Phoebe took a deep breath and avoided his eyes.

"It doesn't matter if you don't believe me," she murmured.

“We can put that side for now.

But the snake on my bed-that absolutely was Erica's doing! There is security camera footage of her coming to our villa just before it happened!"

Matthew paused, feeling somewhat helpless. If only his wife wasn't so careless and inexperienced! At least then, she wouldn't leave a trail behind every time she went out to cause trouble

He opened his mouth to say something else in her defense when a series of screams came from outside the meeting room

Matthew went rigid, and everyone else present shuddered.

"Matthew, I'LL go see what's going on!" Paige offered.

But she'd only made it two steps when the door of the meeting room was kicked open from the outside.

“Ah, excuse me!" the intruder said hastily.

“Didn't mean to cause a stir, but as you can see, my hands are full."

She looked like—and indeed was—a troublemaker.

A camera dangled from her neck. With her hair unkempt, and her face and rumpled clothing stained with dirt, she looked like an amateur hiker or jungle explorer. In her own mind, that wasn't far off from the truth.

With childlike frankness, she Lifted up the things in her hands.

Paige, who had frozen halfway to the door, remembered herself then

With a scream, she stepped back

That sound was echoed several times over when the rest of the room's inhabitants saw what Erica was holding.

Even Matthew's stoic countenance cracked. It wasn't actually that he was frightened; in fact, he was proud of his wife. She was a braver woman than he had given her credit for.

Feigning confusion, Erica looked first at Lyman, whom Phoebe and Fanya had hidden behind, and then at the two snakes that were coiled about her wrists and hands. One was green, the other red. Erica smiled and said, "Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, Mistress Phoebe, aren't my pets cute?"

Phoebe didn't seem to think so. She was shivering, curled up in one of the office chairs, her arms locked around her head.

“M-Matthew..." Lyman swallowed nervously.

“Don't just sit there— discipline your wife! This is outrageous!"

Snakes in general bothered him, and colorful ones even more so. ‘What a bizarre woman!' he thought in astonishment. ‘I can't believe Matthew would like somebody like that.'

Having mastered himself again, Matthew addressed his wife calmly-but also sternly.

"Erica, put those back where you found them!" Although the snakes appeared to be docile at the moment, he was afraid that his wife might still get hurt somehow. This was, after all, something of an odd situation.