Hilary wore a big sun hat with a face mask to hide her appearance as she headed to a private room in a restaurant surreptitiously.
It was only when she entered the room did she reveal herself, and the ones she was meeting were Judy Bates and her husband.
When the couple saw her coming in, they immediately rose to their feet and greeted her warmly, but she was not having any of it.
With her eyes tinged with contempt and disgust, Hilary spat, “Didn’t I tell both of you to go back to W City? Who asked you guys to come back here? Both of you had caused enough troubles here!”
However, Judy paid no heed to her threatening voice as she replied with a beaming face, “Hilary, let bygones be bygones. Besides, we cause no trouble this time.”
“No trouble, huh? How about the previous car accident? And your child even beat someone into a coma in school! Did you seriously think those were not big issues?”
Judy’s face fell instantly, and she cut to the chase. “These were all in the past, Hilary. It’s almost the end of the year now, and we need some money to go back during the holidays.”
“Money? The last time you asked for money was two weeks ago, for goodness’ sake! Your greed really knows no bound. All these years, I’ve been paying both of you on time every month, and I even gave you extra whenever you needed some emergency cash. I know I owe you a favor, but I’m at my limits. From now on, if you two continue to be so greedy, I won’t even give you a penny.”
“Hey, Hilary. Many goods are getting more expensive nowadays. Besides, things are different now. Twenty thousand is not enough for a month.”
Hilary eyed her suspiciously. “What do you mean things are different now? What are you trying to say?”
Judy paused for a while before answering, “Hehe… I saw your daughter when I was in W City previously. She is gorgeous, Hilary. Even though she is not your biological daughter, she is as pretty as you. And I even heard that she almost married into an affluent family, but unfortunately, that family looked down on her because of her background. What a pity. Hilary, if she weren’t born in a poor family, she would have gotten married to that rich guy and enjoy the rest of her life in fortune.”
As Judy spoke, her chubby face looked somewhat comical with her exaggerated expression and tone of voice.
On the other hand, Hilary’s face turned pale, and she became more horrified as the seconds ticked by.
Seeing the intense fear in her eyes, Judy smirked in satisfaction. “Hilary, don’t you think you should give us more from today onwards? Oh, by the way, I know her contact number and her address. From the looks of it, she is doing quite well now. Do you know that she is living in a villa? I was shocked. Tsk tsk. What a good girl she is. If she knows that she is not a child of a poor family, I bet she’ll hate…”
“Shut up!” A high-pitched yell cut her off all of a sudden.
Hilary gave Judy a death stare, her body trembling with rage.
Flashing her a triumphant smile, Judy sat down, and her husband, who had been keeping quiet all the while, finally spoke up to Hilary.
“That year, ever since my wife helped you to do that terrible thing, she’s been eaten up with guilt and even quitted her job as a nurse. All these years, she’s been wanting to find your daughter and that family to apologize to them. Luckily, I’m always there to stop her. Otherwise, she would have revealed the secret to them a long time ago. I know you’re struggling to earn money as well, and I’m thankful to you for giving us such a great life. Don’t worry, Hilary. We won’t sell you out.” His voice was dripping with sarcasm.
They’re absolutely shameless! Now, they’re just putting on a show where they disagreed with each other. But, ultimately, what they want is to force me to spew out money like an ATM machine. I’ve been living on a shoestring in recent years. If they continue to blackmail me, I don’t think I can tolerate them for long.
Hilary heaved a sigh and held up her hand. “Say no more. I know you want more money. How much do you want?”
Judy’s husband clapped his hands. “Ah, that’s the question we’ve been waiting for, Hilary.”
“Fifty thousand a month,” Judy replied, smiling shamelessly.
“No way!” Hilary rejected immediately.
Seeing her reaction, Judy laughed mirthlessly and stood up. “Forget about it then. Oh, my guilt is killing me. I need to find Ms. Quigley and tell her the truth.”
As Judy turned to leave the room, her husband pretended to pull on her arm to stop her as he knew that Hilary would relent eventually.
“Stop right there!” Hilary shouted, exasperated at their attitude.
As soon as she said that, Judy turned around with a smile and waited for Hilary to say more.
Massaging her temples, Hilary continued, “I’m short of money recently. I can’t give fifty thousand. How about thirty-five thousand?”
“Forty thousand.”
“Fine.”
After that, Judy requested Hilary to do the online transfer on the spot, and their eyes instantly shone with happiness the moment they saw the money in their account.
“Hehe. Thank you, Hilary. This large amount of money reduces my guilt,” Judy said, placing her hand on her chest dramatically.
Scum!
Hilary cursed inwardly.
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she then fixed her gaze on their eyes and warned sternly, “Don’t tell anyone about anything. Do you understand me? Otherwise, I’ll make both of you disappear from the earth.”
