Forced Marriage: My Wife, My Redemption by Lilyheart

Chapter 378: Verdict...

At that moment, the voices of the two women in quiet exchange boomed through the speakers.

The large LCD screen flickered, then lit up with a shaky, blurry video of a young lady whose expression was ferocious and twisted with malice.

The camera caught her face clearly, though the other woman was out of frame. From the angle, it was obvious that the recording had been made in secret by the other party.

"Of course. She may be comfortable with you returning to the Santiagos to reclaim what was never yours ...but I am definitely not."

"What if we did plan it?"

"What do you think you can do if by any chance you fall into this pool?"

"Do you think you can be found on time since all of the guests are just there in the banquet hall?"

"Do you think you can survive it with your pregnancy?"

"I heard pregnant women are prone to respiratory distress and dizziness in certain environmental conditions, what do you think?"

The dialogue rolled on, every venomous word playing over the speakers.

The hall fell into pin-drop silence. Guests stiffened in their seats, their gazes darting between the screen and one another, whispering with wide-eyed disbelief.

Davis, noting the ripple effect of the recording, rose without a word and left the hall. His face was unreadable, his eyes cold.

By the last sentence, the audience gasped as one, their murmurs swelling into a storm of shocked speculation.

"Is that not Bernice Santiago?"

"Isn’t that the Santiagos’ granddaughter under threat by a cousin?"

"Not just threatened but at the pool."

"Then...if they were at the pool...could it be she nearly drowned?"

"To think Lady Matilda, of all people, would be poisoned by a daughter she loves dearly..."

"She is wicked beyond words!"

"She deserves no mercy."

"Lady Matilda must seek justice for her granddaughter!"

"What a poor child! She only just returned home, only to be plotted against?"

"At least she was clever enough to record it!"

"Wait... did I hear that right? Pregnant?!"

"Pregnant? Then the Santiagos are expecting a great-grandchild?"

"Lady Matilda is blessed indeed..."

"But who is her husband? Surely not from a powerful family, otherwise why is he not present tonight?"

speculation spread like

the armrest of her chair. Her heart hammered violently against her ribs, her face

dared not imagine the worst...not

rose abruptly and left the hall, her steps brisk despite

pool faster and

anymore injustice and

about Davis?" she asked

seen him for a

darkened. "His wife suffers a mishap in the Santiago home, and his shadow is nowhere in sight. I am sure that

give him a reasonable explanation." Lady Matilda said

noticed her

sharpened, hungry for scandal. Some beckoned a waiter to

the hall stirred into

control them, but

softly. The echo

carefully measured. "We ask that you remain here while the matter is

use the interval to secure business deals while awaiting the

away, chasing

"

"

"

"

"

at the pool, his

"Cassandra, Bernice,

their struggles, neither could

"that you wished to see how a pregnant woman might suffer from respiratory distress. But I... I prefer to watch how a

violently. His voice was calm, almost casual, but the silence of the night and the eerie quiet of the

water forced them shut again. Will I

to do, she blamed her mother

a simple task of inviting a

almost tinged blue. Yet before she

his tone cruel.

already drowning, lungs full of poisoned water, and now forced to drink more?

trepidation, she tried to swim away, but strong hands seized her arms. Her breath hitched as she

forced her eyes open, only to be confronted by two masked, burly men in protective gear. Cold. Unyielding.

water, while just beyond the pool’s edge came the anguished cries

and out of consciousness

snapped her out of her

you are here?" Davis

slightly, nodding

when she

Jessica?" she

her room,"

voice croaked from the water. "Grandma... you must seek

with rage. Her voice cracked like

can a useless old hag

out your

the woman who had always coddled and