Briana looked at the time and she gritted her teeth.
She was exactly 1 minute and 12 seconds late.
Walking into the construction site, she constantly called the number and tried to find someone inside.
When the person finally answered, she raised her voice. "Where are you? I brought the money!"
"You're late." The voice answered.
"What matters is I'm here."
"You're late." The person repeated.
Briana frowned and looked around with the phone in her ear.
"Punctuality is what I love most, and you don't seem to have that. Our deal is over." Ralf hung up and tapped fingers on the steering wheel.
He then removed his voice changer.
He hoped his boss would not let her hatred take over and go overboard.
After analyzing that thought, he faced palmed.
This is Adriana who he's talking about. She would not let herself get emotional, she had worked too hard for this. Why would she let one simple thing ruin it?
….
Watching from the shadows, Adriana crossed her arms.
She watched Briana continue to call the number again and again until her arm got tired and dropped the heavy bag on her arms.
Adriana knew she had to do what she was here for, but she was enjoying her expressions too much.
She looked at her watch and laughed inwardly knowing, exactly 13 seconds ago Briana's mother had been exposed in the banquet and all over social media.
13 seconds was enough for things to escalate.
It was so easy to start a fire, all you need is the essentials. An influential, well-known person, and a dirty little secret.
If Olivia had succeeded, Briana would bawl her eyes out when she finds out her father driven his mother to ruin and taking overall benefits, money, titles, and properties.
Pure hatred.
That's what Adriana wanted.
Anger and hatred were enough to cloud her mind, while she does her work in the background.
All you need is the right influence to dig up the dirtiest things and know how to use them well to ruin someone's life.
All that was enough.
You could give Adriana 2 hours to destroy Briana's life, but where was the fun in that?
Taking her time was more enjoyable.
Finally getting bored by Briana's cursing, she moved in the darkness as if it were her friend.
Felling a small poke on her neck, Briana frowned.
She looked behind her and saw no one.
"Who's there?" She asked.
She blinked when things started getting blurry.
"Mom?"
"You did this to me! You could have saved me." Looking at her mother in front of her, Briana frowned.
"W-what- what are you doing here?"
"It's too late now. You destroyed my life! It's all your fault."
"What, let go!" Seeing her mother shake her shoulders violently, Briana slapped her hand away.
She saw her mother cough blood and fall to the ground.
She blinked.
Once.
Twice.
*BANG*
She exhaled sharply and turned around to the noise.
Not seeing anything but blurry darkness, Briana's frown deepened.
She looked back where her mother was before and widened her eyes when the woman was gone.
All there's left was a pile of blood.
"You did this to me." That echoed in her head, and she suddenly lost consciousness.
Adriana walked out of the darkness and laughed, looking at how hard Briana had hit her head on the concrete.
She opened the bag of money with her black leather gloves and looked through it until she found a tracker and voice recorder in it.
She picked them out and smashed them on the ground with the heel of her boot.
Turning around, she gave Briana one last glance and walked away.
It was funny how one could use a person's anxiousness towards a certain thing against them.
With the chemical she had placed in Adriana's neck, it was easy to have her imagine the persons he's currently anxious about.
Obviously, it had its risks, but as long as things had worked out as calculated, it would be fine.
Now, when Briana would wake up again, it would be too late.
….
Opening the car door, Adriana walked inside and took a deep breath.
"Let's go." She ordered.
"Ma'am, Mrs. Brooklyn was detained in front of everyone at the banquet by the police officers and is currently under custody." He reported passing her an iPad with videos of what happened.
Adriana hummed and started playing the videos.
*****
After drugging Mrs. Brooklyn's drink and taking care of her after she fainted, Olivia gave her some water and walked her back into the banquet hall.
They were about to leave until a team of police officers stopped the banquet and in front of everyone detained her.
"Mrs. Lina Brooklyn?" The officer asked.
Mrs. Brooklyn nodded in confusion.
"Is something wrong?"
The officer tilted his head and commanded one of his coworkers to arrest her.
The man around his thirties nodded and pulled out his handcuffs.
The guests at the banquet who were still shocked at what was playing and replaying on a big screen were deadpanned to watch Mrs. Brooklyn get arrested.
"You may remain silent. If you say anything, what you say can be used against you in a court of law. You may consult with a lawyer and have that lawyer present during any questioning. If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be appointed for you if you so desire. If you choose to talk to a police officer, you may stop the interview."
After reading her rights, the man and others escorted her outside the hall.
"Wait! You can't do this, I did nothing wrong!" She yelled, trying to get a hold of herself and violently trying to shake them off.
