Chapter 395 Taylor’s Explanation
Rina took a deep breath to contain the hatred she felt. She faked a look of surprise as she responded to Sonia. “What do you mean, Miss Reed? Do you trust her? Do you think that I really attacked you?”
Sonia couldn’t believe what was going on. Rina continued to shake her head. “I didn’t do it, Miss Reed. I work for both you and Mr. Coleman—I’d never attack my own boss. That doesn’t make sense! Trust me, Miss Reed and Mr. Coleman. Please trust me when I say that I haven’t done such a thing.”
Zane merely let out a scoff without responding to her. Rina felt her heart sink into the pit of her stomach when she saw his response, realizing how flustered she was at that point. “Mr. Coleman…” Rina parted her lips to call his name. She could tell that Zane didn’t just hate her—he practically treated her as if she didn’t exist. Rina was terrified as being ignored felt worse than being hated by him.
If he merely hated me, he would probably still look at me. However, now that he’s ignoring me, it means that I’m not even worth a glance. At this point, Rina began to regret all that she had done. I should have been more careful. Why didn’t I wear a mask when I went to meet Alice? That way, I wouldn’t have been found even if Alice decided to snitch on me. Then, Mr. Coleman wouldn’t hate and ignore me. Rina balled her fists as she counted her regrets.
“No. I’m very sure about this. You were the one who did it. I can’t trust you any longer. Do you know how we found out about this? We hired a sketch artist to draw a portrait of you in accordance with Alice’s descriptions. Then, we showed the portrait to Alice again. That was how we’re so sure that you’re the attacker.”
Rina widened her eyes. So, that’s what happened. I can’t believe that’s an actual way for someone to investigate a case! There’s still so much that I need to learn! “I see, Miss Reed. But portraits—”
“Stop trying to wriggle your way out of this. I know what you’re going to say.” Sonia raised her hand as she cut Rina off once more. “You’re going to say that a portrait can’t be legitimate evidence because someone could just describe your face on purpose, right? You’re trying to claim that Alice is framing you as the attacker, right?” Sonia continued with a smirk.
“I…” Rina was stunned and at a loss for words, proving that Sonia’s guess had been right. “Fine. If a portrait isn’t good enough as evidence, then allow me to present you with the most solid piece of evidence I have. After you attacked me, you went over to Alice’s house and stayed there for a long time. I’m sure your fingerprints are on some of the items in Alice’s house. Although this might be a bit of a hassle, I can still pay a large sum to order someone to dust everything in Alice’s house. Do you think we’ll be able to find your fingerprints somewhere in there?” Sonia scoffed.
“Sonia’s right. Once we find your fingerprints in Alice’s house, it’ll show that what Alice said was true. You were the one who attacked Sonia and ordered Alice to be your scapegoat.” Zane spoke while rubbing his chin.
Color drained from Rina’s face as she recalled how she had taken her gloves off once she arrived at Alice’s place. Back then, my gloves were stained with Sonia’s blood, so I took my gloves off and washed my hands in the bathroom. I touched many parts of the bathroom back then, so I’m sure that I left my fingerprints somewhere in there. Rina’s body began to tremble in fear just at the thought of it. She could no longer conceal the fear in her eyes.
Zane spoke up in a stern tone after he saw Rina’s expression. “It looks like you’ve finally admitted to your crimes. Well, tell us—why did you decide to betray us? Why did you attack Sonia?”
“Didn’t you hear what Alice said earlier? Alice said that Rina attacked me because she thought that I was a threat to her identity, right?” Sonia asked.
Zane knitted his brows. “Identity? What sort of identity does she have? Is she worried that you might steal her identity as Taylor? That can’t be it, right?”
“What are you talking about?” Sonia rolled her eyes. “She thinks that I’m a threat to her identity as Rina because I know that her identity is a lie. She is worried that I might expose the fact that she isn’t actually Rina,” Sonia explained.
“That doesn’t make sense. If she attacked you to stop you from exposing her, she should have killed you on the spot. That’s the only way she can stop you from talking. Furthermore, you aren’t the only one who knows about this—I know the truth about her identity as well. She should have attacked me too,” Zane mumbled in a deep voice.
Sonia drummed her fingers on the armrest of her wheelchair. “I think we should just get her to explain everything to us.” She turned to look at Taylor. “Taylor, did you attack me because you were afraid that I’d expose you for faking Rina’s identity? Also, what was the reason you destroyed my red mole? You’d better explain yourself clearly. If you do so, I might consider letting you off with a lighter punishment.”
Rina had to lower her gaze to conceal the bitterness and regret in her eyes. After a while, she finally looked up with a defeated expression on her face. “Yeah. I attacked you because I was afraid that you’d expose me for faking Rina’s identity,” she uttered with a cold smirk on her face. Since she was already exposed for attacking Sonia, she didn’t mind telling her the reason.
“Are you mad, Taylor? We were the ones who hired you to be a spy in the Gray Family. We’d only expose you if we lost our minds.” Zane smacked the table angrily.
Rina bit on her lip. “You might not expose me now, but what about the future? Once I complete all the tasks you guys gave me, you would still expose me, right? You’d get me to leave the Gray Family.”
Zane widened his eyes. “So, you did this because you don’t want to leave the Grays? You—”
“That’s right. Since you already gave me this life as Rina, you should just allow me to go on living as her.” Everything that Rina said was from the bottom of her heart.
Zane was completely taken aback. “I-Is that genuinely what you think?”
“Alright, Zane. Didn’t I tell you the same thing before? You don’t need to be too shocked. She genuinely thinks that way. We brought her into the upper-class society, and we awakened the greed in her. She wants to be Rina forever so that she can enjoy the lavish and luxurious life of a rich daughter. You can’t blame her for this—we humans never know when to be content, anyway.” Sonia tugged on Zane’s arm as she spoke in an icy tone.
Rina merely clenched her fists without saying much. Although Sonia’s words were true, and although Rina agreed with her, Rina still felt rather annoyed after hearing it from Sonia. She felt like Sonia was shaming her and talking bad about her in front of Zane on purpose. Zane’s impression of me is probably ruined now, huh? Well, that’s okay. I trust that he will change his mind about me as I continue to improve myself. The threats that I’m facing now are all temporary!
“I’d just like to find out about one other thing, Taylor. This is something you’ve never explained. What is it about this red mole of mine? What sort of secret does it hold, and why did you have to destroy it?” Sonia raised her left hand and pointed at the bandage around her left wrist as she asked.
Rina’s eyes glinted dangerously, but it faded off as she spoke. “There’s no secret behind it. A fortune-teller simply told me that I should watch out for people who have red moles. He said that such people might potentially curse me and cause me trouble. Tina has a red mole, and she used to bully me all the time when I first entered the Gray Family. That day, I noticed your red mole while I was at the restaurant, so I thought of destroying it. Because of that red mole, I figured that you might be the person to harm me and expose my fake identity as Rina. That’s why I attacked you.” She could admit her greedy desires to pretend to be Rina for the rest of her life, and she could admit that she was the one who attacked Sonia. However, she would never tell anyone about the secret behind the red mole. If that secret were out, everything would be over.
“A fortune-teller? A curse?” Zane was so furious that he couldn’t do much else but laugh. “Are you saying that you believe in these things? I don’t trust you one bit!”
