Chapter 312 Planning on Paying your Respects, Adeline?
"I need you to do me a favor, Mr. Foster."
Adeline's voice was tight, her usual composure strained.
"It's about Mia. She's in trouble again, and I need you to have her taken back to the hospital."
Jasper's brow furrowed at the urgency in her voice. "It's the middle of the night, Adeline. She was just released this evening. Are you sure this is necessary?" He couldn't help but question her motives. This seemed extreme.
Adeline bit her lip, hesitating. "I can't explain everything right now, but please, just do me a favor."
She knew it sounded weak, but she couldn't reveal her suspicions about Thomas without concrete proof. "I'll design an extra piece for this project in return."
At the mention of the design, he frowned a bit. "One question," he finally said, his voice carefully neutral. "When you create your designs, those intricate details...whose hands, whose necks do you use as inspiration?"
Adeline was taken aback by the seemingly random question. "Most are from my imagination," she replied, her brow furrowing in confusion. "But if it's for a specific client, we try to incorporate their features." She paused, then asked, "Why do you ask?"
"No reason," Jasper said, a cryptic smile playing on his lips as he glanced at the photo of Adeline's design he'd taken earlier. "Consider it done."
"Thank you, Mr. Foster." Adeline breathed a sigh of relief, hanging up the phone. She went to the kitchen, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts as she made herself a cup of coffee. She settled onto the couch, trying to focus on sketching out her next design, but the tension gnawed at her.
An hour later, her phone buzzed with an incoming call. It was Thomas, his voice a mixture of fury and panic. "Adeline! What have you done? Mia's been taken back to the hospital! They said someone claimed she was unstable. Are you behind this?"
Adeline leaned back, a cold smile playing on her lips. "Of course it was me, Thomas. Did you really think I wouldn't find out about your little scheme?"
"Scheme? What are you talking about?" Thomas sputtered, his voice rising in indignation.
"After all, Mia has a fortune of five hundred million. If she's locked up in a mental hospital, you won't be able to get that money, right?"
"And you, Thomas," Adeline interrupted, her voice dangerously calm, "are playing a dangerous game." She took a sip of her coffee, savoring the bitter taste.
"You call me cruel, but you haven't seen anything yet. Did Stella promise you half a billion? Because that's what you'll lose if Mia remains incapacitated. A mentally unstable person can't inherit a dime, let alone millions. And you, my dear Thomas, won't see a penny of it."
She could practically hear him grinding his teeth on the other end of the line. "Mrs. Foster was right about you," he spat. "You're a heartless, manipulative..."
"Choose your next words carefully, Thomas," Adeline warned, her voice like ice.
"You think I'm scared of you?" he blustered. "I can go to the hospital right now, expose your lies..."
"And what good will that do?" Adeline cut him off, her voice laced with amusement. "You're out of your depth, Thomas. Accept it."
She hung up, leaving him ranting into the void. Locking Mia away, at least temporarily, was the only way to ensure her safety and keep Thomas in check. But she knew it was a temporary solution. Thomas was volatile, dangerous, and she needed concrete evidence of his past crimes to truly neutralize him.
The memory of that night, the screech of tires, the feeling of falling...it haunted her. But the bridge had been rebuilt, the witnesses long gone. Finding proof was like grasping at smoke.
Exhausted, both physically and emotionally, Adeline barely slept that night. She arrived at the office the next morning, relying on copious amounts of coffee to function. As she opened her computer, a new email notification caught her eye. It was from Thomas, and it contained an audio file: a recording of his conversation with Stella from the previous day.
A chill ran down her spine. Stella was playing a dangerous game, one she clearly underestimated. As she listened to the recording, a cold fury built within her.
Suddenly, the office door burst open, and Lucia rushed in, her face pale and her voice frantic. "Adeline! It's Ava! She...she jumped from a building!"
Adeline's blood ran cold. "What?"
"She's alive, but barely," Lucia continued, her words tumbling over each other. "She's in critical condition at the hospital. And...she left a suicide note. Blaming you."
Adeline's mind reeled. This wasn't part of the plan. Why would Ava do this? It made no sense.
Lucia pulled out her phone, her expression grim. "It's all over the news. Everyone's calling you a monster, saying you drove her to it."
Adeline quickly opened her news app, her heart sinking as she saw the headlines. Accusations, insults, and threats filled the comment sections. And then she saw it: a post from Stella.
"Please, everyone," Stella's post read, her tone a perfect mix of concern and naiveté. "Adeline would never hurt anyone. She's my dearest friend. My husband and I trust her completely. Please stop this hateful speculation. It's breaking my heart."
The hypocrisy was sickening. Adeline scrolled through the comments, each one a knife twisting in her gut. Stella had even replied to a few, playing the role of the heartbroken friend, the trusting wife betrayed.
"My husband is a good man," Stella wrote in one comment. "Even if there's something going on between him and Adeline, it's not his fault. I blame myself for not seeing her true colors."
Rage, cold and sharp, coursed through Adeline. Stella was a master manipulator, using Ava's attempted suicide to paint herself as the victim, to sow doubt and suspicion.
"Which floor did she jump from?" Adeline asked, her voice dangerously calm.
"The third floor," Lucia replied, her brow furrowed in confusion.
The third floor... It wouldn't be fatal. This wasn't a suicide attempt. It was a staged performance, orchestrated by Stella.
'But why?' she held back her anger.
"Which hospital?" Adeline asked, already reaching for her purse.
As if on cue, Jasper's voice, cold and sharp, cut through the tension. "Planning on paying your respects, Adeline?" He stood in the doorway, his expression unreadable.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
