Chapter 86: I Didn't Mean To
After leaving the hotel, Henry immediately returned to the hospital room and retrieved the handgun and the three external hard drives.
Henry understood computers well enough to know that simple financial data wouldn't require such large storage.
Erick's hard drives were all high-capacity, 4TB each. How much financial data could a bar possibly have to need such large drives, and three of them at that?
Henry easily deduced that they must contain a large number of video files, and there were two possibilities: one, they contained explicit films, possibly for customer viewing. Two, there might be cameras installed in some private rooms, secretly recording wealthy and powerful patrons.
Seeing the three hard drives in the safe, Henry suspected it was the latter.
Erick's call to Ruby about the hard drives further solidified Henry's suspicion.
If this were true, the value of these hard drives would far exceed that of the cash and gold. If they contained footage of Jason, it would be even better.
Henry took a taxi back to his apartment complex and used the entry card to open the gate. He initially planned to go directly upstairs to Isabelle's place.
However, he recalled that when he called Isabelle and Emily to Erick's office, he had called Isabelle directly instead of Emily.
Seeing Emily rush over anxiously made Henry feel guilty, thinking he should have called Emily directly.
Emily had said very little in Erick's office, but Henry sensed from her eyes that she had a lot to say to him.
Henry also felt that Emily's concern for him had long surpassed their current relationship.
He realized he might be overthinking, but what if he wasn't?
If he went to Isabelle's place tonight, Emily would eventually find out, and then...
Thinking of this, Henry took out his keys and opened the door, intending to use Andrew's study to access the hard drives.
As he approached the guest bedroom door, he decided to hide the gun in the bedside drawer first. He walked to the bed and leaned over, but before he could slide the gun under the mattress, he felt himself lying on a soft, warm blanket.
"Ah—"
Damn!
How could there be a woman's scream from under the blanket?
A familiar fragrance wafted into his nose. Henry reached out and, without missing, touched Emily's chest.
"Who?" Emily asked, wide-eyed.
She initially thought it was Andrew, but in the faint light from outside, she saw it was Henry and fell silent.
"I... I didn't mean to." Henry, blushing, got off Emily and explained.
Actually, it would have been better if he hadn't explained. His explanation only made things worse.
If he hadn't known, lying on Emily wouldn't have been a big deal.
But after Emily screamed from being pressed, he reached out and touched her chest. How could he explain that?
Emily thought Henry did it on purpose.
When she opened her eyes, even without the light on, she could see the room clearly.
She overlooked that Henry had come in from outside, where there were streetlights. Coming from light into darkness, his vision would be blurry, unable to see the room clearly.
Despite misunderstanding Henry, Emily said nothing.
She turned on the bedside lamp, picked up her phone from beside the pillow, and said, "It's so late. I thought you weren't coming back tonight."
Henry slipped the gun into his waistband and asked, "Why are you sleeping here?"
Emily replied, "I thought you wouldn't come back and didn't want to sleep in the same bed as him. Where else would I sleep?"
Henry stared at Emily, thinking: What does she mean? Directly saying she doesn't want to sleep with Andrew, is she trying to tell me something?
When Emily returned, she had initially slept in the master bedroom, but Andrew had been all over her.
For them, this was routine, and Emily had grown accustomed to it.
But for some reason, tonight Andrew's advances irritated her, even causing an inexplicable sense of disgust.
She threw a small tantrum, pushing Andrew away and lying on the edge of the bed.
Andrew didn't understand why Emily was upset. Usually, she didn't react strongly and even liked being held from behind, feeling secure.
Andrew tried to ease the tension by holding her again, his hands wandering to her chest.
Emily got out of bed, took her pillow, and went to the guest bedroom.
Entering the room, she felt Henry's presence.
Although Henry hadn't actually slept in this room, his presence was everywhere, making Emily feel inexplicably comfortable.
Lying in bed, Emily first thought about Henry kicking her off the bed and couldn't help but laugh.
Once she calmed down, Emily realized that Andrew hadn't changed; it was her subconscious that preferred Henry.
When she married Andrew, many said he wasn't good enough for her, but she felt they had a lot in common.
Now, she saw that Andrew really wasn't suitable.
She needed someone whose personality and actions were different but complementary to hers.
She felt Henry was that person.
She couldn't tell Henry any of this.
Seeing Henry staring at her, Emily explained, "I've been feeling chest tightness and inexplicable irritability lately, so I wanted to sleep alone."
"Then you should sleep. I'll go back to the hospital."
"Why go back so late? Just sleep here." Emily, holding her pillow, was about to leave when she suddenly asked, "Did you come back so late for something?"
"Oh," Henry explained, "I took three hard drives from Erick today. I think there's something important on them, so I wanted to use the computer or laptop here."
"The desktop and laptop are in the study. You're going to the study, right?"
Henry worried about waking Andrew. More importantly, with Emily in his room, if Andrew woke up now, it would be hard to explain.
Emily saw Henry's concern and said, "I'll bring the laptop over."
After a while, Emily brought her pink laptop.
In front of Henry, Emily opened the laptop, entered the password, and then told Henry the password.
Henry connected the hard drive, and Emily asked, "What's on it?"
"I don't know. Erick said it's financial data."
Emily looked at the hard drive and said, "Why would financial data need so many hard drives?"
"Maybe it's backups."
Henry opened the hard drive and saw that it was full of video files.
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