Chapter 144

There was no one behind her and Jaylene.

A hint of a sarcastic smile flashed in Jaylene's eyes: "Stop looking, you know it already. Roschelle made a fuss about having heatstroke and feeling dizzy, so everyone went to take care of her!"

"Who knew?"

Alarieka’s eyes were light. “Don’t mind them.”

She lifted her foot and walked, her eyes searching for traces on the ground.

Normally, after stepping on the dirt, there would be some marks left on the soles. Now the ground in the countryside was also cement. If someone with muddy feet stepped on it, they would definitely leave footprints.

Before long, Alarieka found traces of footprints nearby, a small one that stood out among all the big ones.

She and Jaylene followed the footprints to a family’s door. Inside, they heard a boy cheering and screaming, and a mom reminding him.

"Slow down, don’t fall.”

The boy didn’t calm down; instead, he shouted even louder.

This family also lived in a house in the countryside. The front gate was wide open, and a boy about seven or eight years old was running barefoot on the ground. His clothes were all dirty, and there were even tulip petals stuck on them.

Not far from the boy, there was a big patch of tulips trampled flat on the ground, with sticky juice showing.

Alarieka didn’t go in, just picked up her phone and took a picture of the boy and all those tulips on the ground.

After taking the photos and videos, Alarieka turned around and left.

She didn’t want to appeal for Paloma.

Even if Paloma got mad at her just because she didn’t know the truth, she didn’t have to put up with it. She didn’t do anything wrong in this; it was just bad luck for her.

Actually, it was really easy to find the truth.

But Paloma didn’t want to look, and those people didn’t want to look either.

If they had put a little thought into investigating, they wouldn’t have rushed over to find her, all anxious and eager to pin the blame on her.

If she still did nothing like before, they would just climb up the pole and pin the blame on her for good.

Luckily, this time, she kind of turned the tables.

She walked back, took Kieran off the block list, sent the photos and videos over, then blocked Kieran again.

After they got back, Jaylene asked her, “What are you going to do next? About the competition…”

Alarieka shook her head: "Can’t count on Paloma, I had to figure out something else.”

“We went back first.”

Alarieka’s voice was very soft.

When Alarieka and Jaylene said goodbye to Cecilia and left, they ran into the last group of people they wanted to see.

Kieran, Roschelle, and others.

Roschelle really seemed to have heatstroke and felt dizzy. She leaned against Kieran with a pale face and needed Kieran to help her walk.

“Sorry, Alarieka, it was because I was in bad shape, so Ms. Wyatt and the others stayed with me.”

Alarieka didn’t say anything and walked past them with a cold face, not giving them a single extra glance.

It was like he couldn’t see them.

Alarieka didn’t care about the looks from these people, and of course, she couldn’t see Kieran’s eyes on her.

“Alarieka.”

Paloma suddenly called her.

Alarieka’s steps didn’t stop.

Paloma’s face felt hot.

She got carried away by the situation with the tulips. Now that she thought about it, there really were a lot of suspicious points, and there wasn’t any evidence proving it was Alarieka.

To be honest, the Alarieka Natalie talked about was actually a despicable person with bad character and no morals, who tried to ruin other people’s relationships.

She didn’t know Alarieka well, and this was just their second time meeting.

But she just felt that Alarieka’s eyes were clear, so she couldn’t be the despicable person Natalie talked about.

Thinking about it this way, it was actually her who acted on impulse.

She misunderstood Alarieka and still criticized her so harshly.

She did something wrong; she should say sorry.

Just.

A look of deep thought appeared between Paloma’s brows.

She wasn’t the kind of person who jumped to conclusions or lost her temper so easily before. How come now she just got mad at Alarieka for no reason, lost her composure, and acted like a bully?

When Paloma called out Alarieka’s name again, Alarieka finally stopped.

She turned around and looked at Paloma calmly. “Ms. Wyatt, I knew you lost your temper at me because you didn’t know the truth, but I wasn’t wrong either. I didn’t deserve this so-called humiliation.”

Paloma said anxiously, “I know, so I wanted to make it up to you.”

Chapter 145