When she reached Blue Bay Villa, she sat on the sofa and looked at the comments and videos repeatedly, miserably.
Zayne and Samson said nothing the entire journey while sending her back.
However, Bethan knew that both of them felt just as terrible. After all, this was their first competition after getting to work.
All this while, they were like Bethan–working busily without any sleep.
If they were disqualified from competing because of Bethan…
Bethan closed her eyes. She was so dejected and suddenly did not know what she should do.
Fiona’s schemes were meticulously thought-out. It started from the video half a month ago.
Bethan even had reason to suspect that Fiona intentionally let Charmaine know she intended to cause trouble during the competition so that Charmaine would warn Arianna before leaving, to get Bethan to be more guarded against Fiona.
It was because of her guard against Fiona that Fiona had the space to twist the facts.
To put it bluntly, the project was Bethan’s blood, sweat, and tears. They were the heart and soul of Zayne, Samson, and the entire team.
However, it was never Fiona’s.
Fiona had never taken part in it, so she would not miss it one bit. This was extremely catastrophic to the others seriously taking part in the competition.
“Mommy.”
Just when Bethan was in a daze, Nigel came downstairs apologetically.
After the bone marrow transplant, Nigel’s body had been recovering well. He had more muscles and was much in shape than before. His face had more color, too.
Nigel carefully walked over to Bethan. He reached his hand out and grabbed Bethan’s hand.
“I’m useless.”
Bethan was stunned. She immediately recomposed herself, lowered her gaze, and looked at Nigel who sat next to her.
“What are you saying?”
“I ‘m useless. “
Nigel bit his lip, looked up at Bethan, and said, “Godmom told me about you being targeted online.”
Nigel sighed. “I wanted to do the same thing as previously, to delete all of the bad comments and videos of you online, but…I can’t seem to delete them.
“The other party has encrypted the videos. The encryption method…was the same method I did previously, ” muttered Nigel, visibly remorseful. “I came up with the encryption method myself. I didn’t know how the other party got hold of it, but I can’t find a way to crack it.”
Nigel got more dejected the more he spoke. “I’m still too amateur. I can’t even crack the virus I’ve invented.”
Bethan was stunned. She was instantly cheered up by Nigel beating himself up.
“It’s normal that you can’t crack your own virus that you came up with. Have you ever heard of the story between the sword and the shield? Those who make the best swords would never be able to come up with the best shields. If you were to use your sword against your shield, who do you think would win?”
Nigel did not relax one bit upon Bethan’s words. Instead, he blamed himself even more.
“That’s different. I should be able to solve a challenging problem that I came up with, or it’s only a failure.”
Bethan was amused at Nigel’s stubbornness. She wanted to say something, yet she suddenly felt that Nigel’s words made sense too.
One had to be able to solve the challenging problems they came up with.
No matter what, Fiona targeted the competition because of her. Bethan felt that she should try to solve it. Avoiding was not a way to solve the problem.
At that thought, Bethan immediately picked her phone up. She wanted to call Brettley when her phone rang.
It was from Brettley.
“Bethan, “
Brettley’s voice sounded cold and aloof.
“I’m at the cafe near your house. Care to meet up?”
Bethan paused for a while before smiling. “Sure.”
Brettley had a good memory. He remembered that she once said she hoped he did not appear near her house.
“You’re going to see him?” asked Nigel in a low voice.
Bethan nodded.
“I have to solve this matter somehow. He must’ve looked for me because of this matter, too.”
Nigel sighed and said, “Be careful on the road.”
At that moment, it was all negative comments about Bethan online. Nigel was somewhat worried.
“Mommy! “
Just as Bethan was putting on her jacket and about to leave, Nellie’s crisp voice came from upstairs.
She furrowed her brows. “What’s going on?”
Nellie stomped down the stairs with her little short legs. She ran over to Bethan and passed the items which she had prepared to her.
“Take this with you! It’s useful! “
Bethan furrowed her brows and looked at the things that Nellie passed to her.
A face mask, a cap, a folding swiss knife. There was even…pepper spray?
Bethan held everything in her hands. She could not help but think back to the incident where Brettley did those things to her on the sofa.
Bethan smiled.
“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”
That incident happened only because Brettley was on some drugs.
Otherwise, he would not be interested in such a vicious and heartless woman like Bethan.
Nonetheless, Bethan still accepted the gifts Nellie gave her.
Ten minutes later, Bethan appeared in the cafe where Brettley was at.
At that moment, it was coincidentally after work for many. Everyone was sitting in the cafe, playing on their phones. They were discussing the hot topic of the day.
“How conceited. Just because she could design jewelry, she thinks she’s the best.”
“Not only is she bullying the newcomer, but the newcomer is the president’s girlfriend, too. How brazen of her.”
“Ms. Blake is such a kind person. Did you see the burns on her stomach? How scary! She could even turn the other cheek! “
“The kind always gets bullied. Because she has a good temper, that’s why she keeps getting bullied and schemed.”
Wearing a mask and a cap, Bethan strode up to the second floor into the booth, where Brettley sat on a chair, lazily fiddling with his phone.
Soft sounds came from his phone. Bethan could hear that he was watching all the videos of her bullying Fiona.
Bethan chuckled bitterly and sat in front of him. “You got me here to criticize me, Mr. Morrison?”
Brettley looked at her flatly and kept his phone. “I want to discuss the competition with you.”
Brettley passed her the fruit tea he had already ordered on her behalf.
“The organizer contacted me. They said that given you excluded the newcomer, as well as the bad behavior and character you showed in the videos online, they want to disqualify the Morrison Group’s team from competing.
“They feel that with a leader like you, the work created by the team won’t be made according to each team member’s intention, and the meaning of teamwork will be lost.”
Then, Brettley looked at Bethan meaningfully.
“I might not understand work-related matters, but how could you make such a mistake? You knew that it’s a competition that requires team effort, yet you deliberately excluded Fiona. Fiona has never told me about this. If I knew this earlier– “
“What would you have done if you knew earlier, Mr. Morrison?” interrupted Bethan as a cold smirk graced her face. Her voice was filled with mockery.
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