Bullied and Dumped, But She Won in the End (Adriana) novel Chapter 340

Chapter 340 Locking Horns

The air went thick with awkwardness. Under the table, Yolanda kicked Denton in the shin.

Zero sense of timing, this kid.

Irene chuckled and broke the silence. “Hey, they say nephews always take after their uncles.”

Curtis still didn’t so much as glance at Gary, as if none of this involved him.

He calmly picked the bones from a piece of fish and laid the meat on Adriana’s plate.

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Adriana tugged on his sleeve. “There’s something I need everyone’s help with. I don’t think I can handle this alone. I want all of us in on it…”

The fact that Curtis had chosen to show his face in front of Gary and Irene at all meant one thing—he trusted them. Completely.

He might still carry resentment toward Gary, but he wasn’t guarding himself against him.

All eyes shifted to Adriana.

>

She looked straight at Curtis. “Gary told me the reason he wanted to have you committed back then wasn’t because he hated you. It was to protect you. Things were … complicated. The Lincolns weren’t safe.”

Saying it out loud like that, at the table, in front of everyone, was Adriana’s way of ripping off the bandage. She wanted Gary and Curtis to at least shelve their grudges long enough to drag the real mastermind into the light.

Gary clearly hadn’t expected her to yank the curtain back so bluntly. He choked on his pumpkin juice and nearly sprayed the table.

Next to him, Irene propped her chin on one hand and watched him with open amusement.

It was the first time she’d seen anyone shut Gary down like that. No wonder this was her niece.

Curtis froze for a second, then slowly turned to look at Gary.

On the other side of the table, Denton and Yolanda traded a look and immediately dropped their heads, attacking their plates as if their lives depended on it. In their hearts, they chanted the same prayer: please don’t drag us into this, please don’t drag us into this…

Neither of them wanted to be collateral damage if Curtis and Gary decided to go to war in the dining

room.

“Since we’re all sitting here together, that means everyone here is someone we trust more than anyone else,” Adriana said, sweeping the table with her gaze.

Denton and Yolanda both bobbed their heads and kept chewing.

“Right now, the Gills are our most obvious suspects. We need to work together, rip through their

OKR

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ne to hit back. Hard.

they use us as chess pieces.”

“It’s not the Gills,” Curtis said, setting down his knife and fork. His tone dropped a few degrees as he looked across the table at Gary. “They’re just taking advantage of the chaos. They’re not the ones pulling the strings. Honestly, there’s a good chance they’re being used too.”

Adriana blinked, stunned.

Not the Gills?

“The Gill patriarch is an old fox. Smart. Careful. All these years, sure, they’ve come out of this mess with fewer bruises than the rest of us–but they haven’t made any huge plays either. When three out of four families get hammered, and one stays relatively untouched, that’s way too obvious.”

In Curtis’s view, the mastermind wanted everyone to suspect the Gills.

Pull one family out of the line of fire, let them stand off to the side while the Lincolns, Bartons, and Harrisons bleed–that was how you painted a target on their backs. Once suspicion solidified, the three wounded houses would naturally focus their anger on the Gills, teaming up to crush them. The puppeteer in the dark would just sit back and enjoy the show.

In the end, their real aim was simple: destroy all four old families and rewrite Harborton’s power map from scratch.

“Exactly because he’s an old fox, he knows how to dodge risk and stir up trouble without leaving prints. The way I see it, that’s his whole play–make himself look a little suspicious, sure, but not too suspicious, just enough to split public opinion. Some people are sure he’s guilty. Others are sure he’s not. The safest place is the one everyone’s looking at.’ That’s textbook Gill thinking. He tossed Marcus out front as a lightning rod and vanished into the background. He sits at home in the countryside like a harmless retiree while he runs the board from behind the curtain.”

He believed the Gills were the ones behind it all.

“My father always warned me–the Gill patriarch didn’t build his empire clean. He made his fortune stealing deals from his so–called brothers–in–arms. When the money got big enough, he knifed his partners in the back and took everything for himself.”

The temperature at the table dropped again. Curtis and Gary stared each other down, neither willing to give an inch.

