Chapter 585
She stared at Peter in disbelief, her voice suddenly sharp. "What did you say?"
Peter said, "It\'s for my sake that Jenkins gave up calling the police this time, so consider that I\'ve taken the blame for you and repaid your life-saving grace. Let\'s call off our engagement."
Susan immediately shouted angrily, "No way! I won\'t allow it!"
She stepped back and pointed at Jenkins. "Have you fallen for her? Tell me, did she seduce you? Or have you two been colluding all along? Peter, your most beloved woman is supposed to be me! How can you call off our engagement over such a trivial matter?"
Peter sighed. "Be reasonable. This has nothing to do with Jenkins. The issue is with me. I\'ve misunderstood our feelings for each other..."
Susan instantly shouted angrily, "What misunderstanding? There\'s no misunderstanding! Weren\'t we fine before Jenkins showed up? It\'s her arrival that has changed you!"
Peter frowned. "I\'ve said it. This matter has nothing to do with Jenkins."
Susan shouted angrily again, "How can it have nothing to do with her? Even now, you\'re still protecting her! Even if I did transfer that million to her, she\'s still the prime suspect in the murder of your uncle! How can you break up with me for her sake?!"
Peter felt it was almost impossible to reason with her. "Susan, I\'ve said it\'s not because of her!"
Before Jenkins arrived, Susan and Keera had been at odds. He had vaguely sensed something wrong back then...
While Peter was considering it, Susan suddenly turned to Keira. "Little sister, are you satisfied now that our engagement has been called off?"
Keira was perplexed.
She thought, "Is she crazy? I was just standing by watching the drama unfold, and even that had brought trouble upon me?"
She twitched the corners of her mouth, about to say something, when Susan angrily shouted, "Keera, why do you keep defending Jenkins? Is it just to oppose me? She\'s the prime suspect in the poisoning case, and the person lying in the hospital bed is your father. Are you just going to let her off like that?"
As Keira was about to speak, Peter interjected. "Don\'t talk nonsense. Jenkins isn\'t a murderer!"
Susan was taken aback.
Peter went on. "I\'ve checked. Yesterday, aside from drinking coffee, my uncle also had afternoon tea prepared by the usual maid. What\'s even stranger is that the maid took away the leftovers from the afternoon tea she made yesterday. I went to her home last night to investigate, but her whole family had disappeared! The neighbors said they had gone abroad for a vacation in the afternoon! Isn\'t it clear what\'s going on here? She was the one who poisoned my uncle!
"Jenkins isn\'t stupid. After poisoning Uncle, a normal person would flee, not stay behind, and carry out such obvious acts of erasing evidence. Was she trying to get caught?"
Susan was frantic. "You\'re talking nonsense, I\'ve already asked the butler. That poison acts immediately upon ingestion. The moment Uncle took the poison, it would take effect. The last thing he consumed was that cup of coffee! It\'s definitely not the afternoon tea. Four hours had already passed before he drank the coffee! Peter, in your rush to exonerate Jenkins, you\'re disregarding the truth!"
Peter was at a loss for words.
Susan took another step forward, pressing in. "You suspect the maid and her family, but do you have any evidence? Without evidence, on what grounds can you claim Jenkins is innocent?"
Peter was left speechless by her accusation.
Yet, in the next moment, they heard a calm voice. "Who says there\'s no evidence?" n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
Everyone turned to look at the speaker, Keira.
Keira walked over calmly, looking at Peter. "I asked the butler last night what my dad had eaten and immediately conducted an investigation. The maid who prepared the afternoon tea suddenly made a batch of dumplings yesterday using a special type of flour."
Peter froze. "What flour?"
Keira said, "Tapioca flour."
Peter was startled. "Is this flour poisonous?"
Keira shook her head. "It\'s not poisonous, but it\'s very difficult to digest. It would stay a long time in the stomach before it could be digested. The maid never used this flour before when making dumplings. She suddenly switched yesterday because she wrapped poison inside before feeding them to Father!"
Keira looked toward Jenkins, "The flour wrapping the poison is hard to digest. I asked the butler, and in the afternoon, my dad was too busy to drink much water. The coffee Jenkins brought over just happened to promote gastrointestinal motility. It was like the final straw that broke the camel\'s back. My father coughed and spilled his coffee precisely because of this. Afterward, when Jenkins cleaned up the coffee stain, the toxins acted up. All of these were coincidences."
Jenkins hadn\'t expected that Keira would clear her name in just one night. She gratefully looked toward Keira.
Meanwhile, Peter stared at Keira, bewildered. "Little sister, you didn\'t go out yesterday. How did you find this out? I went to the maid\'s home and didn\'t get anything out of it..."
Keira gave him a look of resignation. "The moment I knew the maid took leave to go home, I suspected something was off. I had someone investigate, but so much time had passed, and she had surely vanished... My only option was to start looking at the ingredients in the kitchen."
Peter slapped his forehead. "I\'m such an idiot. I actually went around asking her relatives last night, trying to find out where she went vacationing, and none of them knew."
Keira didn\'t know what to say.
Peter was as foolish as ever.
Keira looked toward Jenkins again. "You were wronged. The Olsen family owes you an apology."
Jenkins immediately shook her head. "The Olsen family didn\'t mistreat me. I voluntarily stayed last night to participate in the investigation, and I was the prime suspect. I couldn\'t help but suspect myself, so I never blamed the Olsen family."
Standing by and witnessing the situation, Susan was anything but calm. She looked angrily at the people before her, seething as she saw their harmonious interaction. She suddenly turned toward Peter and shouted, "Peter, no matter what, I saved your life. You can\'t treat me like this!!"
Peter paused for a moment and sighed.
Just then, Jenkins, enduring for so long, suddenly started swaying.
The lack of oxygen from being submerged in water for a long time finally took effect. Now that her name was cleared, she relaxed, and the whole room went dark before she collapsed.
Peter instinctively caught her and, in the process, accidentally pulled up her sleeve, revealing her arm.
Just like that, he saw the burn scar on Jenkins\'s arm.
Peter was stunned.
He looked at the burn incredulously.
His mind flashed back to the girl who had dragged him out of the car years ago, whose arm had been burnt by the hot exterior of the car.
He vaguely remembered when everything in front of him was a blur of crimson. He could see nothing clearly. Someone from the ambulance crew arrived and exclaimed, "Miss, you have a burn on your arm!"
"What does this little wound count for? Save him first!" the girl had said.
Her voice seemed to blend with Jenkins\'s...