Truth be told, Judy and her husband were somewhat wary of Hilary. After all, well-off people like her could easily hire thugs to give them a lesson.
That was why they did not push her too far in the past few years.
After Hilary left, the couple headed straight to the mall to shop until they dropped and went to have a meal.
Judy took a sip of her wine. “Since we can get money from Hilary, do you think we can find her biological daughter and get more money from her? The family that takes her in must have been loaded, too.”
Her husband wiped off the grease stain on his mouth and replied, “Yes, exactly. If we can find that girl, she’ll definitely not want other people to know that she was actually born in a penniless family. It’s not that hard to guess her reaction.”
“By the way, have you gotten any news from the private investigator?”
“I’ll hear from him soon. I spent so much money on him. If he doesn’t give us any useful information, I’ll finish him off.”
“I don’t think it’s difficult to find out where the girl has gone. Hmm, it’ll be quite hard for me to enter the hospital where I used to work. Otherwise, I would have found out the identity of her biological daughter myself and used that money for ourselves.”
“Don’t worry about the money we spend on that private investigator. I’m sure we can get it back from Hilary and her biological daughter. That’s why we need to invest our money well. Speaking of which, give me some money to buy stocks. I got some inside information that the stock price will go up…”
The couple quarreled over money again. One refused to give money while the other insisted the stock would rise.
In a high-end restaurant like this, the two rowdies were frowned upon by the other diners. Thus, the manager had to remind Judy and her husband to keep their voices down.
Fortunately, they had finished their meals, so they left right after that, still arguing as they stepped out of the restaurant.
Meanwhile, a married couple who sat beside their table shook their head in displeasure. It was Sandra and Jacque.
“What’s wrong with these people?” She stared at Judy and her husband until they were out of her sight.
“Don’t mind them. Tactless people like them probably will never know that they’re rude. Don’t think about them, and start eating,” Jacque replied, waving his hand.
“But I heard them talking about something shady.” She did not dig in as he told her and continued, “It seems like they’re threatening someone and planning to do the same to her daughter. I’ve only come across this kind of thing in the movies. Does it happens in real life, too?”
He shook his head. “Maybe. Who knows what people can do nowadays?”
Having said that, they did not dwell on it as it was none of their concern.
Not long after, Jacque’s phone rang. He furrowed his eyebrows when he saw the caller ID.
Sandra asked, “Is it Kayla? I can answer it for you.”
Then, she took over his phone and answered it. “Hi, Kayla. Oh, Jacque’s gone on a business trip. Yeah, he’s on an important mission so he’s not allowed to bring his phone along with him. Yes, I understand. We can’t give up on Shermaine. She’s our niece after all. As long as she’s behaving well inside there, I’m sure she can be released early even if we don’t intervene.”
After that, she did not speak for a long while as she continued to listen to Kayla babbling over the phone and rolled her eyes in frustration.
Ten minutes later, after Kayla was finally done with her ramble, Sandra said, “I know. Jacque’s been pretty busy lately, so I’ll tell him about this after some time. Oh, I need to go out now. I’ll talk to you next time. Bye.”
She hung up the call and let out a long sigh. “It’s been three years already. Why is she still like that? She’s getting even more annoying.”
Needless to say, she could only express her frustration in front of her husband. I’d be dead if I complain to my mother-in-law about her daughter.
Jacque was also fed up with Kayla. “Since Shermaine had done wrong, she should be punished by the law. She wanted me to do something to release Shermaine out of jail. But has she ever considered how it would affect my reputation if I get myself involved in this mess? My mother and I have really spoiled her. She’s totally irrational and difficult.”
“To be frank, I never thought that Shermaine would do such a thing. Is it because she’s spoiled by her mother, too?”
“Uh-huh. I don’t want to get involved in the mess, but I care about Shermaine as well. Previously, I had asked about her condition in jail. I heard that she was behaving well there, so she may be granted an early release for good conduct. However, I’m not sure the exact date she would be released, so if she asks again next time, just tell her what I say now.”
“Okay. I got it.”
The day after Clarissa came back, she unexpectedly came across Damian’s photos on social media when she was scrolling on her phone.
She instantly broke out in cold sweat and dialed Matthew’s number immediately.
Then, the post and the photos disappeared as quick as a flash.
Later in the day, she thought about it for a while and realized that it might not be a big deal after all. It was probably one of the young girls who took pictures with Damian at the airport that uploaded the photos to social media for fun. Besides, only Damian is inside those photos, so other people might think that he is just an ordinary cute child. Now that the photos are all gone, I can finally sit back and relax.
However, the girl who posted those photos was baffled. Why is my post deleted? I have to get to the bottom of this!
