Chapter 243 Catching a Turtle in a Jar
Casey naturally heard it—the voice coming through the phone was Lila's.
Alfonso was even more shocked. When did the company's chairman become Isabella? What about Chase? Was Chase no longer the chairman?
Isabella smiled and said into the phone, "Actually, it's nothing major. There are just two people at the company I find quite displeasing, and I want to fire them."
Lila immediately asked, "Who do you want to fire? I'll have HR process the paperwork."
Casey and Alfonso's faces went pale.
Alfonso's eyes filled with terror. He had worked so hard to reach this position and had never imagined he would be fired.
He almost dropped to his knees before Isabella, pleading, "I'm sorry! Ms. Taylor, I was wrong. I shouldn't have listened to Casey... I was really wrong. Please, don't let me lose this job. Don't fire me. I'll do anything you ask, just please don't fire me..."
He had no idea the company's chairman had changed from Chase to Isabella.
If he had known earlier, he would never have treated Isabella that way!
Isabella glanced at him. "Now you know you shouldn't have? Where was this earlier?"
"Didn't you say you only listen to Casey? Then go beg him and see if he can save your job."
Sweat broke out on Alfonso's forehead. "I'm sorry, Ms. Taylor. I'm begging you, I really can't lose this job. Please don't fire me. I'll listen to everything you say!"
Isabella didn't look at him and gave orders directly into the phone, "Gemstone appraisal expert Casey and purchasing department manager Alfonso can be removed from the company system."
"Yes."
Alfonso's heart sank. He collapsed to the ground, completely devastated.
Isabella hung up the phone, then looked at Casey and said word by word, "Now, can you get out of Celestial Jewels?"
"You...!" Casey's eyes widened as he glared at Isabella, his face turning ugly.
How could this happen?
How could Hayden give Celestial Jewels to Isabella? By all rights, Celestial Jewels should be Chase's property!
And even if Isabella was the chairman of Celestial Jewels, she had no right to fire him!
Chase would never allow such a thing to happen!
"If you dare fire me, you're finished!" he shouted angrily. "I'm going to tell Chase. When he finds out, he'll definitely be furious!"
With that, Casey angrily hailed a car to take him to the airport, apparently planning to fly back home overnight to complain to Chase.
Isabella watched Casey's car disappear from view, her face expressionless.
——
Lumaria, inside a hotel.
After taking a phone call, Tate said to the people in the room, "Isabella went to Veridian, and Sean and the others followed."
"Is Sean planning to make his move in Veridian?" Milo asked.
"That's right. Tonight is Isabella's death day."
As Tate spoke, for some reason, his eyelid twitched twice.
He covered his eye, but the eyelid kept twitching.
"Tate, what's wrong? Are your eyes bothering you?" Milo asked.
Tate frowned, his expression somewhat serious. "My right eyelid keeps twitching."
Hearing this, Milo and Rhys's faces changed slightly. They exchanged glances and said, "Right eyelid twitching... that's an ominous sign."
What did this mean?
"This is really strange." Tate stood up, his face darkening. "Even if an eyelid should twitch, it should be Isabella's, since today is her disaster. But why is mine twitching?"
"Could it mean that Sean and the others' operation in Veridian today will... fail?" Rhys suggested tentatively.
After all, with these mystical things, it's better to believe they exist than not.
"Impossible! Sean and the others can't fail!"
Tate snorted coldly. "Sean and his three team members' skills are not much worse than Isabella's. If it were one-on-one, maybe Isabella would have a chance to turn things around, but now it's not one-on-one—it's four against one!"
Four ancient martial arts professionals of similar strength, once they launched a full attack on Isabella, even if she had three heads and six arms, she absolutely couldn't survive tonight!
So this mission couldn't fail.
Tate turned to look at Rhys. "Did Isabella bring any skilled bodyguards with her to Veridian this time?"
If Isabella had brought bodyguards this time, and they were also ancient martial arts professionals, then they needed to be alert.
"She only brought a few ordinary bodyguards," Rhys said.
"Then there should be nothing to worry about." Tate sneered. "Ordinary people can't last even one move under Sean and the others. They can be completely ignored."
"Tate, I think you're overthinking this," Milo said. "We all know Sean's abilities. Nothing will go wrong."
Tate nodded.
He was indeed overthinking it.
Next, they just needed to wait for Sean to send news of Isabella's death.
——
At the same time, at a hotel in Veridian.
Isabella planned to fly back to Lumaria tomorrow, so tonight she found this place to stay.
Although the hotel's environment wasn't great, it was far from the streets and very quiet, so there were few guests.
Coming out of the bathroom after her shower, she glanced at the time—it was already 10 PM.
Isabella planned to go straight to bed to rest up for tomorrow's journey.
But the moment she lay down, a dangerous, cold presence rushed toward her.
Isabella almost instinctively rolled off the bed.
Sure enough, with the sound of the glass window shattering, a small stone flew through the air and hit exactly where she had been about to lie down.
She was on the second floor. Isabella looked out the window and immediately saw the black figure hiding in a tree, shooting at her.
The person waved something in their hand at her.
Isabella looked sharply at the nightstand. Sure enough, the wallet that had been there was gone, and inside the wallet were her ID card and passport—both of which she needed to board the plane tomorrow.
Stealing her wallet and then throwing stones to provoke her?
Isabella gritted her teeth, her face darkening.
Damn it.
Isabella opened the window directly and jumped down from the second floor.
Seeing this, the person jumped down from the tree and ran.
Isabella chased while shouting, "Stop! Give me back my ID card and passport!"
Isabella chased the person for who knows how long, until she followed them up to the second floor of an abandoned building.
As soon as she came around the stairway corner, she saw two men standing in the spacious hall ahead, waiting for her.
One of them was the person who had taken her wallet.
Isabella belatedly realized she had been tricked.
This person had gone to such lengths not for her wallet, nor to provoke her, but to lure her to this abandoned building, far from street surveillance and police patrols.
Isabella looked warily at the two men. "Who are you? What do you want by luring me here?"
Both were dressed to avoid recognition, their faces covered tightly with masks and baseball caps, and they didn't seem like Veridian locals either.
"I guessed right—you really did chase after us," Sean said, looking at Isabella with a cold laugh.
An ordinary person discovering their wallet was stolen would probably choose to call the police.
But through observing Isabella all day today, he found that Isabella was a very independent and confident person. She probably never thought she would encounter danger, so no matter what happened, she would charge forward boldly on her own.
Sure enough, when Isabella discovered her wallet was stolen, she chose to get it back herself.
"I think the reason you're so reckless probably has to do with your abilities," Sean said to her with a smile. "But people shouldn't be too confident, because you never know when you'll lose completely."
As he spoke, Sean pulled out a single-edged blade about a meter long from behind him.
He knew Isabella was an ancient martial arts professional.
He also knew that with her alertness and vigilance, it would be very difficult for them to kill her with one strike from the shadows.
So he lured Isabella to this place—catching a turtle in a jar, leaving her with nowhere to escape!