I stood frozen until Gideon shoved me hard from behind, nearly making me trip and faceplant.
"Well... good evening everyone..."
A young woman dressed in fancy clothes looked at me with disdain.
"Why did you invite her, Gideon? I heard from mom, aren't you bothered by the bad luck?"
Debra patted her, signaling her to keep quiet.
"Ashley, I asked your brother to invite her. We had no choice, she was crying so miserably, that jerk must have given her something good."
"What?"
I was baffled.
"Stop the chatter and open the box," Gideon commanded.
I still didn't understand.
"It's a safe, dude. It needs a code."
Everyone looked at me as if I were an idiot.
"It contains that old man's belongings. We've tried the password, but none worked. You give it a try."
So, they think I would know the password?
They all didn't know the password, and they thought the mistress would.
"Why don't you call the police? I really don't know anything."
The crowd's expressions grew impatient.
"These are the old man's private belongings," Gideon said, his voice tight with anger. "They're confidential and can't be shown to outsiders."
Debra also lost her patience.
"Open it," she said, "and I'll give you another sum of money."
"Alright, I'll try," I said.
In the blink of an eye, I was squatting in front of the safe.
Everyone sneered at me, moving away in disgust as if I carried a virus.
Gideon frowned at me, shaking his head in disappointment.
My heart pounded as I hesitantly entered a series of numbers.
"1, 2, 3, 4!
"Enter!"
It opened!
The safe opened.
Opened...
"I can't believe..."
It was that simple...
I started to say but was suddenly pushed aside by the crowd.
People were frantically grabbing documents from the safe.
From their fragmented conversations, I gathered that those documents were share transfer agreements for Rylan's company.
Despite their elegant attire, these people were scrambling like shoppers at a wet market.
I slumped to the ground, watching the scene unfold, a deep sadness washing over me for reasons I couldn't quite understand.
I stood up indifferently and suddenly noticed Gideon, who was also watching the scene with a cold gaze. Gideon also saw me standing there, and we both looked at each other in surprise.
