Chapter 106
“Cedrick, come here.”
She rose, standing perfectly still, eyes unnervingly calm.
Cedrick sat beside Maricela, looking up at her.
“Cedrick, don’t go!”
Harlan, ever Maricela’s mouthpiece, rushed to intervene.
Their eyes met across the room. After a weighted silence, Cedrick stood and walked to her.
Lucille studied the man she’d traded her leg–and nearly her life–to save. Quietly, she asked, “Do you believe it too?”
Cedrick remained silent.
“You…” She drilled her gaze into his eyes. “You think I set fire to your conference room playing the victim?
You think I staged saving you from that car five years ago just to force marriage, then ‘accidentally‘ crippled myself?”
Something flickered behind Cedrick’s eyes before he looked away.
“Say it, Cedrick! Look at me and
say it!”
Tilting her chin up, she realized for the first time he wasn’t much taller than her.
Cedrick’s throat moved. “Lucille, you shouldn’t be so extreme. We’re husband and wife–can’t we talk reasonably?
This extremism only hurts you…”
Lucille understood.
He meant: Yes, she’d torched the conference room.
Something clawed at her heart, sharp and brutal.
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Chapter 106
She drew a sharp breath, trying to swallow the pain, but her vision blurred anyway.
How could anyone endure such betrayal without breaking?
When she spoke again, her voice trembled uncontrollably. “Then… do you believe I saved you five years ago just to trap you?”
He stared into the distance. After an eternity, his low voice came: “Yes.”
One syllable. Final. Absolute.
Tears burst from Lucille’s eyes as she slapped him hard across the face, putting every ounce of strength into the blow.
Maricela’s shriek pierced the air while Harlan and David roared, plunging the room into chaos.
Lucille stumbled backward, unable to keep her balance after the forceful shove.
She braced for impact with the floor, but instead landed against arms that steadied her, collapsing into someone’s embrace.
Turning, she found the policewoman holding her.
“You alright?
Ma’am?”
The officer’s voice held concern.
Tears streaked Lucille’s face as she shook her head. “I’m fine. Really.”
Supported by the officer, she sank into a chair. Behind her, Maricela’s saccharine voice cooed over Cedrick-“Does it hurt? Are you okay?“–while Harlan and David snarled “crazy bitch” at Lucille.
Ignoring them all, Lucille wiped her damp cheeks. Though her voice trembled, it rang with steel. “I have proof they’re lying.”
Every sound in the room died.
Lucille tapped her phone, unleashing a recorded conversation.
“Cedrick… please don’t call the police…”
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Chapter 106
“Maricela? Was it really you?”
“I’m sorry, Cedrick. I just wanted to play a prank on Lucille…”
“No, no! Listen–I never meant to kill her! Harlan and David needed payback after she humiliated them at work… That’s why I had Lucy bring her the mango juice…”
289 Vouchers
The recording captured Maricela’s hospital–room confession after Lucille’s rescue from the locked conference room.
“Maricela admitted it herself! She ordered Lucy to give me that mango juice!” Lucille declared.
“You… you recorded us?!” Maricela’s face bleached white.
Harlan and Cedrick stared in furious disbelief. “You never gave this to the police?!”
True–in her panicked rage, she’d overlooked this evidence. And Cedrick’s lawyers, unaware, had no defense prepared.
Flailing, Maricela spat: “So what?
So I gave you juice–what does that prove?
How does that connect me to the fire?”
“Exactly!” Harlan and David chimed in. “Maricela just wanted you to break out in hives! Who else but you started that fire?”
Still spinning lies? Still blaming her?
Lucille swiped open her photo gallery, revealing surveillance clips.
She played them one by one. “Watch Maricela talking to Lucy here. Listen closely.”
The audio hissed but remained clear: