Chapter 288 - I am his widow

Meanwhile, Kinoshita Iori is at Tezuka Kohei's house.

"I didn't think that you would come," Her mother, who is sitting beside her on the couch, whispers to her, "This is very thoughtful of you."

"I was the one who saw him alive last time, Mother," Iori murmurs in a grieving voice. "How could I not come?"

Her mother squints her eyes on Iori, still suspicious of her objectives. 

"You are here." Leaning on a servant for support, Tezuka Kohei's mother walks toward them. She looks haggard, a shadow of her former graceful self. Her eyes are sunken, and her hair is a mess. 

Iori's mother gasps when she sees her childhood friend like that. Before she could hug her friend, Iori stands up and wraps her arms around the woman's shoulders, and sobs, "Mother, I am so sorry. I should have been with him at that time."

Even Tezuka Kohei's mother is caught off guard. After a moment, she pats the girl's back. "It's a pity. Kohei really loved you."

Did he? Kinoshita Iori resists the urge to roll her eyes and cries harder, "I miss him, Mother. It happened because of me. Please forgive me… if I hadn't asked him out on a date."

The corner of Iori's mother's mouth twitch. Her daughter is certainly up to something. 

"It's not your fault," Tezuka Kohei's mother says to her with a grave voice, "I heard that it was a serial killer. You could have also died if your friend wasn't there. How is he?"

"He is still at the hospital," Iori replies with a small voice. Tezuka Kohei's mother doesn't know the details yet. "Mother, can I go to Kohei's room? I really miss him. He and I talked about marriage, and now… I feel like his widow."

Her mother stares at her. Widow, huh? This girl hasn't seen Kohei for a year, and now, she thinks of herself as Kohei's widow. How much passion was awakened during that dinner? 

"You are so young." Tezuka Kohei's mother pats her head with tears in her eyes. "Go to his room. You can stay there as long as you like."

That's all she needed. Iori hugs Tezuka Kohei's mother again and says, "Thank you, Mother."

The servant shows her the room. It's the third room on the right corridor at the first floor. After turning on the lights, the servant leaves. She locks the door and looks around the room. If something happens, she will have the time to save herself.

As expected of Tezuka Kohei, everything in the room is a top branded item. The wardrobe is partially open, giving a peek of his clothes. The bed is neatly made. There's a huge portrait of Tezuka Kohei on the wall right in front of the bed. It seems that his mother is keeping the room the way it was left by her son.

"So, he liked to see himself right after waking up." Iori clicks her tongue. This room is so different from Takeshi's room. She walks around the room, eyes searching for something until she reaches his desk.

There are two books -- biographies of two infamous businessmen. Iori flips through the pages, looking for anything that gives hint toward the corruption. Then, she opens the drawer, finding nothing important. Finally, she heads to the bed. The laptop is still lying on the bedside table. 

She looks over her shoulders and glances at the closed door before she turns on the laptop. Usually, laptops have passwords. And she doesn't know that narcissistic asshole enough to guess the password.

"What the..." A smile appears on her lips. "He must be totally convinced that nobody would dare to touch his laptop except for him."

It's still foolish though. 

Iori takes out the Pendrive from her pocket and inserts in the laptop, copying everything that seemed important to her. The browser has his accounts' passwords saved. She logs into his social media accounts and wrinkles her nose in disgust. The guy has fake accounts to chat with the s.e.x workers. "Ugh!"

But dirty scandals aren't her things. So, she moves on to his emails. Knowing she doesn't have much time, she selects all the mails and forwards the mails to her email address. She even checks the trashcans to see what he has deleted. It takes a few minutes for her to recover the deleted data.

Everything has been copied. She turns off the laptop with a victorious smile on her face. 

She is about to leave when something catches her eyes. It's the portrait. The eyes are a little strange. That is strange. A narcissistic guy like Tezuka Kohei won't get the colour of his right eye wrong. She steps closer to the portrait, looking into the eyes that are the sizes of her palms. 

Camera in his eyes?

What the hell! 

It takes all of her strength to take off the portrait from the wall. She turns it around and finds the cameras on the back. What kind of guy would keep surveillance cameras in his own portrait? Tezuka Kohei must have been paranoid about something. In any case, she can't leave them here. So, she removes the memory ch.i.p.s and puts them in her pockets.

When she glances at the exposed wall, she sees a secret safe. 

"This one has a password for sure." But it doesn't hurt to try. So, she enters his birthday, and it fails. Then, she tries her birthday, and it works.

"He must have been obsessed with me." A guy wouldn't s.e.xt with other women if he truly was in love with her. 

Inside the safe, there's a small notebook.

"I am sure that this is important." She takes the notebook and puts it inside her inner pocket of the coat. Then, she locks the safe and puts back the portrait where it was. 

"Rest in peace," She tells the man in the portrait. "Though I didn't like how you turned out as an a.d.u.l.t, I heard that you were pretty good to me when I was young."