Chapter 4
Julian’s parents, rushing over, exclaimed as if the sky had fallen. Their disgust for Serena reached its peak. While placating my in-laws with polite apologies, they desperately wished they could disown Serena on the spot.
At the same time, Serena’s identity subtly shifted in everyone’s minds.
A daughter of a maid in a prominent household, no matter what, had seen some of the world and held a somewhat better standing than ordinary people.
But she had chosen my assistant.
To be honest, I specifically sought out Maya for this purpose.
My recruitment criterion was: someone with a truly miserable backstory.
Serena was now portrayed as a woman from a rural area, completely unremarkable, who had manipulated her way into Julian’s bed at a party and leveraged her pregnancy to marry into the Lin family.
Everyone’s eyes filled with even more scorn and disdain when they looked at her. They even started openly criticizing her, right in front of Julian’s parents.
Serena wept uncontrollably, becoming the ultimate laughingstock.
A tidal wave of humiliation and hatred swept over her.
She forced herself to look up at me, seeing the playful smirk on my lips. She seemed to understand something. Disbelief flickered in her eyes, and something inside her shattered.
Julian, who had just arrived, had a grim expression. After apologizing to my in-laws, he looked at me with deep regret. “Cassie, I’m truly sorry.”
“It’s fine by me,” I shrugged. “But I can’t say the same for others.”
At my words, Julian’s parents’ faces grew even more sullen.
The test results came back: the chicken soup was perfectly harmless.
But that didn’t change the fact that this banquet had utterly humiliated the Lin family.
Serena’s life was about to get much harder.
Serena was effectively placed under house arrest by the Lin family, forbidden from leaving to avoid further trouble.
She was smart, too. After admitting her wrongdoing, she genuinely stayed put for two or three months, quiet and compliant.
Later, without anyone noticing, she was left largely unsupervised.
Soon, she found me. She arranged to meet me using Julian’s name.
I arrived on time. The restaurant was empty; she had booked the entire place.
I wasn’t surprised to see her, just noted that she looked visibly older.
I sat across from her and smiled. “Long time no see.”
Compared to my calm, she seemed agitated. “You knew all along, didn’t you!”
I smiled, offering no reply, silently confirming her words.
“Cassandra Thorne! You are so cunning!” Serena glared at me fiercely. “You pretended to know nothing! And you ruined me like this!”
“Wrong!” I interrupted her. “You brought this upon yourself!”
Serena slammed her hand on the table, standing up, agitated. “Nonsense! What are you pretending to be so high and mighty about?! You just rely on your family’s status to lord over everyone! Why?! We’re all human! Is it wrong for me to fight for a better life for myself?!”
I stood up and slapped her across the face. “This is stealing! I was good to you because I’m kind, not because I’m a pushover you can stomp on.”
“You want to steal what’s mine,” I squeezed her chin, then violently shoved her away, “you should have asked for my permission first!”
Serena laughed, a little crazed. “I will take what’s yours! What can you do about it? Do you think I’m out of options, hahaha—”
Serena looked at me meaningfully and slowly said, “I want to swap partners with Cassandra Thorne.”