Chapter 4
Hansel’s lips curved upward into a cold grin. “I’m a public figure. Naturally, I’ve taken many photos with members of the public before. But does that mean I have to be somewhat responsible for every one of them if something happened to them?”
The officer didn’t know how to respond to that.
I hung in the air, unable to stop myself from laughing out loud. I finally understood why Hansel never let me take any intimate photos with him. It was because he didn’t want me to use the photos as blackmail material if anything happened in our relationship.
The photo that the police found was the one and only photo I’d ever taken with him.
I was smiling very widely at the camera, but Hansel didn’t even bother. His smile was awkward and fake. It looked more like a fangirl posing with her favorite celebrity. From it, nobody could tell that we were both romantically involved with each other.
This cold and heartless man did not want a single clue about my being involved with him to exist in this world.
He was always too cautious and calculating. I would never be able to one-up him anyway.
“But Elara Fairlight has been missing for days,” the officer said. “We’re just following protocol here to search for clues that may explain her disappearance. We hope you’ll understand, Mr. Frost.”
Hansel said in a low voice, “I have no relationship with her at all.”
I scoffed. How heartless did he have to be to say such a cruel thing?
I died while pregnant with his baby, and yet, he proclaimed that he had no relationship with me at all.
“It’s all my fault,” Violet suddenly said, big fat tears rolling down her face.
She was sitting right next to him. And when Hansel saw his beloved Violet crying, he immediately reached over, put his arm around her shoulder, and gently asked, “What’s wrong?”
Violet continued to sob, guilt written all over her face. “Hansel, I shouldn’t have accepted your engagement ring on the yacht that day. Elara must have felt so hurt. I had no idea that you were dating her at that time. If I’d known earlier, I’d have removed myself from the picture at once!
“Elara was so sad and upset that day. I felt so sorry just looking at her back then…”
Violet couldn’t continue speaking anymore because she was so choked up with emotions. Fat tears kept streaming down her face, making everyone else feel sorry for her.
I simply chuckled coldly while floating above her head.
If there was one thing that this woman was good at, it was pretending to be the victim to get others to feel sorry and pity for her. However, I knew more than anyone else just how much of a scheming bitch she really was.
Ten years ago, I used to be an heiress. It wasn’t until Mom accidentally let two snakes into the family that I ended up being the worthless bug Hansel kept referring to me as.
Violet’s father, Fred Lovelace, used to be Gaston’s driver. There had been an accident one day that killed him, leaving Violet and her mother, Josie Nickerson, to fend for themselves.
Mom was a kind soul and took pity on both Violet and Josie. So, she took them into the household and even took Violet in as her foster daughter, treating her exactly like she treated me, her own daughter.
Who would have thought that Violet and Josie would then bite the hand that fed and clothed them?
Josie used her charm and beauty to seduce Gaston. After Mom found out about it, she wanted a divorce. Naturally, Gaston refused to divorce her since he was the cheater and stood to lose the most in assets and possessions. Mom would have the right to half of everything he owned.
However, Mom wouldn’t back down and insisted on the divorce, even if it meant leaving her penniless. It wasn’t until then that Gaston finally agreed to the divorce.
Mom then brought me along with her as we left the Fairlight family, cutting all ties with Gaston. She brought me up on her own. Violet effortlessly took my place as the new heiress, while I lost everything and became a pauper overnight.
Once, I had just left from a date with Hansel when I bumped into Violet.
She grinned evilly at me and said, “Lara, your boyfriend is such a handsome person. You’d better watch him properly.”
She had seen Hansel and I together. She probably couldn’t have known that I was dating him.
She was clearly just playing along with Hansel’s charade at this point to play me for a fool. Even when Hansel heartlessly threw all my hard-earned pills to the ground one by one, Violet still never let up on her acting skills.
She quickly fell to the ground, trying to pick up the fallen pills as she begged, “Stop! Hans, stop throwing them! Let Lara bring them home so that she can return them and get her money back! Don’t you know how poor and pitiful her family is?”
There was a sharp undertone in her words, but the audience only thought that she was nothing but a kind soul.
