Chapter 435: Chapter 435: Groveling Before a Lover?
As she steadied herself and walked down the steps, she finally exhaled slowly to calm her frightened heart before looking towards the door.
It turned out to be one of the two guards introduced by Mark Joyce, seemingly named... Levi Lowell?
"Please leave immediately!" Levi shouted, eyeing Ann Vaughn with intense caution.
Ann curled her red lips slightly, seeing the dislike and rejection hidden in Levi’s eyes, her pretty face turning slightly cold, "There is no place in this villa that is off-limits to me, do you know why?"
Without waiting for Levi to speak, Ann continued word by word, "Because this place is my territory."
The disgust in Levi’s eyes intensified, but his expression was too cold to be easily noticed.
She actually called it her territory... Even Miss Miya never said such a thing, what makes this woman think she can?
Especially in a place like the study, which is equivalent to a dungeon in the main family, and must be heavily guarded,
No one could freely set foot inside except for the Family Head, let alone rummage through its contents!
"Mommy!" At this moment, outside came the slightly hoarse but jubilant voice of Kenny, "Kenny can speak now!"
Ann’s attention was instantly drawn away by Little Dumpling’s voice, ignoring the guard in front of her who seemed to have deep-seated animosity toward her, and she ran out with joy in her eyes.
Kenny was still holding a plate of cream strawberries, and as soon as he saw Ann, he stuffed one into her mouth, saying sweetly, "Mommy worked hard to take care of Kenny, all the strawberries are for Mommy!"
The strong taste of strawberries made Ann’s eyes curve into crescents, and she gave Kenny a big kiss on the cheek.
"You’re the best, darling, Mommy is happy today, I’ll make you a little hot pot!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Little Dumpling wrinkled his face in difficulty and asked, "Can we not have clear broth hot pot?"
How could he not be her child, immediately understanding what was on Ann’s mind.
"No, your throat has just healed, you must avoid spicy food!" Ann promptly picked up Little Dumpling’s soft body and headed downstairs with him.
Coincidentally, Leo Lowell was coming upstairs and only nodded slightly when he saw them, his expression indifferent.
After Ann and Little Dumpling went downstairs, Leo approached Levi, whose face was full of discontent, and told him, "I asked Uncle Dexter, and this villa was specially built by the Family Head for that woman, so there are no taboos. She is, after all, the mother of the young master, you need to adjust your attitude."
"You want me to bow and scrape to a mere lover?" Levi scoffed, "The Family Head has never had such a feeble little white flower by his side, a passing fancy may not last long."
Leo remained silent, not responding. During this trip to Eland, even the lowest-ranked members of The Shadow Guard could accompany, yet the two captains were left behind.
Could this woman possibly be more important than the Family Head’s safety?
They didn’t know Ann at all, and before this mission, they hadn’t even heard of her, nor did they know she was the Family Head’s ex-wife.
The reason was simple, Ann had never even met Cyrus Hawthorne’s close friends, let alone the Hidden Guard of the Hawthorne Family estate?
Her past life was completely isolated from the Hawthorne Family, with the only connection being a nominal marriage that was empty in essence.
...
Little Dumpling’s throat healed very quickly and it didn’t take long for him to recover completely, so Ann stopped his medicinal diet for treating colds and switched to one for conditioning the body.
However, she still hadn’t come to terms with the fact that the founder of the Hopewell Medical Foundation was Cyrus Hawthorne. Occasionally, she’d space out reading news reports about Eland.
The place he was on a business trip to was likely Eland.
That place is currently plagued with epidemics, where a slight carelessness could lead to contracting bubonic plague, practically a deathtrap.
In addition, she had been secretly using extract potions to help Cyrus Hawthorne improve his health, and his stomach and headache problems have significantly reduced, making his health much better than before, so he shouldn’t be easily infected...
But who can say for certain about such things?
Thinking of this, Ann became increasingly restless and took out her phone to book a ticket to Eland, only to find that there weren’t any flights to Eland at all.
But how could Cyrus Hawthorne...?
Before Ann could figure it out, Quinn’s call suddenly came in, catching her by surprise before she pressed to answer, "Sister Quinn."
"Annie." Quinn’s voice sounded tired but with a hint of laughter from the other end, "Thanks to your help, the evidence of Claire Hanson poisoning me is solid, the police have intervened, and she is temporarily held awaiting trial."
"That’s good news." Ann smiled, "She probably thought she would succeed this time and left tons of incriminating evidence, which in the end was her downfall."
Quinn agreed wholeheartedly, "Exactly, even before being caught, she accused me of drug abuse to the media and the police, but after a blood test, it was clear that I hadn’t used drugs!"
She had been worried that the days she spent surrounded by poisonous flowers might show something.
But the results were unexpected for everyone, including Quinn herself!
Heaven knows she only drank the medicine Ann prepared for her for a few days, and all the toxins in her body were cleared without any residue!
This made Quinn, who initially suspected that Ann might just be offering comfort, feel very guilty and immediately posted the long-drafted statement on Weibo.
These past few days, Ann was a hot topic online, accused of seeking fame by creating a stir and dragging down popular actress Claire Hanson, while Quinn was seen as an accomplice.
Before the test results came out, Quinn didn’t dare to issue a statement to avoid dragging Ann deeper into the mire.
But now, the situation was different, and Quinn’s statement acted like a loud slap on the faces of those netizens who spent the last few days criticizing Ann, prompting them to silently delete their previous defamatory comments.
Meanwhile, Quinn’s fans, who were previously overshadowed by Claire Hanson’s fans, took the opportunity to let out their bottled anger, ignoring those who began to downplay or whitewash Claire Hanson’s actions, and shifted their concern towards Ann.
Although they had doubted Ann’s previous actions, now with the truth revealed, all they felt was gratitude towards her.
If it wasn’t for her, Quinn might not be alive now.
The fans of the movie star even created a dedicated topic for Ann, filled with thanks, which trended on social media in less than half an hour.
Ironically, the Vaughn Family relatives originally intended to exploit the online backlash, inciting flames to force Ann to hand over the ancient book formula and the clinic.
However, due to the incident with Quinn, even the spectators realized that no matter what rumors surrounded Ann, they couldn’t escape being overturned, and they treated the Vaughn Family’s criticisms as jokes, completely ignoring them.