Although Cleo asked the question, her feet never stopped moving. She continued upstairs as she spoke.

    The man stood up and blocked her way, saying, “The upstairs is off-limits. There are people resting up there.”

    His suspicious behavior drew the officers’ attention. One of them stepped forward and demanded, “Who’s up there? Get them down here now.”

    The man’s face flushed beet red, but Cleo smiled and put a firm hand on his shoulder. “We’ll just take a quick look upstairs. If everything’s fine, we’ll be right back down,” she said cheerfully.

    “Even your boss can’t help you now,” she whispered, “I suggest you stop struggling.”

    Her deliberately ambiguous words made the man’s pupils constrict. With a defeated sigh, he let his hand drop limply to his side.

    Cleo led the officers upstairs. At first nce, everything seemed normal as she inspected room after room. But she couldn’t help marveling at the ostentatious luxury of the Jenson family.

    She thought, ‘This floor is practically a mini shopping mall. With enough food, I could honestly live here forever without ever stepping outside

    She wasn’t the only one taken aback. The officers behind her also wore looks of disbelief, clearly stunned by such obscene disys of wealth.

    Cleo closed the door to thest game room, her gaze shifting to the tightly shut door at the end of the hallway. “What’s behind that door?” she asked.

    The man hesitated. “That’s… that’s the bedroom. Someone’s resting inside, she’s not feeling well. It wouldn’t be right to disturb her.”

    Cleo looked toward the door, puzzled. As far as she knew, ever since Gabriel had been sent to prison, the mansion had been nearly empty. The other younger members of the Jenson family were either working at the family business or studying abroad.

    Only Hamlin had abruptly moved in here recently, not even his wife came with him.

    ‘Don’t tell me Hamlin’s keeping a mistress in there?’ she thought to herself, the same gossipy suspicion flickering in her mind.

    All of them couldn’t help but think the same thing.

    Cleo subconsciously rubbed her fingers together.

    She cleared her throat and said, “Alright then, could you please ask the person inside toe out? If that’s not convenient, I can go in myself. After all, since we’re already here, we can’t just leave without checking thisst room, can we?”

    For some reason, the man who had been flustered just moments before suddenly calmed down. With a hint of hesitation, he said, “To be honest, the person inside has been sick and is resting. She’s not in a good moodtely, and I’m afraid waking her up so abruptly might cause a scene.”

    Seeing the standoff continue, one of the officers grew worried that Hamlin might interfere. After all, they didn’t have a search warrant, and if the matter were investigated, they could all face disciplinary action.

    One of the officers said perfunctorily, “Alright, we’ll leave it at that for now. But if you notice anything suspicious, make sure to let us know.”

    Seeing the situation, Cleo had no choice but to back down for now.

    Just as they were about to leave, a faint knocking/sound came from the bedroom behind them. No one else noticed, but Cleo, who had always had keen hearing, immediately raised a finger to her lips in warning.

    Everyone instinctively fell silent.

    Maxine pressed her ear to the bedroom door, listening intently, her brow furrowed. She fixed the man with a sharp stare and demanded, “Who the hell is really in there?”

    man

    The grew visibly flustered,

    his mouth opening and closing wordlessly

    like a

    frowned and demanded sternly, “Open the door. We need I to see

    what’s going on

    a fish out of water. The

    inside.”

    officers immediately caught

    on, one

    of them

    the When

    could die.”

    man continued

    to hesitate,

    spoke

    up

    sharply, “If t

    the

    person

    inside is in

    distress, we’ll have to break

    down the

    door. Otherwise, someone

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