chapter1174

Gianna didn't look happy about it, but she nodded anyway. "Alright."

As soon as they stepped out of the banquet hall, Lincoln turned to Lydia. "So, where to now? Are we just heading home? I'm not ready for the night to end."

Lydia checked her phone. It was barely past eight. Way too early to call it a night.

"If you don't feel like going home yet, why don't we check out the old Bland family house?"

With everyone distracted by Victoria's birthday, nobody would be paying attention to the old place. If they wanted to find Krista, now was their chance.

Juna's eyes lit up. "Yes, let's do it!"

Lincoln grinned, looking excited. "What are we waiting for?"

The Bland family old estate was way out on the edge of town. The further they drove, the more the city faded away, replaced by quiet fields and rundown houses. Juna looked out the window and shook her head. "Erik is so heartless. He grew up out here, then marries someone from a rich family in the city, and can't even appreciate her. She gets sick, and his solution is to just dump her out here like she doesn't matter."

Lydia hesitated, then said, "Marilyn's already twenty. Erik's been cheating for way longer than just a couple of years."

She'd done her research. Krista only had one daughter with Erik, and that girl was raised by Victoria. She wasn't close to Krista. Now she was abroad, only a year older than Marilyn. For all they knew, Gianna had been involved with Erik long before he ever married Krista.

They finally pulled up outside the Bland family's old house. The gate was falling apart and locked up tight, wild grass growing everywhere, the whole place silent except for the wind rustling through the weeds.

"Is it really this bad?" Juna whispered. "Did Erik just leave his wife here to rot?"

Juna moved to knock on the gate, but Lydia stopped her. Let's climb over and check things out first."

Juna nodded, realizing Lydia had a point. What if Erik had someone watching the place? They couldn't risk him finding out what they were doing.

Lincoln looked at the wall. It wasn't even that high. "I've got this." He'd climbed plenty of walls back in school.

The three of them scrambled over the wall and landed in an overgrown courtyard. The house was old, and not very big they barely had time to look around before they heard someone shouting from inside.

"You are so useless. Can't you just stop making trouble for me?"

"I told you to use your diaper! Why'd you rip it off again?"

"Look at this bed, just look at it! Disgusting!"

"Don't want to wear a diaper? Fine, but don't expect me to clean up after you.

"You can just sleep in your mess tonight."

"If you're so miserable, why don't you just kill yourself? Why keep dragging this out?"

"It's so lively tonight in town. The old lady's turning eighty, and I'm stuck here with you. Missed all the fun because of you!"

Juna felt a chill run through her. She'd known Krista's life here wouldn't be great, but she never imagined it would be this awful.

A few minutes later, a door creaked

open. An old woman with gray hair shuffled out, still grumbling to herself. She locked the door behind her with a loud bang, then disappeared into aside room.

She was clearly the housekeeper Erik had left to look after Krista, and definitely part of the Bland family household. Good thing they hadn't knocked, or this would have gotten complicated fast. '

The three of them waited until the lights in the side room went out and the whole house was quiet before they slipped further into the courtyard, moving as quietly as they could.