“What do you mean?” Tina’s heart sank a little as a wave of uneasiness filled her insides.
Rina pulled out the brand new cell phone that Julia had just bought for her. “The hacker who’s helping Miss Reed had already posted proof of you framing Miss Reed. I saw it before I came in. There are two videos in total, and they sure are interesting. Miss Reed was the one who had actually been assaulted by those guys, and you admitted it on your own in the videos.”
“What?” Tina’s expression changed as she felt her limbs turning cold. “Give me the phone!” She reached out to grab Rina’s cell phone, but Rina didn’t stop her at all. Instead, she spread her lips into a faint smile while she watched Tina.
Tina grabbed the phone firmly in her palms as she began to watch the videos that Rina had been talking about. Her mind went blank after she saw the contents of the two videos, and she felt like she had just been struck by lightning. She was utterly dazed, and she couldn’t process the situation at all.
“H-How did this happen?” Tina let go of the cell phone, and it fell onto the sheets with a thud. She didn’t seem to realize that the phone had fallen, for there was only a single thought going on in her mind as she stared at the ground, her face pale and her eyes glazed over. I’ve been completely exposed! I’m ruined!
Meanwhile, Rina let out a celebratory chuckle when she saw the look on Tina’s face. “I told you that you don’t stand a chance! The whole world now knows that it wasn’t Miss Reed who had schemed against you by arranging for those six men to assault you. Instead, it was you who had done it to Miss Reed. On top of that, you even attempted to frame Miss Reed today. These two crimes will probably put you in jail for a few years.” Rina seemed to recall something else as she spoke, and she used her pinky to dig her ear as she continued to speak. “By the way, many of the netizens are calling for the police to capture you, and the officials just announced that they’re on the way right now. In other words, you’re about to get officially arrested. According to my estimation, your end should be arriving shortly.”
The moment Rina finished her sentence, someone shoved the hospital door open. The first two people to enter were Titus and Julia. Titus wore a grim look on his face, and Julia was sobbing, looking extremely sad. Behind them were a few police officers who had handcuffs in their hands, and they were striding toward the hospital bed hastily.
All the arrogance in Rina’s face disappeared at that very moment, and she pointed at the police before pointing to Tina. “Mom? Dad? Is this…”
“Come here, Rina.” Julia waved at the other girl. Rina threw a glance at Tina before she hurried over to Julia. The only people left by the side of the bed were a few male police officers, whose main intentions were to interrogate Tina. The men had handcuffs in their hands as they glared at Tina with blank expressions. “Please come with us, Miss Gray.”
Tina seemed to snap out of her daze when she saw all the officers and the shiny, silver handcuffs dangling before her eyes. “No! I refuse to go! I’m not going there!” she cried as she shook her head furiously.
“You don’t have a say in that,” one of the male officers uttered as he secured one side of the handcuff around Tina’s wrist. Tina felt the icy metal against her skin, and she trembled in response to the sharp coldness of the metal. The fear building up in her chest made it hard for her even to breathe. She attempted to wrestle her way out of the police’s grip while she stared at Titus and Julia. “Mom! Dad! Save me!”
Titus looked away without even acknowledging her plea for help. Did she ask me to save her? There is evidence all over the place now. How am I supposed to save her? I’ll be accused of disrupting the law if I were to do anything now; they’d arrest me as well. The work at Triforce Enterprise is already draining me at this point, and things will only be worse if I get brought in by the police. I still have to consider ways to stabilize the company’s shares after the police arrest her.
A chilly sensation spread across Tina’s chest when she saw Titus’s attitude toward the situation, so she hastily turned toward Julia, who was reluctant to even exchange glances with her. Julia looked away almost immediately as she thought, If Titus can’t manage to save Tina, what can I, a full-time housewife, do at all?
Tina felt her heart turning to stone when she realized that both Titus and Julia were unwilling to help her out. She felt a strong surge of resentment toward the husband and wife. Despite them claiming that Tina was their only daughter that they would love and cherish forever, they no longer seemed to stick to their words after Rina’s return. It’s almost as if they have completely forgotten about their promises. They’re even trying to give up on me now. How could they?
Meanwhile, Rina, who had been in Julia’s arms, tugged her lips into a smirk when she saw the hatred spreading across Tina’s face. Yes! Hate them! Hate them all! The more Tina hates Mom and Dad, the more distant they get, and the more likely they’ll cut ties with each other. That way, Mom and Dad will completely belong to me.
…
Tina was brought away in her wheelchair as her injuries hadn’t healed yet. A bunch of reporters had been waiting outside the hospital, and they happened to capture scenes of Tina being brought away by the police. Many netizens celebrated after they saw such images surfacing online.
Before the two videos were released, many people were on Tina’s side—they thought that she was pitiful and that Sonia was evil. However, everyone finally understood the situation after the videos were out. It wasn’t Sonia who had plotted against Tina, but Tina was the one who had attempted to plot against Sonia and failed with her plan. In the end, the six men had mistaken Tina for Sonia and therefore made a move on her. All in all, Tina’s plan to harm Sonia backfired on herself, and she even tried to turn things around again. Tina simply refused to give up.
The more the netizens had pitied Tina in the past, the more they hated and detested her after the truth was out. They didn’t exactly hate Tina’s harmful and evil acts toward Sonia; they were more resentful toward the fact that Tina had used them as a means of causing harm to others. The whole Internet was filled with people cursing at Tina.
Most of the netizens weren’t worried about being canceled or embarrassed as Tina didn’t have the support of a hacker. Thus, they were harsher and more relentless with their criticisms. Many of the comments were much worse than those for Sonia.
On top of that, Triforce Enterprise also saw huge fluctuations in their shares after this incident, and Titus had to rush to the office in the middle of the night to host a shareholders’ meeting.
In the meantime, Sonia was back in Bayside Residence as she scrolled through all the never-ending apologies on her social media. A grin found its way to her face when she contrasted this with all the angry comments that were on her wall. Soon enough, she gave Tim a call. “Tina has already been taken in by the police, and I’m sure she’ll expose you to them soon. You—”
“I know what you’re going to tell me. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine,” Tim replied as he pushed his glasses up.
Sonia nodded after she heard what he said. “Okay. Well, I have to thank you for recording those two videos. I wouldn’t have been able to clear my name otherwise.”
“It’s no big deal,” Tim replied with a smile. After exchanging a few more words, they got off the call. However, Sonia’s phone began to ring the moment she ended Tim’s call.
She glanced at the screen to see Carl’s number, and she immediately ended his call before phoning him with her other number. “Sonia?” Carl uttered uncertainly when he first picked up the call.
“It’s me,” she said with a nod.
“Sonia, why did you—”
“For safety purposes. I’m sure Charles told you about this,” she replied.
He was silent for a few moments before he answered. “Yeah.”
“You’re so impressive! You secretly honed your skills, huh? I would have never known that you were the little fox if you hadn’t said it yourself.” Sonia pinched the space between her brows as she spoke.
Carl let out a warm chuckle. “I’m sorry, Sonia. I kept it a secret because I didn’t want to scare you. You aren’t mad at me, are you?”
“Of course not! Why would I be mad at you when you helped me? But I need you to be honest with me, Carl. Will the police be able to track you down?” Sonia knitted her brows as her tone turned stern.
His expression became serious as well. “No way. My skills are among the top three in the whole world. The police will never be able to catch me.”
She heaved a sigh of relief after hearing what he said. “That’s good. I feel less worried then. By the way, why are you calling me at this hour?”
