Fortunes were made and broken in the evening at Grand Night Casino.
Tons of people came there for a good time.
Drinks, tokens, gambling tables were everywhere. As the general manager of the Casino, Jason was
always busy at night. He needed to keep a close eye on all the gamblers. Sometimes, there were
cheaters and chaos wrought by difficult guests, business as usual in places like that. He had to deal
with them all.
"General Manager, cheater at table 8!" The voice of the foreman of the first-floor lobby came through
Jason's earpiece. Normally announcements were made by intercom, but in this case they had curled
tubes wound around one ear plugged into a two-way radio. This was set up to facilitate private
conversations among the staff. It wouldn't do well to announce the location of a cheater to everyone in
the casino.
Jason frowned. While cheaters were common enough, he hadn't expected it tonight for some reason.
He answered the foreman's report with instructions on how to handle this. Before he walked out of the
room, his phone rang. It was a message. He saw it was Brian.
"Where's Molly?" It was a simple question from Brian.
Jason frowned. "Is Molly in the lobby now?" he asked through the mic in his headset.
"She just finished her work and took off a moment ago!"
Jason trekked over to security. He checked out the CCTV feed right after he entered the room. He had
no time for idle chit chat. He tapped a few keys and found the camera by the gate of the casino. He
reviewed the footage and stopped it at one key scene: Edgar was with Molly, touching her hair softly.
Jason frowned when he saw this, and changed the camera back to real-time monitoring mode. Later he
walked out of the room and dialed up Molly.
When Molly's phone rang, Edgar pulled over beside a coffee shop. Molly was confused and could not
help frowning slightly. Few people knew her number, and the ones that did knew she had been struck
mute. She didn't know why Brian called her twice last night. You had to text her if you really needed to
talk to her.
Molly got out her phone and saw that it was an unfamiliar number. Her confusion deepened. Yet, she
still decided to answer the phone.
"This is Jason, Miss Xia! There is something that you need to take care of at the Casino. Try to make it
back here quickly." Jason did not mince words. He was a busy man, so he didn't have the time to chat.
Just then, he paused for an instant and hung up.
Molly kept frowning while listening to Jason. She was worried, and forgot she couldn't speak until she
tried to respond.
"What's the matter?" Edgar asked in a confused tone. Her attitude changed all of a sudden, and he
wanted to know why.
She glanced at him and took a sharp breath, typing on her phone. "I need to go back to the Casino.
There's an emergency."
Reading what she typed, Edgar frowned and raised his head all of a sudden. He asked,"I get it. You're
mute!"
His guess was confirmed to be true when Molly nodded. But now he had the answer. Why hadn't she
spoken a word to him? He began to get annoyed. But now, his heart hurt so badly that he forgot
everything. "But why? How did this happen?" he asked.
Molly smiled distantly and shook her head. She typed more,"Get me back to the Casino first, okay?"
Obviously, she did not want to talk about it right now. Edgar felt it. It sounded like a sad story. "What
happened to you, Molly? Why are you unable to speak? What's wrong with your throat?"
"Nothing serious. It's just temporary. Don't worry!"
Molly avoided answering his questions. There was a certain expression in his eyes, one of an aching
heart. He said in a sad tone,"I can't help it. You know that, right?"
His melancholy question pierced Molly's heart like a needle. She clenched her hand a bit and
swallowed all the sadness inside her. She went silent for a while, took a deep breath, and then shook
her head. She wore a smile, but she did it deliberately so that he wouldn't hurt so bad. "Please hurry!
It's urgent!" she typed on her phone again.
They were simple yet helpless words. Looking at them, Edgar felt even more sorrowful. It was almost
too much to bear. He denied his feelings for her for years. He even made a compromise with General
Zeng to ensure her safety. But now, he had to watch her get hurt over and over again. She kept going
from one heartbreaking situation to another. Was this what he signed up for?
Edgar's eyes were full of anguish and anger as if he were a rabid beast looking for something to kill. He
looked at Molly, frowning deeply. Finally, he gritted his teeth and agreed to drive her back. He wanted to
spend more time with her -- no lie. But he couldn't resist her now.
It took everything for him to tear his eyes away from her pretty face. He put the car in gear and drove to
the casino. Finally, they arrived at the gate. Molly nodded to him and was about to hop out. Suddenly,
Edgar put a hand on her shoulder to stop her while he said,"I'll wait. We need to talk. Doesn't matter
how late you get off work!"
Molly frowned even more. She wanted to refuse. However, she nodded her "yes" when she saw the
determination in Edgar's eyes. She had no reason to continue to blow him off.
Edgar let go of her, and she burst into a run, tearing open the doors and practically flying into the
casino. Watching her run off, Edgar couldn't control himself anymore. He pretended to be strong when
they were together. But there was nothing but misery on his face now that she was gone. How he
wished he could hold her in his arms to protect her from any more pains. She was the girl he wanted to
protect when he was still a little child. Now he might get the chance. However, she hurt so much and
even hid who she was from him. He couldn't get her to open up, and that worried him even more.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, full of sorrow and sadness all at once. His hands clenched
the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles went white, and a popping sound could be heard as he
cracked his knuckles. The muscles on the backs of his hands stood out.
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