Chapter 180
After changing her clothes, she took a deep breath, pushed open the door, and walked out.
The moment she stepped out, the bathroom door across from her opened, and Lucinda walked out.
Both of them paused at the same time.
Dahlia stood in the doorway, still wearing that aggrieved expression from the afternoon. Her eyes were faintly red, even her lashes still damp.
But now, with no third person in the bathroom, the pitiful shell she wore cracked open.
"Oh, you're washing your hands too." Dahlia smiled, her voice carrying a deliberately lowered provocation.
She walked over and stopped at the sink beside Lucinda, lowering her voice. "You must be so disappointed today, aren't you?"
She tilted her head. "You wanted to get rid of me, but you just couldn't."
"Uma's gone, but I'm still here. You're so smart. You went to all that trouble, and for what? I'm still standing right in front of you, safe and sound."
She paused, the curve of her lips deepening. "Aren't you disappointed?"
She smiled slightly, but her pitiful face was nearly twisted with malice.
Lucinda frowned, her gaze landing on Dahlia's face.
Her gaze was too calm—so calm that the smugness in Dahlia's heart felt like it had been pricked by a needle. It shrank back slightly.
"I don't want to deal with you, yet you keep jumping around in front of me." Lucinda's voice was unhurried. "Disappointed?"
She suddenly smiled. "I am disappointed."
As her words fell, she pulled out her phone, opened a folder, and turned the screen outward, aiming it at Dahlia.
"What disappoints me is that after causing trouble so many times, the tricks you pull are still this pathetic."
On the screen was a surveillance video.
In the footage, Dahlia stood in the shadowy corridor on the side of the main building. The young maid was slightly bent over, standing in front of her.
Dahlia pulled a small glass vial from her pocket and handed it to Uma, her lips moving as if giving instructions.
The image zoomed in. The label on the vial was clearly captured by the camera.
It was the same drug that had been sprayed on Diesel today.
Uma took the vial, nodded, and turned to leave.
Dahlia stood in place, lifted her hand to brush aside a strand of hair by her ear, and her lips curved slightly.
The image froze.
The entire process took less than thirty seconds.
Every detail was crystal clear.
Dahlia's pupils contracted sharply.
Her face went deathly pale in an instant, as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her. Her lips trembled several times, but she couldn't get a single word out.
"This is... Skynet?"
Her voice shook. "How could you possibly... how could you possibly have access to Skynet..."
Skynet—the top-tier surveillance system covering all of Starlight City.
It wasn't an ordinary public monitoring system. It was a super-network controlled by the nation's highest-level security agencies.
Every corner, every street, every rooftop, every alley turn—all of it was covered by its cameras.
The footage it captured was clear enough to see the most subtle expressions on a person's face, precise enough to recognize the smallest handwriting on a page.
But this system was completely inaccessible to ordinary wealthy people.
Even a top-tier family like the Douglas family didn't have clearance to access Skynet.
Dahlia had once heard Wesley mention it. He'd said it was the highest level of security resources. In all of Starlight City, the number of people who could access Skynet could be counted on one hand.
Those people were either heads of national-level agencies or top-tier authority holders in intelligence systems.
And Lucinda... actually had access to Skynet?
Dahlia's face turned deathly pale.
Her fingers gripped the edge of the sink. Her entire body was like a string stretched to its limit, ready to snap at any moment.
Lucinda slipped her phone back into her pocket, her movements unhurried.
She looked at Dahlia, her gaze calm.
"You handed the drug to Uma yourself. You arranged the person yourself. I have a complete backup of the surveillance footage." Her voice was flat. "Skynet footage—you know what that means. Even if you push Uma out to take the fall, if this footage is placed in front of Mom and Dad, who do you think they'll believe?"
Dahlia's body began to tremble.
Her lips quivered. She wanted to say something, but no sound came out.
All the smugness from moments ago shattered into nothing.
Lucinda took a step forward. Dahlia instinctively stepped back, her back hitting the edge of the sink. The pain made her entire face scrunch up.
"You think I can't get rid of you?" Lucinda's voice was neither loud nor soft. "I just didn't feel like bothering with you."
"You've jumped around in front of me so many times, and every single time, I let it go. Not because I'm soft-hearted—because you're not worth my time."
"But if there's a next time..."
She paused, her gaze landing on Dahlia's pale face. "I don't mind putting this footage in front of Mom and Dad and having you completely removed from the Douglas family."
The bathroom was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Dahlia's back was ice-cold, but her forehead was damp with fine beads of sweat.
She opened her mouth, a muffled whimper escaping her throat, as if she were struggling to suppress something. But in the end, all she managed to squeeze out was, "You can't..."
"I can." Lucinda cut her off, her voice devoid of any fluctuation. "You guessed right. I do have access to Skynet. You can keep causing trouble. Let's see if you jump around faster, or if I pull out evidence faster."
With that, she withdrew her gaze, turned, and walked toward the door.
When she reached the doorway, she paused for a moment, tilting her head. Her gaze fell on the bloodless face reflected in the mirror.
"Next time, don't cry in front of me. It's annoying."
The door closed softly behind her.
Footsteps gradually faded away, disappearing at the end of the corridor.
Dahlia leaned against the edge of the sink, as if all the strength had been drained from her body. She crouched down, arms wrapped around her knees, trembling uncontrollably.
The footage replayed over and over in her mind.
Skynet.
That legendary system only accessible to those with top-tier clearance—Lucinda actually had access to it.
Who exactly was she?
Dahlia lifted her head. The mirror reflected a face drained of all color, her lashes still trembling.
All those tricks she'd used before—in the face of Skynet footage, they were nothing.
For the first time, she realized with absolute clarity that Lucinda held far more cards than she'd ever imagined.
She slowly closed her eyes, her nails digging into her palms. The pain made her entire arm tremble.
No.
She wouldn't give up like this.
She took a deep breath, clenched her fists, and slowly stood up from the floor.
She faced the mirror, smoothed her hair, and pressed down the shaken expression on her face bit by bit, re-donning that obedient shell.