Two men with enough presence to suffocate a room on their own–put them on opposite sides of an argument, and the pressure was almost physical.

Yolanda ducked her head even lower and ripped another piece off Denton’s apple pie, pinching his sleeve under the table. Big shots were circling each other–her only goal was not to get caught in the blast zone.

“Yolanda, how about we go for a walk? I can show you the Vatican…” Denton was a fox through and through. Pick your timing right, and Yolanda would agree to anything–because she wanted out.

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Chapter 340 Locking Horns

smokescreens, and stop letting them hide in the shadows while they use us as chess pieces.”

It was time to hit back. Hard.

+10 Free Coins

“It’s not the Gills,” Curtis said, setting down his knife and fork. His tone dropped a few degrees as he looked across the table at Gary. “They’re just taking advantage of the chaos. They’re not the ones pulling the strings. Honestly, there’s a good chance they’re being used too.”

Adriana blinked, stunned.

Not the Gills?

“The Gill patriarch is an old fox. Smart. Careful. All these years, sure, they’ve come out of this mess with fewer bruises than the rest of us–but they haven’t made any huge plays either. When three out of four families get hammered, and one stays relatively untouched, that’s way too obvious.”

In Curtis’s view, the mastermind wanted everyone to suspect the Gills.

Pull one family out of the line of fire, let them stand off to the side while the Lincolns, Bartons, and Harrisons bleed–that was how you painted a target on their backs. Once suspicion solidified, the three wounded houses would naturally focus their anger on the Gills, teaming up to crush them. The puppeteer in the dark would just sit back and enjoy the show.

In the end, their real aim was simple: destroy all four old families and rewrite Harborton’s power map from scratch.

“Exactly because he’s an old fox, he knows how to dodge risk and stir up trouble without leaving prints. The way I see it, that’s his whole play–make himself look a little suspicious, sure, but not too suspicious, just enough to split public opinion. Some people are sure he’s guilty. Others are sure he’s not. ‘The safest place is the one everyone’s looking at.’ That’s textbook Gill thinking. He tossed Marcus out front as a lightning rod and vanished into the background. He sits at home in the countryside like a harmless retiree while he runs the board from behind the curtain.”

He believed the Gills were the ones behind it all.

“My father always warned me–the Gill patriarch didn’t build his empire clean. He made his fortune stealing deals from his so–called brothers–in–arms. When the money got big enough, he knifed his partners in the back and took everything for himself.”

The temperature at the table dropped again. Curtis and Gary stared each other down, neither willing to give an inch.

Two men with enough presence to suffocate a room on their own–put them on opposite sides of an argument, and the pressure was almost physical.

Yolanda ducked her head even lower and ripped another piece off Denton’s apple pie, pinching his sleeve under the table. Big shots were circling each other–her only goal was not to get caught in the blast zone.

“Yolanda, how about we go for a walk? I can show you the Vatican…” Denton was a fox through and through. Pick your timing right, and Yolanda would agree to anything–because she wanted out.

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Chapter 340 Locking Horns

Yolanda nodded fast, and the two slipped away without a sound.

Back at the table, Curtis and Gary were still locked in silent combat.

+10 Free Coins

Irene rubbed her temples and turned to Adriana. “Let them keep glaring holes in each other. We can at least finish dinner while they pretend the other one doesn’t exist.”

Adriana cleared her throat to smooth the tension and looked at Curtis. “Honestly, I think you’re both making good points. The Gills really are the most suspicious right now. We can’t afford to just rule them out. Better to assume they’re involved than assume they’re clean.”

………..

Curtis shot her a look, clearly offended. So, now she thought Gary had a point, too? To him, it sounded a lot like she was taking her uncle’s side.

“I’m with Adriana. If we’ve gotta hit the wrong target to make sure we don’t miss the right one, so be it. Whether the Gills are the mastermind or just playing along, treating them as hostile is the safest move. And if, in the end, we really do get played and both sides–us and the Gills–end up bleeding each other dry? That just means they were dumb enough to stand in the blast zone. When the nest falls, none of the eggs survive. We go hard. That’s it.”

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