Chapter 398: Her Origin
Thorne bolted after the car, yelling, "Stop!"
The car didn't even flinch and kept going.
With a loud thud, Thorne hit the ground, his face a bloody mess.
The pain was so intense he couldn't help but bawl. Through his tear-filled eyes, he saw the car back up a bit, and the window rolled down.
Harper's face was stone-cold. "You gonna talk or what?"
Thorne, blood and tears all over his face, looked like a wreck. He knew Harper wasn't gonna cut him any slack today. "How much you offering?"
Harper mimicked him, holding up one hand.
Thorne's mouth twitched.
But he knew this secret was only worth something to Harper and nobody else.
He shut his eyes and said, "Alright, alright! 500 grand! You give me 500 grand, and I'll spill everything."
He thought dropping from 5 million to 500 grand was already a huge cut.
Harper looked at him like he was nuts.
Then she corrected him, "I meant fifty thousand."
Thorne lost it and cursed, "Harper, you outta your mind? What kinda deal is that?"
Harper acted like she didn't hear him and calmly said, "Forty thousand."
Thorne snapped, "You're nuts, totally nuts!"
Harper smirked, "Final offer."
"What offer." Thorne was about to blow a fuse.
Harper stayed cool, "Twenty thousand."
Thorne thought for a sec, 'something's off!'
Thorne shouted, "Shouldn't it be thirty thousand?"
Harper said slowly, "I make the offers, so I'm the boss."
Thorne snorted, "No way, you ain't getting it for less than thirty."
Before he could finish, the engine roared, and the window started to roll up.
Thorne's blood-and-dirt-covered face went pale!
He realized Harper was dead serious.
Thorne said reluctantly, "Fine. You win!"
Seeing the window still rising, he panicked and yelled, "I agree."
Thorne was a gambler, used to the ups and downs, so twenty grand was better than nothing.
Harper rolled the window back down and looked at him, "Spill it."
Thorne was cautious. "Money first."
At this point, Harper wasn't worried about him lying.
Even if Thorne's info was crap, the twenty grand would be his lifeline.
After all, he was Delaney's only son, so it was like giving him one last shot to get his act together.
If Thorne still messed up, that was on him, not her.
Harper felt bad for Delaney, not Thorne.
She nodded and said, "Okay, but if you're lying, you're done."
Thorne didn't have a bank card. He only took cash, which was a bit of a hassle.
Harper didn't carry cash, but Thorne wouldn't talk without it.
Just then, Vincent chimed in, "I got some."
He pulled out a neat stack of cash from the car's safe and handed it to Thorne.
Thorne squinted. If he wasn't mistaken, there was about a hundred grand in that safe.
He'd heard rich folks liked to keep some cash in their cars for emergencies.
With stacks of cash just lying around in the car, Vincent was clearly loaded.
Harper noticed Thorne's greedy eyes and frowned. "Spit it out already."
Thorne counted the cash, then pulled Harper aside and started his story, "Years ago, I was out drinking, and my brother-in-law Sean came to get me. On our way back, we passed a dump and heard a kid crying. It was creepy as hell. I told Sean to keep moving, but he didn't listen and went to check it out. I stayed put. After a bit, I saw him pull a kid out of a sack, with a plastic bag over her head. Looked like someone tried to suffocate her. But she got lucky. The sack had a hole poked by a stick, which also made a small hole in the bag, so she survived.
Sean took the kid home, but that night, our niece got a high fever and died of acute encephalitis. My sister had died early, leaving just this kid. Sean was scared my mom would be heartbroken, so he asked me to raise the kid as our niece and keep it from my mom. My mom's eyesight was bad, and all kids look kinda the same, so we got away with it."
Thorne's story was long, and Harper was floored.
She was that kid.
"I've told you everything, and I'm not lying. I promised Sean I wouldn't tell my mom," Thorne said.
Harper's adoptive dad, Thorne's brother-in-law, Sean Cox, was the last bit of decency Thorne had left.
After Thorne's sister died, Sean stepped up and took care of the whole family. No matter how tough it got, he never let them go hungry.
Sean was a rare good guy. If it weren't for the car accident that took his life, Thorne thought he might not have fallen in with the wrong crowd, started gambling, and gone down a bad path.
After Thorne left, Harper was still reeling from the shocking truth.
If Thorne was telling the truth, it meant she wasn't lost but targeted.
A six-year-old kid pissed someone off so much they tried to get rid of her? Sounded like a fairy tale. So, who were they really after?
Harper's head spun. Even though she had her memory back, the blood clot in her brain hadn't fully cleared. Thinking too hard gave her a headache.
Vincent noticed her discomfort, got out of the car, and caught her just in time.
Harper's head hurt so much she leaned weakly on Vincent's shoulder.
From a distance, it looked like Vincent was holding her in his arms.
Not far away, a black limo was parked.
Victor watched the two of them, less than a hundred feet away, and wanted to slap himself.
'Damn, what a dumb idea!' He cursed himself.
Just now, Victor had suggested to Francis that they check the parking lot in case they missed her, but now he wished they had missed her!
Victor glanced at Francis's unreadable face in the rearview mirror and asked softly, "Mr. Getty, should we..."
Francis cut him off, "That car's in the way. Ram it."
"What?" Victor was stunned.
Francis in the back seat didn't look away and said clearly, "Ram it!"
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