Chapter 124
"You came here because you suspect my grandmother leaked the video, didn't you?"
Leopold asked bluntly. I admitted it just as frankly.
"Yes. Isn't it her?"
Leopold didn't answer directly. Instead, he continued questioning me.
"You suspect my grandmother because when you were sent to Asher, only three people knew about it."
"Now that Asher's been arrested and my grandmother's plan failed, naturally, you suspect her."
His analysis nailed exactly what I'd been thinking.
I nodded honestly. "That's right."
"But have you considered there might be a fourth person involved?"
That stopped me cold.
"A fourth person?"
My gaze turned icy as I looked at him. "You?"
Leopold flicked my forehead.
I sucked in a sharp breath. "What was that for?"
Leopold scoffed. "If it were me, why would my grandmother even be involved?"
As harsh as that sounded, I knew he had a point.
If Leopold were behind this, he wouldn't stoop to such tactics.
His specialty was dragging me to bed, eliminating any possibility of a video existing in the first place.
"Then who could it be?"
Leopold's gaze turned unfathomably dark. After studying me for a long moment, he said, "Think carefully about the people around you. Who could connect you, Asher, and my grandmother?"
I didn't need to think. Sophia's name fell from my lips immediately.
When Leopold looked ready to deny it, I cut him off.
"I heard Sophia on the phone earlier with my own ears, saying she was the one who leaked the video."
Leopold didn't argue, asking mildly, "Why would she?"
"After you rescued me that day, Asher was taken away. We left too—none of us thought about the video."
I thought carefully. "Maybe someone your grandmother sent got the video later and handed it to her, then she gave it to Sophia to handle the rest."
"But you're overlooking something."
Leopold suddenly leaned in. I tried to dodge, but he had me pinned against the car door.
"The day the video was posted, Sophia had just gotten out of the ER with my people watching her. She had no time to do anything."
Now I was genuinely stumped.
Alicia and Sophia had motive but no opportunity—then who?
But I quickly dismissed that thought myself.
"It doesn't have to be Sophia personally. She has plenty of lackeys who could've done it."
Leopold seemed to expect that response. He handed me his phone.
"Look at this."
I took it suspiciously. It showed an IP address location.
"What is this?"
"The IP address of whoever first posted the video."
I immediately zoomed in on the location marker next to the IP address. An upscale villa community in downtown Silverlight City.
Less than two miles in a straight line from Bayview Villas, where I lived.
In that moment, a name surfaced in my mind.
"Did someone come to mind?"
Leopold's sudden question snapped me back.
"No."
Impossible.
Ethan couldn't have done this to me.
Leopold's eyes went cold, his voice dropping to a low rasp.
"Lucinda, you can't lie to me. Why won't you say the name?"
I hadn't expected him to read me so easily. Embarrassment flared into anger.
"I don't know means I don't know. Why would I lie to you?"
"Is Ethan Guise's name that hard to say out loud?"
His voice turned rough, some emotion straining beneath the surface.
I couldn't argue back. I truly couldn't accept the possibility that Ethan would hurt me.
But my silence set Leopold off.
He gripped my shoulders and pulled me from the door to the back seat.
He shifted his body, pinning me beneath him.
"You like him that much? Even suspecting him might hurt his precious feelings?"
I watched something unnamed surge in his eyes, like he was one second from losing control.
I quickly explained, "No, I just don't want to wrongly accuse my senior."
The darkness in Leopold's eyes flickered. "He wouldn't be wrongly accused."
I hadn't planned to bring up old wounds right now, but I changed my mind.
"Leopold, you've always had it out for my senior. Why?"
"What exactly did he do to make you hate him so much?"
The emotions in Leopold's eyes were slowly swallowed by darkness.
He braced his hands on the seat, lowering his weight as he closed in on me.
"You still think he's one of the good guys?"
I frowned. "At least he wouldn't hurt me."
A harsh laugh scraped from Leopold's throat.
"Already forgot? If he hadn't deliberately told me, how would I have known you teamed up with Sophia—the person you despise most—just to leave me!"
"And Sophia's paternity test results—if he didn't tamper with them behind the scenes, who else would dare alter the results right under my nose!"
My throat tightened.
Things I'd made peace with came flooding back.
Even though my rational mind told me I shouldn't suspect Ethan.
Doubt crept in anyway.
Not just because of Leopold's accusations, but because some things were too coincidental.
Coincidental enough that I couldn't help but question them.
"Anyone who rolls around in that world of fame and fortune and stays that nice would've been devoured to the bones long ago."
Leopold mocked me. "Only you would be naive enough to never question him."
I wasn't naive. I just didn't want to dig deeper.
Besides, Ethan had been injured by Leopold trying to protect me and help me leave.
That reckless protection made it impossible for me to doubt Ethan.
Leopold seemed to read my thoughts perfectly. Before I could even speak, he brought up that very incident.
"When he came for you in that helicopter, did you really think his goal was to take you away?"
I froze. Wasn't it?
"A helicopter makes that much noise—how could I not know? He wasn't trying to actually take you. He wanted to show me you were leaving with him, to completely set me off."
Leopold's words shattered my last shred of certainty.
Everything I thought I knew about Ethan crumbled in that moment.
Suddenly, I felt afraid.
The people I thought I knew weren't what they seemed—like everyone wore masks around me.
Leopold did.
So did Ethan.
"Didn't you want to know why I can't stand him? It's because—"
Leopold's words were cut off by my phone buzzing.
I glanced over.
Ethan's number flashed on the screen.
I grabbed the phone and answered immediately.
Leopold looked displeased but didn't stop me.
"Cindy, I saw the video online. I'm so sorry..."
Ethan's voice was heavy.
My heart clenched painfully.
But when I met Leopold's knowing smirk, I steadied myself.
"Ethan, why are you apologizing? Does this have something to do with you?"
Ethan seemed caught off guard by my directness.
After a few seconds of silence, he responded, "I didn't tell you I was living near you—I wanted to protect you. Two days ago, someone broke in while we were out and ransacked the place. They even took my computer."
"If I hadn't set up tracking on my computer's activity, I never would've known someone used it to post the video."
"It makes me think someone did this deliberately."