Chapter 102

Betty said, “Zinnia deserves this! She never should have come back. I’m the true daughter of the Shaw family. That bitch Zinnia dares to dress our circle? I’ll crush her under my heel. How dare she even think of competing with me?”

With no one around, Betty’s eyes flashed with a crazed crimson.

‘Anyone who dares challenge me deserves to die!’ Betty seethed inwardly.

“Who would’ve thought our sweet and gentle Betty could be so vicious behind that facade?” a cold voice cut in from behind them.

Both of them turned, their gazes icy. Ethan stood there, phone in hand, his handsome face expressionless. “Brian, let’s go,” he said flatly.

At that moment, Brian, who had been hiding in the study room behind them, came out.

Lydia really had it all figured out, even down to where they’d be talking.

Before Betty could even react, Ethan and Brian darted past her and raced straight downstairs toward Class 19.

“Anne, you’re in on this too?” Betty’s eyes widened in disbelief as she suddenly swung her hand and slapped Anne hard across the face.

Anne staggered back two steps from the force of the slap. They had reached the edge of the staircase.

“Betty, I swear—I had no idea they were here!” Anne pleaded.

A wave of unspeakable sorrow flooded her, but she swallowed her emotions, stepped forward, and desperately grasped Betty’s hand, trying to explain.

“Get out of my way, you bitch!” Betty spat, her eyes icy as she violently yanked her hand away from Anne.

Anne had been standing precariously close to the edge of the stairs. The sudden force sent her reeling backward. She lost her balance and tumbled down the steps, her body thudding against each one.

As she fell, Anne’s eyes widened in terror, her desperate gaze locking onto Betty looming above.

“Anne! Someone, help! Please, help! Anne fell down the stairs!” Betty screamed, her voice sharp with panic.

Her blood ran cold as she watched Anne tumble down. A cold wave of fear belatedly gripped her chest, her legs turning to jelly as she stumbled down the steps.

She had never imagined Anne would actually fall. Only one thought echoed in her mind, ‘It’s over.’

She thought, ‘The Carson family would never let me off the hook for this, especially Hugo. He definitely won’t let it go! Once those online posts surface, the Shaws will realize I orchestrated everything. They hate nothing more than someone scheming against their own.”

That was exactly why they despised Zinnia because she schemed against them.

She continued to think, ‘But if they find out it was me, God knows what they’ll do. They might even disown me completely! Anne must be okay. As long as she’s fine, she’ll definitely forgive me.’

Chaos erupted as Anne was rushed to the hospital.

Anne’s fall left her severely injured. Doctors warned she might slip into a vegetative state. Besides her earlier slander of Zinnia, Betty now faced attempted murder charges.

The Carson family immediately called the police. After reviewing the surveillance footage, it was clear Betty had pushed Anne. Police quickly found Betty hiding in the restroom and took her into custody.

She was placed under criminal detention for 15 days, pending whether Anne regained consciousness. During this period, even the powerful Shaws couldn’t get her out.

The Carson family was not to be trifled with. Anne, their beloved heiress, had been pushed into a vegetative state, which sent Daniel into a towering rage. He issued a stark warning, “Anyone who dares plead for Betty will face the Carsons’ unrelenting wrath.”

Though not among Jinston’s absolute elite, the Carsons still wielded considerable influence in the city. The influence of the Carson Family in Jinston was pretty strong too. Even the Shaw family couldn’t afford to act rashly right now.

Especially after seeing the truth of the matter sent to their phones, the Shaw family was in utter chaos and didn’t even know where to start clearing up the mess.

No one expected it was all Betty’s doing. Maelis was so shocked that she fainted right away.

Yosef’s mind flashed back. Maisie had warned him not long ago that Betty was planning to go after Zinnia again.

He’d thought his warning would make her back off, but no one could have imagined she’d bring such a catastrophic disaster upon them all.

With Betty’s situation resolved and a morning of classes behind them, they were on their way to the cafeteria when they finally got news about Anne.

“I always said Anne would eventually fall victim to Betty’s schemes. Now Betty won’t be coming back to school for quite some time,” someone remarked.

Ethan and the others exchanged looks of dismay when they heard the news.

No one had expected Anne’s condition to be this critical, nor could they believe Betty would actually go so far.

After everything Anne had done for her, they couldn’t have imagined she’d be pushed down the stairs by the very person she always protected.

“Honestly, we’re partly to blame here. We should visit Anne at the hospital after school,” Ethan said.

Ethan glanced at Brian with guilt as he spoke.

“Yeah,” Brian replied.

Although they left early, they were still partly responsible. If they hadn’t confronted Betty, maybe she wouldn’t have snapped like that.

They couldn’t stomach what Betty was saying. They didn’t expect her to be so stubborn and out of control. They heard she even slapped Anne across the face.

“I warned her again and again. Betty is bad news, not someone you should befriend. But she just stubbornly refused to listen."

“If Betty laid a hand on her own family, then it’s no surprise she’d go after Anne, who she’s only known for two months,” Maisie said.

Maisie hadn’t expected things would turn out like this for Anne either. She jabbed at her bread, her irritation clear.

Maisie thought, ‘I’ve known Anne for over a decade. We were never particularly close, but we did cross paths from time to time. She spent most of her life abroad and was gentle-natured, and always easy to get along with before she met Betty. But God knows what tricks Betty used to worm her way into Anne’s life. Ever since then, Anne has become her staunchest defender, almost like a different person.’

The mood among them was heavy. Everyone looked troubled. Zinnia picked at her bread in silence, listening to their conversation without saying a word.

Zinnia only met Anne twice. Betty was always on her watch list. But hearing about what happened to her brought Zinnia no satisfaction. Zinnia didn’t even know if she could or should help her.

Anne was innocent. She didn’t want her feud with Betty to drag innocent people into this mess.

“Enjoy your food,” Lydia said calmly and served her some food.

Zinnia nodded softly.

“Damn, Lydia, you were so cool today! Those hacker-level skills–you totally blew us away. We never knew you could pull off something like that!” Ethan said.

Ethan turned to Lydia, admiration shining in his eyes.

The others at the table looked over too, still amazed by the impressive hacking skills Lydia had demonstrated today.

“Self-taught,” Lydia said calmly.

Under their curious gaze, Lydia, now wearing her glasses again with her usual quiet grace, meticulously picked out every last bit of lobster shell with calm precision.

Ethan’s jaw dropped. “Holy shit, that’s insane!”

Brian chimed in, “Impressive.”

Maisie’s eyes widened as she gave Lydia a big thumbs up. “Lydia, you’re an absolute genius!”

Lydia was a straight-up genius. She had been hiding these insane hacking skills all along. They had been classmates for two years and had no clue she could pull this off.

For a moment, the three of them all thought the same thing. ‘Did we ever do anything to piss her off?’ they thought.

With skills like that, if she ever hacked their phones, they’d be toast. Everyone’s got some embarrassing crap on the phone.

Lydia wasn’t part of their original friend group. She hadn’t grown up with them.

The school had specially recruited Lydia from another city to boost its reputation, and later, William got her transferred into their class to help improve their academic performance.

After two years as classmates, her grades were exceptionally brilliant. Anyone hoping to pass the finals just needed her study tips, and she always knew what to focus on. This earned her the class’s absolute trust and admiration.

And after seeing what she pulled off today, their admiration for her skyrocketed.

Facing their uneasy stares, Lydia shot them a cool glance. “Relax, I’m not that bored. I have zero interest in getting arrested,” she said calmly.

Honestly, she’d only gotten involved this time because they’d seriously ticked her off.

Chapter 103