Chapter 25 What is Your Relationship with William?
"Isabella, come here." Hayden called out to her.
Isabella looked up. "What is it?"
"Everyone has seen the video. We wrongly accused you back then. You didn't push Bianca - we misunderstood you."
Isabella paused slightly in her steps.
Back then, she had cried her eyes out in desperation, fighting tooth and nail to get the hospital surveillance footage, determined to prove her innocence. But Tobias wouldn't even give her a chance.
She had wanted the Taylor family to know that she wasn't some vicious person, that she hadn't pushed Bianca, that she hadn't hurt her out of jealousy.
Back then, she cared so much about what the Taylor family thought of her. But what happened? She never got the chance to clear her name.
Now that her heart had died, these people came to tell her: "Isabella, we misunderstood you."
Isabella: "..."
She raised her eyebrows indifferently. "Got it."
With that, she turned to go upstairs.
Tobias watched her retreating figure, his brow furrowing slightly.
He couldn't help but speak up: "Isabella, I didn't deliberately prevent you from seeing the surveillance. I just didn't expect things to turn out this way."
Isabella turned back to look at him. "If this video hadn't been sent out, would you still be saying this to me now?"
"Yes." Tobias said firmly. "I went to the security office this afternoon. Before I received this video, I was already planning to clear your name..."
Isabella let out a cold laugh.
Isabella looked at him without any emotion. "That's just your side of the story."
"If the video hadn't been sent to everyone's phone, who knows - you might have seen the surveillance and just ignored it."
Tobias frowned. "Is that really what you think of me?"
Isabella said: "What I think of you doesn't matter to you. Similarly, what you think doesn't matter to me either."
This one sentence drew a clear boundary between her and Tobias.
Tobias froze, then stared at her intently. "What I think doesn't matter to you?"
Isabella asked back: "Does it matter?"
The answer was obvious.
Tobias's expression darkened.
The air around them became tense as well.
Tobias felt a fire burning inside him, though he couldn't quite say what caused it.
With a stern face, he pressed on: "What's your relationship with William? When did you meet him?"
He had asked Ian. In recent days, besides him, the only other person who had checked the surveillance was when the hospital director brought William from the Brown Group to review the footage.
When he first heard Ian mention this, he instinctively assumed William was just checking the hospital for any suspicious persons related to the kidnapping, so he didn't think much of it.
Now that he thought about it, what William was checking at the time must have been this same footage.
Besides that, he really couldn't think of anyone else who could get the surveillance video and use a virtual number to send it via text to everyone in the Taylor family's phones.
"William?" Isabella looked at him in confusion. "What does this have to do with William?"
She truly didn't know who sent the video, and hadn't thought to connect it to William at all.
But Tobias stared at her intently, certain: "It was William who got the surveillance from the hospital."
At these words, everyone in the Taylor family looked somewhat shocked.
The Brown family was one of the four great families, already a household name.
And the person in control of the Brown Group was William.
That man had a prestigious status and rarely appeared in public. Many people knew of him, but few had actually seen him.
Rumor had it he was decisive and ruthless in his methods - not someone to cross lightly.
"Tobias, what are you talking about?" Olivia looked at him in confusion. "How could Isabella possibly know William?"
Isabella had only been in Emerald City for less than a month. She had no social connections here.
Besides, with her upbringing, even getting her to meet some socialites would be difficult - how could she possibly have contact with someone like William?
"Tobias." Chase also felt this was unrealistic. "Aren't you overthinking this? Even I've only met William once. How could Isabella possibly know William?"
"Besides, even if Isabella really did know him, would someone like William go to such lengths over such a small matter - going to the hospital to check surveillance, then going through all the trouble to send it to each of our phones?"
Being questioned by everyone like this, Tobias suddenly realized he must have been too angry to think straight.
How could he have thought the video was sent by William?
There were others who could access the surveillance - hospital security, or maybe hackers...
Had Isabella, realizing she couldn't get the truth from him, sought help from someone else?
Thinking of the "friend" Isabella had been calling frequently lately, and the "friend" she visited at the hospital, Tobias couldn't help but wonder - was it that friend who helped her?
Did she think even an ordinary friend was more reliable than him?
Tobias looked at Isabella and said coldly: "You don't need to trouble outsiders with these things in the future. This time was my fault. I'll help you from now on."
Isabella quickly replied: "No need. I don't need your help with anything."
If it weren't for Tobias this time, she wouldn't have been wrongly accused in the first place.
All her suffering was brought on by him, yet this man was pretending to offer help.
Tobias's expression stiffened slightly, then he spoke again: "I heard from Mom that you weren't satisfied with the tutor she found for you. I can tutor you myself."
If this could make up for his mistake, he was willing.
As soon as these words fell, everyone present turned to look at Tobias with somewhat surprised expressions.
Especially Bianca - her face changed color almost instantly, and she clenched her fists tight!
What did Tobias just say? Tutor Isabella?
How could that work?
Tobias was her brother - how could he tutor someone else?
Isabella shook her head in refusal. "No need."
Having Tobias tutor Isabella was something Olivia hadn't considered, but since Tobias brought it up himself, she didn't expect this ungrateful daughter to refuse so decisively. Her face immediately turned cold. "You said to change your tutor. You weren't happy with Matthew, and now Tobias offers personally, and you still aren't happy."
She was furious. "Isabella, what exactly are you trying to do?"
Being rejected so decisively by Isabella, Tobias's expression also turned ice cold. "Whatever. If you don't want to, that's even better - I'm very busy anyway."
Throwing out these words, Tobias turned and left, his retreating figure looking somewhat angry.
Isabella couldn't understand what Tobias was angry about. She turned to look at Olivia. "I don't need tutoring. If you insist on finding me a tutor, I'll figure it out myself."
"You'll figure it out yourself?" Olivia's face looked terrible. "What do you know? What kind of good teacher could you possibly find?"