Chapter 168
She wasn’t lying about meeting a friend that night; running into Leyla was indeed a chance encounter.
However, the truth was that Leyla hadn’t invited her. Beatrice had ditched her friend the moment she saw Leyla and eagerly jumped at the opportunity
to be with her.
Ever since Beatrice started getting close to Leyla, she had been thinking of ways to stay in her good graces. As the heiress of the Haynes family, Leyla attracted attention wherever she went. Now, with Beatrice wanting to connect with the influential Hargreaves family through marriage, she realized she needed to do more than just win over Javier–she had to make herself an essential part of Leyla’s life.
Beatrice believed that if she could improve her status, Javier’s mother would stop ignoring her.
Leyla seemed like the ideal person to help her do just that.
It turned out that her decision was correct.
Beatrice had been spending a lot of time with Leyla, and they had gone shopping, dined out, and more. Although it sometimes felt embarrassing to act like a sycophant, the benefits were clear.
Even those wealthy heiresses in Shoneport, who once excluded her, began inviting her to join their outings.
Javier’s mother also started treating Beatrice more kindly, and the snide remarks stopped.
Even during dates with Javier, his mom no longer tried to pull him away early.
Beatrice was convinced that by associating with Leyla, she could finally get into the Hargreaves family and join the circle of socialites she longed to be part of.
However, everything came crashing down when Leyla got caught up in a drug scandal, and Beatrice’s name was linked to it too.
She felt a wave of regret, knowing that in such circles, anyone involved in a drug issue would be completely shut out afterward.
All the connections she had worked so hard to build were destroyed.
Javier, who was overwhelmed by his responsibilities, was too tired to address Beatrice’s recent behavior. His feelings for her were dwindling fast.
Finally, he said, “Beatrice, I’ve been busy with work lately. Please don’t reach out to me for a while.”
Beatrice’s face fell instantly upon hearing his words. She jumped up from the couch, panic in her voice as she asked, “Javier, are you breaking up with me?” Her expression was a mixture of fear and distress.
Javier didn’t answer, and he just let out a sigh before hanging up.
His silence said it all.
Beatrice listened to the continuous sound of the call that had ended, and it felt as if her entire world had fallen apart. She sank back onto the couch, feeling hopeless and thinking, ‘This is it. In the end, it was Leyla who brought me down.‘
Sitting there, completely heartbroken, tears streamed down her face as she struggled to figure out what to do next.
Just then, her phone rang again. Beatrice’s heart raced with excitement, hoping it was Javier calling her back. But when sh
Robert instead.
d at the screen, it was
Trying to sound strong and keep her tears in check, she answered, “Hello?”
“Beatrice, what’s wrong with your voice?” Robert asked, sounding worried.
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He quickly noticed the worry in her tone and inquired with concern.
Beatrice choked out, “Robert, L…”
“Don’t cry, don’t cry. Just tell me what’s going on,” Robert said, his voice full of concern. Then, as if something clicked, he asked, “Is this about se
scandal?”
Beatrice’s sobs faltered for a second, then she started crying even more softly, her voice choked with helplessness. “I don’t even know how everythier ended up like this…”
“Don’t cry. I’ll handle this…” Robert reassured.
It was Sunday, so there was no school. Briar had been convinced to go for a morning run by Ashton, who then treated her to a big breakfast. With nothing else to occupy her time, she climbed back into bed, sprawled out comfortably, and soon drifted off to sleep again.
When she finally woke up, it was because her phone was ringing.
Briar noticed it was Alexia calling from Qathana and groaned, “Alexia, you’d better have a good reason for calling me.”
Alexia hesitated before asking, “Did I wake you up?”
Briar snorted, “What do you think?”
Alexia playfully teased, “Isn’t it already afternoon there? Why are you still in bed? Please don’t tell me you were up all night… having some fun?”
Briar rolled her eyes hard as she replied, “Seriously, can you dial down the suggestive comments? If you keep it up, you’ll start to think everyone’s just rolling out of someone else’s bed.”
Alexia laughed in response, “Okay, okay! No need to get so upset.”
Briar clenched her teeth and said, “Now, what’s the reason for your call?”
When discussing business, Alexia became a lot more serious as she stated, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news…”
Briar sat up and interrupted, “Let’s hear the bad news first.”
Alexia was momentarily speechless.
“Seriously, you have no sense of fun at all!” Alexia muttered. “Alright, the bad news is, someone’s got their eyes on you. There’s a hit out for you on the Hacker Alliance–6 million dollars for your head.
“Briar, look at you. Take a little vacation and your price drops like crazy! And your market value is really poor in Dasmieca, Come on, how is your life only
worth 6 million dollars now?”
Briar ignored the rest of Alexia’s nonsense and asked, “And what is the good news?”
Alexia giggled, “The good news is, less than half an hour after the hit was posted, your man forced the order to be canceled using 24 million dollars.”
“Ashton?” Briar raised an eyebrow and asked. “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”
Alexia laughed even louder, “If we told you, how were we supposed to make 24 million dollars off your man?”
In the Hacker Alliance, there was an important rule: once someone placed an order, it was very difficult to cancel it. If they did want to cancel, they would have to pay a hefty penalty of at least four times what they originally paid.
Alexia chuckled as she explained, “We were being pretty generous. We only charged your man four times the cancellation fee because of you.”
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Briar felt her irritation grow as Alexia laughed. “So, who hired someone to take me out?” she asked directly.
“Sorry, but we have rules against sharing client information,” Alexia replied, maintaining her professional tone.
Briar’s annoyance only grew, and she stated, “Fine, I’ll just hang up and find out myself.”
As an insider in the Hacker Alliance, she knew she could easily access the client’s details if she wanted to.
Alexia warned her, “Go ahead and check, but don’t blame us. We can’t leak client info officially.”
“Understood. I’m ending the call now,” Briar said, disconnecting before Alexia could respond.
Then she grabbed her laptop, logged into the Hacker Alliance’s internal network, and quickly found the order that Ashton had canceled forcefully for 24 million dollars.
She then grabbed her laptop and logged into the Hacker Alliance’s private system. When she saw the client’s information, a cold laugh escaped her. It was surprising, yet everything now made sense.
Right at the top of the details, it read: Anonymous Order Client: Hayden Garza.
