Chapter 457 Walking Right Into A Trap
Natalie won her first sum of capital which enabled her to start Dream from stone-gambling.
Yandel was there when she won the bet. She was only twenty-six back then. He witnessed how she came from a nobody to a big shot in the business world.
She was way thinner years back, but her eyes were spirited and observant. Even back then, Yandel could see the sparkles of determination shining in her eyes.
Her gaze was telling that winning was her only option, and that conviction made her stand out in the crowd.
When Yandel and Natalie were in a similar situation after all these years, both of them could not help but reminisce on the past.
“I’ll pass,” Natalie said, shaking her head. “What are the odds of actually getting a jade? I had nothing to lose years back, so I wouldn’t mind trying. Come to think of it, it’s rather ironic. I have anything I ever wanted now, but I lost the courage to even give it a try.”
When Lia and Ross overheard their conversation, they looked at Natalie in surprise, not knowing what to say about their unexpected discovery.
Both of them could not believe that their chairwoman used to do something this relentless. In fact, they wondered what was it that she could not do.
While they were looking at untreated stones, Natalie suddenly spotted a familiar figure.
It was Thomas. Beside him, was a fetching woman in a gown.
Her black and red gown augmented her fair skin, making her look all the more endearing as she lay in Thomas’ embrace.
This woman was not Yvonne, Thomas’ current wife.
Natalie was standing not far away from both of them. Their distance was close enough for Natalie to feel the intimate dynamic between the two of them. It was obvious that Thomas relished her company.
Back when he was still courting Yvonne, he was even willing to chase Natalie’s mother out from the Nichols family because he wanted to marry Yvonne. Natalie did not expect him to turn his back on his wife again.
She glared at them fiercely as they walked past.
Yandel and Ross stopped and turned around when they realized something was amiss.
“What’s the matter, Boss?” Yandel asked.
“Over there.”
He trailed Natalie’s hostile gaze and saw Thomas and the other woman.
Everyone’s face darkened when they saw the couple.
“You know what? I just changed my mind,” Natalie mumbled angrily, clenching her fists. “Since I ran into someone I know today, I might as well just try my luck with those stones, but before that…”
With just one gaze at one another, Yandel, Ross, and Lia knew just what to do.
“Is there anything we can do?”
Natalie assigned each of them tasks and they went off to carry out their assignment.
As for Natalie, she stayed where she was to wait and see how things would turn out. There was not a single hint of mercy in her eyes as she glared at Thomas and the woman.
Mom wouldn’t have died just like that if it weren’t for him.
It so happened that there was a fresh pile of raw rocks coming into the black market that day. Most of them were big and filled with weathering rinds. Judging from the appearance of these jade stones, customers present thought those stones had the potential of turning out to be jade, but Natalie shook her head when she saw them.
She could tell that the rinds on those stones were partially natural and partially artificial. They were painted on manually since there was a high demand for jade stones with weathering crusts, so sellers were always at an advantage when since the demand was higher than the supply.
They went to great lengths to imitate real jade stones.
In fact, they did such a spectacular job that it would take an extremely well-versed stone-gambler to know the difference.
Just as Natalie was looking at the stones, Yandel went up close to her and whispered in her ears, “Everything went as planned. That woman fell for it.”
“Give me a second, Yandel. I’ll go change into my hyper-realistic mask.”
“Sure thing.”
Yandel knew what Natalie had in mind. Just the sheer thought of it excited him.
Natalie returned after just a brief moment. When she came back again, she was already wearing the mask she wore when she went to the Nichols family as the “secretary”.
“Put your hand over my shoulder,” she said, pulling Yandel’s arm.
“Are you sure?”
Yandel’s hand moved stiffly across Natalie’s shoulder. Cold sweat broke out on his palms as he thought about Samuel’s reaction if he were to see this.
