Amanda, who had been watching closely, rushed over–so grateful to Aria that she could not thank her enough, but managed to compose herself just in time. She turned to the man on the ground and asked, “Maurice, why?”
At her words, all eyes finally shifted to the middle–aged man forced to his knees on the floor.
Maurice glared at Amanda, his eyes burning with pure hatred. He spat, “You dare ask why? Your father schemed to bankrupt my company, then bought it for pennies! Your whole damn Ward family deserves to rot!”
Quite a few people came today. Hearing that, they started whispering to each other.
“Did the Ward family really do that to him?” someone whispered.
“Maybe. The Ward family’s been expanding way too fast lately. I mean, they’ve acquired three companies. That’s pretty aggressive, don’t you think?”
“Partnering with a shady company like that, you’re just asking to get screwed over.”
“So, did we come here for nothing this time?”
A young man glanced at Aria and remarked, “Well, not a wasted trip. I got to witness the legendary ‘damsel saving damsel‘ moment! Now I finally get why my grandma was so insistent on me getting into Mandino University and going after Aria.”
“What?” his friend gasped. “So this is why you’re being dragged to a cocktail party while prepping for your SATS? You’re barely eighteen! Is your family insane?”
The other Ward family members immediately jumped in to protest, “That’s absolute nonsense!”
A member of the Ward family said, “We operate with integrity. Not acquiring the Scott Group wouldn’t have impacted our future growth. Why would we plant such a ticking time bomb for ourselves?”
Barry turned to Fryderyk and said, “Fryderyk, please take him into custody.”
After finishing the police call, Fryderyk looked down at the man on the ground. “Any accomplices?”
Maurice snorted coldly, determined to stay silent.
Aria finished her pastry, then fixed him with a piercing sidelong glare. “Answer the question. Are there any others?”
Maurice’s hand was broken, his knee screamed with bone–shattering pain–all inflicted by the woman standing right in front of him.
Maurice dared not refuse to answer. “No… just me,” he stammered.
Fryderyk fell silent.
Caleb’s face darkened as he demanded, “Your grudge is with the Ward family, so why go after my sister?”
“She was the closest,” he muttered.
Aria arched a brow, a faint smirk playing on her lips. “Mr. Ward was standing closest to you. Since your grudge is with his family, why not go after him?”
Barry’s face darkened at being called out. He demanded, “What are you implying?”
Amanda glared at him and snapped, “Shut up!”
Aria thought, ‘Amanda is about to give me wine–it’d be rude not to help out.”
Aría fixed Maurice with a cold stare. “Just looking to hurt someone, weren’t you?
1/2
River Este
478
23:49 Sun, 22 Jun
Chapter 431
77%
“You have a personal grudge against the Ward family. If you target them directly, they’d just sweep the mess under the rug. But if you hurt someone else, you’d provoke both families at once–and drive a wedge between them.”
Aria continued, “So you chose Silvia.
“Once the Saxon family tried to use their influence to suppress this, you’d expose their scandal–denouncing them for bending over backward for the wrongly adopted daughter while driving away their real one. Then, by leveraging public outrage to blow things up, you’ll drag the Ward family down with them.”
Aria fixed him with a cold stare as she continued. “That way, you could flip the script and turn yourself from the perpetrator into the victim. And if I’m not mistaken, you’ve even got a psychiatric evaluation ready to go, don’t you?”
Maurice gaped at Aria in horrified disbelief, his eyes wide, mouth working soundlessly, completely speechless for what felt like an eternity.
‘How could she see through me? She’s just a clueless outsider!‘ Maurice thought in shock.
Aria remarked impassively, “Not much to look at, but that scheming little mind of yours is certainly active.”
Even if he was the victim, he should’ve gone after his real enemies–the Ward men. If he’d hurt one of them, she wouldn’t have cared less.
However, he only had the guts to go after a woman.
Maurice’s face turned livid with rage. “You think just because you’re pretty, you can humiliate me like this?”
Aria smirked. “Oh, thank you.”
“You…” He pointed a shaking finger at Aria, his face twisted with rage. The moment he realized all his schemes had gone up in smoke, he was so enraged that he collapsed unconscious on the spot.
Someone gasped, “Holy shit! Did Aria just scare someone to death?”
Fryderyk crouched down to examine him, then said matter–of–factly, “Not dead. Just passed out.”
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