Chapter 118: Chapter 118

KRISTEN

Everything happened suddenly.

I saw Edith jerk back in shock, gasping as she saw us storm in. The room seemed oddly neat. It was unlike what I had in mind.

I was happy for one thing: the men were not kidding. They took their jobs seriously. I could almost see the tension hanging over their heads like a cloud.

I ran straight to June, with Mark heavy on my heels.

"Baby!" I knelt in front of her while the officers advanced close to Edith, cornering her to a wall. "June!"

She was trying to struggle out of her restraint, and she looked very fatigued.

Mark moved behind her and unlocked the chains, then lifted her to her feet. I planned to pull her into a reassuring hug to calm her down, but... but the next surprising thing happened.

June jutted her palm forward, stopping me from initiating the hug any further. She focused on Mark, throwing eye daggers at the young man beside me.

"What took you so long?!" She demanded from her, her eyes narrowed in... anger? But she didn't look angry. The look of fatigue in her eyes was now replaced with bore.

"Do you know how difficult your unc—fiancé was?" Mark shot back.

"Jesus, that bitch almost bored me to death." June defiantly flipped back her hair and arranged her dress. She looked like an agent on a secret mission. Her right finger moved up to massage her neck. "Jesus, Mark, she was going to kill me. Can you just be punctual for once in your life?!"

When I looked at Edith and noticed the look of shock on her face, and the shock on the faces of the officers as well, I realized that everybody had been played.

"I'm sorry. I had to make things go according to plan, and I had to make sure everything was on record, too," Mark added, stubbornly trying to placate her. He sighed, and reached forward with his arms opened to receive a hug. "Forgive me?" he asked with a smile. "I kept it from your uncle like you requested."

"Good." June was going to hug him back when I stopped both of them.

"Both of you, wait a fucking moment. What the hell is going on?"

Okay... What the actual fuck is going on?

I looked from one person to the other.

"Kristen," June said, smiling brightly into my eyes with her hands on both sides of my chest. "I know I have a lot to explain."

"A whole lot," I said, my brows creased in confusion. I stole a glance at the evil witch and noticed that she had been handcuffed, and was staring at the unfolding episode, looking more confused than I was. One thing made me relieved: June wasn't in harm's way—not anymore. "Start speaking."

"Everything that happened to me... to us... was a part of Edith's schemes." June was looking into my eyes now as she spoke. I knew that she was aware of the curious eyes peering at her from all sides. "She had always had eyes for you, always been making plans to have you to herself."

I stole a look at Edith.

Immediately our eyes met, she screamed, "I did it for you!! For us!!"

"Shut up, Edith. There was never an 'us'. You are a snake," I spat in disgust. "Why the fuck would you even do something like this?! Why?"

"It's because of us." Her voice was calmer now. She tried to take a step forward but the officers stopped her. She now spoke to me from a distance. "I did everything for us. I love you, and I wanted you to know that, but June was getting in the way."

"If you truly love me as you claim, you'd respect my decisions! And respect the people I love!" There was this bubbling urge in me to tie Edith down and give June the go-ahead to punch stars into her head. "I was a fool to trust you. No wonder June was never comfortable with you."

"She is a snake," June said, coming from behind me. "After the incident that made me lose my baby, Mark caught on something. To further prove his suspicions, he pretended to work for her. This he only time me later." She looked at Edith with contempt. "Did you think he wouldn't tell me that you were the one who released the pictures? Or did you think that telling him of your plan with Dija would not get to me?!"

"Wait, what?!" I shrieked and turned to Edith, my eyes wide in shock. "What the hell did you do with Dija?"

Edith couldn't speak, so June helped her.

"After the plan with your lovely staff here, Dija made sure to taint your name before your shareholders and investors and even told them that you planned to run out of the country after the pictures circulated, hence the reason why they all had to withdraw their shares on time. Oh, and let's not forget that she leaked the pictures."

"Oh my God." That was all I could say. My mind was a mess. I had been confiding in a snake all this while. I even fucked my enemy!!! "You are going to rot in jail!" I declared in anger. "You were the instigator of everything?! And I fucking brought my problems to you! You were the first person I told of June's pregnancy!!!"

"And that was how she knew," June said softly. I could tell she was trying to keep her emotions in check. "I just found out when I was caught."

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry baby," I said to June. "I was a fool to—"

"Kristen, it's okay. We're fine now." June pulled me in for a hug. When she pulled away moments later, I felt warm. "I just wanted to teach that bitch that I can play the game better than she ever could."

"Kristen, please..." Edith said softly from behind me. I turned to her in disgust and eyed her. "I swear, I just wanted your happiness." She looked at Mark and shook her head. "You... I trusted you."

"June trusts me more," Mark said from behind us.

"Really? Why don't you trust me?" June fumed in anger, narrowing her eyes at him. "I heard something interesting from Edith. What do you have to say about it?"

"Well..." Mark nervously chuckled, avoiding June's scowl. "That was why Edith trusted me in the first place." He scratched his head. "She believed we both had something that was being denied us."

June raised a brow before she slowly nodded. "We will discuss this later. For now, I need to do something. Did you record everything?"

"Yes. Here." Mark took out my phone from his pocket and approached June, while I turned towards Edith.

I could almost see her smiling in her usual warm way, going around the office to make sure everything was in order.

Truly, a man's enemy is a member of his household!

I should have listened to June and gotten rid of her earlier. But it's for the best.

"June?" I turned to the woman, who was supposed to be by my side, but she was not. She was purposefully walking towards Edith with my phone in hand.

"I need a word with her."