Hiding Behind Her Superficiality

Chapter 29

Chapter 29 Unexpected Accident Elspeth dispelled his fantasies by saying, “I’m the woman you’re talking about.” Max leaped to his feet. “How could it be you?! I don’t believe you!” “Suit yourself.” Max snorted. “If you’re really her, then come with us tomorrow and let me see just how good you are. Don’t end up being too scared to even get into a race car.” Elspeth, however, wasn’t going to let this brat get away with this so easily. “What if I turn out to be her?” “I won’t call you a country bumpkin anymore if you really are her.” “You’ll have to call me Miss Elspeth,” Elspeth added with a smile. Max was determined as well. “It’s a deal! And if you’re not, you’ll get out of the Winthrop Residence at once!” “Deal.” The next day, Max woke Elspeth up himself and called Callum to join them. The trio headed for Death Canyon. Max loved racing cars and thus, he looked up to Callum, who was an expert racer. However, once that mysterious woman broke Callum’s record, he started imagining what she’d look like. Elspeth changed into a crimson racing suit that made her the center of attention. Callum was also wearing red, and the two made quite the match when they stood together. “If you have shoddy racing skills, then don’t wait until you embarrass yourself. You can still admit defeat now.” Elspeth climbed into the race car and put on her seatbelt. “Watch me.” The engine started and the car flew down the race track before anyone could even react. Initially, Max was still unconvinced, but once he saw the way she handled the car as she completed the lap, his jaw dropped. “T-This is impossible. How could this be?” Callum kept his voice low as he replied, “I looked into who that person was the last time. It is Elspeth.” “Callum…” Max stared at Callum with a pained expression. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?!”

Callum raised his eyebrows without saying anything. By the time Elspeth got out of the car, Max was no longer the haughty brat he was earlier. “Miss Elspeth,” he muttered reluctantly. “Good boy!” Elspeth praised with a smile. After seeing how confident she was, Callum couldn’t help but ask, “Shall we compete again?” Elspeth only rolled her eyes as she countered, “Who wants to compete with you? Not me, for sure!” Max immediately started egging her on. “Miss Elspeth, do compete with Callum. I’ve never seen anyone who’s better than him!” “Don’t tell me you’re chickening out,” Callum added in his deep, rich voice. That sparked Elspeth’s competitive streak. “Fine. Let’s compete. We’ll do it right here with this new race track. The first one back wins.” The two of them waited at the starting line and as soon as the horn went off, both of them slammed the accelerators and their cars shot off into the distance. Elspeth was clearly more skilled, but Callum was a steadier racer and wasn’t far behind. The two cars remained approximately ten feet apart the whole time. Elspeth smirked and was about to start accelerating once more when her face turned pale. “Callum!” she screamed all of a sudden. Callum’s chest tightened. “What’s the matter?” he asked. “The car’s out of fuel and it’s going so fast right now. It’s very likely that it’ll stop abruptly!” Elspeth was too afraid to dwell on the consequences if that happened. When a car that was going at high speeds stopped all of a sudden, there was an 80% chance that it would swerve out of control. If that happened, the momentum would send her flying at least over 30 feet away. She didn’t dare to think about the outcome. Callum’s expression was grim as he spotted the trail of fuel that kept flowing out of her car. “Stay calm. Wait for me.” Callum sped up and moved closer until his car was parallel to hers. “Hurry up and think of a way to jump over to me.”

Elspeth bit her lip and held onto the steering wheel with one hand while she undid her seatbelt with the other. The winding race track prevented her from doing this easily. Once she was done, she stood up and leaped across as hard as she could. Thanks to the power of inertia, she fell straight into Callum’s lap and heard him groan. “Are you okay?” Elspeth was a little frantic. Callum nodded and slowly reduced the speed of the car until it was within the normal range. The other car that had finally run out of fuel came to an abrupt halt before flipping over and crashing back down into a mangled heap of metal. Callum brought Elspeth back to base where Max was distraught, as he had heard the sounds from the crash earlier. When he saw them, he rushed over and asked, “What happened? I heard a loud bang coming from the southwest area just now. Did the car explode?” Callum’s expression was dark as he helped Elspeth out of the car. “For some reason, the car ran out of fuel.” He instructed Max to get someone to deal with the wreckage. Elspeth was silent in thought for a moment before saying, “I don’t think it’s an accident. I think the car was tampered with.” Callum had the same thoughts too. All the cars here were inspected daily. Hence, it was impossible for one of them to suddenly start leaking fuel for no reason. When they went to the security room to check the security footage, they found out that the footage from yesterday had mysteriously disappeared. “Someone’s definitely behind this.” The two of them were frustrated that they couldn’t find out who it was. To prevent any further accidents, Callum suggested that they head back to Winthrop Residence before deciding what to do next. “Alright. Let me go to the restroom first.” Elspeth nodded and went to the nearest restroom.

While in there, she got out her phone and called Harper. “Help me check the security footage at the entrance to Death Canyon and see who’s been there in the last two days. Give me a list of anyone who seems suspicious.” Once she finished giving her instructions, she left with the Winthrop brothers. When they arrived back at the Winthrop Residence, Elspeth noticed that the house was decked out in a sea of balloons. After querying about it, she was informed that it was Max’s eighteenth birthday the next day. Elspeth mulled it over and decided to head to the mall to buy Max a present. She took a guess at what Max’s interests were, and seeing how fond he was of car racing, she decided to buy him a new racing suit. However, after taking a look at all the ones out on the floor, she didn’t find any that she liked, so she asked to see the store’s rarest, limited edition racing suit. The sales assistant checked with the manager before bringing out the most expensive racing suit they had in the store. Suddenly, a hand reached out to grab the suit before Elspeth could even touch it. “This looks pretty good. Wrap it up for me.” The sales assistant looked rather conflicted. “Miss Fleming, this lady here was the one who asked for this racing suit first…” Ophelia didn’t care about that. She glared sternly at the shop assistant and said, “I just said that I want this. Can’t you understand what I said?” “But—” “But what?!” Ophelia snapped arrogantly. “This mall belongs to the Fleming Group! If you don’t want to work here anymore, then just get lost right now.” The shop assistant eyed Elspeth nervously. Elspeth’s expression was indifferent as she said, “I came here first. Don’t tell me you’re trying to snatch someone’s things, Miss Fleming.” “So what if you came here first? Elspeth Lynwood, I can get anything I want. There’s nothing that I can’t

get!” Ophelia smirked. She was going to get it all, be it the racing suit or Callum! All of a sudden, Elspeth came closer. Her eyes swept over the racing suit before she asked airily, “Are you determined to take this suit, Miss Fleming?” Ophelia only flashed her a haughty smile. “What about it? It belongs to my family. I can take it if I want to.” “If you truly wish to buy this suit, then I’ll be more than happy to oblige.” Elspeth chuckled. But I’ll make you pay, Ophelia Fleming.