The crowd looked up and saw Albina standing at the entrance to the stairs.
She had changed her clothes and still had slightly damp hair.
Bianca became distressed.
-Albina, why don’t you dry your hair? Do you want to catch a cold?
-Mom, it’s okay. If I don’t come, I’ll get all the blame.
Albina’s voice was full of sarcasm as she walked down the stairs, picked up the card and looked at it, then sneered.
-The handwriting on this card imitated my handwriting so well that even I think I wrote it myself. But I never wrote this card!
Diana feigned surprise.
-Huh? Didn’t you write it? Then who would imitate your handwriting?
Albina gave her a deep look, and said in a meaningful voice:
-Yes, who would?
Diana shuddered inwardly at his look, but played dead and did not answer Albina’s question.
Suddenly, Albina felt a small hand grasp her fingertips.
She looked down and met Adrian’s small, boyish face.
-Albina, I never suspected that you would hurt me,” said the boy with a very serious look on his face. When I saw the card, I did think you had written it, but when I was pushed into the water, I knew it could never have been you who wrote it.
He finished and then looked at Diana.
-Albina wouldn’t have jumped in the water to save me if she wanted to hurt me, she even risked her life to save me. How could she hurt me!
Albina was touched.
-It seems I didn’t save you in vain.
Adrian smiled back.
-I have Albina to thank for saving my life. I really thought I was going to die.
He was in a daze when he felt someone holding him by the shore and heard Albina’s voice urgently telling him to wake up.
Adrian truly felt Albina’s desire to keep him alive.
-You were watching when Albina saved me, so I suspect it was you who pushed me into the water. You were the only one left in the pool besides Albina and me.
Albina nodded behind him and looked at Diana.
-By the way, you said you happened to see Adrian enter the pool and you followed him because you were worried? Coincidentally, I also saw you enter the pool and I thought it looked suspicious, so I followed you. And in the time lapse between you and me entering the pool, not a single person came out, it was just you and Adrian inside, so it’s normal for us to suspect you.
Diana’s fingers were so tight that her palms were sweating.
She hadn’t expected the Espina’s to believe so much in Albina and not suspect her in the least.
-I… But Adrian was already in the water when I went in, and I actually tried to save him!
-You’re lying… -Adrian snorted coldly.
-She’s not lying,” Albina said suddenly.
Not only Adrian, but also Antonio and Bianca looked at her in astonishment.
-When I was getting into the pool, I saw her ready to jump in and save him, but I was in a hurry to get ahead of her,” Albina explained.
Diana looked smug and before she could say anything, Albina spoke again:
-But when I said you weren’t lying, I was referring to your actions to save Adrian, not the fact that you didn’t push him into the water!
Diana froze.
Albina rounded on Diana, smiled and said;
-I have a wild guess.
Diana looked at the expression on his face and suddenly had a bad feeling.
Then Albina said:
-I suspect that you pushed Adrian into the water on purpose and then would save him when he was desperate so that you would be his savior and change not only Adrian’s attitude towards you, but also mom and dad’s. Then maybe you could continue to live as a family Espina….
She finished and looked at Diana’s already sweaty forehead.
-Am I right?
Antonio and Bianca’s eyes changed and they both looked at Diana with distrust.
What Albina said made perfect sense, and with the right control, this was simply too good for Diana. She would have gotten everything she wanted in one fell swoop!
Diana’s lips trembled slightly as she let out an embarrassed laugh.
-Albina, you have a great imagination, as expected of a design student, but unfortunately, you are completely wrong. I’m too stupid to come up with such ideas, I’m not as smart as you.
-Ah, really? -Albina scoffed, “I thought you were so smart!
Diana gritted her teeth and glared hatefully at Albina’s face.
She thought Doria was right, Albina was a calamity to anyone who knew her.
She might have had a good life in the Espina family, but when Albina returned, everything she had was gone. Fame, status, identity, even the last of her dignity was gone.
“If this affair is discovered, I’ll have to face jail.”
Thinking about what Doria had told her, Diana took a deep breath and said to Albina:
-I didn’t want to bring it up on the show, but this has reached a critical point.
She looked at the camera and let out a bitter laugh.
-Actually, Albina and I don’t have a good relationship. I am the adopted daughter of the Espina family and have enjoyed a happy life for over twenty years, but all of this originally belonged to Albina. So as soon as she came home, we were destined to produce conflict and friction.
Then she turned to Albina with an apologetic expression.
-I’m sorry I took your life away from you, and it’s normal for you to resent me. But this is a matter of great importance, so can we not get carried away with your personal anger towards me? Our primary objective now is to find out who really pushed Adrian, so instead of making wild accusations and speculations, we should present evidence of everything we have, right?
Diana spoke in a grandiloquent and righteous manner, as if Albina and the others were irrational people who only knew how to take revenge.
Several onlookers were also swayed by Diana and could not help but speak for her.
-Now that the surveillance is destroyed and there are no witnesses, and Adrian couldn’t get a good look at the murderer, of course we can’t get definitive proof, but we can tell everything we know and can think of, which will then make it easier for the police to investigate the case – Albina scoffed.
“Police?”
Diana startled and said hesitantly:
-Do we need the police in this case? Adrian is fine. If we bring in the police, there will be a big fuss and it will have bad repercussions!
Albina smiled and looked at her quizzically.
-Of course we should call the police! It’s an attempted murder! Not to mention that we’re on a program and a lot of people are watching. We have to guide the audience properly, don’t we? Or do we…? -Albina looked her up and down -Are you afraid?!