute clubs in Barnes quickly and find out which one Mrs. Larson went to.”
The assistant was quite efficient. Minutes later, he called Sebastian back and reported, “Mr. Larson, there are only two parachute clubs open for business today in Barnes, and one of them was full this morning. The club you are looking for should be Mountaintop Parachute Club. They received two female customers earlier this afternoon.”
Sebastian gave the driver the instructions and the luxury car sped on the expressway towards the Mountaintop Parachute Club.
The Mountaintop Parachute Club had been thrown into chaos, and everyone was panicking. It had been run for over a decade, and not once had something like this happened. Sebastian demanded to speak to the manager of the club and asked him what had happened.
The manager was sweating buckets, visibly in shock, and all he could do was to blame the employees of the club.
“What on earth happened here? I’ve only been away from the club of two days, but you’ve already caused someone’s life to be in danger!” The manager was enraged, pointing and cussing at the employees.
“Get to the point,” Sebastian grunted.
“Yes, Mr. Larson.” The manager nodded and bowed to Sebastian while wearing a flattering smile. Then, the smile on his face disappeared as he turned his attention to the employees.
“Have you found Mrs. Larson? Is she okay?” One of the employees replied hurriedly, “We’ve received calls from Mrs. Larson and the instructor. They said that they’re safe and sound now.”
Sebastian breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that.
“We’ve already called the police and sent people to search and rescue them. Soon, we’ll be able to find them,” the employee said.
“I’m coming with you,” Sebastian said with a nod.
*******
The helicopter roved over the forest as the sound of its propeller resonated in the air. When Natalie looked up, she saw a tall man going down the ladder, which was hanging from the helicopter.
Seconds later, she realized who it was. Sebastian was wearing a sullen expression, and his eyes depicted a complicated emotion.
Bruises and wounds were all over Natalie’s body. As she stood on the ground, she looked like she was barely able to keep herself standing. She pursed her lips and looked down, feeling remorseful.
“Honey.”
“Don’t you know how dangerous it is to go skydiving? Natalie Larson!” Sebastian shouted angrily. Natalie didn’t dare to say anything.
“Turn around.” He lifted her arm and her the clothes on her back. Rage filled his eyes as his face turned grim.
“You almost died!” All the wounds on Natalie’s body made Sebastian feel so sorry for her. Natalie just let him chastise her, and she didn’t bother to argue. Still, she was really scared.
Had she been unlucky, she might’ve actually died this time. While tugging at Sebastian’s sleeve, she said timidly, “I’m sorry, honey.”
When he saw the tears in her eyes, his heart softened.
Truthfully, he still had things to say but he couldn’t get mad at her anymore.
“Let’s take you to the hospital first!” Sebastian carried her to the helicopter and gently placed her on one of the seats.
*******
Pretty soon, Natalie and the coach were sent to the hospital. Beal and Johanna arrived soon after. They were so shocked by what happened. So many stuff had happened within just a few days.
“Where did you skydive, Natalie? God, that establishment must be horrible! They can’t even guarantee the safety of their customers!” Based on the tone of Johanna’s voice, she was livid. Her eyes were bursting with anger, and it looked like she wanted to burn that parachute club to the ground or make them disappear from Barnes.
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“I’m so sorry, Mrs. White. It’s all our fault.” The manager of the Mountaintop Parachute Club didn’t know how to explain the matter. It was true that the accident happened in their club.
All he could do was sigh and lament the fact that he was so unfortunate that such powerful people were enraged in his watch.
After hearing that Natalie was involved in an accident, Draco went to the hospital to visit hei. He had a strangely agitated feeling in his heart when he heard the news, so he wasted no time to rush over
“You can rest in the hospital for as long as you need. Don’t worry about your job at W Marks. I’ll give you permission to take a sick leave until you’ve fully recovered.”
Seeing that Sebastian and Natalie’s parents were in the ward as well, Draco said nothing more. After he gave his gift to her, he left right away. Later on, Sebastian put Natalie to sleep before leaving the ward to begin investigating the accident. The club’s manager said to him, “We pay great attention to our customers’ safety. Each time, before they skydive, we make sure that the parachute is secured and that there’s nothing that can cause an accident. Logically speaking, the chances of the parachute being malfunctioning are very small.”
As a sign of their sincere apologies, all the staff of the club had come to the hospital. Lila’s instructor came forward and whispered to Sebastian, “I saw that woman touching Mrs. Larson’s parachute package before she jumped. I don’t know if she did something to the parachute, but you should ask her. She might know something.”
The instructor glanced at Lila as the latter sat on the hospital chair with a forlorn expression.
Of course, Sebastian wouldn’t just trust in this woman’s words. He went to the ward of Natalie’s coach, who was also severely injured in the accident.
The coach’s foot was in a bulky cast. Knowing that Sebastian was here to ask about the accident, he recounted the details carefully.
“I was explaining the dos and don’ts to Mrs. Larson when I noticed her friend sneaking around the parachute equipment. I didn’t think much of it because at the time, I just thought she was curious about the equipment, like our other customers usually are.”
If the coach hadn’t been questioned by Sebastian, he would’ve forgotten all about it. After interrogating the coach, Sebastian went back to Natalie’s ward to take care of her.
Beal and Johanna stayed in Natalie’s ward, too. They didn’t ask how the investigation was going until Natalie was taken to the doctor’s office for a follow-up examination.
“I have a suspect.” Sebastian went straight to the point. Now that he had pieced together the puzzle, he felt that Lila was very likely to be the one who tampered with Natalie’s parachute.
When Lila answered Natalie’s phone earlier, she kept crying profusely and refused to even finish a sentence. Logically speaking, she was already a grown woman, not some child. Even if she was scared out of her wits, she wouldn’t have cried that like.
It was more likely that she was deliberately stalling him, hindering him from saving Natalie Beal seldom got angry. He was usually gentle and non-confrontational, and even when he was angry, he usually wouldn’t show it on his face. But now, he looked absolutely enraged.
“Since you have a suspect, let’s call the police. I doubt anyone in Barnes would dare to go against the White family.” Sebastian pursed his lips and didn’t say anything.
After all, he hadn’t questioned Lila yet.
“I’ll tell you who it is when I come back.”
After saying that, Sebastian pulled Lila’s skydiving coach aside for a talk. At this time, Lila was sitting on a bench in the corridor, crying her eyes out.
“She’s my number one suspect right now.”