Rising From Betrayal Reborn As The Family Outcast novel Chapter 92

Chapter 92

Nicole really didn’t want to give up that endorsement.

She called Maxwell again to ask for help.

Maxwell had been at the club’s training base for the past few days and had no idea what was going on.

He agreed to ask Collin for her.

Then he called Collin.

Collin asked him to come home for dinner so they could talk it over.

Maxwell thought, ‘Well, I need to grab some clothes anyway, so why not. So he agreed.

At the Delaney residence.

The two brothers were chatting over dinner.

Maxwell once again brought up how Nicole had asked him for help.

Collin looked at his brother with a helpless smile. “Maxwell, why are you still such a sweet, clueless kid?”

He’d been protected since he was little, never really having to deal with any real hardships.

Then he got into esports, where the social circle was pretty simple and drama-free.

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Plus, as the Delaney family’s young master, nobody dared to scheme against him, so he barely saw the darker side of things. No wonder he’s still so straightforward and trusting.

Maxwell looked up, a bit lost. “What do you mean?”

Collin said, “Did it ever cross your mind why she’d ask you for help? Before, whenever something like this happened, she’d always go to the Hammond brothers first.”

Maxwell asked, “Is it just because I’m your brother, part of the Delaney family?”

Collin rubbed his forehead, exasperated. “No, it’s because the Hammond brothers all said no, and I didn’t pick up her calls or reply to her texts.

“That’s why she finally came to you.”

Maxwell blinked, a little confused. “Weren’t the Hammond brothers always spoiling her? How come they all said no to her

this time?”

Honestly, compared to Maxwell, the Hammond brothers totally indulged Nicole way more.

Collin filled him in on everything that had happened over the past few days.

He mentioned Alicia selling her shares, and the falling out between the Hammond brothers and their dad.

‘Nicole isn’t as simple as you think. She’s got a lot more going on under the surface-even knows how to play the game,” Collin said.

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He looked at Maxwell, his only brother. “You’re being used by her.”

Maxwell hadn’t realized so much had happened in just a few days.

He blurted out, “Wait, used me for what?”

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Collin laid it out. “Nicole’s determined to snag that Delaney Group perfume endorsement-not just to secure her spot and climb the ranks, but also because Celia was the one who created it.

“Honestly, it was only after I started looking into what Nicole’s been up to these past couple of days that I realized why she wants this endorsement so badly.

“She’s trying to mess with Alicia, make her feel uncomfortable, and stir things up between us and her.

“And sure enough, Ally’s been blaming me for the whole perfume endorsement thing.

“Honestly, I barely even interact with Nicole.

“Last time I went to her event, it was only because you insisted I go,” Collin said.

He was over eight years older than Nicole, so they didn’t really have much in common or hang out together.

Whenever they did cross paths, it was mostly because Maxwell and the Hammond brothers organized some get-together.

Seeing how Leo spoiled his stepdaughter, Collin started doing the same-whenever he went on a business trip, he’d bring back little gifts for Nicole.

Of course, Alicia always got something too.

The main reason Alicia started to resent him was that endorsement.

At first, he hadn’t thought much of it, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized Nicole’s motives weren’t exactly pure.

After all, the Delaney Group had plenty of products, but Nicole had her sights set on that perfume line.

She first tried to get the Hammond brothers to help, and when that didn’t work, she came to him for the endorsement.

Alicia’s words that day really woke him up.

‘Isn’t this exactly what Nicole’s trying to do-make Alicia feel uncomfortable, and even get under Celia’s skin?’ Collin thought.

And then he heard from Kevin that Leo was thinking about giving shares to Nicole and her mom.

The more he thought about it, the more something just didn’t add up.

He started to suspect that Nicole and her mom were a lot more scheming behind closed doors than they seemed in public- not nearly as sweet and harmless as they pretended to be.

Especially since Maxwell always thought he was the reason Nicole almost took her own life when they were younger, so he’d been trying to make it up to her ever since, always feeling guilty.

He just couldn’t say no to anything Nicole asked for, or even hinted at.

Collin didn’t want to see his only brother spend his whole life weighed down by guilt, getting used over and over again by

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Nicole

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So he had someone look into it.

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Collin laid it all out for Maxwell, explaining why Nicole was so obsessed with landing that perfume endorsement.

Now that he’d refused to give her the endorsement, she was desperately seeking help from everyone, trying to turn things around.

Maxwell was left speechless after hearing all that. “Seriously? There’s actually so much drama and twists behind this?

I honestly never gave it much thought. I just figured Nicole wanted a Delaney Group endorsement-seemed like just a simple thing.

