"Paah!"
The force of the slap turned her face, forcing her to touch the inside of her right cheek with her tongue. That slap from her father was a heavy one.
Her eyes stung with tears, but she had made a vow in court never to let these low-life people see her tears ever again, so she stood brave and smiled at the man with blood trickling down the corner of her lower lips.
"Your slaps cannot silence me, nor will they silence the people. Everyone knows that your sweetheart is a whore!"
She said it! Jeslyn repeated it in full this time.
Burning with rage, Mr. Wales raised his hand to slap her again, but he heard Christine say.
"Father, let it be. You and Mother should excuse us for a while. I need to talk to Sister."
Jeslyn rolled her eyes. Why did she not know this hypocrite would make up with their father and his mistress?
Of course, she needed a mountain to rely on since none of the properties were given to her. Jeslyn thought.
She suddenly felt joy bubbling in her heart. Her mother and grandfather were good judges of character. It was only a shame she didn't learn that from them.
Mr. Wales glared at Jeslyn before he pulled his angry wife and left.
Now, with Jeslyn and Christine alone in the room, Christine stared at Jeslyn for a long time before she sighed.
"Sister, how did you suddenly become so brave and could even say such vulgar words without batting an eyelid? You used to shy away from using such explicit words. Has a week in prison turned you ugly?"
"Thanks to you, dear sister, using explicit words has become a norm. But I tell you, that's not the only thing you should be worried about. Pray I don't get out of here, or else I will make every one of you pay for ruining my life.
"You might have been convinced or confused, but you are old and sensible enough to know that testifying against your only sister would ruin her forever."
"You are right, sister. Because I'm worried about you getting out of here somehow, that's why I made them freeze your account, and also, how wouldn't I know that testifying against you in court would ruin you? I'm 23, sister, so of course, I know that but then, who again did you say told you that you were my only sister? Is your selective amnesia clouding that fact too?"
Jeslyn stared at her sister in disbelief. Yes, they have an older sister, born from their father and his mistress before he married Ms. Alice, but what shocked Jeslyn was that Christine had a hand in freezing her account!
Seeing how shocked Jeslyn looked, Christine laughed. "That's not the only thing that should shock you, dear Jeslyn. That's just the tip of the iceberg."
Christine stood up and started to walk around the room while telling a story slowly.
"Once upon a time, there lived a happy couple with a daughter. The family wasn't doing too well, and the man was an ambitious man, so he went out to look for better means to elevate his status.
"One day, this man came across the daughter of the richest man in the city and pretended to have fallen in love with her. He did everything he could and eventually forced this woman to reciprocate his love. They got married and lived happily for a few years.
"Meanwhile, the man's first wife created a ruse of an accident and rushed into the scene to save this rich heiress, which earned her the introverted rich heiress' trust.
"The rich heiress made this lady her assistant, and while she was home alone during her pregnancy, her husband and her assistant were in their matrimonial home living their lives as a married couple with their daughter.
"As for the rich heiress, After six years of giving birth to her daughter, she found a child and adopted her. What she did not know was that the child wasn't an orphan but her husband and assistant's second child…"
Christine stopped to look at Jeslyn, who was staring back at her with dead eyes.
"Oh, you already guessed," she smiled.
Jeslyn said nothing as she looked at Christine. No, what could she say? That her mother and grandfather were deceived for years? That her father was a jerk? Certainly, he's worse than that, but Jeslyn's brain was too shocked right now to have a better reaction to this story.
"Well, it's good that you have understood that part. However, it's not over yet.
"Your mother divorced my dad and went back to her father when she found out dad was cheating with my mother. It was after the incident at your graduation party that she discovered the whole thing about Dad and her were lies and that I wasn't an orphan. What a witch!"
"But unfortunately, your mother discovered everything and hurriedly transferred all the properties, including the one she had given me, to you. Isn't that wickedness?
"The reason I was sent to your mother's arms in the first place was to get a share of her property, but you ruined it all on your graduation!"
"Bang!" She slapped the desk and glared at Jeslyn with her finger pointed. "It was all your fault, your fault! It was due to your culpability that your mother died. It was your irresponsibility that killed your grandfather. It was owed to your fatuousness that Brother Ray was sent to you. Everything was your damned fault!
"If you hadn't done that silly thing that night, your mother wouldn't have discovered anything. I would have still been the holder of 50% of her properties right now!
"As for that grandfather of yours, he never liked me. Hey, don't misunderstand. I didn't poison him, but I'm glad he was because he was closing in on the secret, making me feel antsy until I realized he didn't have much time to live and–"
"Who was it?"