Chapter 257: Chapter 257
In the Lobby of the T-Vino Winery services, Avril walked briskly across the floor and avoided everyone’s eyes.
She stiffened as she heard her name called. She was still thinking of what they had done earlier. The idea had been so straightforward on paper or in theory when they had arranged it. In fact, in normal circumstances, Avril would never have teamed up with the girl that she referred to as a spoilt brat, Brianna.
But Avril felt that Shelby was a thorn in her flesh that needed to be uprooted. This was especially true when Avril witnessed Shelby and Ian’s relations and interactions first-hand. Talk of rubbing it in open wounds! Ian could kiss his wife senseless even in front of his parents and visitors, not of her who did not hold much substance in his view, even after practically growing up with him.
’Why did you never look at me that way even once, Ian. It was the same with Aliya, even when she was engaged and had children with another person. Why do you have to subject me to this much humiliation?!’ These were Avril’s thoughts when she had finally agreed to go ahead with this plan.
Avril stopped, her hands slightly shaking as the gravity of her actions hit her.
She turned and forcibly calmed herself.
"What is it?" Her voice came out a little more abrupt than she would have liked.
The person who had stopped her flinched involuntarily, and Avril massaged her temple. "I’m sorry about that. That came out wrong. How may I help you?"
The girl who looked to have been one of the workers who had helped set up the event room, just nodded and replied,
"I think Miss Ava was looking for you earlier."
"Me? Why would she be looking for me?!" Again, this came out as a shout, causing the few people around to turn to look at her suspiciously.
By that time, it had already spread that the most respected winemaker had tried to take credit for setting up the event room, which every single person at the workplace knew that Avril did not do. As to why she did, no one was sure, but the positive image Avril had in their minds had dwindled drastically.
"I’m not sure," The worker replied, her voice getting smaller as if she was being put on the spot.
"Hey! I’m sorry. It’s just been a long day, and it’s been a bit mentally draining." Avril said when she realized that she seemed to be taking out the stress building up in her on the poor worker who had only been looking out for her.
"Thank you," Avril patted the young lady on the shoulder and swiftly turned, leaving the place. She tried not to look at the scornful gaze being thrown at her.
Just as she rounded one corner, Avril brought out her phone and then sent a text.
’Did you take care of the cameras?’
She waited for almost a full five minutes before the reply came, ’That was not part of the plan!’
"WHAT?!!!!" Avril screamed out and then clamped her hand over her mouth, looking around to. Make sure that no one has seen her.
She stared at the unknown number for a long while, and Avril deleted it decisively. With her heart in her throat, Avril made her way into the monitoring rooms with only one thought. In life, you have to look out for yourself.
’Why did I follow this person who refused to let me know who they were?’ Avril asked herself as she got closer to the door to their monitoring room.
’Because our interests aligned temporarily, but I forgot that no one would clean up after me. That rich, spoilt brat has someone to cover her, what of me?’
Avril looked around carefully and turned the handle of the door open, praying in her heart that whatever she wanted to do would go smoothly. It had to!
Avril stepped into the room and then gasped at its sheer size. She had used a keycard she had slipped from one of the maintenance workers. There was no one in that whole place, which was puzzling. However, if Avril knew precisely how the place was monitored, she would have understood that there was no need to have anyone there when the systems could do the work.
She was knowledgeable on these, though. Avril silently sent a small thanks to whoever had encouraged her to take a class on this back when she was a student.
She had thought then that there was no use for knowledge on monitoring systems for an up-and-coming winemaker, but their programs designated some ’miscellaneous’ courses of their own choosing within their program and this was one of what she had taken.
Never did Avril know that this was how she would use that knowledge. Because Avril knew exactly what she had to do, she was in and out in no time. To save her hide, Avril just deleted the whole recorded file for the day as well as the backup, however, Avril should have factored into this that, there were accounts with limitations that were easily accessed by non-workers of the monitoring department.
Also, If someone left no human staff behind in a relevant place like that, it goes to say that they trusted the systems!
She still trembled and tried not to think of what she had done.
’I never knew that I would stoop to murder for a man in my existence!’ She bit her lip after ’confirming’ that what she wanted done had been done.
Avril stepped out gently, making sure that no one had seen her. She did not bother going back to her office and slipped into her car, leaving the T-Vino winery premises.
Outside and under the darkened skies, Currey stared long and hard at his brother as their internal dialogue continued. They did not dwell on this long as they knew what was at stake.
"It’s on you, brother!"
Currey spoke out. He turned and then disappeared right before them. This time, he made no effort to hide what he was doing. There was no clear-cut way to handle whatever was going on. However, in the past, the brothers, especially Murray, would never have given any chance to a person.
Humans, in their minds, were very unreliable. This was even more so for Murray, as the people he had been most conversant with were the people around Shelby. Taking Clara, James, Brianna and some of the men that tried to get close to Shelby, even including Brad, Murray’s views of humans just kept plunging to the lowest of the lowest.
It was just that the very few niches of people who may have given Murray the slim chance of holding on to that faith included the Ava who stood before looking all brave, but Murray knew that she was not. Ava was just putting on a front for her friend. It was commendable and touching in a way.
Ava’s eyes shone with both awe and fear, but she stood her ground.
Murray continued giving instructions to Ava, and then before he left, he added, "I can easily make you forget everything or even break your neck; don’t make me regret my decision."
Ava’s face turned grim as her heart skipped a beat at the threat. She knew that Murray meant every single word she said, but on the other hand, Ava was eternally grateful that she was even given a chance at life and kept her memories.
Ava turned swiftly. She was worried as hell, but Ava trusted that Shelby was in even better hands than if she were the one who had found Shelby.
As a resident of T-Vino island, Ava knew exactly what may have happened to her friend and coupled with what Murray had instructed her to do, Ava wasted no time. She ran first to the other processing warehouse where the demonstration was going on.
Because of the strange burst of white light before, the stakeholders were then more curious about what had happened, so they were not listening to what was being shown them and were discussing the possibilities of what could have happened.
Ava was so out of it that when she got there, she blurted out, "Master Brad, please come with me!"
It was a shout that drew the attention of all of them.
"What happened?" Brad, who had come to a consensus with himself on what he may or may not have seen, walked to meet Ava,
"It’s Shelby! She was locked in that other Processing warehouse at the back with all ventilation closed."
"WHAT?!!!!!" This came from the person who had been demoing. Ava had not meant to shout as the message was for Brad’s ears only, but with that one statement, it did not take long for everyone still at work that day to know that their chairman’s wife had been poisoned by CO2 gas and her condition was unknown.
The man jumped and then turned to the stakeholders gathered,
"I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen, I have to follow up on this...."
All gathered were too shocked to even acknowledge this. This was because they had just heard of the implications of the poorly ventilated room in which they were, and also, they knew how much Chairman Ian cherished his wife.
A cold chill settled in their heart. Ava, forgetting decorum, pulled Brad to his parents.
Geneva was in the best of moods, knowing that her grandbaby was already developing, only to be met with that news.
Like an ice-bucket, her mood downed, and a seriousness not ever associated with Geneva and Alex manifested.
"Brad, check on the CCTVs to find out how she got there!" Then, turning to Ava, Geneva added, "Ava, tell me more of what you know."
Alex and Geneva shared a look that spoke volumes: ’Why was their daughter-in-law so accident-prone and most importantly, was it really an accident?’
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