What was supposed to be a great party just fizzled out, leaving the Jennings family as the laughingstock of the elite circle.
Everyone got hush gifts from the Jennings family, so they wouldn’t spill the beans outside, but the Jenningses went all out to invite every big shot they
could.
So, this thing was pretty much common knowledge among the elites now.
After seeing off all the guests, Edgar hurried the staff to clean up the hall while he took Camden upstairs to check on Halle and Beatrice. The mother and daughter were bawling their eyes out in the room.
Especially Beatrice, her eyes were all puffy. Tonight was a major embarrassment for her. Not only was she exposed, but she also lost favor with the Hargreaves family. Marrying Javier now seemed impossible.
She couldn’t forget how his mom looked at her like she was some shameless hussy.
She worked so hard for years to win Javier’s heart, and now it was all ruined, totally ruined!
“Dad, you gotta find out who’s behind this to frame me!” Seeing Edgar come in, Beatrice cried and rushed over, her face twisted with rage. “Twon’t let him off!y’ll kill him!”
“Alright, alright, don’t cry, Beatrice. It’s not your fault. You and Javier were genuinely in love, just the way it got out was wrong. Your dad will make it right. Don’t cry.” Halle also cried as she came over and hugged her daughter.
Edgar felt bad too. Their well–laid plan was ruined, not only losing a great catch like Javier, but also having his daughter’s video out there. Who knew what people were saying about them now?
“Dad will look into it. You two stop crying. Crying won’t solve anything. What’s important is figuring out how to fix this.” Edgar patted Beatrice’s head gently, trying to comfort her.
Beatrice was his favorite daughter. He invested a lot in her upbringing. Now that she’d been set up like this, as a father, he was naturally furious.
But it was not the time to cry now. They needed to find that person behind this and get that video back.
Otherwise, if the video got out, it was gonna be a constant worry.
The Jennings family had already lost face once. They couldn’t let the video leak.
Luckily, tonight’s guests were all big names. No one sneaked a recording.
Camden, who hadn’t spoken yet, finally said, “Dad, could it be Briar?”
Camden was probably the most composed one in the Jennings family right now. He happened to see Briar turn back upstairs with a very faint smile on her lips. Now that he thought about it, that smile was kinda creepy.
“How could it be?” Edgar, Halle, and Beatrice all denied in unison.
To sneakily hack into the backstage computer and play that video, one’d need some serious hacking skills.
How could Briar, who was always glued to her phone playing games, do this?
Camden also felt that Briar didn’t seem capable of doing something like this, but he had a strong intuition that Briar was deeply involved in this matter.
Especially since Briar had both the motive and the time to do it.
And her smile…
Chapter 25
Camden even felt that Briar at that time wasn’t as useless as they thought.
“Briar’s just spoiled by the Grant family. If she knew hacking, given how much the Grant family dotes on her, would they really leave her out of the company shares?” Edgar thought he knew the Grant family well.
The Grant family was all about the bottom line–everything was tied to profit. One’d gotta be valuable to get their attention.
Briar just wasn’t valuable enough. That was why the Grant family was okay with letting her go back to the Jennings family.
The four of them were all gloomy, huddled together behind closed doors, trying to figure out who was behind it all while constantly comforting the pitiful Beatrice.
But they all forgot that the biggest victim here wasn’t Beatrice or Javier, but Briar, who they’d pushed to the back of their minds
Briar didn’t care for Edgar’s comfort either. Right now, she was replying to Ashton’s message.
Ashton: [Little one, I heard you had a tough time tonight. Need som
comfort?]
Briar glared at the “little one” in the message, frowning.
‘Little one? I’m an adult, okay?‘ she complained inwardly.
Briar didn’t ask how Ashton knew about it. She just replied grumpily. [No.]
Probably sensing Briar’s annoyance, Ashton didn’t reply but instead made a video call.
After hesitating for two seconds, Briar picked up. “What, Mr. Wade?”
“Little one, really don’t need anything? I’m not far from your place, ten minutes away.” In the video, Ashton was in a car. The light was a bit dim, but Briar could tell the car was moving and guessed he was probably just wrapping up work and heading home.
Briar resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “No need, thanks!”
She seriously doubted that the info Georgiana gave her about Ashton was fake. They made him sound all high and mighty, aloof, and uninterested in
women.
‘Where was the aloofness? He seemed quite approachable, didn’t he?‘ she thought to herself.
Afraid of pushing too far and really getting her riled up, Ashton decided to stop teasing and changed the subject. “Tomorrow’s the third acupuncture session for the old man. Should I send someone to pick you up at the Jennings family?”
Ashton’s reminder made Briar realize how fast time had flown. Five days had already passed.
“No need. I’ll go myself. I won’t be at the Jennings family tomorrow,” she replied.
She needed to pick up some meds from the pharmacy early tomorrow. The herbs Tristan sent her should be arriving at the villa soon, too.
“Alright, I’ll wait for you at home then. See you tomorrow.” Ashton didn’t push it and just hung up the video call.
Briar put down her phone, walked over to her computer, and quickly saved some hot video. Then, she switched the computer to the main interface and fell asleep contentedly.
Early in the morning, after running and having breakfast, Briar left on her motorcycle.
As soon as she was gone, Camden tiptoed into Briar’s room and rushed over to her desk to turn on her computer.
He thought he’d have to waste time cracking the password, but it turned out there wasn’t one at all.
Camden was thrilled and started scrolling through files right away.
13:39 Mon, 28 Jul ☺D!
Chapter 25
But what he didn’t notice while looking through files was a tiny red dot flashing on the cabinet handle next to the desk, recording everything he did with
Briar’s computer.
When Briar got a message notification on her phone, she had just returned to Moonspring Estate after buying some herbs from the pharmacy.
She briefly glanced at the surveillance footage that had been sent to her phone before closing it.
‘Go ahead and look if you want; if Camden finds anything useful, it’ll be a miracle,’ she sneered inwardly.
“Briar!” As soon as she stopped riding, a voice full of surprise sounded.
Briar turned around to see Ellen in workout gear running towards her with joy.
