Chapter 100: Nothing Can Be Hidden
"I'm begging you... I'll pay you whatever you want, but you have to keep this to yourself. I swear I'll never use this medicine on Grandpa again... Please... trust me, I really mean it. I'll do what I say, as long as you don't tell anyone... just give me that prescription..."
"Ava, you can't expose me..."
The recording ended with a sound of something falling, followed by complete silence. Not a single person from the Thomas family looked pleased.
Joshua's eyes were terrifyingly dark, his sharp gaze slowly turning toward Mia. "So you hurt Ava and made her fall down the stairs just to stop her from exposing you."
With that said, everything fell into place.
"Ava!" Mia screamed in disbelief. "You...!"
She had actually dared to record it. Had she known all along that Mia would come looking for her? She'd been played by Ava.
Damn it!
Everyone snapped out of it and instinctively looked at Mia.
Ava curved her lips into a mocking, cold smile. "Alright, now that you've heard it, Ms. Wilson, please begin your defense."
"Mia, what the hell is going on?" Barry's stern face was full of anger, realizing he'd been deceived.
"I..." Mia opened her mouth, her face looking terrible, unable to defend herself.
Ursa stood frozen in place, as if struck by lightning. Looking at Mia's soft, delicate face that seemed so pure and innocent, she couldn't believe the voice in that recording belonged to her.
Ursa stared at her. "Mia, well done, you! You!" Ursa clutched her chest as a surge of anger pressed against it, making it hard to breathe.
Suddenly discovering that someone she'd always trusted and been grateful to was actually like this—no one would want to accept it.
"Mrs. Thomas, I..."
Ursa took two sharp breaths. "I'm giving you a chance to explain. Speak!"
"I didn't... Mrs. Thomas, please believe me. I really, truly wanted to save Grandpa. I never meant to hurt him. I just wanted him to get better faster. I was too eager and that's what caused this. I know I was wrong, I really know I was wrong, Mrs. Thomas. But Grandpa's fine now, isn't he?"
Ursa couldn't take it anymore and slapped Mia across the face. "How dare you hurt my father." Ursa pointed angrily at Mia, her whole body trembling with rage.
Mia clutched her face tightly, still looking innocent and lost as she gazed at Ursa.
"Mrs. Thomas, I know I was wrong... but Grandpa's okay now, isn't he?"
"You! How dare you say that! If Ava hadn't discovered it early, my father would have been killed by you. How dare you say that? Mia, I trusted you so much. I even thought of you as Joshua's future wife. How could you betray my trust? You're not even human."
Ursa was angry at Mia, but also at herself. She had trusted Mia too much, always thinking she was pure and kind. She never expected this. She never thought she could be so wrong about someone.
"Mrs. Thomas, you're really wronging me... I truly never meant to hurt Grandpa. Please believe me..."
"Shut up! I won't listen to any of your excuses now. Get out. Get out!" Ursa's chest heaved with anger.
At some point, Ava had moved behind Ursa and steadied her as she swayed.
Mia suddenly turned to Ava. "It's you! It's all you! Ava, why are you trying to hurt me?"
"I'm hurting you?" Hearing her words, Ava let out another cold laugh. "Mia, you hurt yourself. You're selfish and desperate to marry into the Thomas family. You gave Grandpa those medicines because he didn't approve of you marrying into the family. You saw him as an obstacle and wanted to use his serious illness to make sure he never woke up again, didn't you?"
Exposed by Ava, Mia's face looked terrible.
In that moment, everything clicked for Ursa. Her anger kept rising, and looking at Victor lying in bed with a dark expression, she felt even more guilty toward him.
Barry really couldn't make sense of the situation. He picked up the prescription Ava had written and looked at her. "So this prescription is yours?" Then he picked up the other one and looked at Mia. "And this one is actually yours."
Mia bit her lip, unable to defend herself.
"The prescription wasn't written by you, so the person who saved Victor wasn't you either?" Ursa asked after catching her breath.
"No, it was me. The person who saved Victor was me." No matter what, Mia couldn't lose this protection, so she immediately denied it.
Ava glanced coolly at Mia, still struggling desperately, a mocking smile crossing her face.
Joshua's sharp eyes narrowed slightly. He raised his hand and waved. Samuel, standing behind him, immediately stepped forward with a USB drive, plugged it into the computer, and hit enter. The video showed surveillance footage from the Thomas Villa of Ava's daily visits over the past few days.
Samuel said, "Everyone, please look. This is surveillance footage of Ms. Davis coming to the old master's room with her medical kit every day. Also, the servants in the old master's room can all testify that Ms. Davis used acupuncture to treat Mr. Thomas daily and personally brewed medicine and fed it to Mr. Thomas. Meanwhile, Ms. Wilson, as Mr. Thomas's attending physician, only came twice in a month and left after just a few minutes each time."
As Samuel finished speaking, the video ended.
The stark contrast between the two people's attitudes made everything clear to everyone.
Everything was out in the open now. Nothing could be hidden anymore.