She exited Paul's infirmary area, moving directly towards Hubert's room and knocked on the door.
"Young lady, why are you here at this hour?" Hubert appeared, probably having just gotten out of bed, his hair a mess, clothes disheveled, devoid of his usual polished appearance.
But Flora paid no heed to his appearance. As soon as the door opened, she blurted out: "Help me mobilize manpower to pinpoint Winky's exact location." She added after a beat: "You have thirty minutes, sooner if possible."
"Winky? Do you mean... Winky, the underworld assassin? Who do you intend to deal with?" Hubert shook his head: "Winky works for the Whites, he's untouchable. If there's someone you want to deal with, you can tell me, and I will..."
"The one I want to deal with is Winky. He stole the stem cells for Paul's graft, I need to find him and bring him back." Flora interrupted him, no time for pleasantries.
Meanwhile, Matthew stood outside the room where Selena was confined, separated by one-way glass. His frosty eyes staring intently at his phone.
Mimi stood next to him, her gaze fixated on the desolate woman huddled in the room, she sighed: "Who would've thought that a despicable person like Selena would have a man ready to do such things for her. Should I call him devoted or just plain stupid? Sir, are you really going to let her go?"
"Selena isn't worth a single fingernail of Paul." Matthew replied indirectly, but implicitly confirmed Mimi's speculation.
His mobile phone rang, the caller was precisely the one he had been waiting for. He smirked: "Finally, he couldn't resist."
"It's been a while, Matthew. I didn't expect us to be dealing again so soon." Winky's voice was not as calm as usual, but quavered ever so slightly.
"It's been a while." Matthew's emotionless face and icy tone didn't change: "You want to exchange the stem cells for Selena?" His demeanor suggested that he had expected all this.
Winky, seemingly taken aback by how quickly Matthew had discovered the missing stem cells, replied: "You have quite the fast information network!"
"I'm still a step behind you." Matthew returned the focus to the matter at hand: "Where is the exchange?"
"I'll send you a message. No tricks!"
With a warning, Winky hung up. The harsh beep echoed in Matthew's ears. He sighed and turned his gaze to the figure locked in the room. He wasn't afraid of Winky's tricks, but should Winky be afraid of his? To Winky, Young Mistress White was a treasure to be cherished, but to him, she wasn't even worth his daughter's fingernail.
Winky's message arrived promptly. Matthew swiftly prepared his car, leaving everyone else behind, taking only Mimi and Selena, driving to the address that Winky had provided.
The winding mountain road grew increasingly desolate the deeper they went. He carefully navigated the path as instructed.
Alone in the back seat, Selena struggled to loosen her restraints, but to no avail. After a while, she gave up and eyed Matthew's reflection in the rearview mirror: "Bored of imprisoning me, are you planning to leave me to starve to death in the mountains?"
Matthew didn't answer, either because he didn't have time or didn't intend to.
Before he could, Mimi quickly responded: "Interesting idea, old lady. Unfortunately, you're wrong." The girl turned around, glaring at the woman in the back: "Your lover won't let you die that easily! He stole the stem cells for Paul to save your worthless life. I really don't understand what love potion you gave him..."
"Paul's stem cells? What are they?" Selena furrowed her brow, questioning.
Matthew glanced at the girl in the passenger seat. It was only then that Mimi realized she had said too much and quickly sealed her lips, signaling that she would keep quiet.
No matter how Selena posed her questions, there was no one left to answer them.
Within the car that was supposed to be a threesome, she was left the sole provider of incessant chatter, a monologue that went on until the moment they alighted.
Winky had always been a man of his word.
When the vehicle came to a halt, and the three of them exited, they found him waiting at the predetermined rendezvous point, a small black suitcase in hand.
"I've brought Selena as agreed, where's what I need?" Matthew did not beat around the bush, getting straight to the point with him.
"Right here." Winky lifted the small black suitcase slightly, a nonchalant nod of his head: "First, let her go!"
But Matthew held on tight to Selena, shaking his head: "Open the suitcase first, let me verify its contents." He feared a potential trick.
Winky, however, did not open the suitcase immediately per Matthew's order. Instead, he looked at the young Mimi trailing behind them and retorted: "I told you to bring her alone.
And yet, you bring another. Planning to ambush me after the exchange?"
"What do you mean?" Mimi narrowed her eyes, seeming ready to roll up her sleeves and start a brawl.
Even Matthew didn't anticipate such a sudden twist: "I've brought the person, what do you want now?"
"I'm not talking about her, I'm talking about them." Winky stared intently past Matthew, but not at Mimi; he was looking at the car that had just stopped.
From the car, Flora and Hubert alighted one after the other.
Matthew's icy gaze bore into Mimi, as if interrogating her about the unfolding situation.
The young girl shook her head, her face a picture of confusion: "No, sir... I...I don't know why they're here... I didn't tell them the exchange location..." She was in complete disarray, Flora's sudden appearance could complicate things greatly.
This wasn't the time to assign blame.
Matthew had no intention of probing further, he looked straight at Winky, his voice firm: "Proceed with the exchange now!"
But Winky's reaction was unexpected.
Instead of moving forward for a simultaneous exchange with Matthew, he threw the suitcase towards the cliff's edge.
Caught off guard by Winky's sudden fit of madness, Matthew momentarily released his grip on Selena.
Almost instantly, she darted forward, managing to catch the suitcase just as it was about to hit the ground.
The abrupt turn of events left Matthew, Mimi, and the two new arrivals in utter surprise.
At this moment, Selena was the only one with the upper hand.
She was no fool, piecing together the story from Mimi's slip of the tongue and the behavior of the people involved in this exchange.
"Selena..." Flora rushed forward, but she was too late.
Looking at the woman clutching the suitcase at the edge of the cliff, she pleaded: "Whatever dispute we may have, it's between us.
The child is innocent... Please, give them back to me!"
Selena sneered: "Innocent, you say?" She broke into a sudden fit of hysterical laughter: "Ha ha, innocent! You sure have a way with words! As the child of Flora and Matthew, how can they be innocent?" The sins of the father are visited upon the son, a straightforward enough principle.
She reveled in the desperate pleas from those before her, after her laughter had subsided she stated: "If you want this back, fine.
But it won't be that easy, right? I'm not someone who enjoys making life difficult for others, let's keep this simple. Just scar your face for me to see... Winky, give her a knife!" The latter sentence was directed at the man who had retreated to her side, presumably for her protection.
Winky nodded, drew a sharp knife, and tossed it on the ground, before Flora and Matthew.
Everyone held their breath as they watched for Flora's reaction, waiting to see what she would choose.
Matthew, however, stretched his hand to hold hers tightly, as if trying to stop her from obeying Selena's commands.
"Selena, don't go too far!" He wished his gaze could transform into a weapon to "deal" with the person in front of him.
"What's the matter? Does it hurt?" Selena taunted: "Matthew, you were really cruel to me... I can't understand why you treated me like this.
I was by your side for so many years, even a pet cat or dog you've had for many years would elicit affection, but you... Do you know when you locked me up, I would rather die than continue living?" Her words became quicker, her tone increasingly elevated.
Matthew pointed his gun at her, aiming it right at her head: "If you continue this madness, I won't hesitate to guide you to your end."
By then, Selena had genuinely lost her sanity.
She was not afraid of death.
She was only afraid of not pulling someone down with her: "Go ahead, shoot! Kill me! Even if I have to die here today, I will drag both Flora and her child down with me!"
"All you want is for me to scar my own face, right?" Flora suddenly spoke, her voice calm: "Fine, I agree." Her agreement to scar her face was as casual as agreeing to cook a meal for a friend.
Then she took a step forward, picked up the knife that Winky had thrown, and turned to Matthew: "If I become ugly, will you still stay with me?"
"Of course, I love you, regardless of looks, wealth, or poverty, in this life and the next, only you." His answer was as cliche as they come.
Flora nodded, a small smile playing at her lips.
Her hand gripped the knife with a determined grip, carving a line across her own left cheek.
Just a minor wound like that was not enough to satisfy Selena, but it was enough for her to savor the taste of victory: "Are you mocking me? A wound that small, a trip to the hospital to remove the scar would be all it takes. Keep cutting! Cut me deeper! Only when I'm satisfied can you stop!"
Flora was about to obey her command, lifting the knife, preparing to make another incision on her right cheek.
Just at that moment, her wrist was firmly grabbed.
Confused, she looked at the man next to her who had wrested the knife from her hand and flung it away.
"That's enough." Matthew tightened his grip on the hand that held Flora's, stopping her from self-harming any further: "Selena, haven't you gone mad enough? Can you give that thing back to me now?"
"Never in a million years! I despise you!" Selena clutched the suitcase with the stem cells, stepping backwards.
A gust of wind blew by.
Charlie appeared right in time, rushing forward to wrest the suitcase from her, throwing it straight to Matthew.
By reflex, Matthew caught the suitcase containing the stem cells that could save his daughter's life.
As for his son, he was being held tightly by a crazed Selena, one hand clutching his tender throat.
"Let my son go!"
Selena shook her head.
Before she could utter a word, she was shoved over by a forceful push.
Winky charged in, clutching her, and all three figures, two adults and one child, fell off the cliff together.
Flora's eyes filled with tears in an instant.
She ran to the edge of the cliff, looking down into the yawning abyss with no end in sight, a wave of terror rising within her.
Her son, her not-yet-ten-year-old son, had... just fallen down there.