At two o’clock in the morning, the group of friends who were celebrating finally left the bar, all in different states of drunkenness.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, William helped the drunken Valeria into the car. Since she was in an extra good mood that night, she had downed a few more glasses of wine than usual. Her head was spinning, but she was very much conscious and alert.
After settling down into the car, she hurriedly checked the news on her phone. She couldn’t help but giggle when she saw the video of Paisley and the young man making out.
William gaped at her, “What are you so happy about?
“What’s there not to be happy about? That shameless b*tch is always scheming against others. Finally, the tables have turned on her today! Andrew is really awesome!”
He is? What about me, then?” William asked.
“Not so much. I mean, I’ve never seen you dealing with Paisley like how Andrew did”, Valeria shrugged. The more she watched the video, the giddier she’d become. Paisley had aggressively latched onto the stranger, asking him for kisses in that humiliating state of hers. Paisley must have died from shame after she had sobered up and realized what she’d done!
As she thought about how Paisley would suffer, Valeria had never felt so good in her life. She laughed triumphantly, “Gosh, this is funnier than I expected! Did you see how she threw herself at that guy? Where was the graceful and smart Paisley now?”
William glanced at her and shook his head, “Aren’t all women like this? Always saying ‘no’ when you actually mean ‘yes’?
“And who exactly are you referring to?” Valeria snapped.
“Other women, of course! My wife isn’t like this at all.”
Valeria scoffed, “Hmph, of course!”Then she continued to watch the video a few times more before finally putting her phone away. “William, why is the video still trending? Aren’t the Anthony and Anderson family going to do something about it?
“They did but it was no use! The news has gone viral and nothing could stop it,” William replied with a smile.
“They can’t stop everyone from discussing it. Besides, we wouldn’t give them a chance to do anything, would we? Once we start on something, we should go all the way. I’m not letting them off the hook this time.”
“My dad called you, didn’t he?
“Yes, and I told him to stay out of it. Then he switched off his phone and went to see your mom.” William narrowed his eyes and continued, “If he doesn’t intervene, your grandpa can’t do anything about it either. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Raelyn comes over tonight.”
“But she can’t do anything even if she came over. She’ll just worry herself more.”
“Yes, her hands are tied now. But I bet that she would be getting her revenge soon. It’s unlikely for Raelyn to let go of something like this, so we’d better be careful from now on.”
“What do we do now?” Valeria looked at William, a worried look on her face.
William stroked her hair lightly and answered, “Don’t worry. I’ll be there if anything happens.”
Valeria put her arms around William’s neck and burrowed her face into his chest. She sighed, “Thank goodness I have you. I’m really happy tonight, but because of Raymond, I’m a little upset too. What’s the matter with him? How could he take that two-faced Talitha’s side? Doesn’t he know who started it first? I’m so pissed!”
“Raymond is too naive and simple-minded. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been fooled by Savannah. There’s nothing wrong with being naive, it’s just that sometimes it does more harm than good. Whatever he’s feeling right now is normal, though. After all, Talitha is his cousin. But too bad he always thinks that he can talk everything out. Wait till he figures out that everything’s not that simple, then maybe he’ll change his mind.”
“Well, he’d have to figure that out himself,? He’s just simply unfathomable. William, I’m afraid that him siding with Talitha would do us harm sooner or later. We have to do something!”
“I know, but there’s nothing we can do. We can’t possibly leave him be and ignore him our whole lives, can we?”
Valeria understood William’s point If it were someone else, she could have easily ignored him and continued with her life. But Raymond was her biological brother, and although she had no affection for him, blood was still thicker than water.
She couldn’t bear to watch their relationship go downhill like this, and the realization irritated her.
On the other hand, Raelyn was waiting for Talitha’s scandal to die down after her call with Gavin. But to her annoyance, the video continued to spread like wildfire all over the internet and, over time, became worse.
Infuriated, Raelyn immediately asked to be driven to Juxemburg. On the way there, she kept urging Gavin to solve the problem. Yet, because both sides were equally important to him, Gavin was caught in a difficult situation between them. In the end, he could only order his bodyguards to look for Archer in the meantime.
It was already three in the morning when Archer returned. Before Gavin could say anything, Archer interrupted, “Don’t. I had it all sorted out.”
“How?” Gavin couldn’t quite believe his ears.
“I made some arrangements to expose a few celebrities’ affairs to shift the public’s attention. Talitha is no longer trending now.”
“That’s it?”
“What else could I do? Everyone has already seen or heard about it one way or another. There was no turning back now!” Archer sounded fed up.
“I’ve already done the best that I could. This whole issue started because Talitha had caused trouble for Abbie and Valeria. And it makes no sense to me since Valeria has done nothing to provoke Talitha. So why did Talitha harm Valeria for no reason? What was she thinking?”
Gavin, too, was well aware that this was all Talitha’s fault. He sighed, “I believe this is all because of Paisley. She’s a bad influence on Talitha. I heard she likes William very much?”
“Talitha is very much the same as Paisley. Also, we should thank William for allowing me to divert the public’s eyes. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have succeeded just by using celebrities’ scandals,” Archer scorned. “Valeria is my daughter, and she’s your granddaughter, too. You wouldn’t just stand there and watch her get bullied like that, would you?”
“Of course I won’t! But what happened today could have been avoided. If only Valeria had let us know, we could’ve talked some sense into Talitha…”
“Talk some sense into her? Do you think she would listen? Talitha is just like her mother, and they’re both up to no good!”
Upon his words, Gavin smiled bitterly, “I know… But, even though Talitha has been a bad girl, we still need to play along. We should at least send out a lawyer’s letter to show our disapproval.”
Meanwhile, Raelyn arrived at Juxemburg on the same night. The first thing she did upon her arrival was to visit Talitha, whose eyes were already swollen from crying. As soon as Talitha saw her mother, she burst into tears again.
After comforting Talitha, Raelyn took her to see Gavin.
Gavin had just fallen asleep when he was rudely awakened by Raelyn’s arrival.
Hearing Raelyn’s accusatory tones directed at Archer in the living room, Gavin put on his robe and opened the door, “What’s going on here?”
At the sight of Gavin, Raelyn immediately turned away from Archer to face Gavin. She cried out, “Dad, how can you sleep peacefully? Look at my poor Talitha! Don’t you feel sad seeing her like this?”
Gavin’s face showed no emotion as he sat down and replied calmly, “We’ve already stifled the news for you and have sent out a lawyer’s letter. What else do you want us to do?”
“That’s not enough! Talitha’s reputation has been ruined all because of that d*mned Richard! I’m so pissed at him right now!”
“Then, what’s the point of coming to me? You should look for Richard instead!” Gavin replied flatly.