Chapter 582
Upon hearing this, Fiona’s eyes immediately lit up. “Do you have a plan?” she asked eagerly.
“If I had no plan, I wouldn’t have sought you out. You desire to be Mrs. Gunner, correct? Regrettably, Calvin’s heart belongs to Rosalie now. I’m afraid you have no chance of winning him,” Loretta stated bluntly.
Fiona was no fool. She promptly inquired, “Why are you helping me?”
“For the sake of money. I want money. Besides, Rosalie has always been an annoyance to me,” Loretta admitted. Inwardly, she reflected, “If it weren’t for Rosalie, my parents and I wouldn’t have ended up like this.”
Her parents had departed Strico to work in another city for a livelihood, while she was juggling odd jobs in Strico. Even in her role as a cleaner, Loretta was not a permanent employee but merely a temporary replacement for staff members on sick leave.
However, she hadn’t anticipated crossing paths with Fiona and being “bribed” by her in such a coincidence.
Fiona frowned. After all, she had only been blackmailed by Joseph before. Now, she couldn’t help but wonder if she was going to be extorted by Loretta once again.
“What’s the matter? Are you only interested in reaping the benefits without putting in any effort?” Loretta sneered at Fiona and continued, “I’ll help you get rid of Rosalie. I’ll take the money while you can have his heart all to yourself. Doesn’t that sound perfect? Without Rosalie in the picture, your chances of marrying into the Gunner family will significantly improve. After all…”
Loretta deliberately elongated the word, her eyes filled with scorn. “You’re the one Calvin has been searching for. You’ve replaced Rosalie. You wouldn’t want Calvin to discover the truth one day, would you?”
Upon hearing this, Fiona’s body suddenly stiffened. Her gaze at Loretta was filled with sheer horror.
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about!” Fiona’s words belied her emotional tone, laced with unease.
Loretta sneered, “Are you certain you don’t comprehend what I’m saying? Don’t you tell me that you have deluded yourself into believing you’re the one who saved him after pretending for so long. Need me to spell it out? The person who Calvin has been searching for is Rosalie! I’ve witnessed Rosalie wearing the same silver bracelet that Calvin always had on. It was a matching pair, but one bracelet went missing. It then ended up in Calvin’s possession!”
Cold sweat coated Fiona’s back and palms.
She hadn’t expected Loretta to be aware of this secret, a knowledge shared only between Rosalie and herself.
“Don’t worry. I’m just after the money!” Loretta wore a gentle smile and patted Fiona’s shoulder. “Otherwise, I would have already told Calvin the truth, wouldn’t I? Removing Rosalie is the only way you can find peace. As long as she exists, you’ll live in constant fear.”
Having said her piece, Loretta promptly left Fiona’s residence, showing no inclination to linger any longer.
Fiona suddenly felt utterly drained. She leaned against the wall, feeling completely lost and unsure of what to do next. She pondered, “Can I truly trust Loretta? Can money really buy her loyalty?”
Yet, Loretta had a point. If she hadn’t eliminated Rosalie, she would never become the matriarch of the Gunner family. The constant fear of Rosalie revealing the truth to Calvin would haunt her days, leaving her in perpetual anxiety.
Therefore, Fiona couldn’t allow Rosalie to stay by Calvin’s side any longer.
When Rosalie arrived at the law firm in the morning, she noticed her colleagues casting odd glances her way, occasionally whispering amongst themselves.
However, whenever she glanced in their direction, her colleagues fell silent.
Rosalie couldn’t help but narrow her eyes, wondering, “Is something going on that involves me?”
Even more amusingly, in the pantry, a gossip-prone female colleague quipped, “Congratulations, Rosalie. It seems you’re about to enjoy some sweet rewards. Just don’t forget us, your colleagues, when you’re swimming in wealth!”
“What are you congratulating me for?” Rosalie inquired.
However, the woman just gazed at her with an expression that seemed to say, “You know what I mean,” and said with a smile, “Don’t act clueless. This matter is circulating online now. Everyone envies you! But there are plenty of women who have their eyes on Mr. Gunner. You better watch out for them!”
Rosalie couldn’t quite grasp what the woman was talking about. The only certainty she had was that it was somehow related
to Calvin.
However, that person left the pantry before Rosalie could ask any more questions.
“It’s online?” Rosalie repeated silently. After contemplating for a moment, she was about to reach for her phone to check the internet when another person entered the pantry. Rosalie looked up and found it was Elodia.
During this period, Elodia was going through a difficult situation and mostly kept to herself in the office. She avoided any interactions with her colleagues, choosing to stay hidden.
When a video of her being physically attacked due to an affair, despite being in talks about marriage with her boyfriend, surfaced, it led to her boyfriend breaking up with her. Additionally, all her colleagues in the law firm expressed disgust toward her. The firm’s leaders even had several discussions with her regarding the matter.
Elodia harbored a deep resentment toward Rosalie. In her heart, she believed she would never have faced such a situation if it hadn’t been for Rosalie.
Although the firm hadn’t terminated her employment yet, there was a certainty that once her contract expired this year, it wouldn’t be renewed. There was a growing fear that she might struggle to stay within the legal circle in the future.
At that moment, the intensity of hatred in Elodia’s eyes became unmistakable as she looked at Rosalie. With a cold and sarcastic tone, she said, “Rosalie, don’t delude yourself. Do you truly believe you can become a part of the Gunner family just by being involved with Calvin? A woman like you, who has been in jail, will never be accepted by the Gunner family!”
Rosalie glanced at Elodia coldly and remained silent for a moment.
Elodia, mistaking her silence as a victory of striking Rosalie’s soft spot, continued more vehemently, “Why don’t you consider writing a memoir about your time in jail? You might make a lot of money out of it. I heard there are plenty of sordid tales in prison. Were you forced to perform a dance naked?”
The more Elodia spoke, the more malicious her expression became. She firmly believed that even if Rosalie managed to prove her innocence eventually, it wouldn’t change a thing. After all, she had been in prison, a stain that couldn’t be erased for the rest of her life.
Rosalie suddenly pulled out her phone from her pocket, tapped the stop button on the recording, and confronted Elodia, “What do you think will happen to you if I show this recording to Calvin now?”
Rosalie pressed the play button, and Elodia’s own words echoed in the room.
Elodia’s face contorted as her resentment and fear in her eyes toward Rosalie were palpable. “You set me up!”
“I haven’t done anything yet. But you certainly put a lot of effort into setting me up back then!” Rosalie retorted. When dealing with petty individuals, the more you yield and try to let things go, the more those people will attempt to take advantage of you.