She looked sad and upset on the surface, but when she looked into my eyes, I could see the joy glinting happily in her eyes as she enjoyed my public humiliation.
It reminded me of the past when Mom and I left the household without a penny to our name. She had approached me back then, whispering softly in my ear, “Lara, everything that used to belong to you is all mine now. Finally…”
However, from the moment she turned around, her eyes immediately rimmed red as she sobbed to the public, “I’m sorry, Lara! But this is something decided by the adults, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
“But if you ever run into any problems or need my help, you just have to let me know. I’ll do everything I can to help!”
This bitch had finally taken away my identity, status, and riches.
Mom had only been her usual kind self, but she never knew that she had met her demise the moment she brought in these two snakes.
Hearing what Violet said, Hansel gingerly wiped away the tears on her face and said heartbrokenly, “Don’t cry for insignificant people, Vivi.”
Insignificant?
It was a hurtful word, but I was already numb to all the pain.
“But she’s still my foster sister. She used to be very nice to me when I was still living with her,” Violet said, concern surfacing in her eyes. “Has she really gone missing?”
“Don’t you know that weeds may be a nuisance, but they’re stubborn and can’t die that easily?” Hansel replied.
“You’re right,” Violet said, her sadness suddenly vanishing. She then spoke lightly and casually. “I mean, Lara’s always been like this since she was young. She’d go missing if she wasn’t happy about something just so that everyone would go looking for her.
“I remember there was one time when we never managed to find her, and Dad got so anxious that he nearly made a police report. But then, Lara just returned home like nothing happened. I think she’s also doing something similar this time because she wants you to go looking for her.
“Ah, what are we supposed to do with her? She’s got a temper alright, but she’s pretty kind, I guess.”
I very nearly wanted to tear that bitch’s mouth off her face when she brought that up.
She was the one who locked me in the attic and refused to let me out back then! I had been locked up for a few days. If I hadn’t managed to find some dust-covered packs of biscuits there, I would have starved to death!
Gaston had wanted to bring me to an event held by the state government on the day I’d gotten locked up. I was even supposed to perform, but since I’d gone missing, he was forced to bring Violet with him instead.
Violet then danced and performed in my place. She hadn’t just upheld the Fairlight family’s dignity. She even helped Gaston secure a contract for a sizable project that made him millions of dollars.
On the flip side, I had gone missing out of the blue, and I’d been labeled a childish, rebellious, and good-for-nothing kid ever since.
That was why Gaston started loving Violet more and more.
He had never been close with me from the start, anyway. But ever since that incident, our relationship just got even worse. I used to think that he had always wanted a boy, which was why he hated me, as I was the wrong gender and couldn’t inherit the family business.
As it turned out, I learned the hard way after seeing him treat Violet so lovingly that that hadn’t been the case at all. It wasn’t that he disliked girls. He just disliked me because I didn’t know how to suck up to him.
Violet had also done her part in brown-nosing everyone else in the Fairlight family. She appeared to them as a kind, quiet, and obedient young woman who knew her way with words, easily winning over almost everyone in the family.
Everyone thought that she was smarter, gentler, and kinder than me.
After getting into everyone’s good books, Violet started making me the brunt of her attacks. She orchestrated scenes that made it look like I was the one bullying or teasing her at home. And she would always get away with it. I was never allowed to defend myself. And gradually, people started labeling me as the evil sister.
So, nobody believed me when I told them Violet was the one who had locked me in the attic for days.
Violet was nothing but a foster daughter, and yet she had the whole family supporting her. Meanwhile, I was the true heiress, but everyone in the family shunned me.
I hadn’t been able to withstand such unfair treatment in the past, so I hid in a corner and cried my eyes out.
When they couldn’t find me, they then blamed me for throwing a tantrum and running away from home.
Thus, people also started labeling me as someone who would run away and disappear for days just because I felt like it.
Everything had actually been Violet’s doing.
The officer could sense something terribly amiss, though. He looked at Violet and asked, “Ms. Lovelace, what is your relationship with Elara Fairlight?”
