Love's Cunning Ruse novel Chapter 308

Julie scrolled through her social media feed and chuckled as she saw Daphne's selfie had gone viral, along with a snarky caption, "Looks like Lionel's lost his touch. Tired of supermodels, so now he's settled for some low-rent chick? A schemer who's knocked up before the wedding, shamelessly replying to comments online. No shame, this parasite's gotta have been orphaned early, that’s how she grew up with no proper upbringing."

No wonder even Amanda thought the comment was out of line.

Daphne had clapped back in the comments, "Wishing you and yours all the happiness. — From the shameless, pregnant-before-marriage, schemer with very much alive parents, soon to be Mrs. Lionel."

Julie gave Daphne a thumbs up and then logged onto her own social media to share Daphne's response, "Here's to the shameless, pregnant-before-marriage, schemer with very much alive parents, soon to be Mrs. Lionel. Wishing you happiness."

As Kieran walked upstairs, he found the trio in high spirits. Wrapping his arms around his lady from behind, he asked, "What's got you all laughing so much?"

She waved her phone at him, "Wanna help out?"

Kieran read the post and immediately joined in, sharing it with his own addition, "To the man about to marry a shameless, pregnant-before-marriage, schemer with very much alive parents, Lionel, wishing you happiness."

Daphne liked the post right away.

What started as a joke between Julie and Daphne soon sparked a wildfire of reactions. Even Flavia joined them. Surprisingly, Lionel's supposed true love, Albertine, also shared the post.

Daphne covered her face, "Looks like I'm officially internet famous now!"

Kieran, phone in hand, turned to Julie, "Babe, mind explaining what's going on here?"

Julie glanced at the phone and saw a paparazzi shot of Mr. Watson and Harding with handcuffs linking them together, magnified in the photo before they could get into their car. She recognized a blurry shadow in the photo as herself, and clearly, Kieran had already figured it out too, or he wouldn't be asking.

She laughed nervously, "Well… it was a makeshift plan to get Daphne out of her apartment. Mr. Watson and Dr. Ladd were downstairs at Lionel's request, so we used them as a distraction."

"And the handcuffs?" he inquired.

"Looks like Mr. Watson wasn't too keen on voluntarily helping with the diversion," Julie said cryptically.

Only Julie could have come up with the handcuff idea.

Half an hour later, Lionel arrived to pick up Daphne. It was clear Amanda was fond of Daphne; despite being down all day, she personally saw Daphne to the door.

Back in the bedroom, Julie sprawled out on the bed, exhausted.

"Kieran, something just occurred to me," Julie sat up suddenly, a serious look on her face.

He stopped what he was doing and sat down beside her, attentive. "What's up?"

"Rankin!" Julie grabbed his hand, "At the cemetery today, I was lost in the past, but just now I remembered something odd. Rankin's tombstone only had his photo and name, no inscriptions, not even a date. Isn't it strange?"

"Where's the grave?" he asked.

"North Cemetery," she replied.

"It's not mandatory to have inscriptions, but usually…"

"Doesn't it strike you as odd?" Julie frowned, "In school, I never saw Rankin's family. Some said he was an orphan, others claimed his mom visited once. The most widespread rumor was that he was raised by a wealthy single mom, always in designer clothes, yet so understated. And there were ugly rumors…"

She didn't say it, but those rumors suggested Rankin's mom was kept by a man. In Julie's memory, Rankin was remarkably nonchalant.

Kieran could guess the nature of the ugly rumors.

Julie continued, "I once asked him if he didn't care about what people said. He told me something like, we can't control where we come from, but we can shape our destiny. We can talk about others all we want, just like people judge our background, but we can't silence everyone. Something like that."

Kieran admired Rankin's perspective and promised to have Karl look into it the next day.

They cuddled, ready to turn in for the night, when a frantic knocking at the door startled them.

Julie sat up, "Come in."