Chapter 242 Mr. Harriman Is the Financial Backer
Chapter 242 Mr. Harriman Is the Financial Backer
"They can't handle the current situation themselves. Eugene will personally disperse these reporters. Be patient and wait."
Cynthia handed her a bottle of mineral water. "This is from the table in the box over there. The bottle is sealed and hasn't been opened. It's clean. I have two small packs of compressed biscuits in my pocket, which I usually carry during police training to stave off hunger. Do you want some?"
Jessica took the compressed biscuits but didn't eat them. She just looked down at the packet and asked, "With the evidence I have now, can I put their entire family to death immediately?"
She couldn't wait any longer.
She had been patiently plotting for so many years, but after all, she was just a person, a person with emotions who could feel pain.
"The evidence you have can currently only be used to balance Linda and Trinity. As for Eugene, you can't touch him yet." Cynthia noticed that Jessica didn't want to take the water, knowing that everything in the box was ordered by Eugene. Jessica probably found it disgusting and didn't want to touch it, so Cynthia put the water aside and didn't offer it to her again.
Jessica didn't say anything more, just keeping looking out the window at the reporters eager for gossip, gripping the compressed biscuit tightly in her hand.
Sure enough, it wasn't long before Eugene's people came down to disperse the reporters, and everyone outside gradually left, returning to quiet.
One of Eugene's people left a message for Jessica, warning her that her mother's belongings were still with the Jenner family. How she wanted to handle it publicly was up to her.
Cynthia thought Jessica was being threatened.
But Jessica said, "He can't threaten me. If I couldn't survive without those things, how have I lived these past five years? I'll find a way, but if he thinks he can pressure me like this, he's underestimated me."
On the way back in Cynthia's car, Jessica finally bought some food and mineral water, and also tried a piece of the compressed biscuit Cynthia had given her.
It was dry and not tasty, but it was indeed filling. Drinking some water made her feel full.
Jessica found no joy in eating at this moment. Whether it was the takeout she had just bought or the compressed biscuits, it was all just to keep her strength up.
She called Mackenzie to let her know she was safe without mentioning what had happened in the past two days. However, Mackenzie was on the verge of a breakdown due to recent events and urgently needed Jessica to find time to comfort her, or else Mackenzie might really have an early menopause.
After replying to a couple of WhatsApp messages, she saw one from Gabriel sent at around 11 PM last night.
Gabriel: [Had meetings all day. Just finished. Are you asleep?]
Then, at 9 AM today, since he hadn't received a reply from her, he sent another message.
Gabriel: [?]
A single question mark.
Still no reply from her.
Her phone had been off, so missed calls didn't show up. She had no idea how many missed calls there might be.
It seemed that after this, Gabriel had directly asked Cynthia to check her GPS location. The last signal from her phone was at the banquet hotel used for filming, then she was taken back to the Jenner family and finally brought here. Cynthia must have spent some time piecing together clues from the banquet to figure out she had been taken back to the Jenner family.
Just before they returned to Blue Bay Apartments, Cynthia remembered something she had promised to explain to Jessica and said, "Mr. Harriman was once a financial backer in the FBI's field in the U.S. He was responsible for investigating and recovering several major global financial cases like Wall Street B6 and H7. These financial cases required a large amount of funding to proceed. The financial magnate initially brought in by the FBI's head withdrew halfway, almost causing us to fail. It was Jimmy who timely brought in Mr. Harriman."
"I worked for Mr. Harriman while handling cases, and not just one. He had a good relationship with Jimmy, so I worked under him for almost two years. He is a very admirable and respectable person. Even though he no longer gets involved in those U.S. financial cases and has distanced himself from the bloody financial battlefield, and even though I have left the FBI, Mr. Harriman is still a god in my eyes. I never expected to meet him in Xyleria, and even more so, I didn't expect the relationship between you two."
Jessica looked up at Cynthia in the driver's seat. "I thought your only god was Mr. Cox."
Cynthia automatically avoided talking about Jimmy and said with a stern face, "That's different."
Jessica didn't ask further; she just recalled the girl in the photo snuggling with Gabriel, then looked away and said lightly, "There's nothing between him and me."
The photo Trinity gave her had a Facebook logo in the bottom right corner. Jessica remembered it after just one glance.
She had just searched for that Facebook username, which turned out to be a small account with only a few dozen followers, named 'Little Squirrel Following Harriman.' The only photo on the entire Facebook account was that one, and the content was just one sentence-Happy birthday, my love is back.
The Facebook post was made in September, which indeed was when Gabriel was in Pearl Peak City.
Jessica had previously avoided Gabriel because she was a woman with an uncertain past and future, an unmarried mother. What right did she have to stand beside someone as dazzling as Gabriel?
To her, Gabriel was like a mirage, too beautiful and too elusive. She feared that starting would be too easy, but ending would hurt too much.
Should she step into his world?
His world was too high, too grand, too unattainable. How could she possibly reach it?
But that day, he clearly asked if she wanted to give it a try.
So what did this mean now?
Jessica didn't even know how to be angry at this moment. She felt both furious but strangely calm. Looking at Gabriel's WhatsApp, she had an impulse to delete him directly.
Adult relationships shouldn't be so childish and capricious. There was no beginning, so why not cut off contact with a word?
Moreover, Cynthia's timely appearance was because of him.
But that was a separate issue.
Even if Gabriel had countless women thinking about him, even if he was indeed superior in every way, what right did he have to toy with her?
Greedy and insatiable, already having some things but still wanting more—how could he be like this?
Did he find her, a single mother with a child, pitiful and amusing?
Jessica couldn't hold back her anger and called Gabriel.
The phone responded with a cold, mechanical female voice, "Sorry, the number you dialed is switched off."
It was as if a bucket of cold water was poured over Jessica's head, and a little person inside her was mocking her for being self-delusional.
It was like a ship drifting at sea for a long time, finally seeing a lighthouse in the fog, approaching with hope, only for the light to suddenly go out. It felt like she had been hallucinating, as if the lighthouse had never existed and everything was just her wishful thinking.
How ridiculous it was!
She deleted and blocked him on WhatsApp and did the same with his phone number without hesitation.
Cynthia saw through the rearview mirror that Jessica threw her phone onto the seat, looking very angry.
Hadn't she just eaten? Why was she suddenly so upset?