Olivia watched as a still dizzy and barely awake Mrs. Brooklyn was dragged out of the banquet in front of everyone.
This was probably the most humiliating thing to happen to the Brooklyns.
Olivia snorted as she watched Mr. Brooklyn pretend to help her.
Anyway, it was too late.
She then glanced at Caroline's ex-husband, whose face was pale as the guests took a step back away from him and his family.
Olivia took a sip of her drink and pretended to have nothing to do with this.
...
The next morning, Briana woke up with a tremendous headache.
She held her head and used the little strength she had to stand up.
Finding herself all alone on the construction site, she frowned.
The area was humid, and her clothes were dirty. She could only guess she had stayed there overnight.
Even the money was still with her.
Her frown deepened, and she turned on her phone.
The first thing she did was call her mother and ask how she's doing because Olivia had told her she had fainted.
No one answered her call, and when she stopped trying, she heard all the notifications land on her phone.
Hundreds of missed calls from her father, her relatives, Olivia amongst other people she knew.
Her frown deepened, and she covered her mouth when she came across the news.
"No…"
Her phone slipped off her fingers and fell on the ground with a thud.
All she could do was cover her head with her arms in denial.
Denial.
No. It was not possible.
"I came! I brought all the money!" She screamed.
"I-... I brought the money…." Her body trembled.
She was too angry to even cry.
"What is happening?" She asked herself, her skin slowly losing its color.
She didn't understand. Things had been so peaceful lately. Why did things go wrong suddenly?
The more she thought about it, the clearer things were.
Someone was definitely planning this!
"No, I will not let them get away with this."
And once again, Briana had given Adriana the reactions she expected.
Adriana had done things one after another so that Briana would notice.
This would have her try to stop things, only to fail once again.
High expectations lead to bigger disappointments.
And it so happens that Briana had expected things to go her way every single time.
The first thing she did was run towards her car.
She placed the money in her trunk and drove home to change and then go find her mother.
Her hands tightened around the steering wheel, and she tried to concentrate on the road.
She could her heart thumping loudly against her chest, and images of her mother in a prison cell flashed across her mind.
The more she thought about it, the harder she pressed on the gas pedal.
*BEEP*
The loud beeping of cars behind and to her side brought her out of her trance.
Rage.
It enraged her. The urge to kill whoever is behind her was rising by the minute.
Briana would not rest until the person pulling all these games, were to die. She had determined this and continued to drive as fast as she could.
------
Noah looked at the charts, and graphs on his laptop and rubbed his temple.
"What should we do?" Weston asked, who was sitting on the couch to his right.
"We add fuel to the fire." He responded.
"What? You're helping your ex-wife frame an innocent woman?! Who FYI is trying to find me and hang me." Weston yelled.
Noah laughed.
"Do you think it's framing?"
Weston furrowed his eyebrows.
"One second." He pulled out another tab on his computer and started doing his own research.
Around 15 minutes later he looked up at Noah, who was going through some files.
"Oh...sh*t."
"What?" Noah asked.
"It's all true."
"Hmmm." Not surprised, Noah continued with his work.
"I just don't understand though. I get that Briana Brooklyn set her up and almost had her imprisoned for poisoning your older sister. But luckily, you found out it was not true and saved her from that situation. What does Mrs. Brooklyn have to do with this? She isn't planning revenge for such a small thing, is she?" Weston continued to ask.
"Adriana can be petty, but not that petty. If she were planning revenge, she would strike straight to Briana and not the surrounding people." He told him.
"... which means Mrs. Brooklyn also had a hand in it!" Weston finished.
"Hmm." Noah sighed and glanced at him before turning back to his work.
"Okay, I think I got something. After Briana framed your ex-wife, rumors about her and this Bryan guy started spreading. Not soon after, she left you and fell in love with him, therefore, admitting the rumors. Which means we have to investigate this dude too-" Weston stooped when he felt a shiver.
"*Cough* She claimed to have fallen in love with another guy." He corrected himself.
"Anyway, you already knew that, but we still need to find out WHY she admitted to something false."
"Stop trying to play Sherlock and continue your work." He ordered.
Weston pursed his lips and took a sip from his coffee.
He might be afraid of being put in this situation, but it was a sort of fun for him. It was like playing detective and piecing all the clues together.
He shook his head and posted another piece of news that would make sure Mrs. Brooklyn rots in prison along with her little lover.
Looking at his success and how things escalated in social media, he let out a sinister laugh.
"She totally deserves it." He mumbled to himself.
Humming happily knowing he had Noah's protection he continued his investigations.