I strolled in the garden causally. Meanwhile, Christopher was still chatting with Sharon in the living room. Although I did not know what they were talking about, Sharon seemed quite sad. Occasionally, she would look furious, as if she had been angered by Christopher.
Christopher had the strange ability to provoke others, but make them helpless to do anything to him. Even Sharon would lose the upper hand when up against him.
After standing under the tree for a while, Molly passed a glass of water to me. When she noticed my grim and furious expression, she could not help but say, “Mrs. Smith… Sorry, Ms. Tanner, please don’t blame Old Mrs. Smith. It’s tough for her too. If not for the fact that she’s out of solutions, she wouldn’t have thought of you. Crystal’s simply too despicable. She joined forces with the Miller family and got dirt on the Smith family about them evading taxes. She even threatened Old Mrs. Smith, who has been staying in the hospital for the past few days and was only discharged yesterday. Old Mrs. Smith is stuck in a situation too.”
Crystal and Benson had joined forces and gotten dirt on the Smith family. However, I did not understand what Crystal was planning to do. “Crystal is going to be married into the Smith family in the future. In that case, she’s going to be part of the family. Why is she doing this? Isn’t she helping the outsiders instead?”
Molly wiped the tears from her eyes and explained, “I don’t know about the specifics either. After you left, Crystal’s been acting extremely arrogant, especially with Mr. Smith backing her up. She has humiliated Old Mrs. Smith multiple times, even demanding that she transfers the stocks to her. If it weren’t for Old Mrs. Smith’s capabilities, the head of the Smith family might’ve already replaced.”
“What about Lyle? Isn’t he going to do anything about Crystal?” I remember that no matter how despicable Lyle was, he still cared about the Smith family. After all, the family was his backup. Without the family, Lyle would be nothing but a useless Casanova.
“Mr. Smith…” Wiping her tears again, Molly sobbed and elaborated, “He’s been completely hoodwinked by Crystal and listens to her every word. Initially, Old Mrs. Smith wanted to tell him the truth and expose Crystal’s true colors to him. However, Crystal threatened that if Old Mrs. Smith dared to criticize her in front of Lyle, she would reveal the evidence that would land the Smith family in trouble and get investigated by the authorities.”
Every company had its own shady activities. Although I was not part of it, I knew that Crystal must have gotten her hands on critical evidence that would greatly impact the Smith family.
I was struggling to understand Crystal. As a woman who is going to be married into the Smith family, why is she trying to create such a huge ruckus? Is she not scared that Lyle would stop listening to her after everything was exposed? In that case, her life will be miserable.
Unless… she never cared about the Smith family!
That thought flashed across my mind and my eyes widened. The more I contemplated it, the more likely it seemed. Crystal did not love Lyle at all but merely enjoyed competing with me for him just to crush me. Everything she did was just to defeat me.
Sharon disliked Crystal, which meant that she must have discovered her true colors. Otherwise, she would not go to such lengths to separate Lyle and Crystal.
Is Crystal trying to ruin the Smith family and win Lyle over just because I used to love him?
This was a ridiculous and unrealistic possibility. It was impossible that I was significant enough to motivate Crystal to keep targeting me because of the man I used to love.
However, I had never understood Crystal’s mind. After a passionate night with Christopher, I lay in his arms and panted for a long time before regaining my strength.
With my eyes half-closed, I drew circles on Christopher’s sturdy chest. After a while, he grabbed my hands and said, “Stop fidgeting. If you can’t get up tomorrow, you’ll be angry at me again.”
“I can’t sleep!” I sat up and said, “Chris, I don’t want Crystal to marry Lyle. She’s too terrifying. I have a feeling that she’ll ruin the Smith family. Although Sharon set me up and Lyle bullied me, I don’t want Crystal’s plans to succeed, nor do I want her to keep up with her arrogant act!”
