Chapter 143

Alarieka was just about to speak, but then her eyes moved, and she finally noticed Kieran, Roschelle, and Natalie following behind Paloma.

Alarieka squinted a little.

Roschelle’s mouth turned down, and she gave Alarieka a look that seemed kind of like, “Why can’t you do better?” then walked up.

“Ms. Wyatt, about this, I’d say Alarieka owed you an apology. Alarieka was kind of like my little sister. She didn’t know any better, so I had to take responsibility for her.”

She said softly, “You name a number, I’ll pay it back for her.”

Paloma frowned. “Rose, you didn’t have to go this far for Alarieka.”

Roschelle turned her head to look at Kieran, her cheeks a little red, and smiled a bit: “Alarieka at least lived in the Argent’s villa for a few years, so she’s kind of Kier’s little sister. Since she’s Kier’s sister, that makes her my sister too.”

“A family doesn’t talk like outsiders.”

Natalie was confused: “Rose, this was Alarieka’s own mistake. I know you’re kind, but you really didn’t have to cover for her. Just call the police and have her arrested.”

Paloma didn’t forget what Natalie said about the three of them, so of course she didn’t have a good impression of Alarieka.

She said, “Rose, this had nothing to do with you; you didn’t have to wrong yourself.”

Roschelle looked calm and graceful, smiled with her lips pressed together, and said, “I’m not upset; I’m just worried that Ms. Wyatt’s tulips have been growing for so long, and all her effort would go to waste.”

“If Alarieka really offended you, I apologized to you for her.”

The anger Paloma had already pushed down flared up again in an instant because of just a couple of things Roschelle said, and her face turned dark again.

“You didn’t have to apologize.”

Paloma looked sharply at Alarieka, her eyes scanning her expression bit by bit, like she was trying to figure out if she was lying.

Alarieka saw the quick flash of a smile in Roschelle’s eyes and sneered inside.

She could tell Roschelle brought up the tulip thing on purpose just to make Paloma mad, so she could pick a fight with her.

Paloma asked her in a low voice, “Was it you?”

Alarieka glanced over at the people across from her. Kieran’s eyes were calm, like he didn’t care, with his hands in his pockets. His gaze landed carelessly behind Roschelle, like he only had room for her in his eyes.

From start to finish, Kieran’s reason for coming here was obvious, just to keep Roschelle company.

Alarieka looked up with a calm, indifferent face and stared straight into Paloma’s eyes.

“When did those people see me?”

Paloma said, “At one o’clock in the afternoon.”

“When did they say I left?”

“Around two o’clock.”

Alarieka smiled when she heard that, “So when did you find out the tulips got messed up like this?”

Paloma said, “Eight o’clock in the morning.”

Alarieka picked up the bouquet of tulips from the ground and said quietly, “So that means there’s still eighteen hours in between.”

She still looked straight at Paloma: “So how did you know it was me who ruined your tulips?”

After hearing what Alarieka said, Paloma’s face gradually calmed down.

Cecilia stood next to Alarieka, arms crossed. Her usual cheerful smile was gone, and her tone was really rude.

“Yesterday afternoon around two or three I was with the two of them; how come I didn’t know they went out and did this kind of thing?”

Natalie couldn’t help but argue back, “Who knows if you guys were in cahoots?”

Cecilia looked at her with a half-smile and said, “You didn’t even try to find evidence before accusing someone?”

Natalie’s face froze right away.

Alarieka watched Paloma’s expression change and spoke up right on time: “Ms. Wyatt, right now I wanted to know who did it even more than you did.”

Roschelle suddenly grabbed Kieran’s arm and said softly, “Kier and I would help with the investigation.”

This thing actually wasn’t hard to check. If it wasn’t Roschelle and Natalie who messed with it, then it could only have been someone from the village.

Alarieka went to the place with the tulips, and the tulips there were all bent over, lying lifeless on the ground.

Alarieka bent down, lowered her head to look closely, and reached out to touch the tulips.

With just that little poke, Alarieka saw the tiny footprints hidden under the tulips.

That little footprint could only have been a kid’s.

She just pushed it aside and completely exposed the footprints to the air.

Jaylene crouched beside her, “So, a kid did it?”

Alarieka said quietly, “It’s obvious.”

She stood up, turned around to look behind her.