Chapter 537 - 357: Stabbed Twice

"The fatal injury was a stab wound, but..."

"But what?" Quentin Blackwood asked.

"But the deceased had two stab wounds."

"Two wounds?"

"Yes. One wound wasn’t that severe, but the other appears to be the fatal one. They’re located very close to each other. Judging by the blood coagulation, they were inflicted at roughly the same time. Moreover, there were no other fingerprints on the knife. The only blood found belonged to Miss Sherwood and the deceased."

This meant it was uncertain whether anyone else had touched the knife.

If Ivy Sherwood inflicted both wounds, then she was responsible for Charlie Rhodes’s death.

"Alright, I understand."

Quentin Blackwood hung up the phone, his expression grim.

"What did they say?" All eyes turned to Quentin Blackwood.

Quentin Blackwood relayed the facts. Miles Mercer immediately pushed the door open to go inside. "I’ll ask Ivy if she stabbed Charlie Rhodes once or twice."

But Ivy’s memory of the event was hazy. Her mind had been clouded and she was on the verge of collapsing, so she hadn’t been aware of much. All she remembered was Charlie Rhodes approaching her and her lashing out with the knife. She had no impression of whether she stabbed him once or twice, or how much force she had used.

And the Sherwood residence had no security cameras.

The incident had happened so suddenly, and with Ivy being barely conscious, she simply didn’t know.

The knife had fallen to the ground when she fainted, so anything was possible.

Quentin Blackwood had rushed Ivy to the hospital, leaving the others to handle the scene. By then, Charlie Rhodes had already collapsed on the floor.

"What do we do now?" Miles Mercer asked. It felt like they had hit another dead end.

Quentin Blackwood said, "What if Ivy only stabbed him once, and someone else delivered the second blow?"

But for now, this was just Quentin Blackwood’s theory, with no evidence to support it.

"Then who else could have stabbed Charlie Rhodes? Ruby Sterling was the only other person there," Elijah Hawthorne chimed in.

"Ruby Sterling will never admit it," Xavier Mercer added.

A short distance away, Jason Summers didn’t join them, listening quietly from where he stood.

"Why don’t you leave Ruby Sterling to me? I’ll handle her," Elijah Hawthorne said.

Elijah Hawthorne had plenty of ways to make someone talk.

And unlike Quentin Blackwood, he had no qualms about taking a life. Quentin’s threats were mostly bluffs; he wouldn’t actually kill someone or break their limbs. He preferred to find a person’s weakness—what they held most dear or feared the most—and use it to make them break down completely.

Elijah Hawthorne, on the other hand, was a man of few words and brutal action. If you refused to talk, he’d just break your arm.

Admittedly, such methods were effective.

Quentin Blackwood looked at him. Though reluctant, given the circumstances, his priority was to resolve this quickly and clear Ivy’s name.

"Fine. Go to the station and retrieve her."

"Alright, I’ll make a call." Elijah Hawthorne went to make the arrangements.

As long as she was left breathing, it didn’t matter how they tortured Ruby Sterling. All that mattered was that she talked and told the truth.

Meanwhile, Quentin Blackwood’s people discovered that after the incident, Ruby Sterling had called Claire Sherwood.

"Where is Claire Sherwood?"

Quentin’s man replied, "We’ve checked. Claire Sherwood actually returned to the country a month ago. She isn’t in Lustre, though. She’s been in Aethelgard."

Quentin Blackwood wasn’t familiar with Claire Sherwood, but it made sense for a panicked Ruby Sterling to call her.

As for the Rhodes Family, Quentin Blackwood acted with incredible speed. He tracked down all of Charlie Rhodes’s victims, and they were now protesting together.

Charlie Rhodes also had a habit of taking photos and videos of his exploits, all of which now served as evidence.

The story was leaked online and quickly became a trending topic.

People began boycotting the Rhodes Group’s products, and its stock price plummeted. With Quentin Blackwood and the Mercer Family having issued a warning, no one dared to help the Rhodes Group. In just half a day, the company was finished.

Mrs. Rhodes and Michael Rhodes found their pleas falling on deaf ears. Besides, being an accomplice to Charlie Rhodes was a crime in itself, not to mention Michael Rhodes had been following in his footsteps.

By afternoon, both of them were in jail, facing at least a decade behind bars.

The Rhodes Group had already fallen into disarray. Other stakeholders sold off their shares as fast as they could. In a single day, the massive conglomerate went from thriving to collapsing, until not even an empty shell remained.

...

When Timothy Sherwood heard what had happened, he was even more terrified to show his face, afraid he would be implicated.

He had already bought a ticket and left Lustre. He hadn’t dared to show his face when the Mercer Family was pressuring him, and now he was in even deeper hiding, too scared to even go out for a meal.

’He knew it all along. That bitch Ruby Sterling was insatiably greedy. He’d told her before to stay away from Charlie Rhodes.’

’In the end? Not only did Ruby go sleep with her sugar daddy herself, but she even pushed Thea into the fire pit with her.’

’And for what? She didn’t even get that much money.’

’Especially that Thea. After sleeping with some old man, she really thought she was invincible. She actually forced me to transfer the company shares and then kicked me out. She finally got what was coming to her!’

’His daughter Ivy was the good one; she’d given him so much money.’

’As for Ivy saying that the money was child support for all these years and that she was severing their adoptive father-daughter relationship, Timothy Sherwood paid it no mind. Once the money ran out, he figured he could probably go back to her for more.’

’After all, Ivy was loaded. Who would have thought that Yvonne Summers was actually from the Mercer Family?’

’Yvonne Summers had hidden it so well. He should have known she was rich back when she came to him with money for a contract marriage.’

’Too bad Yvonne Summers was so cold back then. Even though their agreement forbade him from having children with other women, he still ended up with two illegitimate daughters.’

’Thinking about it now, he should have been nicer to Ivy. Look how rich she is now—not like those two wastes of space, Claire and Thea.’

Timothy Sherwood continued scrolling through the news online, thinking that this was all deserved retribution for the Rhodes Family and for Ruby Sterling.

Meanwhile, at the airport, a tall woman emerged, pulling a suitcase. She held a pair of sunglasses in her hand and exuded a powerful aura.

Passersby couldn’t help but steal a second glance, murmuring about her beauty.

Claire Sherwood basked in their attention. She had always considered herself one of heaven’s favorites, used to turning heads wherever she went. She was long accustomed to such looks of envy and astonishment.

’It had been so long since she’d been home. Lustre was still the same broken-down little city it had always been, nothing like a real metropolis.’

’And now a useless mother and a useless sister were waiting for her to come back and save them.’

In her hand, Claire Sherwood clutched a Jade Pendant. It wasn’t large, nor did it look particularly expensive.