I could not take it anymore. Yvonne took advantage of Hannah and made her take all the blame.
I stared at Yvonne and asked coldly, “Ms. Wilde, did you say Hannah pushed you into the water?”
Yvonne was taken aback by my question. She resumed her pitiful act and nodded, “Yes. I know Ms. Anne did not do it on purpose, and I am fine now, so let’s not bring it up again.”
I nodded and turned to ask Hannah. “Did you really push her?”
Hannah did not answer my question. She just kept quiet.
I could not help but let out a sigh. “Now I understand why the bad guys become more atrocious and disgusting. Yvonne, it is not wrong to pursue finer things in life. Your mistake is you sacrifice others in your pursuit of a better life. Do you think you can continue with this pitiable act forever and not get exposed?”
“Ms. Stanhope, what do you mean by that?” she asked woefully.
I did not bother to reply to her. I gave her a hard stare and warned, “I am not a goody-two-shoes, so I am capable of being nasty. You’d better make your confession now, or I will throw you out of our house. If I object to your marriage, even if John obliges you, you will not get anything from the family. You can verify with John if you don’t believe me.”
John saw her frightened look and groused at me. “What is that for?”
“You confess.” I raised my eyebrow and challenged Yvonne.
She started sobbing and fell into John’s arms. “John, it is my fault. I am sorry. I should not have offended Ms. Stanhope by blabbering and coming to the dinner with you. I should not have barged in on your family gathering. It is all my fault!”
B*tch!
I was so furious I could beat her to a pulp. I roared at John. “What the h*ll is wrong with your eyes, John Stanhope? There are so many women in K City and you had to settle for this b*tch?”
John was offended and he grunted, “Mind your language, Sienna Stanhope.”
I almost fainted from anger. Louis was clueless. He looked at me and pacified, “Calm down, Sienna. What is with those bad languages? Talk nicely.”
I took a deep breath and fixed my gaze at the woman still sobbing in John’s arms. “Return the black card. You are not worthy to use the Stanhope family’s black card.”
John and Louis were both stunned. Louis frowned at John and growled, “You gave her that?”
John shook his head and turned to Yvonne. “Where did you get the black card from?”
Yvonne recovered from her shock and started wailing, “What black card? I don’t even know what a black card is. Why are you asking me for it? How could I possibly get hold of such a card? How could you not trust me, John?”
John looked at me searchingly, confused.
I did not expect her to be so unrepentant. “Yvonne, do you think I am blind? Earlier at the poolside, you took the black card that Uncle Louis gave Hannah. Give it back!”
Everyone turned their attention to Yvonne. She was dazed for a brief moment, then recovered and whimpered, “Ms. Stanhope, I have never done you any wrong, so why are you framing me? Ms. Anne lost the card and could not find it. Are you worried Mr. Stanhope would get mad, so you falsely accuse me of stealing it? Do you think you can blatantly bully me just because I have no one to back me up?”
If I had not witnessed what happened by the pool, I would definitely buy her story. I was appalled by her shameless act.
“I am giving you another chance. You’d better give a full account of how you fell into the water, how you pressured Hannah into giving you the black card, and the words you used on the baby. Every single detail, truthfully. Otherwise, I swear you will not get to step into the Stanhope residence ever again,” I warned.
John was flustered by her crying. “That is enough. Let’s call it a day. We will search for the lost card. She is fine now, so let’s forget this ruckus. It is getting late. Go home and get some rest.”
Crash! I swept the lamp off John’s bedside table and howled, “Yvonne Wilde! One last chance! Are you confessing or not?”
Anthony could see I was really incensed. He came close, tugged at me, and tenderly comforted, “Don’t get mad. It’s bad for health.”
John was also startled at my rage. He turned to question Yvonne. “Do you have anything to say?”
Yvonne looked aggrieved. She looked pitifully at him with her red, swollen eyes and shook her head. “I really have no idea what she is saying. I know she dislikes me and wanted to break us up. She set this up to force me to leave.”
She tearily cried, “Sienna, I have never offended you. If you want to side with Hannah and make yourself look righteous, I will fulfill your wish. I will not dispute any accusations you make against me. If you think I am after the Stanhope’s wealth, then I will leave John and will never see him again. You will get your way. Since you are bent on vilifying me, I stand no chance fighting back against a rich and mighty heiress like you.”
I swore I have never met someone as shameless as her.
Hannah had kept quiet all this while. She finally broke her silence and spoke, “Yvonne, stop your act. You did that to get John’s sympathy, as you know he is soft-hearted and will give in to you whenever you cry. There is something you are not aware of. Do you know why your crying works magic on him? You should thank Sienna for that. When Sienna was young, she was a crybaby, and John would give in to her every time she cried. After she grew up, she rarely cries anymore. But in John’s mind, he will always be Sienna’s protector. The love he has for his sister never changed. He gave in to your crying because it reminded him of the Sienna that put faith in him. You are just a replacement. You would be so wrong to think that John will still be in love with you if you offend Sienna. Once you earn Sienna’s wrath, you’ll lose everything. You will regret kicking up this fuss and trying to stir up trouble between them.
