Who exactly is Alexander Miller? Seeing that Claire was no longer pretending, Alex crossed his legs, exuding a strong aura, and gestured for her to take a seat opposite him.
"Let's make a deal," he said.
Claire felt like laughing for a moment, wondering how she ended up in an alliance with the Grey family. She wasn't sure if Anna had participated in the incident at the Eil Hotel the previous night, but she was convinced that Tristan couldn't have orchestrated such a plan alone. If Anna had helped him... Claire felt a headache coming on.
As she walked downstairs, she happened to meet Alexander's housekeeper, Ceris, who was delivering food upstairs.
"Miss Claire, won't you have something to eat before you go?" Ceris asked.
Claire waved her hand. "Another day."
After leaving the gate, Claire wished she could bite off her tongue. Another day? she thought to herself. Where was she going to find another day? Just as she was wondering how to hail a taxi, a car stopped beside her, and Ceris smiled.
"Young Master ordered me to give you a ride to your destination," he said.
Inside Alexander's office, the secretary walked in, respectfully handing over a document.
"Mr. Grey is meeting with the people from the Real Valley Group today. Should we take action?"
The first thing Alex did when he returned the previous night was issue a command to take down the Grey family. The secretary, looking puzzled, asked, "Do you have another plan?"
"No. For now, let's put that aside," Alex replied.
He smiled, his lips curling up slightly as he looked at the untouched tea on his desk. But that smile made the secretary shiver.
"There's a little fox who wants to sharpen her claws. The Grey family is her prey," Alex said, his voice calm.
The secretary was both horrified and confused. A little fox? Since when did Mr. Miller get a pet? If it's a woman, this is turning into a horror movie! Everyone knew that Mr. Miller never allowed women to get close to him. And now, he was giving up an opportunity to attack for a woman?
While the secretary was still in shock, Alex put his gold-rimmed glasses back on and got back to work.
After getting out of the car at the shopping mall, Claire watched people come and go. Then, she turned around and entered the mall. Not long after, a woman wearing a duckbill cap and sportswear left through a side door and disappeared into the crowd.
At a warehouse by the pier, a trembling mafia boss knelt on the ground, looking up at Claire with fear in his eyes. His gaze shifted to his knocked-out henchman, and he couldn't help but shudder. He had never expected that the rumored weak and incompetent Miss Smith from the Smith family would turn out to be so ruthless, with such swift and precise movements.
"You've caused me a lot of trouble," Claire said with a smile, twirling the knife in her hand, making the man tremble even more.
"Miss Smith, we can talk this out," he stammered.
"We have nothing to talk about," Claire's voice suddenly turned cold. She pressed the knife against his throat and pulled his collar as she walked toward the door.
"If you don't want to die, jump off from here," she said, putting one foot on the deck and looking down at the surging sea below. "In half an hour, if you're still alive, we'll call it even."
Looking down at the water, the man immediately knelt down and grabbed Claire's arm, his fat face contorting with a pleading expression.
"No, I don't want to die! As long as you spare me, I'll do anything!" he begged.
That was exactly what she wanted to hear. Claire released the man and let the dagger dance between her fingers.
"I know all about the dirty things you and Tristan Grey have done. He couldn't handle certain women, so you drugged them for him," Claire said, her voice sharp.
Claire didn't want to seriously harm the man, but she needed to teach him a lesson so that he wouldn't mess with her again. She gave him a hard slap, followed by a swift beating. When she was done, she made him stand up to receive more punishment.
To ensure that the man didn't try to escape, Claire added a threat. "You better not try to run away. Don't forget, your son is still in my hands." With that, she cut off all his escape routes, leaving him standing there dejectedly.
He didn't even notice when Claire had left.
Arriving at the Valley View community, Claire avoided the cameras and skillfully made her way to Tristan's house. She took out the card she had prepared earlier and silently opened the door.
As soon as she entered, she saw clothes scattered on the floor. They were Anna's clothes, and Claire recognized them immediately. The day before, Anna had worn the dress to show off in front of her, sneering that a "country bumpkin" like Claire had never seen such beauty before. Claire still remembered the contempt in Anna's eyes.
It turned out that Anna's so-called friend was Tristan, and their gathering was anything but innocent. Closing the door behind her, Claire could still hear sounds coming from inside. She sneered and quietly made her way into Tristan's study, where she hacked into his laptop, which had access to all the cameras in the house, and did what she had to do.
"Tristan, I didn't want to hurt you, but… you're asking for it," Claire muttered under her breath.
Just as she was about to leave, she overheard a whispering conversation from the other room that made her freeze in place.
"Tristan, when are you going to break off the engagement with that country bumpkin?" Anna asked.
"When I get confirmation from the mafia boss and she's handled, I'll kick that bitch out," Tristan replied, holding Anna in his arms and looking at her lovingly. "Baby, you know you're the one I truly love."
Listening to their disgusting conversation, Claire sneered repeatedly. True love? She wanted to see how far this so-called love could go. Silently, she closed the door and left without a sound. From start to finish, neither Tristan nor Anna noticed that a third person had been in the room.