Chapter 179
Tyrell instinctively stepped back: "What do you mean?"
Liliana ignored him and turned to look at me, giving me a knowing look.
Liliana and I each grabbed one of Tyrell's arms.
"What are you trying to do?" Tyrell struggled hard, trying to break free from our grip.
He was all bark and no bite - looked big and tall on the outside, but actually had no strength at all.
"We're not trying to do anything, just want to play with you a little."
Tyrell stammered: "What... what kind of game?"
Half an hour later.
At the boxing gym's private training area, VIP room.
Tyrell was tied to a punching bag with his own sock stuffed in his mouth.
Liliana carefully wrapped her hand wraps, round and round, very meticulously.
She put on her boxing gloves and flexed her wrists.
"You know what," she walked up to Tyrell, "I hate two types of people the most."
The first punch landed hard on his abdomen.
"One is people who scam money."
Tyrell let out a muffled groan, his body curling up like a shrimp.
The second punch hit the same spot.
"And you dare to drive a wedge between us? Who the hell do you think you are?"
Tyrell's whole body curled up, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, making muffled whimpering sounds from his throat.
After Liliana had punched enough, she took off her gloves and shook out her hands.
"My hands hurt just from hitting you."
I untied Tyrell.
She looked down at Tyrell, collapsed on the ground, and nudged his face with her toe.
No response.
She squatted down and checked his breathing: "Still breathing, not dead, probably just passed out."
She pulled back her foot and turned to me, her expression calm: "What should we do with him?"
I glanced at Tyrell on the ground: "Just leave him here. We turned off the store's surveillance when we came in. Even if he reports this to the police when he wakes up, they won't be able to trace it back to us."
She nodded.
I paused: "There's something I need to tell you. I had someone check his bank statements."
Liliana raised an eyebrow: "What's wrong? Is there a problem?"
"He had several large deposits this month from an account belonging to someone named Imogen Thorne."
"Who's Imogen Thorne?"
I paused and said helplessly, "Cecilia's cousin."
I filled her in on Cecilia's situation.
Liliana laughed after hearing it: "Looks like God really thinks I've been too idle lately, so he sent these two 'wonderful people' to entertain me."
She looked down at the unconscious Tyrell, her voice cold: "If she dares to reach her hand into my business, I'll have to show her what I'm capable of, so she doesn't think I'm someone easy to bully."
She looked at me: "Do you know where she is now?"
I told her Cecilia's location.
"Don't do anything rash yet. Let me go meet her first."
Liliana raised an eyebrow: "Alright, call me if there's any problem."
I had someone look up Cecilia's phone number and call her.
Cecilia actually answered.
"Ms. Brown, I've already stayed far away as you requested. Why are you still calling me?"
"Don't you know why I want to meet with you?"
Cecilia snorted: "I'm not inside your head. How would I know?"
I didn't beat around the bush and got straight to the point: "Come out and meet me. Let's talk."
Cecilia refused: "Are you crazy? We're not even in the same city."
"Are we really not in the same city?" I said flatly, exposing her lie. "Do you want me to come to your house?"
Cecilia gritted her teeth: "What exactly do you want?"
"I should be the one asking you what you want."
"If you don't come out, I'll come find you. And if I have to find you, you won't have much face left."
You can't be soft with people like Cecilia. Besides, she dared to mess with Liliana - she really didn't know when to quit.
I arranged to meet her at a coffee shop.
She agreed.
When I arrived, she was already sitting in a corner.
She wore a plain white dress, her hair down, light makeup, with an untouched glass of lemon water in front of her.
Seeing me come in, she looked up with an impatient expression: "Ms. Brown, what exactly do you want?"
I sat down without responding to her question.
"You know Tyrell, right?"
Her smile froze on her face.
I looked at her and continued: "He has several transfers of fifty thousand dollars in his bank account from an account belonging to someone named Imogen."
"I pulled the bank statements. Do you want to see them?"
Cecilia said nothing.
She lowered her head and stayed silent for a long time.
Then she looked up, her eyes already red.
"Ms. Brown," her voice was shaking, "you've found out everything."
"So you admit it."
"Yes." She nodded, tears sliding down. "I admit it. I arranged for Tyrell to approach Liliana."
"Your purpose."
"My purpose..." She smiled bitterly, wiping tears with the back of her hand, but they kept coming. "I just wanted to make you uncomfortable."
She lifted her tear-stained face to look at me.
"Ms. Brown, I know I'm not good enough for Mr. Smith. I never thought about having any future with him. I just wanted to be close to him, to talk to him more."
Her voice choked up: "You're a woman who divorced him, yet you still shamelessly stick around him because of your daughter."
"Why can't I be with him?"
She covered her face, her shoulders shaking violently: "I risked my life to save your daughter, but what did you do? You sent me away like a stray dog."
I said nothing.
She cried for a while, then slowly lowered her hands.
Then she stood up from her chair and knelt in front of me.
"Ms. Brown, I was wrong."
She looked up, tears covering her face.
"I shouldn't have had such twisted thoughts. I shouldn't have sent someone to approach Liliana. I was confused for a moment and did something wrong. Please be merciful and forgive me..."
She reached out to grab my clothes, but I leaned back and avoided her.
Her hand hung in mid-air, then fell.
"Please forgive me," she prostrated on the ground, her forehead against the cold tiles. "I'll never do this again..."
People around us started to stare.
A woman at the next table put down her coffee cup and craned her neck to look over.
The staff behind the counter also looked up, their gaze falling on our corner.
I didn't move.
I looked down at Cecilia on the ground, my voice soft: "You're doing this to force me to forgive you."
She cried and protested: "No, I never thought that..."
Then she cried even louder: "I really know I was wrong. I'll never dare to do this again. Please forgive me."
I sat in my chair, looking down at her: "Whether you're truly repentant or just pretending, you know in your heart."
"I'm only warning you this once. If you dare to reach your hand into my business again, don't blame me for being rude."
She cried and kowtowed to me: "I understand. I'll definitely change."
But right after I left, Cecilia had someone put me on the trending topics.
A video of our conversation at the coffee shop was posted, but the video had no sound.
The headline was very attention-grabbing.
[How can a wealthy lady publicly humiliate her savior? Where is her conscience??]
In the footage, Cecilia was kneeling on the ground, crying her heart out.
I sat in my chair, expressionless, looking down at her from above.