Chapter 323 - First Failure

At half past two in the afternoon, Lilia and Julius left the roast duck restaurant together. The man was watching Lilia getting into the car waiting by the side of the road. Her eyes flashed with mixed emotions.

The invitation cards in his coat's pocket felt heavy after he heard Lilia's words just now. He could vaguely guess what Lilia wanted to do, but he didn't have the heart to stop her. If only Sylvia had treated Lilia better and tried to love her like her own child, that young woman wouldn't have needed to do this.

Julius took a deep breath to calm his chaotic thoughts. He stood by the side of the road and stared at the wide blue sky. Even though the sight looked beautiful, the uncertainty that stifled him refused to disappear. Julius didn't know if he should have stopped Lilia, or helped her with her plan.

The man spent several minutes standing stunned by the side of the road. His mind was busy weighing the possibilities. In the end, he took out his cell phone.

"Ah, hello, Sis Sylvia? This is Julius," He greeted when the phone was connected "Yes, I heard you and Robert are in Jakarta. Do you mind if I stop by the hotel where you guys are staying tonight?"

The corner of Julius's mouth lifted into a faint smile. Robert and Sylvia had no reason to refuse him. After he returned to Indonesia, he only briefly stopped by their house in Surabaya. Hence, sending this invitation would just make more and more sense.

Julius felt that the short message from Lilia to her parents would definitely make the couple attend this birthday party.

*****

That afternoon, while Lilia was eating with her uncle, Mellisa went to a warehouse on the outskirts of Jakarta alone.

Herri had returned from the hospital, and the siblings Rion and Roy had also left their jobs as bodyguards for Leila. Today, they all gathered to meet Mellisa.

Mellisa got out of the taxi and tightened her leather jacket. The cold weather was really annoying.

Inside the warehouse, Rion and Roy sat in a corner playing games on their cell phones, while Herri held an old fashioned laptop while rattling the keyboard. The three of them both looked up when they heard the sound of the warehouse door swinging open. They hurriedly stopped their game when Mellisa appeared.

"Captain!" They greeted her while hiding their respective gadgets.

Mellisa walked slowly to Herri and sat down in a shabby sack. She immediately took out two packs of cigarettes and threw it at them.

"What about your tracking results for the last two days?" She asked straight away without further ado.

Rion took the cigarette box that Mellisa had thrown and tore the package with a big smile. "Captain, let me tell you something interesting. The couple is totally willing to pay for the young lady of the Irwan Family. In the last two days, we have been quietly following the two of them. We saw that they bought a lot of supplements, all of which were sent to the main house!"

"Hmmm ..." The corner of Mellisa's mouth lifted into a cold smile. "What a heartless wretch," she murmured furiously.

Robert and Sylvia were willing to do all that for the daughter who didn't even care about them. But they ignored Lilia who loved them sincerely. Mellisa's hand was itching to beat the couple.

Rion shrank when he saw the scary expression on Mellisa's face, but he pretended not to see it. He continued his report, "Besides, they keep hanging around the gate of the Irwan Family's house almost every day. Captain, what is their relationship with that young lady from the Irwan Family? It seems the Captain has been very interested in the Irwan Family lately,"

Mellisa's right leg was folded over the knee of her left leg. When she heard Rion's words, she sneered with a look of disgust. "What nonsense are you talking about? Let me tell you, that place is a nest of snakes and rats! You don't go near that place!"

"Yes, Captain!" Rion nodded seriously. He didn't understand what Mellisa meant by a nest of snakes and rats, but it sounded like something dangerous.

Meanwhile, Herri was still busy typing on his laptop. A few minutes later, he pressed the Enter key. The man stared at the screen with a frown before turning his head towards Mellisa. His eyes were slightly red, and his expression was grim.

"Captain, do you still remember the sound buggers we put in that ward?" Herri asked suddenly.

"Hmm? Yes, why?" Mellisa replied while taking out a cigarette for herself.

"The tapper..." Herri hesitated for a moment. "...All the bugging in the room were compromised by the protective devices, and not a single sound was recorded,"

With a loud voice, the cigarette box in Mellisa's hand was squeezed tightly by her. "None?" she repeated with an expression of disbelief.

This was beyond her expectations!

Was Leila using a jammer when she found the bugging? But how did she know that the room was bugged?

Herri scratched his head in frustration. "I've been trying to recover the contents of the tape, but the interference is too serious. I can barely hear any movement," he said irritated.

He had been busy for the past two days. After Leila was discharged from the hospital, Herri sneaked in and took the bug. But when he returned to the warehouse, he found that all the recorded data had been corrupted by signal jammers.

Even more surprising, on the first day Leila was hospitalized, she had turned on the jamming device. This vigilance made Herri feel a little afraid. Who exactly were they dealing with here? How could a young lady from a respectable family like her use this signal interference method? Was Leila doing this because she was afraid of being watched or bugged?

"Forget it!" Mellisa slammed her cigarette case on the ground and stomped it until it was shapeless. "Since she has prepared everything, she will definitely not leave a trace,"

Mellisa felt a little sorry for this failure. She had grossly underestimated Leila's current plans and abilities.

For a moment, the first floor of the warehouse was enveloped in a brief silence. Not long after, Mellisa rose from the folding chair.

She looked at the three men present there with her, and said in a low voice, "There will be a birthday party at the Irwan Family house in two days. You need to find a way to enter as quickly as possible,"

The three of them nodded. Then Mellisa focused her gaze on one of the men.

"Herri, familiarize yourself with the terrain and keep an eye on Leila. Tell me what she does every day,"

After receiving the responses from the three of them, Mellisa turned away with cold eyes. She didn't know why, but this time she felt very uncertain in her heart.

They wanted Leila to show her true character in the birthday party in two days. But after some conflicts with her, the young woman became even more unpredictable. In the last five years, Mellisa had never set foot in the main house of the Irwan family. Surely there were many new things that she didn't have time to learn.

However, Leila's position in the Irwan family was getting stronger now. Even if everyone found out that she wasn't the real daughter of the Irwan family, could Leila really be kicked out of the house?

Mellisa wasn't sure about that. Her family had loved Leila for years, even before her accident.. It could be said that Leila was the pride of the Irwan family.