As soon as the woman entered the shop, she took out some jewelry from her handbag.It was quite apparent that the woman had come to the shop with the intention of selling something.She was such a nervous wreck that she clumsily let some of the jewelry fall to the ground.
The crisp clang of the metal against the floor echoed around the place.
The woman rushed to pick the item up and placed it on the counter, together with another pearl bracelet she had just taken out of her bag as well.
“Is that an acquaintance of yours?” Sebastian asked when he saw Natalie freeze on the spot.
He looked in the direction of her gaze and saw the woman.
Natalie couldn’t be certain.She kept looking at her where she stood by the counter and said, “Her figure is reminiscent of that my foster mother.”
The shop assistant examined the jewelry and gave the woman a price.
“About one hundred thousand dollars.”
Finally, the woman opened her mouth to speak.She picked up one of the items on the counter and bargained in an exasperated tone, “It can’t be only worth one hundred thousand. These things are all real treasures.”
Natalie’s expression froze when she recognized that the woman was none other than Lauren.
Lauren felt the gaze of someone behind her, so she took off her sunglasses and looked to see who it was.She then saw that it was Natalie.
The two of them locked eyes with each other across the counter without saying a word.
Lauren was utterly mortified.She immediately turned her head.
Judging from the astounded expression on Natalie’s face, she guessed that Natalie might have recognized her.
Lauren was overwhelmed by shame.She bitterly regretted coming to this shop to pawn her jewelry.
The Quinn family had recently found themselves in a precarious set of circumstances.
Although Cassie had gained some benefits from Luke, it was still far from enough to maintain the business of the Quinn Group.
Moreover, Luke was a shrewd man.He knew that the Quinn Group was a lost cause.
Every time Cassie asked him to invest, he would habitually avoid the topic or find an excuse not to do so.
Lauren just couldn’t sit back and watch the Quinn Group become bankrupt.
She had no choice but to sell her personal belongings to fill in the extra cash that was needed to cover the running expenses of the household.
However, her reputation was extremely important to her.She used to just be an ordinary student.
When she became the wife to the wealthy Mr.Quinn, a barrage of women were green with envy at her fortune.
Because of this, her fear of being discovered to be struggling to make ends meet intensified tenfold because she had an appearance to keep up.
That was why she disguised herself every time she came to pawn things.She really hadn’t expected that she would run into Natalie of all people.She did her best to lower the brim of her hat to hide herself.She felt so awkward and didn’t know where to put herself.
At the same time, she couldn’t help but glance back at Natalie.
That little bitch seemed to be enjoying a good time recently.
Even she looked a little confused now, she still looked great and as if she were glowing with happiness.
Lauren thought of her precious daughter, Cassie, who had just been discharged from the hospital.She was in the youth of her life but she had been hurt all because of Natalie.
Lauren loathed Natalie with such deep-seated intensity that her eyes became blood shot and she gritted her teeth.
Had it not been for Natalie, the Quinn family would never have ended up in this situation.
But now, Sebastian was with Natalie.
Lauren knew that it wouldn’t do her any good if she made trouble for Natalie at this time.She took all her jewelry off the counter and put them back into her handbag.She sneered at the shop assistant, “I won’t sell them to you then.”
As soon as she finished her snarky words, she left in a hurry, holding her handbag tightly in her grasp.
When she passed Natalie, she threw a contemptuous look at her.
Lauren returned home, filled with resentment.
As soon as she entered the lounge, Cassie ran downstairs.She was crying hysterically and threw herself into Lauren’s arms.
Tears streamed down her cheeks endlessly. It was quite obvious that she had been crying for quite a long time.She sobbed pathetically, her eyes full of despair, “Mom, I am ruined.”
Lauren was at a complete loss about what to do about this.She held the bawling Cassie in her embrace, and asked, “Honey, I am here for you. Tell me, what’s going on?”
Because of her incessant sobbing, Cassie couldn’t even bring herself to speak coherently.
After somewhat calming herself down, she took out her phone.Her fingers were trembling.She said, “Have a look for yourself, Mom.I can’t bear to look at it again, or I might want to kill myself.”
After saying that, Cassie bent her knees and sat on the couch, covering her ears with both hands.She was shivering from head to toe.
Lauren’s heart shattered when she saw the horrible state her daughter was in.She unlocked the phone and clicked on the first video.In the video, she saw a group of several men with Cassie and the bottom of them all.
They were having sex.
Even though Cassie’s hair was sweaty and her face red, it was quite easy to make out that it was her.
The video was so obscene that Lauren couldn’t bear looking at it a second longer.The acts the men were performing on Cassie was simply unthinkable to Lauren. The video went on for three hours.
“That bitch Natalie! This is all because of her! I will kill her!”
Lauren was filled with such fiery rage that she couldn’t bear to watch the video for a second longer.She turned the phone off and flung it violently onto the table.
The screen shattered from the force.Cassie covered her ears with her hands, cried miserably and said in a high-pitched voice, “It was those men who sent the video to me. They blackmailed me with the video. They said that they would post it online if I don’t give them the money they’ve demanded.Those bastards! I am the one who hired them in the first place!”
Lauren tried to reign in her anger.She took a seat next the wailing Cassie and comforted her.
“Don’t worry about this, honey.I will handle it for you.So far, I am the only person you have showed this to, right?”
“I didn’t dare to tell Charis about it.l was afraid she might tell Luke.Luke can’t see this, or he will be repulsed by me and leave mel”
Cassie cried hysterically.
Cassie’s face could be seen so clearly in the video.If the video was posted online, she didn’t know how she could live with it.
Every man in Seacisco would be disgusted with her, not to mention Luke.
No man could accept the idea of their girlfriend being gang-raped.
Even though Luke had known that she had been with a lot of men before, the video was too obscene to even watch.She was.
completely disgusted with it when she looked at it.
Initially, she had been the one who hired those men to rape Natalie and make a video of it so that she could blackmail her with it later.She had never thought that she would fall prey to her own plan.
Lauren got a throbbing migraine.She asked, “How much are they asking for?” Cassie sobbed and wiped her tears away.
“One hundred thousand dollars.”
“Okay, we can figure it out.It’s not that much.”