“I thought I’d just hand it over to her, no problem.”

Over the years, he’d gotten used to giving Nicole whatever she asked for.

But he really never imagined there was all this stuff going on underneath.

Guilt flashed across Maxwell’s face. “I swear, I never wanted to make Ally feel bad, or hurt Celia.”

After his parents died in that car accident, his older brother got swamped with work at the company, so Celia would often have Maxwell stay over at her place.

Celia had always treated him like her own, and he was really close to her.

Who could’ve guessed Nicole and her mom would use an endorsement just to stir up drama and try to mess with their relationship with Alicia?

If Celia ever found out about all this, she’d probably be really upset with them too.

Collin added, “And that whole suicide thing back then? Nicole totally faked it-she put on an act just so you’d all feel guilty about her.

“She wanted you and Nicolas to start feeling sorry for her and treat her differently, and for the Hammonds to see her as this delicate thing and start tiptoeing around her, always trying to protect her.”

Maxwell stared in disbelief. “She staged her own suicide attempt?”

Collin nodded. “Yeah, I had someone dig into what went down between Nicole and Ally.

“I came across a few screenshots from some online posts-people were already casting doubt on whether Nicole’s suicide was even real.

“After going through all that, it just didn’t sit right with me.

“Nicole cut her wrist, and barely moments later, one of the Hammond family’s maids stumbled upon her and got her to the hospital just in time.

“How could a maid in the Hammond family just walk into Nicole’s room without even knocking or asking? That’s not how things are done in their house.

“And the timing? Seriously, wasn’t it just a little too convenient?.

“So I had someone look into that maid.

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“After the incident, the maid’s grandson was born, and Nicole’s mom gave her 60 thousand dollars, saying it was a thank-you for finding Nicole in time.

“Not long after she got the money, she quit her job and went back to her hometown to take care of her grandson.

“My people tracked her down and gave her some cash to talk about what really happened that day.

“She said Nicole was super protective of her privacy-she never let the maids into her room, not even to clean.

“Nicole always did her own cleaning, never letting anyone else touch her stuff.

“But that day, it was Nicole’s mom who told the maid to go check on Nicole.

“Nicole’s mom said Nicole had a bit of a fever, and if she didn’t respond to knocking, the maid should go in and take a look.

“The maid knocked on Nicole’s door, but there was no answer. The door wasn’t even fully closed—it was just left ajar.

“So she called out a few times and then pushed the door open.

The bathroom door was open too, so she saw Nicole in the bathtub, having attempted suicide.”

Collin let out a cold laugh. “Seriously, how could things line up so perfectly?

“Nicole never lets the maids into her room, and her mom knows her habits inside out. But that day, she actually told the maid to go check on Nicole herself.

“And if Nicole’s mom knew she had a fever, why didn’t she go herself? Why send the maid instead?

“The timing was just too spot-on-barely moments after Nicole cut her wrist.

“They didn’t directly tell the maid to do anything, but if you really look into it, there are just too many red flags. No way all this is just a coincidence.

“And then Nicole’s mom started shrieking nonstop, her screams brought everyone running to Nicole’s room, where you all saw her in the bathtub, blood everywhere.

“After that, Nicole was crying and blaming you guys, saying it was because you yelled at her that she just couldn’t go on.”

He looked at Maxwell, who looked totally stunned. “You were just a kid back then. Of course, seeing all that, you couldn’t help but feel guilty, thinking you were the reason Nicole did what she did.

“That was exactly their plan all along.” Collin said.

Back then, Nicole was still pretty young, and everything happened so suddenly.

Everyone knew she’d had a rough childhood, so when she made that suicide attempt, it didn’t really shock anyone. Nobody questioned it or bothered to look into things any further.

If Collin hadn’t come across that exposé online, and if he hadn’t thought about how Maxwell had always given Nicole whatever she wanted all these years, he probably never would’ve decided to look deeper.

But once he saw all that, he knew he had to get to the bottom of it.

Otherwise, Maxwell would just keep getting played by Nicole, doing her dirty work without even realizing it.

But the moment he started digging, the truth fell apart-turns out, things were way more twisted and scheming than he ever

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imagined.

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Nicole and her mom probably thought they were safe since they never actually bribed the maid, so they figured there was nothing to worry about.

But with all those clues staring us in the face, and so many so-called coincidences piling up, there’s just no way it was all random chance.

Collin was going to tell Maxwell everything once he figured it all out.

But then Nicole started working Maxwell again, so Collin used it as an excuse to get him home and lay it all out for him.

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