“Where did you get this?” Esme asked, astounded.
Joyce happily filled in on the details of what she had done. Esme gave her a slow clap for a job well done. She couldn’t believe Joyce was bold enough to do something like that.
“For your information, this necklace belongs to Belle’s mother. It was auctioned for almost a billion dollars and it was Lawrence who bought it for her. She probably gave it as a gift to her daughter.”
Joyce nodded slowly before she took the necklace from Esme. She checked on its details and smiled like she was up to no good again. “Since they got this from an auction, let’s put it back there!”
Esme’s forehead creased, unsure whether she was getting what the woman was planning or not. She only understood when Joyce took out her phone and called someone.
“I have an item I want to add to your charity auction next week,” she told the other person on the line, still smiling wickedly. “Make sure no one will find out that you got it from me. Also, make sure to place it under Tristan De Clarion,” she added.
Esme shook her head in disbelief. She was sort of wishing Joyce was her daughter and not Vernice.
“Let’s see what will happen between these two next week,” Joyce told Esme after she ended the call and tossed her phone on the couch. “Since we can’t deal with them using violence, maybe stirring trouble between those two will make things easier for us.”
Esme eyed her, amused that she happened to hit a jackpot with Joyce. ‘She does know what she is supposed to do, I like her.’
Meanwhile, in Dale, Tristan and Jacob had a hard time tracking which hospital Belle was admitted to. They eventually found her but, unfortunately, she was already released.
Using his influence in the city, Tristan was able to get Belle’s address. However, they were also told that it would take them two to three hours to get there, so they decided to cancel their plan and just return to Bree.
“What happened to my little girl? Where is she?” Frederick asked, panic evident in his voice. He has already heard of Belle’s car accident as told by Jacob.
However, he wasn’t able to visit her in the hospital because Tristan told him that Belle requested to be transferred to Dale. Now, he was informed again that they hadn’t seen her, despite traveling to where she was.
“Belle was already released when we reached the hospital. We were planning to go to the Roberts residence, but we were told that it would take us approximately three hours to get there. Tristan has an important meeting tomorrow morning,” Jacob explained.
Frederick sneered before shooting his grandson a death glare. “Is that meeting more important than Belle?!” he snapped.
Tristan couldn’t and didn’t respond. He just let out a sigh and continued fiddling with his fingers. He wanted to see Belle too, but it seemed like fate was not letting him. She would always slip through him.
Feeling dejected, Tristan stood up and turned on his heel to leave. Jacob bowed to the old man apologetically, as he was obviously surprised by his grandson’s sudden retreat.
“He’s probably as sad as you for not seeing Belle,” John told the old man.
“Serves him right!” he snorted. “He should have taken care of her when she still loved him. Now Belle hates her! I just hope she doesn’t hate me too…”
John let out a smile to ease Frederick’s worry, “You know very well that Belle can’t do that to you,” he stated, trying to comfort him.
“I know,” Frederick responded, frowning. “I’m still scared though. It looks like she’s trying to avoid my stupid grandson. If she keeps doing that, then I won’t have a chance to see her again. What about my mango cake?”
John was unable to hold back his laughter, for he knew that Belle’s mango cake was, of course, among his worries. He shook his head in amusement.
Tristan has his worries as well. Especially when the police who investigated the incident called them for a follow-up report.
Their further investigation showed that the cab driver had zero alcohol in his blood. That means it was not a case of drunk driving.
They also checked the breaks and it was working properly, everything else was. The police concluded that the incident was premeditated.
They also checked the CCTV outside Eden. They were able to confirm that the shattered bottle of vodka wasn’t from the driver, it was from his last passenger.
From the CCTV, it was shown that a woman who stepped out of Eden held a bottle of vodka in her hand, then knocked on the cab’s window and got inside it. This was then followed by the incident.
However, when the police got to the scene of the crime, they only found the driver and he was declared dead on the spot. Upon checking, he had a deep and huge cut on his head. At the hospital, they were told that the man died because of excessive blood loss.
“Tristan!” Joyce called as soon as he saw him come out of the car.
The young De Clarion narrowed his eyes at the woman approaching her. She looked perfectly fine. She doesn’t look like she was involved in any sort of accident.
When Tristan received the police report, she thought of Joyce. That it was she who caused the accident. Looking at her now, it’s impossible, as she doesn’t have any visible injury.
“I missed you,” she exclaimed. She threw her arms around the man’s neck but Tristan slowly removed them and pushed her slightly away from him.
“What do you need?” he asked, obviously not interested in the woman’s presence.
Joyce tasted something bitter in her mouth but she forced a smile. “I came here to see you, can’t I visit you for no reason?” she asked sweetly.
Tristan dusted his shoulders off, as if disgusted, “I got things to do, you should go,” he turned on his heel and headed to the elevator.
Joyce was speechless. She can’t think when they became like this. Tristan used to chase her. Now, he just refused her. He even looked disgusted at the sight of her.
‘It’s all because of that Belle Roberts. I’ll make sure to get rid of her, no matter what it takes.’