When It Finally Snows in Manhattan Chapter 06

When It Finally Snows in Manhattan Chapter 06

When he rushed back to the scene and saw the charred remains, his whole world spun.

“This… who is this?”

The body was burned beyond recognition, a horrific sight.

The firefighter answered, “You told us your wife got into this car. Right now, it looks like it’s her, but we’ll need to run some tests to know for sure.”

In an instant, Julian’s mind went completely blank.

Just moments ago, she had been full of life, even had the energy to scream and fight with him. And then the next second…

He broke down and lunged forward, but the personnel held him back.

“Mr. Vance, please calm down. We’ll take the body for testing immediately.”

Julian stood frozen, leaning weakly against the wall. “No, this can’t be real!”

He let out a ragged scream and collapsed to the ground, sobbing in despair.

For so many years, Claire had been the one he was most proud of.

She’d switched from being a lawyer to becoming the queen of weather anchoring, then won the Emmy Award five years in a row all on her own.

She used to curl up in his arms, tipsy, and smile. “Honey, I won’t let you down.”

Truthfully, he hadn’t wanted to watch her give up her own profession either.

So seeing her drink herself sick at business dinners, he’d felt his own share of guilt.

But those words… he’d never gotten the chance to say them.

His vision blurred, and Julian collapsed.

Waking up in the hospital, the first thing he did was check if Claire had replied.

The screen was blank. The silence terrified him.

The next moment, the firefighter called. “Mr. Vance, the test results are in. The body we found is not your wife. It’s a woman named Sylvia Bennett.”

Julian jolted. Sylvia Bennett was Claire’s mother.

He suddenly remembered—at the awards ceremony, Claire had been frantic, mentioning her mom.

He’d thought she was just jealous of Yvonne stealing her trophy and was causing a scene on purpose.

He never imagined her mother had really been tied up in a car, strapped with bombs.

A dull ache spread through his heart.

He rushed frantically to the corridor and saw the devastating state of Claire’s mother.

The accompanying firefighter said, “We’ll cooperate with the police to get to the bottom of this kidnapping, but I have a question for you.”

“From what we’ve gathered, the license plate of the car that exploded was NY-3229. Think back. It might give us a lead.”

Hearing that familiar number, Julian froze.

That was the car he’d ordered destroyed after Yvonne’s incident.

But he couldn’t believe Yvonne would do something so heinous. So he went straight to find Yvonne.

Walking into the station, he heard Yvonne’s anxious voice coming from the break room.

“What do you mean you didn’t have time?”

“I told you to get rid of that car fast. At least lose the plates. How the hell are you people this useless?!”

“Get this through your head—that car doesn’t trace back to me, and you don’t know me.”

After saying this, she hung up in anger.

As she turned to leave, she saw Julian standing behind her.

“J-Julian? What are you doing here?”

She shifted awkwardly and tried to change the subject. “My, uh, my show hasn’t started yet. I should go prep—”

Before she could finish, a slap exploded across her face.