No longer a pushover

Noelle's eyes carried a cold glint as she refuted, "How could I have known Xenia's plan? This is just karma at work."

She glanced at the empty milk bottle on the table. "There's still a little left inside. I'll use it as evidence."

She hadn't drunk the milk and poured most of it out to leave just enough for proof.

Frank looked at Noelle with a complicated gaze. He'd guessed that she'd known about Xenia's plan and simply played along so that Xenia could have a taste of her own medicine. They'd all figured it out.

Frank urged, "Go ahead and get some rest in the guest room, Noelle. We'll deal with this tomorrow."

Noelle turned and entered the guest room.

Once she left, Frank couldn't help but say, "Have you noticed how much Noelle has changed, Blake? She knew about Xenia's vicious scheme and could've stopped it, yet she stayed in the bathroom and watched as Gordon..."

He couldn't accept that Noelle had just stood by and done nothing.

Blake scoffed. "If Noelle hadn't been smart, she would've been the victim tonight. I think she did the right thing, and Xenia deserves to suffer the consequences of her actions."

"But was this really necessary? Couldn't we just give Xenia a lesson?" Frank was unsettled by the fact that Noelle had watched Gordon assault Xenia without interfering.

"You're too soft, Frank. Noelle did the right thing, and we should call the police to have them investigate. Maybe they'll find evidence linking this to Xenia."

would ruin the reputation of the ladies in our family. Plus,

the police either. They would see how things played out the next

guest room and locked the door. As she lay in bed, she thought about Gordon

saw a message from Cedric telling her to reply if she was

watched an exciting show, but you're probably asleep by now.

Noelle answered and looked

he said, "Because you

reply all night, would you have

might just wait

bed, she said, "It's true that I didn't have

"What happened?"

she ended up suffering the consequences herself." She recounted the entire

Cedric heard about the spiked milk, his expression darkened instantly.

need. I'm not that

person she can control, and now that

person left for

on is

father, who's very much