“Did they find anything then?” Natalie inquired.
Alice smiled bitterly. “Of course not. The Grahams framed Ms. Larson just to keep Mrs. Garcia from sniffing Jacqueline out. That’s why Ms. Larson and her whole family were kicked out of the banquet. I was a coward back then. I didn’t dare to tell what I saw. It wasn’t only until later that I told Ms. Larson about it.”
“Is that why the Grahams went bankrupt?” Natalie surmised.
Alice nodded. “Yes. The Larsons joined forces with enemies of the Graham family, and the Grahams went bankrupt as a result. After that, the incident of Jacqueline torturing a cat spread like wildfire.”
“Wait, then why didn’t Shane know anything about it?” Natalie’s brows furrowed in confusion.
If Shane knew about Jacqueline’s sick hobby of torturing animals, he would never have indulged her every step of the way.
“Mr. Shane was studying abroad at that time. He only came back to J City after Jacqueline went missing. By then, the Graham family had already crumbled, so naturally, no one mentioned all the things Jacqueline did. I’m not surprised that Mr. Shane didn’t know about it,” Alice explained.
Natalie widened her eyes in realization. “So that’s why.”
“Mrs. Thompson, why did you suddenly ask to see me to talk about Jacqueline? Hasn’t she gone missing? I even heard some people say she’s already dead.” Alice peered at Natalie curiously.
Natalie’s lips curled into a mirthless smile. “No, she’s not dead or missing. She’s just been in a vegetative state for ten years. No one knows about it because the news wasn’t made public, but she’s awake now. Anyway, I came to you because there’s something I need to ask you. Does the voice of the person who told you to take the blame sound like Jacqueline’s?”
Alice was momentarily stunned by the question, but then, she began to think back carefully.
After a few seconds, her jaw fell wide open and she exclaimed, “Mrs. Thompson, now that you mention it, I think it really was her. Even though I haven’t seen her or heard her voice in ten years, I can still remember what her voice sounded like. There was a slight difference in the voice of the person on the phone compared to Jacqueline’s, but the difference isn’t significant.”
“Alright, that’s more than enough for me to confirm that the real culprit who wanted me dead was Jacqueline,” clenching her fists, Natalie murmured in a cold voice.
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