Rejected Heiress, Reigning Queen novel Chapter 70

When Emma arrived at work the next morning, the receptionist handed her a fresh coffee.

"Ms. Lockwood, it's best not to drink random beverages that show up unannounced."

The Vice President reached out, ready to toss the cup straight into the trash. Emma stepped closer and spotted the distinct logo of The Ciel Cafe.

"It's fine. I know exactly who sent this."

Emma took the cup upstairs. It was almost certainly Hayden acting on his grandfather's overprotective orders, having his staff deliver it.

She was sitting at her desk, sipping her coffee and eating her cake, when the police called.

According to the officer, the Lockwood family had completely abandoned any attempts to bail Bernard out, and they were officially cutting their losses with Lockwood Pharma as well.

The Vice President overheard the conversation and looked confused. "Why did they suddenly give up?"

"Bernard committed tax evasion and embezzled my dividends. The rest of the Lockwood family might genuinely not have known the extent of it. Since I refused to drop the charges, and I made a very public appearance at Elder Shaw's gala yesterday..."

Emma took a slow sip of her coffee, her eyes darkening. "As long as they aren't completely stupid, they realize that fighting a losing battle over Bernard will drag the entire Lockwood empire down with him."

"Honestly, I don't care about the factory anymore. What really bothers me is why Charles would rather beg the Jennings family for a favor than let Violet go to Garrison City."

Charles had built his entire fortune by riding the coattails of the Jennings family. Plenty of people whispered behind his back that he was just a gold-digger living off his wife's wealth. Even though his business eventually took off, he was deeply insecure about the gossip and rarely associated with his in-laws.

Whatever happened to the factory didn't matter to her.

Right now, her only priority was uncovering the truth about her birth.

First, the refusal to do a DNA test, and now refusing to let Violet near Garrison City—there had to be a massive secret buried there.

"Speaking of secrets, I looked into Gillian's past like you asked. It's incredibly strange. It's like someone deliberately scrubbed her history clean. There is absolutely zero trace of her life before she returned to the Lockwood family."

Emma finished the last drop of her coffee and arched a brow. "The fact that we can't find anything is the biggest red flag of all. But we can take our time with that. I need to get this office fully operational before Julian gets here."

She refused to leave a massive disaster for Julian to clean up.

"Don't stress too much. Look at this. Director Reynolds explicitly said you need to go blow off some steam. Stop being so tightly wound."

Emma looked at the sleek VIP card the Vice President handed her. It belonged to an exclusive high-end club.

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