Love in the Limelight (Astrid and Elio) novel Chapter 449

"Overstepping?" Astrid scoffed, "Don't you realize the gravity of the situation? What's the purpose of you being here today? Have you forgotten?"

Lucinda whirled around to face Astrid, who smiled and showed her cell phone screen. "What's your purpose here today?"

Upon seeing the screen the cell phone, Lucinda’s mind went blank momentarily. In a daze, she mumbled, "Today... today's goal was to ruin that little bitch, Astrid, for not paying me. Fannie Santos promised me five million after the job was done. Because I know Astrid's secret, and Fannie wants to bring Astrid down by revealing her pregnancy. So, we collaborated."

Everyone was shocked.

Paula, watching the live stream, nearly choked on her coffee!

Fannie was already in deep water. Even at this point, Lucinda didn't forget to drag Fannie further in?

Lucinda, now under hypnosis, was spilling her innermost thoughts. The room fell silent as a tomb until Lucinda continued, "Astrid doesn't deserve to be my sister. She's like a dog we've kept for eighteen years. How can we let her go that easily? We want Astrid to be under our control forever!"

"Slap!" A sharp slap landed on Lucinda's face, the searing pain snapping her back to reality.

She covered her face and looked at the furious Yates with tear-filled eyes. "Yates! Why did you hit me? Look everyone, he's hitting a woman! He's hitting a woman!"

Parrish retorted, "If he hadn't beaten, I'd do it myself. Are you even human? Still playing the victim, huh? Who doesn't know you're a wolf in sheep's clothing?"

Lucinda looked at their accusing eyes, panic rising rapidly.

She hadn't said anything wrong, but why were they reacting this way?

Provocation. A low-level provocation. But Astrid knew it was enough to deal with Lucinda.

Sure enough, as soon as Astrid finished her sentence, Lucinda became flustered, "Nonsense! I have proof. I was afraid Fannie would back out and not pay me, so I secretly recorded our conversation!"

Saying this, Lucinda quickly pulled out her cell phone and played the recording of her conversation with Fannie.

[Recording] Fannie said, "I know you have something that can bring Astrid down and you need money. If you can make Astrid lose face at the celebration live stream tomorrow, I'll give you five million."

Lucinda said, "Let's put it in writing."

Fannie said, "No, we can't leave any evidence. Don't worry, I'm a public figure. I won't cheat you out of your money."