Rejected Heiress, Reigning Queen novel Chapter 193

Emma Lockwood waited for the cleaners to arrive. It didn't take long before they hauled out quite a few paintings.

The exquisite frames on every piece highlighted just how cherished these works had once been.

But now, they were tossed onto the ground like garbage.

Carter Harrington lowered his gaze, sweeping his eyes over the canvases before turning to Emma. "I'll keep an eye on things here. Didn't you need to find Travis? Go ahead, don't keep him waiting."

Emma had zero desire to look at Tristan Lockwood for a second longer. She gave a brisk nod and walked away.

Chase and the bodyguards followed closely behind her. Carter waited until they were far out of earshot before reaching down to pick up the painting closest to him.

It was a portrait of a happy, harmonious family of five. Emma looked like a pampered princess, entirely surrounded by her loving family.

"The construction site is full of people demanding money," Tristan said out of nowhere.

Carter replied smoothly, "I'll have my people pack up these paintings and take them away. There's no need to mention it to her."

Hearing this, Tristan felt a sudden, inexplicable wave of relief.

Seeing these paintings tossed aside brought back memories of their youth, and a strange reluctance to lose them completely had gripped his chest.

After Carter spoke, he pulled out a standalone pencil sketch from a corner. It wasn't framed; it looked as if it had been carefully tucked away somewhere.

He didn't unfold it until he was leaving.

The person in the sketch was Percy Harrington.

"Boss, she and Percy were engaged since they were kids. It's not entirely surprising that she would draw him," Jeff offered, trying to be comforting.

Carter sighed heavily, carefully folding the sketch back up and tucking it away.

Of course he wasn't surprised.

He was just envious.

He envied the fact that Percy actually shared a romantic history with her. Even if their past had been tangled in family interests, there had at least been genuine feelings between them.

Unlike the two of them. They only had a transactional alliance, devoid of any real affection.

Meanwhile, Emma arrived at the construction site. It was indeed packed with people aggressively demanding compensation.

"Ms. Lockwood, why are you here in person? Mr. Reynolds said to have you wait for him outside," the project manager of Reynolds Real Estate said as he rushed over to manage the chaos. Since the incident had made the news, it required an executive presence to handle the fallout.

"It's not exactly a state secret. No one had to tell me," Emma replied, her gaze shifting to the central memorial shrine. She raised a brow.

She patted Travis on the arm, gesturing for him to hold back.

Then, Emma walked forward. She had someone place a modest floral tribute by the memorial photos and offered a respectful moment of silence.

"Nobody wants an accident like this to happen on a construction site. Who would want their property tainted with tragedy before it's even built?"

She calmly adjusted her jacket and turned to face the grieving, yet angry families.

"You rejected the compensation package. If you want to take this to court, go ahead. Whatever the judge rules, we'll accept it."

The families saw a young, gentle-looking woman talking and immediately thought they had an easy target. They started yelling.

"Don't give us that corporate garbage! Just tell us when we're getting our money! Five million dollars per family, and not a penny less!"

Carter arrived just in time to see them screaming in Emma's face.

He was about to step in and defend her when he saw Emma flash a cool, composed smile.

"Instead of setting up memorials to extort us, maybe you should all go home and calculate exactly how much you owe us. Your personal code violations caused our site to collapse and the property value to plummet. You're liable for those damages."