Chapter 364: Chapter 364
As the plaintiff, Paige Sterling inevitably had to interact with the defendant, Rose Payne.
Even at this point, Rose still believed she was innocent, that Paige was the one being malicious, blowing things out of proportion to get her jailed.
Her outrageous and mind-blowing statements in court left netizens utterly shocked.
Little did Rose know, her desperate attempts to become famous had always failed, but now as she was about to be sentenced, her bizarre statements had gone viral online.
Nowadays, if you can’t quote a few of Rose’s famous lines or use her meme expressions, you’re considered low-brow.
Even when Rose finally started to get scared and apologized, her words were bizarrely strange.
"When you took my work, basked in others’ praises, and enjoyed the five million price tag, did you realize your mistake? Even now, you don’t think you did anything wrong. You’re just acting as if you’re remorseful because you have no choice and want to protect yourself. Why should I accept your apology?"
Rose said, "Paige Sterling! I’ve already apologized; what more do you want? Do you really want to ruin me? Can’t you be a bit kinder?"
"No, my kindness isn’t for people like you."
In the end, Rose was not only fined but also sentenced.
With that Chapter closed, Paige faced new troubles.
Because of this incident, the people from the art association deeply believed that Paige was a genius in art, held back by her research. They hoped she would dive into the art world for a transcendent experience and frequently invited her to join the art association.
Paige just went, "..." For origınal chapters go to 𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕·𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚎·𝚗𝚎𝚝
She had no interest in it.
That day, Julian Hawthorne drove to pick up Paige, and she arrived at the underground parking lot.
Julian got out of the car to open the door for Paige, but before she could get in, a voice suddenly sounded, "Paige Sterling!"
The voice was familiar, full of anger; it was Seth Shaw.
He stormed over, eyes murderous, "Paige! Did you really ask my dad for money? Are you insane?"
Back then, Seth Shaw and Mona Wright had sneaked into the Penson laboratory to steal documents but were caught red-handed by Paige.
Paige used this as leverage to demand twenty million from both the Wright Family and the Abbott Family.
The twenty million was a painful sum for both the Abbott Family and the Wright Family to part with.
Especially given the Abbott Family’s current situation, coming up with that sum was really a stretch.
But could they choose not to pay? If the matter became public, it wouldn’t just be Seth and Mona’s business but would affect the reputation of both families.
So they had their hands tied and had to pay Paige.
Even though Paige extorted them so blatantly, they couldn’t do anything about it.
While Paige was enjoying the money, Seth’s situation was far from well.
Seth felt Paige was pushing him to the brink. Knowing full well he barely managed to rejoin the Abbott Family, yet she demanded money from them, putting him in a difficult position. Ryan Abbott and his mother latched onto this handle and wished for nothing more than to make his life even harder.
Even Mr. Abbott regretted bringing this illegitimate son back into the Abbott Family, making Seth’s life there even more challenging.
Seth couldn’t understand. He hadn’t taken the documents nor caused any real loss to Paige. How could she be so over the top and boldly demand such a sum from the Abbott Family?
Not only that, but the Wright Family also believed he had corrupted Mona Wright, ordered Mona to break up with him, and even locked her up.
The root cause of all this was Paige Sterling, so naturally, Seth sought her out.
Even though he’d been browbeaten by Paige so many times, he still harbored a foolishly blind confidence, believing that he held a unique place in her heart as her first love.
"Paige, tell me, are you doing this because you’re jealous of me being with Mona?"
The more Seth thought about it, the more he believed it to be true, never considering that his own actions were the problem.
"Paige, if you haven’t moved on, just tell me honestly. For the sake of our past, I won’t mind giving you a chance. Why resort to such disgraceful means? It’ll only make me despise you more."
Paige flexed her wrist, ready to straightforwardly knock him out.
But Julian held her wrist, stopping her action.
Julian’s indifferent gaze fell on Seth, "Do you think twenty million is too little?"
Seth was wary of Julian, but didn’t want to show it. After all, he was now also a wealthy heir, it was embarrassing to fear Julian.
So he raised his chin arrogantly, "Mr. Hawthorne, I’m talking to my ex-girlfriend. It’s none of your business, and you have no right to interfere."
But as soon as he finished speaking, he was suddenly punched in the face.
Though Julian was wearing gloves, the punch was no less forceful; Seth’s mouth was bleeding.
Julian remained cold-faced, "Do I have the right now?"
"Yo-you-you... I want to talk to Paige!"
Julian sneered. Did he seem like the kind of person who would graciously let his wife talk to her ex-boyfriend?
Seth hadn’t expected that after his words, Julian would hit him again.
He retreated cowardly, but eventually, Julian pinned him down and continued the beatdown.
He immediately regretted coming alone to confront Paige today.
These two were total lunatics; they resorted to violence at the slightest disagreement.
Moreover, once the fight began, Julian didn’t even give him a chance to plead.
Paige was watching from the side.
Mr. Hawthorne used to be a cool and distinguished CEO, every move elegant and charming.
Now, he was much more direct and crude, willing to fight instead of wasting words, fierce yet charismatic while brawling.
Yet suddenly, Paige saw Seth pulling something out from his bag.
She immediately activated the detection equipment only to find it was a gun.
Seth had already pulled out the gun by then, and Paige’s face changed as she rushed to pull Julian away.
But when she went to pull Julian, Seth thought Paige was coming over to join the attack and rolled to the side immediately.
This was followed by the heavy sound of the gun firing and a scream.
Paige and Julian looked over, seeing Seth holding the gun, the gun pointed at his own... abdomen.
At that moment, blood was gushing from his abdomen.
Seth was continuously screaming, acting as if he was on the brink of death.
Feeling that having a casualty was not a good thing, Paige kindly called an ambulance for Seth and also called the police, reporting that someone had committed suicide by gun in the parking lot.
Seth fainted firsthand out of rage upon hearing Paige’s report.
Who in the world was trying to commit suicide?
Upon regaining consciousness in the hospital, when the police took his statement, Seth adamantly claimed Julian was trying to kill him, saying the gun was thrown by Julian.
He was hell-bent on dragging Julian into trouble.
Of course, the police had to investigate with Paige and Julian, but it was just routine and wouldn’t turn out as Seth hoped, pinning the blame on Julian and Paige.
Very quickly, the police found that the gun belonged to Seth, and when he got hurt, the gun was in his hand, with only his fingerprints on it, along with parking lot surveillance and dashcam footage, proving Seth’s injury was self-inflicted.