Tabitha's POV
Klein's hands started to tremble when he heard the words "a dead woman."
His face was already pale, and right now, it was simply ashen.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes. The studs were big and beautiful, and the clothes she was wearing were from luxury brands. Oh, and she had this stunning collectible sapphire ring on her finger."
Seeing Klein's expression getting worse by the second, I quickly tried to reassure him, "It wasn't necessarily your sister. Who knows? Maybe someone had her jewelry. It may not be as bad as you think."
Klein was glued to his phone, ignoring me completely.
I noticed his fingers were trembling uncontrollably as he swiped frantically on the screen until he finally stopped on a photo.
"Is this the ring you saw?"
The picture showed the ring clearly—the sapphire was as clear as the sky, with exquisite craftsmanship and noble style.
"Yes. When I saw the corpse, it had already been soaked in the water for a long time, and I couldn't make out her features.
"I felt bad for her, so the second I was outta danger, I wanted to call the police. But then something came up, and I put it on hold. It wasn't until I saw that rose necklace that I remembered all this."
"What's the address?" Klein asked, his voice shaky and desperate for answers.
"The old industrial area," I said.
Derek stared at me without blinking. Obviously, he knew it was the time Elena kidnapped me.
I told him frankly, "Klein helped me before. Can you help him out? It's your turf after all."
Seeing that Klein and I were both frank and open, Derek got rid of his petty jealousies and replied without hesitation, "OK. Leave it to me. I'm on it."
Meanwhile, the moonstone necklace set was up for auction. And I called out my bid.
Given everything that had gone down earlier, everyone knew my identity. So they smartly backed off from bidding.
I got the moonstone necklace set back easily.
I had seen them when I was little, but back then, I was just a kid and didn't appreciate them. Now that I grew up, I started to get attached to these items that went way back.
Material value aside, what mattered to me more was those countless memories related to them.
I carefully put away the necklace set. And Derek's helicopter was prepped, ready to take Klein to the corpse.
He turned to me and said, "You should head back and rest."
Normally I wouldn't care about some random dead girl, but for some reason, thinking about that body gave me a strange feeling.
"I'll join you. It'll be a quick trip anyway," I insisted.
On the helicopter, Derek broke the silence first. "Why didn't you tell me about seeing the dead body?"
I paused for a moment before sneering, "Would that change anything? Would you get back at Elena for me? You think that was the only thing she did to me?
"Fun fact, Derek. On the night Mark brought me back from the island after she leaked my location to him, she pretended to be a doctor and tried to inject me with lethal wolfsbane potion.
"But right before that, she got word that you had found the lair of Poison and Wolf Shadow. Otherwise, I'd probably be six feet under already."
I said all of this casually while Derek's face shifted from shock to horror.
"Tabitha, I'm sorry."
I looked at my right hand, which still couldn't feel a thing, and smiled, "No need to say that, Derek. You made the choice. The second you chose her over me, we were done.
"Right now, I'm stuck with you simply because of my pups. It's never my intention."
I looked up into his eyes and added solemnly, "I hate Elena, and I hate you even more. Given the chance, I'll make sure you two go through every bit of pain I've suffered! Double!"