Chapter 7 Surveillance
Hector’s words collapsed Neilson’s world. He was utterly shocked.
With trembling hands, he took the report and read the words on it one by one. The words “not pregnant” hit him like a slap in the face.
He was angry that he had been deceived and at the same time, disappointed. He couldn’t even tell which feeling was stronger.
It never occurred to him that Molly dared to lie to him about this.
“Do you want to explain?” he smashed the report in Molly’s face and said angrily.
Molly was so scared that her face was bloodless. She reached out and grabbed Neilson’s pants leg in panic, crying and saying, “Neilson, please, listen to me. This is not true…”
Daisy was so shocked that she failed to react at once. After she came back to her senses, she quickly pointed at Shirlene and shouted, “Dad, I’m sure it’s Shirlene who bribed Dr. Baldwin! Have you forgotten that you’ve accompanied Mom to a checkup once? It was Dr. Baldwin who did the checkup for her. He said that Mom was pregnant back then.”
Daisy glared menacingly at Hector from an angle Neilson couldn’t see, threatening Hector silently.
Hector lowered his head in shame. “I admit that I took money from Mrs. Osborne and made a false pregnancy test report. If Ms. Osborne hadn’t come to me, I might have kept making mistakes.”
With that, he took a bank card out of his pocket and handed it to Daisy. “Here’s the 80 thousand dollars you gave me. I’m now giving it back to you.”
Daisy looked at the card, the expression on her face changing a few times. “Dr. Baldwin, you are a doctor, and you ought to have medical ethics. When did we ever give you money? Are you threatened by someone?”
She denied it. Hearing that, Hector said, “It’s easy to know the truth. Everything will be clear as long as Mrs. Osborne goes to the hospital to do a checkup.”
Hearing that, Daisy was relieved.
She and Molly had prepared for everything for the sake of tonight. As long as they went to the hospital, there would be a doctor proving that Molly indeed had a miscarriage. In such a way, Molly could clear her name of falsifying her pregnancy.
“No need. I can give her a brief checkup right now.” Suddenly, a gentle, clear male voice rang out.
Shirlene looked in the direction where the voice came from, saw the man, and was stunned.
She thought, “Simon?
“Why is he here? Does that mean Sebastian’s here as well?”
Shirlene looked up quickly and carefully around her, but she didn’t see the familiar figure. A trace of disappointment flashed across her eyes.
“Stop looking. He isn’t here.” Simon shattered the last bit of her hope.
She lowered her head and smiled ruefully.
She thought, “That makes sense. What am I expecting? Why would Sebastian come to this type of banquet?”
Shirlene didn’t notice that when Simon was talking to her, he was looking at a corner somewhere upstairs.
“It’s been a while, Mr. Osborne,” Simon smiled. “Mr. Osborne, you won’t be mad at me for showing up uninvited, will you?”
Simon was the future heir of the Wilson family. Even if Neilson was unhappy, he wouldn’t reveal it.
“Not at all,” Neilson smiled and patted Simon’s shoulder as a courtesy.
Simon had received the invitation from the Osborne family a week earlier, but he was not at all interested in attending the birthday party of an illegitimate daughter. He wouldn’t have been here today if Sebastian hadn’t asked him to.
“Mr. Osborne, you know that I’ve studied medicine as a child. Though I’m not famous I’m capable of telling whether a woman is pregnant or not.”
Neilson nodded stiffly. “Thank you very much.”
“No problem. I’m just doing someone a favor.” Simon glanced at Shirlene meaningfully and then was about to approach Molly.
Molly subconsciously shrank. Being glared at by Neilson, she had no choice but to accept being treated by Simon.
“Not pregnant.”
Simon exposed Molly directly.
Molly slumped to the ground, her ears filled with taunts.
“Who knows? She’s so shameless. She pretends to be pregnant and lies through her teeth! And she makes it look so real. She disgusts me.”
“She was a homewrecker, to begin with. Is there anything she won’t do? She doesn’t have boundaries at all.”
“She almost ruined Ms. Shirlene’s reputation. How vicious.”
The tide had turned in the blink of an eye. Those people who had been scolding Shirlene were now pointing fingers at Daisy and Molly.
Daisy clenched her fists, snapped, and shouted at Shirlene, “Even though she isn’t pregnant, you pushed her off the stairs. That’s the truth, right?”
Shirlene curled up her lips and sneered, “Why don’t we check the surveillance footage?”
The spot where the incident occurred was a blind spot for surveillance, and Daisy had already checked it before today. Hearing Shirlene say so, she nodded and agreed at once.
The hotel manager immediately made a call to the top management.
Mike Gracie, the owner of Sunrise Hotel, was upstairs in the VIP room.
He received the call and glanced tentatively at the man sitting on the couch.
The man slouched on a leather sofa in the warm yellow light. He stared at the slender figure on the large surveillance screen, his face showing no emotion.
Mike hung up the phone, went to the couch, and respectfully asked, “Mr. Pearson, Ms. Shirlene required to check the hotel surveillance. What do you think?”
“OK,” Sebastian said flatly.
“Mr. Gracie, please project this onto the big screen in the banquet hall.” Donald Cheadle, the assistant standing aside, took out a USB flash disk and handed it to Mike.
Mike quickly took it with both hands and got on it himself.
A minute later, a surveillance video was played on the big screen in the banquet hall.
“Your mother died early…
“Your father didn’t love her at all…”
Molly’s voice rang through the ballroom.
Neilson looked at her in shock. He could not believe that Molly, who had always appeared to be gentle when she was around him, could say such vitriolic and even vicious things to Shirlene, his daughter.
Something deep down in his heart collapsed.
The video continued to play. The footage clearly showed that Shirlene and Molly had no physical contact, and Molly rolled down the stairs herself.
Now that her true colors were exposed, Molly didn’t dare to pretend anymore. She quickly got up from the ground, reached for Neilson’s arm, and begged, “Neilson, no, it’s not like that. Let me explain.”
Neilson slapped her in the face. “You bitch! What are you trying to quibble now?”
Molly was so flustered that she blurted out with tears, “Believe me, Neilson. The video is fake! It is a blind spot, and whatever happens there cannot be captured by surveillance!”
Shirlene said with a half-smile, “So, you already knew that, and you used it to frame me, right?”
Molly immediately realized that she had spilled the beans and said unreasonably, “Shirlene, how could you edit the video, just because you wanted to get away with it? The maids saw you push me…”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Osborne. I was greedy and took Mrs. Osborne’s money, and therefore I claimed that Ms. Osborne had pushed Mrs. Osborne downstairs. Mrs. Osborne did it herself, because she knew that her lies about being pregnant would soon be exposed,” the maid, who had testified for Molly, suddenly twitched sides.
