I ran forward as if my life depended on it, not knowing where I was going.
I just wanted to escape from this place.
“Laura!” Holly chased after me, calling my name.
I stumbled and nearly fell. She grabbed my arm.
“Laura!” She sounded frantic. “Please calm down. Let’s talk!”
“What to talk about?” I glared at her. “You really surprised me, Holly. I thought of you as my best friend, as a sister!”
“I had my reasons.”
“Reasons?” I bitterly smiled. “That’s the lowest excuse!”
“Laura!”
“You and Carter colluded together, but you kept me in the dark. Now I realize, maybe I was just a joke to you all along! I never hid anything from you, I told you everything. I never thought you were betraying me!”
“Holly,” I calmed down, looking at her coldly. “Was it fun playing me like a puppet?”
“Can you quiet down and listen to me?” Her gaze turned icy.
There was neither love nor hate in her eyes. All I could see was a hint of concealed sadness.
“When did you start with Carter?” I asked.
“You’ve misunderstood my relationship with him,” she lightly smirked. “It’s not what you think. To be precise, between him and me, it’s just an investor and a beneficiary. He’s the one who built up Gnote Magazine, and he’s the biggest shareholder here.”
“So you became his mouthpiece?” I sneered. “Holly, you really have some nerve!”
She looked at me, a self-deprecating smile.
“I know you’ll scold me, accuse me of being disloyal, of betraying a friend. But Laura, I need you to understand something. In this world, there’s not as much loyalty as you think. The only thing you can tightly hold onto is self-interest!”
I took a deep breath.
Perhaps influenced by my emotions, the baby in my belly kept moving, and I felt a bit painful.
Holly found a place for me to sit down. “Do you need me to take you to the hospital?”
“No need,” I licked my dry lips. “Just tell me the whole truth!”
She paused for a moment, sighed lightly, and looked into the distance.
“Speak up!” I was impatient. “When did this deal between you and Carter start?”
“When you went to Alcostan,” she said softly.
I was stunned.
I never expected it to be at that time!
“What did you say?… Don’t tell me that while I was fighting on the front lines, you were colluding with Carter behind my back!”
“I didn’t see it as betraying you, I never thought of it that way!” Holly was getting agitated. “But… but what happened later, I couldn’t control at all.”
She continued, “At that time, the magazine was in urgent need of funds. Several senior investors who had just started cooperating withdrew their investments. They all didn’t think highly of the magazine I was running… Do you know, the travel expenses for your trip to Alcostan were all borrowed!”
“I can’t believe it,” I whispered. “But back then, didn’t you say the magazine was on the right track?”
“Are you stupid?” She gave a bitter smile. “You believed everything I said? Everything you saw at that time was borrowed at high interest,” She lowered her head. “Laura, you should understand me. If I choose to do something, I will see it through to the end. Gnote Magazine is everything to me, it’s my life. How could I just watch it fail?”
“You actually borrowed at high interest…” I was bewildered. “You were facing financial difficulties, but you didn’t need to resort to borrowing at high interest! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Back then, you were in the war zone, your life was in danger every day. Would it have made any difference if I told you?” She looked at me. “I had no choice at that time. I had invested a lot of money in the magazine, the bank was urging me to repay the loan every day, and if I didn’t, they would use the fixed assets of the magazine as collateral! I had no choice but to take a risk.”
Holly let out a heavy sigh.
“In the end, things didn’t go as planned,” She said helplessly. “Even borrowing at high interest couldn’t save me… I ended up owing a large sum of debt. You know, with high-interest loans, the interest keeps accumulating!”
“So…” I spoke softly. “That’s when you turned to Carter?”
“I didn’t seek him out, he came to me.”
An extremely awkward silence fell between us.
She didn’t need to tell me what happened next. Carter found her and promised to not only help her resolve her debt but also revive the magazine, turning it into one of the top publications in the country. Holly, desperate for a solution, agreed to his terms.
From then on, Gnote Magazine became a mouthpiece for Carter’s interests.
All those articles targeting Cameron, the posts online, even hiring internet trolls, were all Holly’s work…
She even harmed Patrick.
She did all of this while pretending to be a good friend, a close confidant to me!
“As for Patrick…” Her voice lowered, “I won’t hide it from you, Laura, I’ve liked him for a long time. I liked him even when you were together! But I felt it was impossible between him and me, so I suppressed those feelings. Please believe me, my blessings to you back then were genuine…”
“Shut up!” I didn’t want to hear another word from this woman now.
“I don’t have a friend like you.” I looked at her coldly, tears welling up involuntarily. “From now on, we go our separate ways, no more ties between us!”
“Laura!”
She didn’t give up, catching up to me from behind in a few steps.
I pushed forward with all my strength. I really wanted to end my relationship with her.
This woman was too good at hiding, too terrifying. She could betray me so silently today, who knew if she would silently kill me tomorrow!
And Cameron…
Suddenly, I felt a twinge of guilt towards him.
“Laura, stop…”
“What else do you want?” I shrugged her off. “Holly, stay away from me!”
“Laura, we haven’t finished talking.”
“What else is there to say?” I said, “Holly, our friendship is over. From now on, you are no longer my friend.”
“Are you standing up for Cameron?” She showed a hint of a strange smile, “You still care about him!”
“Whether I care about him or not is none of your business!” I snapped angrily. “That’s totally irrelevant!”
“If you didn’t care about him, would you have gone through all this trouble to have his child?”
“I have nothing more to say to you!” I glared at her.
“Laura,” She stopped me, “since you’re about to marry Carter, and Carter has accepted your child, there must be interests involved between you two.”
“Listen to me, I’m telling you this not to seek your forgiveness, but to make you see the situation clearly!” She grabbed my shoulder. “Laura, wake up! The Lynch Group now listens to Carter! If you provoke him, you won’t end up well!”
I looked at her, “What do you think I should do?”
“I don’t have any romantic relationship with Carter, so you don’t need to worry about that. As for our business relationship, you can just turn a blind eye to it! In short, Gnote Magazine is now built by Carter, and I’m essentially working for him. If you’re willing, you can come here and write something to earn some money, it’s all The Lynch Family’s money anyway. If not, then don’t spread rumors everywhere, just pretend we never met today!”
I was stunned.
It seemed I had been too naive about human nature. Holly’s confidence and assertiveness in her words now were striking. I had thought she was explaining all that earlier as a form of repentance. But now, it was clear she had no hint of remorse whatsoever.
It’s all about interests.
Her mind was filled with nothing but interests!
I used to think of her as sincere and passionate, but now…
“Turn a blind eye?” I found it incredulous. “How do you expect me to act as if none of this happened, as if we never met today? Am I supposed to see you again in the future, shout ‘Holly’ and then hug and chat with you?”
“What a joke!” I scoffed. “Whenever The Lynch Group encountered any trouble in the past, there would always be media releasing articles unfavorable to Cameron… I never imagined it was you pulling the strings behind the scenes.”
“I will find every one of those articles and posts slandering him.” I stared directly into her eyes. “Those are all false reports, some even amounting to personal attacks! I won’t let you all get away with it… You have to pay the price for your wrongdoing!”
“The price?” Her expression changed. “What do you want to do? Go report us like you did with Daniel Scott?”