The Million-Dollar Heart (Percival and Vivienne) novel Chapter 129

Arabella sat rigidly beneath the stage, completely at a loss as to how things had spiraled so disastrously out of control. It seemed that every time she made a move against Vivienne, things took a turn for the worst.

Elijah had suddenly been branded as a kidnapper and a fraud.

And she, as his apprentice… What would become of her?

She watched the angry crowd, trembling in fear of being swept away in their rage.

She tried to stay unnoticed, hoping to slip away in the chaos, but was confronted by a group of high school girls.

They hurled insults at her with scathing words.

"Arabella! Where do you think you're going?! No wonder Elijah chose you as his apprentice; you're both nothing more than scum!"

"Yeah, pretending to be all high and mighty because you're Elijah's apprentice, ordering us around like we're your servants. You're useless!"

In the blink of an eye, punches and kicks began to rain down on her. Once a brawl started, it was hard to stop it, especially when the crowd felt justified in their anger.

Each punch and kick was seen as a righteous act.

The mob's fury was eventually subdued by the arrival of the police, who took Elijah away on charges of kidnapping and illegal confinement.

Once the chaos in the auditorium had subsided, the sound of soft sobbing could be heard from a corner.

Arabella's long hair had been hacked off haphazardly, and her school uniform was torn to shreds, revealing her undergarments. Bruises covered her from head to toe, and her face was so swollen that it was hard to recognize her once beautiful features.

But no one paid her any attention or offered her any assistance. Once Elijah's crimes were exposed, everyone remembered her past deeds.

Most importantly, she herself admitted that Beatrice had tested her and Vivienne's talent in perfumery. She had claimed that Beatrice favored her because Vivienne lacked talent, which led to Vivienne's jealousy and Percival's plot to bankrupt the Hawthorn family.

But was that really the case?

Vivienne lacked talent?

She was the renowned Master Q!

She could earn more money with a single perfume than the entire Hawthorn family fortune. Did she need to be jealous or seek Beatrice's approval?

So Arabella had been lying.

That day of the apprenticeship, she and Elijah had teamed up to humiliate Vivienne.

Such a habitual liar who constantly tried to tarnish her sister's reputation did not deserve sympathy.

"Why are you doing this to me?! What have I done wrong?!"

Seeing that no one was willing to come to her aid, Arabella angrily got to her feet, accusing everyone. "It was all Elijah's doing! I've only been his apprentice for a few days. I didn't know anything."

Still, no one paid any attention to her; their faces were indifferent, lacking even a hint of pity.

Unable to bear this cold treatment, she fled in despair.

Vivienne remained on stage. Although a large group of people had rushed up to beat Elijah, the stage was in chaos, where she stood, everything was clean and orderly; even the bottles and jars on her perfume table were still neatly arranged; not a single one had fallen over.

After releasing the news, she hadn't said a word. She just watched coldly as Elijah was beaten into a pulp by the angry crowd before being taken away by the police.

In truth, she could have used her influence to rescue Riley and Raymond directly.