"What was it?" Athena asked Ada.
"I only found out about this later," Ada said in a low voice, "Brian used to be a student at our school but not in the department where I teach. That year, there was a sensational incident at the school. A female student died in the wilderness lake behind the school. There was a suicide note left at the scene, saying that she couldn't muster the courage to live on after breaking up with her boyfriend, so she jumped into the lake. As you know, back then, there were no surveillance cameras or anything, so this case was considered suicide."
"And this boyfriend, was it Brian?" Athena immediately furrowed her brows.
Ada nodded. "When I found out, Jane had already been married to Brian for several years. Brian's teacher saw the photo of Evie with him and asked me about it. When she heard my former daughter-in-law had married him, the teacher was shocked and immediately told me about this incident and his ex-wife's situation."
"What was the family background of that girl?" Athena asked unconsciously.
Ada shook her head. "Not very good, but I heard she borrowed a lot of money before she died. Brian didn't admit he got the money, but many classmates knew she gave the money to Brian. In the end, the girl's family returned most of the money. By then, Brian was already in a relationship with his future wife."
"He must be a repeat offender," Athena said in a low voice.
"That's what I think. Originally, I wanted to warn Jane... but when I mentioned it and asked her to be careful with Brian, she got upset. She thought I couldn't let go of the marriage between her and my son and accused me of deliberately trying to drive a wedge between them. After that, I gradually lost touch with her."
"Madam Cross, you mustn't feel guilty just because you didn't intervene in time," Athena heard the implication in her words. "Given her state, even if she knew Brian had killed two women, she probably wouldn't leave him. She might even come up with excuses for Brian, blaming those two women instead."
Athena genuinely felt Jane was capable of such outrageous things.
"You truly understand me," Ada smiled affectionately and gently patted Athena's hand.
Ada cooked three dishes, a pot of soup, and made fresh shrimp cakes.
These were Evie's favorite dishes when she was young.
She used to go to school far away, and sometimes she would cry and call Ada in the middle of the night because she missed Ada's cooking.
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