Chapter 795: Adrian Hawthorne Returns

Phoebe Huxley strode over, dragging a thug by the collar, and threw him to the ground. Will also tossed the hoodlum in his grasp onto the dirt. Everyone whipped their heads around to look, their expressions a mixture of shock and suspicion.

Vernon Spann?

It felt like he’d been gone for ages. Why would he show up out of the blue to start a fire?

“Repeat what you just said, and don’t you dare leave out a single word!” Phoebe Huxley roared.

The three thugs were already scared out of their wits and didn’t dare hide a thing. They obediently repeated their story. The color drained from the faces of Preston Thorne and the others, especially Linden Golding. It was these bastards who had harmed his father.

“I’ll kill you! You’ll pay for my father!”

Blinded by hatred, Linden Golding started punching and kicking the three thugs. The trio didn’t dare fight back, simply curling up and covering their heads as he beat them. ‘We regret this for the ten-thousandth time,’ they thought. ‘This mountain village is full of savages! We never should have come here!’

“Where’s Vernon Spann?”

Once Linden Golding had vented his anger, Preston Thorne finally stepped in to stop him, demanding to know Vernon Spann’s whereabouts.

“He left right after starting the fire. Probably went back to Dusklight Village. He told us he was staying there when we came,” the thug confessed, not daring to lie.

Without waiting for an order from Preston Thorne, Jethro Golding gathered several strong young men from the village. They piled onto a tractor and took off. The road to the county seat passed through Dusklight Village, where Vernon Spann used to have a mistress.

Night fell, but no one had any intention of sleeping. They couldn’t rest until Vernon Spann was caught. Besides, they all wanted to know for sure if he was really the one behind it.

Just as dawn was breaking, Jethro Golding and his men returned with Vernon Spann. They had caught him in his mistress’s bed, and he was wearing nothing but his underclothes. Jethro Golding was so furious he hadn’t even let him put on shoes, and now Vernon Spann’s feet were covered in blood blisters that sent shooting pains up his legs.

The moment he saw his three accomplices, Vernon Spann instinctively tried to flee, but someone blocked his path.

“Talk. Why did you start the fire?” Jethro Golding demanded.

Vernon Spann refused to say a word, deciding to just play dead. ‘They can’t actually kill me,’ he reasoned. ‘I’m not from Millstone Peak anymore. If someone dies, the police will definitely get involved.’

Seeing his brazen defiance, Jethro Golding was filled with rage and slapped him hard across the face several times. Vernon Spann’s cheek immediately swelled, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, but he remained silent.

“I know why. They were trying to hurt Rosalind…”

Phoebe Huxley explained the whole story. As she spoke, her anger flared up again, and she punctuated her words by kicking the three thugs a few more times.

“Is Rosalind all right?” Fiona Rhodes asked worriedly.

“She’s fine. Luckily, Comrade Ye, who’s staying with us, had a bit too much to drink last night and went for a walk on the hillside. He just happened to run into them. If he hadn’t, we’d never have caught these three bastards!”

Phoebe Huxley punctuated her sentence with a few more kicks. The three thugs kept their heads covered and played dead. ‘We’re kicking ourselves over this,’ they thought, their hatred for Bernice now absolute. ‘That bitch must have known this place was a den of savages, but she didn’t say a word and sent us here to die. Hmph! If we ever make it back to Tristone, we’ll teach that bitch a lesson she’ll never forget!’

“It’s a good thing you had that Comrade Ye staying with you. I don’t know how Rosalind would have survived otherwise,” Fiona Rhodes said with a sigh. “Rosalind Green has been through so much misfortune, but she always seems to meet a benefactor just when she needs one. I guess you could say she’s a very fortunate person after all.”

Will’s lips twitched. ‘I’m sure of it,’ he thought. ‘The boss definitely went for a “walk” on that hillside on purpose. There’s no such thing as that many coincidences in the world. Most of them are manufactured.’

Vernon Spann and the three thugs were locked up. Since the matter involved the Hawthorne family, Preston Thorne decided to wait for Adrian Hawthorne to return before deciding what to do.

Two days later, Adrian Hawthorne returned. He wasn’t supposed to be back for a while, but he’d suddenly felt on edge and decided to come home early. The moment he arrived, he was told what had happened.