After a while, a series of footsteps could be heard coming from the corridors and those footsteps stopped in front of the door. Amelia smiled, and that was enough to give Mr. Collen gooseb.u.mps. A series of knocks could be heard at the same moment. With a trembling voice, he squeaked, "Come in."

"Even if you didn"t want us to, we will come in." A deep masculine voice answered him before entering the room. Mr. Collen wanted to see who Mrs. Holman managed to invite. And his eyes widened with shock. "Isn"t that the Retired General? Why is he here? No one knew better than him how the Retired General was, and he never wished to cross paths with this man."

With a stuttering voice, he answered, "Y… Yes." He nodded his head to show that he agreed with his own statement. Brad"s lips curved up into a smile watching the Dean make a fool out of himself.

The Retired General slowly closed the door before he came and sat down in the only empty chair in front of the Dean"s desk. "So, Mr. Collen, I presume?"

"Yeah."

"So, Mr. Collen, what did you do?"

"No… Nothing." It was very hard for Mr. Collen to speak. His throat was parched and in the end his voice sounded squeaky. The Retired General looked at him and said nothing. He knew how to break someone"s psychological defense without having to resort to force.

He stared at him constantly without saying a single word. Amelia and Brad did the same. Under their combined intimidating stare, he did not dare to breathe loudly. "Mr. Jackson, believe me, I did not mean to."

"So, this was not your doing, and you were very much innocent in this matter, am I right?"

"Yes yes. I didn"t. I never meant to."

"Meant to? What do you mean by "meant to"? You could kill a person and say that "I never meant to", do you think that the judge will agree with those? Do you think you are justified saying that? Tell me the whole truth, and I might be able to do something. One word false, and you know me very well." His threatening tone sent shivers down his spine. He never cowered in front of influential persons, but these three persons sitting in front of him managed to evoke fear within him.

"I… I… Believe me, I was threatened. I didn"t want to, but I was forced."

"Who are they?"

"I don"t know them, I know that they have a black penguin tattoo on their left wrists."

"Penguin tattoo. Hmm… Aren"t they the men of Tyson family?" The Retired General looked at Amelia and questioned.

"Yeah, they apparently are. But why would they target us?" Saying so, she looked at Brad. She remembered the previous encounter with the youngest son of the Tyson family. Brad seemed to have some enmity with that guy.

"Brad." She called out, paused for a while before saying, "Please tell us the whole story. We need to know."

"It"s nothing, Ms. Hudon." Brad replied stiffly.

"Like seriously? You aren"t even going to tell me!" She exclaimed with growing frustration.

"Ah?" Brad could immediately understand his mother"s mood as he heaved a sigh before saying, "Look, I became the winner of the championship of the Painting Compet.i.tion. After that Sam wanted to beat me, but I kicked him hard in the guts, and later that night, he sent a few a.s.sa.s.sins, but my friends and I beat them too. Later the Police Chief came and sorted that out."

"Anything else?" The Retired General asked scrutinizing his face to check for any signs of lying, but found none.

"I don"t remember." Brad replied after some thought.

"Hmm. Interesting." The Retired General muttered under his breath and called one of his trusted aides stationed just outside the door and said, "Investigate this person." He handed him a piece of paper in which a name was written.

The Retired General turned towards Mr. Collen and said, "We will know soon. Let"s just wait." Mr. Collen thought that it will take a long time, so, he leaned back on his chair and said, "Ah, Mr. General, why not drink this coffee?"

Soon a person came in bringing four sets of coffee cups with various snacks. The Retired General eyed the man and noticed an anomaly. But he didn"t say anything and let him pour the coffee. What he saw next amazed him.