Chapter 1780:
Johnson echoed her sigh before lifting his glass. “Let’s just drink.”
Belinda and Bethany raised their glasses in unison, a crystalline chime sounding as they clinked them against his.
Partway through their gathering, Belinda excused herself to visit the restroom. On her way back to their private dining room, she encountered someone familiar.
Lyle hadn’t anticipated such a coincidental encounter with Belinda in this place. Upon spotting him, Belinda experienced a moment of startled recognition but swiftly recovered her composure and continued forward, her expression carefully neutral. As she moved past Lyle, she kept her gaze fixed ahead.
“Belinda.”
Lyle seized the initiative and called out to her. Belinda halted mid-step. He closed the distance between them, his eyes seeking hers with desperate intensity. “Can we talk properly?”
“No,” Belinda said without the slightest hesitation.
She added with arctic coolness, “I’ve already made my position crystal clear—from now on, even if fate forces our paths to cross, we will remain complete strangers. Furthermore, I cannot fathom any topic that would warrant discussion between us.”
“I owe you my gratitude,” Lyle said with sincerity. “Thank you for saving my aunt before.”
“I saved Carola, but it has nothing to do with you.”
With that, Belinda resumed her departure without a backward glance.
As she disappeared from view, a turbulent storm of conflicting emotions swept across Lyle’s face. He found himself unable to escape the haunting reflection: had he been too hasty in judging Belinda based solely on her parentage and Kylee’s poisonous whispers?
The recent jewelry store robbery had revealed something that shattered his preconceptions. The woman he had consistently despised had willingly risked her own life to save someone who had no ties to her—someone who could reasonably be considered an adversary to her. Meanwhile, his beloved cousin, whom he had treasured and protected since their childhood years, had chosen her own survival over her mother’s safety without hesitation.
gⲁ𝗅𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀.𝗰0𝗺; 𝓁𝒾𝓈𝓉 𝗌𝑒𝓃𝓈𝑒𝑔𝓮𝓁
Was there truly any doubt about which of the two women possessed the fundamentally flawed character?
Johnson’s words prompted Belinda to shake her head with weary resignation. “We’ve discovered absolutely nothing. There’s no trace of Georgie’s existence before she delivered that child—it’s as though someone deliberately erased her entire history.”
Her voice carried a note of frustration as she continued, “But the more thoroughly it’s concealed, the more it screams that Faye’s origins reek of deception.”
Bethany’s laughter rang out with sharp clarity. “Precisely my point! What rational person would obliterate such traces unless they harbored secrets? It’s evident that something is amiss.”
Belinda’s expression grew grave as she responded with unwavering certainty. “So, we can now establish with reasonable certainty that Faye and Lucas share no biological connection, and Faye probably knows that.”
Bethany’s brow furrowed. “Given these circumstances… it’s almost certain that Faye was the one who pushed you down that slope before.”
