Chapter 164: Crime

"What did you say?" Hearing her actually call it a good thing, Holly Vance’s face immediately darkened.

Amanda Vance took the paternity test report from his hand. "I said, it’s a good thing you’re not my biological father. Otherwise, the very thought of having your blood in my veins would make me feel filthy."

Hearing this, Holly Vance erupted in fury. "You little bastard, who are you calling filthy!"

He was livid. The moment he spoke, he brought his hand around in a slap.

He was filled with rage—already furious that Vivian Sullivan had cheated on him, and now, hearing Amanda Vance call him filthy, his anger boiled over. He put every ounce of his strength into the blow. He was a grown man, after all; one could only imagine how much a slap like that would hurt.

Watching from the side, Sarah Sullivan couldn’t hide the look of anticipation on her face.

She was eager to see the little bitch’s face get smashed in.

As the slap cut through the air, Amanda Vance’s eyes turned cold. Just as she was about to act, a hand shot out from the side, seizing Holly Vance’s wrist. In the next instant, she was pulled into an embrace, and a hand was pressed over her ear.

His hand covered one ear, his heartbeat thrummed against the other. Amanda Vance froze.

The man’s well-defined hand twisted the wrist back slightly, and a scream like a pig being slaughtered erupted from Holly Vance’s mouth.

"AAAAH—"

At that moment, Amanda Vance suddenly understood why the man had covered her ear.

Seeing the people around them flinch from the piercing scream, she suddenly laughed. She looked up at the man shielding her, completely unsurprised.

"President Ford."

Samuel Ford kicked the man to the ground. After a glance at Amanda Vance, he released her and, without a word, strode forward and planted his foot on Holly Vance’s chest. It seemed like a light press, but no matter how Holly struggled, he couldn’t get up.

Holly Vance’s face turned a furious, mottled red—whether from pain or humiliation, it was hard to tell.

Samuel Ford applied pressure with the tip of his shoe, and Holly cried out in pain again. The sound wasn’t as shrill as before, but the anguish on his face was even more profound.

"Since you’re not her father, that’s even better."

’Then I don’t have to hold back.’

"What do you mean?" Holly Vance’s expression changed, and he asked warily.

Samuel Ford looked at him with derision. "Don’t you know what you’ve done?"

Holly Vance’s pupils shrank. As sudden understanding dawned, panic flickered in his eyes.

The next moment, police sirens wailed in the distance, and he began to struggle frantically.

Samuel Ford lifted his foot. He watched Holly scramble up and take off running, the sneer on his face deepening.

Holly Vance didn’t make it three steps before he was slammed to the ground again.

This time, it was two police officers. They immediately handcuffed him and said in a cold voice, "Holly Vance, you are a suspect in a deliberate homicide case. You need to come with us."

Sarah Sullivan’s face paled. Just as she was about to slip away, she was also grabbed. She shrieked instantly, "Let go of me!"

"Sarah Sullivan, you are a suspect in a deliberate homicide. You are under arrest."

Without giving either of them a chance to speak further, the officers escorted them directly into a police car. They already had sufficient evidence; there was no need for pleasantries.

The scene left everyone stunned.

Amanda Vance was also taken aback for a second. She turned to look at Samuel Ford. Though she said nothing, he understood her unspoken question and nodded gravely.

’So it really was them!’

Her fists at her sides clenched so tightly her knuckles cracked. A police officer approached Amanda Vance, his expression sympathetic. He softened his voice, "You must be Ms. Amanda Vance? Would you be willing to give a statement? We have a few questions we’d like to ask you."

"Yes," Amanda Vance said, her voice strained.

The police officer gave her another sympathetic look and sighed.

Samuel Ford walked over in silence to stand by her side, then followed her into the police car.

The officer glanced at him and opened his mouth to speak, but his colleague tugged on his arm and whispered something. The first officer looked up at Samuel, then closed his mouth and said no more.

After the police car left, the hospital director dispersed the crowd, and Jean Vance and Felix Ford emerged from behind a pillar.

They had just made their way over to this area and had hidden behind the pillar, overhearing the entire conversation.

Jean Vance had also seen that man protecting his mother, and a complicated look crossed his young face.

No one had ever protected his mother like that before.

He had always thought his mom was strong enough that she didn’t need anyone’s protection. But just now, watching that man get into the police car with her, his long-held belief was suddenly shaken.

Maybe he had been wrong all this time. Maybe his mom needed someone to protect her, too.

It wasn’t a matter of her being strong or weak. It was simply that someone cared about her, and so they wanted to protect her.

"Jean," Felix Ford wasn’t thinking as deeply. He tugged on his sleeve. "What did that policeman mean about murder? Who did the old witch and the big villain kill?"

Recalling the documents he had seen in Samuel Ford’s study, Jean Vance clenched his fists. He took several deep breaths before saying, "Grandma."

"Huh?"

’Mom’s mom? Was she the pretty grandma he saw at the cemetery the other day?’

"Grandma was murdered?" he asked angrily.

"Yeah."

’And the ones who killed her were Holly Vance and Sarah Sullivan.’

"How did you know?" In the police car, after a long silence, Amanda Vance finally turned to the man beside her and asked.

Samuel Ford didn’t hide anything from her, telling her everything. "I found out while I was investigating the Vance family."

After speaking, he turned to her. "I wasn’t investigating you, just the Vance family. I only wanted to take them down."

He wanted to get to know her, but not like that. He wanted to learn about her himself, not from a few cold sheets of A4 paper.

Besides, Amanda Vance’s records had been wiped clean long ago. Even if he had tried to investigate her, he wouldn’t have found anything.

Nevertheless, Amanda Vance was very satisfied with his answer.

’I have to admit, he’s incredibly thoughtful.’

She didn’t need to ask to know that he was the one who had called the police.

And sure enough, at the police station, the officers explained the whole situation. He hadn’t just uncovered the truth; he had also found a great deal of evidence, which he’d turned over to them. After conducting their own follow-up investigation, the police confirmed that everything he had provided was correct.

The murder charges against Holly Vance and Sarah Sullivan were set in stone.

"How did they do it?" Amanda Vance asked in a low voice.

She had been too young at the time. Her mother had jumped from a building, committing suicide right in front of her, so she had never once been suspicious.

All she knew was that her mother had committed suicide after developing depression over Holly Vance’s affair. She had always said they were the ones who killed her mother, but that kind of "killing" wasn’t enough for a conviction—only for moral condemnation.

How could she let them live freely in this world? That was why she had been gathering evidence of their other crimes over the years.

Unscrupulous business practices, tax evasion... but none of that could ever compare to the crime of murder.

She had come so close to letting two murderers escape justice.

Amanda Vance closed her eyes, consumed by self-blame. It was her fault; she had almost let her mother’s killers slip through her fingers.

She had been too careless.

"It’s not your fault." Samuel Ford’s gaze softened with compassion as he looked at her. "The doctor they used left the country long ago. I only realized something was wrong when I happened to find a prescription he had written."