Chapter 42 Choose One of Two
"What do you mean?" one of the girls asked.
Victoria looked at them and said, "Either you tell us who's behind this, or you go to the police. Your call."
The five girls felt intimidated by Victoria's presence. They were just regular college students, not used to this kind of pressure.
The mastermind had assured them it wouldn't come to this.
But one girl still resisted.
"Don't threaten us. Your product has issues. We just want compensation."
Victoria raised an eyebrow, puzzled. They didn't seem dumb, so why act this way?
"If our product had a problem, why only you five? It's been almost an hour, and no one else has come forward. You're college students; you should get this. If you tell us the truth, I'll let it go. Otherwise, you'll have a criminal record, and your school might expel you. You have five minutes to decide," Victoria said bluntly.
The girls were shocked she knew their identities.
The thought of a criminal record and expulsion made them panic.
One girl finally confessed, "We don't know who he is. Three days ago, we met a man who gave us a box of perfume and promised $10,000 if we made a video. We didn't know it was to frame your company. He gave us the script. We recorded it and sent it to his email."
Wesley was stunned. "You did all this for $10,000?"
"And don't you have any common sense? You're educated. Don't you know defamation is a crime?" Wesley scolded.
The girls felt ashamed. They didn't know why they believed it and did such a thing.
Victoria asked, "What did he look like?"
They shook their heads. One said, "He wore a mask, glasses, and a hat. If it wasn't a busy street and there weren't five of us, we wouldn't have agreed."
Victoria frowned. The guy was prepared.
One girl remembered, "He had a burn mark on the back of his hand."
Victoria knew they had told her everything.
"One last question, where did he approach you?" Victoria asked.
"On the sidewalk in front of a Mexican restaurant on Park Avenue," a girl said.
Victoria got up to leave.
The girls asked, "What about us?"
Victoria didn't answer, but Wesley did. "Be grateful Ms. Kennedy keeps her word."
Wesley told Lenora, "Lenora, take them to the hospital for a check-up."
Lenora replied, "Okay, Wesley."
"Please follow me," Lenora said politely.
Brady, standing next to Wesley, said, "Ms. Kennedy is impressive."
Wesley proudly said, "Of course."
Brady fell silent. She was praising Ms. Kennedy, not Wesley. Why was Wesley so proud?
Victoria returned to her office, opened a hidden icon on her desktop, and quickly typed a string of symbols. Codes flashed across the screen as her fingers flew over the keyboard.
Five minutes later, she smirked. "You think you can erase your tracks and I won't find you?"
Wesley had just finished dealing with the situation and ran into Lila at the elevator.
"Ms. Scott, what brings you here?"
Lila looked worried. "Is the company in trouble? I saw the news. Where's Victoria?"
Wesley replied, "She's in her office. The situation is almost resolved. The people who made the video were college students tricked into it. We just don't know who the mastermind is yet."
Just then, Victoria walked towards them with her bag.
"Where are you going?" Lila asked.
"To find someone."
"Is it someone from the Kennedy family?" Lila asked, suspecting a setup.
Victoria said, "I don't know yet. I'll find out once I catch the guy who bribed them."
Wesley immediately offered, "I'll go with you."
Victoria replied, "No need. You stay here and handle the follow-up. I'll be back soon."
Lila's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Then take me with you. I'm the company's vice president. I have the right to go."
Victoria sighed and nodded.
An hour later, a black Mercedes drove into the Eastern Region of Rihegde, an old residential area mostly inhabited by migrant workers. It was facing demolition, so few people lived there.
"An hour of sitting has made my back sore. He sure picked a far place to hide," Lila complained after getting out of the car.
"How do we find him in this big place?" Lila asked.
"Follow me," Victoria said, leading them into a narrow alley. The houses were so close together that only one person could walk through at a time.
They kept turning corners like navigating a maze.
Lila muttered, "It's lucky it's daytime. If it were night, this place would be really creepy."
"Even for a few million dollars, I wouldn't live here," Lila added.
Victoria chuckled. "If you had a few million dollars, why wouldn't you move out?"
Lila fell silent. That made sense.
After about fifteen minutes, they reached an open cement area surrounded by seven or eight-story buildings. Lila saw a wide road ahead and asked, "We could have driven in. Why did we take so many alleys?"
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