No longer a pushover (Noelle and Cedric) novel Chapter 655

Noelle caught the look of hesitation on Xenia's face, and her eyes flashed with a thought. She had just made things a little more complicated for Xenia to embezzle company funds now, so Xenia would definitely have to bring in more people to help, and that meant more leads for Noelle to trace.

She stood up and walked off without touching her food. No matter how good it looked, anything made by Xenia made her lose her appetite.

After Noelle left, Xenia glanced at the untouched bowl of soup beside her seat with regret. She had gone through the trouble of spitting into it several times, but Noelle did not even take a single bite. She told herself that it was just for one more week, and she would no longer have to suck up to the Liddells.

...

Back on campus, Noelle returned to the dorm and found Mia already there. She looked at Mia, who seemed a little out of it, and asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. I just realized the so-called kindness from my relatives always came with strings attached," Mia replied with a bitter smile.

She had assumed that after embarrassing Salena, the rest of the family would support her. But all they cared about was setting her up with someone new. It was as if not getting married made her some kind of disgrace.

Mia understood now that what they really wanted were the shares and assets under her name. They were pushing her to date their handpicked guys and invest in shady businesses they introduced.

She was not stupid—she knew what they were after. But seeing it so clearly now just left her cold and tired.

Noelle stayed quiet for a moment and then asked, "I heard you've got a stepmom and a younger brother living overseas."

"Yeah. My brother, Eason, has some health issues. They were both kicked out by Aunt Salena years ago. She claimed they were a threat to my status, but now I know better—it's because she wanted full control of everything I was set to inherit."

Mia's voice dipped, her mood sinking.

"You don't have to." Noelle cut her off without hesitation.

She understood Mia's predicament perfectly well. However, she did not want her to crawl back to Donovan after finally being freed from him at the birthday party, nor did she want Mia to be entangled with the Liddells' mess again because of her.

Mia's eyes turned red. "If you ever need help, just say the word."

"Actually, I do need some. I want to investigate the Merlocks."

Noelle shared the full story of her father's car crash, which was something she had not really told anyone before. Since Mia had grown up in those elite circles, maybe she had heard something that could help.

Mia listened quietly, then nodded. "Alright. I'll dig into it. I'll see if any of the Merlocks were ever involved in a crash in Aldoria back then."