Chapter 157 - Suspect

"What?" Zaria's eyes widened in horror. She had a bomb on her?

Lucy's face paled. It seemed like Jaime was faster than her this time. When did he even plant the bomb on Zaria?

Zaria tried not to freak out. "I'm certain that I am not armed."

"Why don't you prove that with your actions?" Leo crossed his arms, signalling for her to let the guards search her.

"She is innocent. Will you take my word for it?" Desmond shielded her behind him. Although his words were a request to Leo, his tone was anything but. No one could feel comfortable about being confronted in a room full of people, and after such a commotion. It would be surprising if the next day's headlines did not paint Zaria as the assassin who was brave enough to attempt to murder the mayor's wife.

Leo scrutinized Desmond and Lucy and shrugged. "Fine. But I still want to have a word with the three of you."

…

The four of them went to another room and as soon as they arrived, Lucy checked Zaria all over.

"What are you doing?" She was taken aback. Did her mother suspect her too?

"Right here." Lucy shrunk in shock when she found what looked like a small bug stuck in Zaria's hair. It was small and brown, which made it hard to spot unless one carefully looked for it.

"What?" Desmond was flabbergasted. He knew that Zaria would never carry a microbomb with her, much less place it in her own hair.

"It was planted on her. She's the victim here." Lucy explained to Leo under Zaria's shocked gaze.

Zaria couldn't think of anyone she had offended lately, who would do such a thing to her. Could it be Shera? The latter had threatened her and seemed to dislike her since they met. Could she have done this to humiliate her?

"The truth is, for the sake of Lucy and Desmond, we were going to secretly send you away without creating a fuss. But then this happened." Leo explained. He clearly didn't completely trust them.

"You do realize that you implicate them, don't you?" He asked Zaria.

"Let's be practical Leo. It's a micro bomb." Lucy interrupted before the blame could be pushed to her daughter. "It was only small enough to hurt her. She's the victim here and I think I know who the culprit is."

"I think I know him too. I will drag him out for you to punish him." Desmond promised, having caught on Lucy's hint. It had to be that idiot, Jaime. He had just shot himself in the foot.

"I'm sorry that my son disrespected you. He is in shock since his grandmother was shot, after all." Leo apologized on behalf of Ashton, who had ordered for Zaria to be searched.

"No one is blaming you." Lucy smiled.

"I see." Leo didn't say anything else. He knew that his company could no longer be a partner of Twilight and Preston and Fort Group as they had discussed in the banquet. They could no longer trust each other after the blame game that had just transpired.

"I mean it. It's a personal matter. Zaria and I will solve it on our own." Lucy added, unwilling to let go of a potential business partner because of a little misunderstanding. Well, it was not little considering it was related to her daughter's life, but it was not worth throwing daggers over.

She let Desmond speak to Leo and pulled Zaria out.

"Why did you say that it was a personal matter?" Zaria asked as they left the hall.

"Did I say personal? I mean it is a family matter." Lucy pulled her to the balcony after ensuring that there was no one else.

Zaria was confused. "Family matter?"

Lucy massaged her nose bridge in irritation. "It was Jaime. He threatened to hurt you."

"I'm sorry this happened to you. I was too slow to protect you." She pulled her into a tight hug, relieved that Zaria was not hurt in the end. They discovered the microbomb in time. If it exploded…

She hugged Zaria tighter when she thought about it.

"Don't blame yourself. Nothing happened, after all." Zaria wrapped her arms around her.

"Gladly." Lucy pulled away with relief written all over her face. However, what was going on now? Was Jaime still alive?

"I have a feeling it's not over." She grabbed Zaria's hand in her own trembling hands.

"What do you mean?" Zaria asked in shock.

"Amanda doesn't have enemies but she was shot. It was either to get back at Louis for something… or to cause a commotion and cover up for something else." Lucy dreaded the possibilities.

She pulled Zaria into the banquet hall, where the guests had been allowed to leave since the police had arrived and were investigating the crime scene.

"Where were you standing?" Lucy asked anxiously.

"I don't remember. Why?" Zaria didn't understand why they were here, since the crime scene had already been sealed and they couldn't go in.

"Nothing." Lucy's voice lowered. She tried to remember where Zaria was and where Amanda was. Was it possible that the bullet was meant for Zaria and Amanda accidentally took it? What were the odds?

She shook her head when she thought about it. If the person managed to enter the hall with a gun despite all the security measures, they must be too experienced to miss a shot.

"I feel like we're missing something. The gun shot… could it have been meant to create a commotion and cover up for something else?" Lucy mumbled.

"Something related to us?" Zaria asked, making the latter jolt.

If her men did this, she was going to murder them.

"No. I don't think so. It's probably a matter related to the Qin family. Let's go." She frantically answered Zaria and pulled her to the elevator.

"Did they allow us to leave?" Zaria looked back and hoped no one would follow them out of suspicion.

"They no longer suspect us and the police are here so why else would we stay?" Lucy pressed the button to close the elevator.

"Okay…" Zaria was confused. Why did it seem like Lucy was trying to hide something?

When they reached the parking lot, Lucy pushed her into the car and before she realized it, it drove off.

"I'll catch up with you in a few minutes." Lucy promised and let her chauffeur drop Zaria off. She had things to take care of.

She made a call as soon as she was far enough from Pearl Hotel. "Where is Jaime?"

"I'm sorry, Master. We lost him." The young man on the other end apologized.

"Useless!" She cursed. "Where are you?"

She didn't hear what the other party said, because her attention was caught by someone else.

Theodore.

He was having a conversation with a man wearing a baseball hat at the end of the alley. The duo exchanged envelopes before the man with a hat left by climbing over a wall.

Theodore checked the contents of the envelope he had received but Lucy could not see what it was because she was too far away. She sauntered over and crossed her arms.

Theodore turned when he felt someone's presence behind him. "You again."

"You have not changed a single bit. You're still doing the dirty jobs." She scorned him.

"I didn't know gathering news was a dirty job. And what is it to you?" He countered, keeping the envelope away.

She studied him and harrumphed. "Someone tried to harm Zaria tonight. A micro bomb was placed in her hair. Are you aware?"

Theodore was shocked, making her snicker. "If you cannot do the primary duty of a father and take care of my daughter, leave her to me. I will protect her."

"How will you protect her? By pulling her to your dark world where one is not allowed to have a family, or by abandoning her again?" He glared at her. He would have slapped the hell out of her if she was not Zaria's mother.

"At least I will not use her for my personal gain like you did!" She snapped back at him.

"You are out of your mind." He brushed past her. This woman was crazy.

"I know where the microbomb appeared from." She said after him, making him stop. "Now that I think about it, you are the most suspicious person who attended that banquet."

"What are you saying?" He turned, wondering what the woman was getting at this time.

She closed in on him, not daring to believe the realization that had just dawned on her. "No one could have gotten close to Zaria when she was under my watch. However, you hugged her and a bomb magically appeared in her hair. Tell me, did you plant it on her? Besides, why did you disappear as soon as you hugged her?

_____

AN

What do you think? Could Theodore plant a bomb on Zaria?

A. Possible… No one is to be trusted

B. No f-ing way! Zaria is his life.