Filed to story: My Gorgeous Wife is an Ex-Convict Novel by Anastasia Marie
Grace found the statement laughable. “Then you can say those words to my younger sister but not to me. I still need to work, so if you could excuse me.”
Annabelle replied angrily, “If it weren’t for you, why would the projection ads of Sean proposing to Lily have been taken down? You killed Jason’s fiancée and he’s taking it out on Sean and Lily’s families, and yet you’re just fine, casually sweeping the streels here.”
Grace was stunned. The thought had not occurred to her that it had been done by Mr. Reed.
Mr. Reed…as a matter of fact, it was also because of him that she was able to escape from Greg the last time.
The Reed family was the most powerful and the wealthiest in all of the city. Mr. Reed controlled the huge Reed Corporation, and that meant that he could have whatever he wanted.
Grace had found that out the hard way.
In the beginning, when Sean was rushing to break up with her, not a single lawyer in the city was willing to handle her case. Wasn’t that also because of Jason Reed?
All the pain she suffered in prison was ignored by the prison. guards, wasn’t that also because of him?
Because the person she killed was Mr. Reed’s fiancée.
There was even a time during her imprisonment when she’d nearly been drowned in the bathroom sink. She could still recall almost suffocating and the fear of death enveloping her-much as it did with Gregory at that awful reunion party.
And the reason behind her treatment in jail was just because someone had heard that the Reed family had given orders to punish her there. Those who wanted to curry favor with the Reed family had hastened to stomp on her several more times, torturing her.
Grace continued to sweep, ignoring Annabelle’s scolding.
Annabelle was angry beyond belief and rushed forward to slap Grace but was stopped by Lily.
“Lily! Grace has no respect for anyone, I want to teach her a lesson!” Annabelle jerked her hand free.
“Why bother?” One corner of Lily’s lips suddenly tugged up. “One of my rings has gone missing. I’m not sure if it fell around here and then got swept up like rubbish. It seems like I’ll have to trouble the employees of the Sanitation Service Center to help me look for it.”
Annabelle was stunned but she immediately snapped out of it. She also smiled and said, “Yeah, they do need to look for it properly. Your ring isn’t cheap. They will have to go through all of the garbage in this dumpster lest they miss it.”
As Annabelle spoke, she turned toward Grace and continued, “Since you were sweeping here just now, you must know where it is. You’ve probably already swept the ring into the garbage. bin, so hurry now and look through the bin to find it.”
Grace stopped what she was doing and stared at her coldly.
“What are you looking at? Go and find it! If you can’t find it, it means that you must have stolen it!” Annabelle responded maliciously.
Claire, who was sweeping across the street, noticed the commotion and walked over to ask what had happened.
It was at that moment that Grace noticed Lily dialing a number. Sure enough, it was not long before Claire received a call from the director, stating that they had to find the ring Lily had lost, no matter what.
Grace pursed her lips tightly. She was aware that today’s incident was just Lily deliberately making things difficult for her, and now she had no choice but to find this non-existent
ring.
A few moments later, their group leader also rushed over. When he heard that Lily’s ring was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, he immediately turned to Claire and Grace. “Hurry and look for it in all of the places that got swept just now and in the garbage bins that were just filled. You must find the ring!”
“Oh, thank you, Director.” Lily held a hand to her heart. “I
would be gutted if we didn’t find it!”
It was a pathetic performance.
Grace’s boss assured her it would be found.
Lily nodded appreciatively. “Then we’ll wait in the car. If you find the ring, inform us,” Lily ordered gracefully and turned to leave.
“Ah? In the car?” The group leader was clearly stunned. He was surprised that a ring worth hundreds of thousands of dollars
had been lost and that the two women had decided not to supervise the search.
“After all, our Lily is a popular celebrity. If she were to stand here and watch you searching for the ring, it would probably only be moments before she got surrounded by movie fans,” Annabelle said.
The group leader thought so too. And probably didn’t want any bad press for the Sanitation Center. “You’re right. Please about your day. We’ll contact you the moment we find something.”
Lily’s car was parked nearby. Even if she sat in the car, she could still easily see Grace, digging through the garbage, looking dejected and insignificant.
“She’s only qualified to go through rubbish,” Annabelle said cruelly with a smile. “Despite how she was so smug moments ago, she still has to wade through a garbage dump now.”
Lily calmly replied, “Let’s leave after a bit.”
Grace’s current appearance was making her seem not as threatening.
Even though this woman was once loved by Sean, in the end, she was also abandoned by him.
And yet, back in the prison, even when all ten of Grace’s fingertips had been bleeding, all fingernails ripped out and all of the bones in her fingers had been broken, she still insisted that she was framed and that she was innocent!
Why did that woman suffer through such pain and still insist that she was innocent? Did she actually think that if she persisted in proclaiming her innocence that she would not really be guilty? Or that they’d somehow believe her and go easy?
Jennifer was dead!
The law looked at the evidence!
“Oh right, best to commemorate it,” Annabelle said and took out her phone to take a picture of Grace inside the huge dumpster, hefting broken bags and sifting through all kinds of refuse and rotting food.
Annabelle shook her head. “You’re right. I’m glad we’re in the car and going to leave. Can you imagine that stench?”
Grace did not know when this farce would end but it was clear that it would be impossible to get off work at her usual time. She had also gotten Claire and several other coworkers in trouble by making them stay behind with her to look for a non-existent ring.
Grace removed the plastic gloves she was wearing and reached for her phone to dial a number. “Jay, it’s me, today I’m… there. are some issues at the center, I’m afraid I’ll not be back until very late. Make a little something for yourself for dinner, you don’t have to wait for me.”
A strong male voice rang out from the other end of the phone. “What happened?”
“Oh, it’s you.”
Just hearing his voice brightened her spirits.
“It’s just… uh, some work-related issues. Anyway, you don’t have to wait for me,” she replied. She saw that the group leader was glaring at her and she hurriedly ended the call. She put on her gloves again and continued to look through the trash.