Blood drained from Yvonne’s face. “What do you mean?”
“I literally meant what I said,” Hannah continued plainly. “At first I thought there was nothing worth explaining since I didn’t intend to compete with you anyway. But if you think I stayed silent because I was afraid, then you’re wrong.”
Glancing around at everyone, she added calmly, “Regarding what all of you saw just now, I wasn’t going to bother defending myself. But now that even Sienna is speaking up on my behalf, I won’t keep quiet anymore. Besides, the more I remain silent, the more somebody here tries to take advantage. That’s utterly shameless.”
“Hannah Anne!” Yvonne screamed suddenly, her voice somewhat shaky as she glared at Hannah with a trace of horror on her face. “You’re lying!”
Hannah wasn’t in the least bit intimidated. She turned towards Louis with an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, Uncle Louis. I failed to take good care of the black card you gave me earlier. Ms. Wilde demanded that I hand it over to her since she’s now a part of the Stanhope family, and so I did. As long as it’s a woman whom John loves, I have no qualms. However, at this point, it seems that Ms. Wilde isn’t suited for the title of ‘Mrs. Stanhope’ after all.”
At that, Louis pursed his lips and shifted his gaze onto Yvonne.
“If Ms. Wilde still insists that I’m responsible for causing her to fall into the pool…” Hannah glanced at Yvonne coldly. “Then, all I can say is, perhaps I shouldn’t have evaded her when she tried to attack me just now.”
Just then, a child’s cry rang from outside. Hannah looked at John and continued, “I have no objections to you being together with someone else, John. But as someone who understands you to some extent, heed my advice—be careful with who you choose to bring into the Stanhope family.”
“Goodbye, everyone,” Hannah said as she bowed, then turned and left towards the door.
John was silent, though his face paled with a painful expression.
Yvonne began sobbing as she tugged on his arm. “It wasn’t like that, Johnny!” she pleaded with innocent eyes. “I didn’t do any of those things. They’re lying!”
Despair clouded John’s face as he stared at Hannah’s disappearing back, completely ignoring Yvonne who clung desperately onto him. I suddenly realized—perhaps from the very beginning, John had never cared about what happened to Yvonne and whether Hannah really did anything. His only concern was Hannah’s attitude towards himself. He’d been putting up a facade all along in hopes of gaining her attention and seeing if she’d show any signs of jealousy at how he treated Yvonne.
Unfortunately for him, Hannah was completely indifferent. She no longer cared.
Yvonne was still persistently keeping up with her acting. I couldn’t help but feel nauseated at that woman’s despicable pretense, thus I held out the recording in front of her. “Just give up already. Whatever happened just now were all recorded here, and I’ve already sent it to everyone. I’m afraid you won’t be able to set foot in the Stanhope residence from now on. Good luck!”
The last trace of color disappeared from her cheeks. No longer sobbing nor pleading, she stared at the screen in silence as her face twisted into a conflicted grimace.
Was she thinking about how to make a quiet escape from all of this? I had no idea. With how she’s cornered at this moment, there was no way she could pull another dirty trick.
That being said, there was no telling how shameless a person could be.
Yvonne looked up at me with teary, pitiful eyes. “Why are you doing this to me, Sienna? Everything I did was out of love for John. What’s wrong with that? I don’t get it…” She then eyed John sideways for a second, as if making sure he’s watching her. “You guys went on and on about doing things for his sake, but where was everyone when he needed somebody by his side? And on top of deserting him, now you’re trying to get rid of me. Don’t you think you people have gone overboard?”
Gosh, what’s with that incessant damsel-in-distress act? I frowned, not knowing what else to say. It’d only be a waste of time to continue arguing. This woman would surely keep up her act and try to prove herself blameless for as long as she could, even if her true colors were already becoming evident.
I snatched my phone back and threw her a sarcastic smile. “Well then, feel free to carry on with your disgusting acts. I wish you all the best in defending your noble love!”
After bidding Uncle Louis a quick farewell, I dragged Anthony out of the house.
I was no longer in the mood to talk as we headed home, though I could tell Anthony was glancing at me occasionally as he drove.
“Well, Hannah’s gotten over it. You’ve said and done everything you could, too,” he spoke after a long silence. “Let’s just leave it to John now. However things may turn out, he’s the only one responsible for his own decisions.”
I sighed and nodded. Of course I knew that. “I know, it’s just… It still pisses me off. I’ve always thought that someone like Rylee Lorraine was atrocious enough, but it turns out Yvonne’s on a whole different level. It’s almost unbelievable.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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