Adrian’s fingers clenched around the pen, his knuckles white. The screen flickered again, and her face that was so close to another man’s seared through the last thread of his control.
His jaw ticked. For a split second, the office was so silent, one could hear the faint whir of the air conditioner.
The glass desk shattered with a fist sized hole in it. It collapsed on the floor, taking down all the files and other stuff down with it.
A few tiny glass shards had pierced in Adrian’s palm, and blood oozed out of the little cuts.
’’Second Master!" Ji Yan immediately grabbed the first aid box and ran to the man to treat his wound.
But Adrian sat on the chair motionlessly, his aura reeked of death and his eyes were lifeless.
His gaze never once strayed away from the broken laptop that was glitching, with half its screen turned black.
Ji Yan felt his poor heart trembling. He could not understand what Ella was thinking at this point.
Miss Yu, ah, Miss Yu, must you do this every time? You stir awake a sleeping dragon, pat his head and then dig out its heart scale!
Do you realize that it would spit fire? Do you realize that there are mere mortals, unlike you, who would be roasted alive in this fire?
However, at this moment, the video on the cracked laptop glitched once and resumed.
Ella suddenly slapped Max.
She slapped him again. Then, without a hint of hesitation, she brought her knee up and kicked his groin ruthlessly.
Ji Yan’s mouth went dry. Even through the shattered pixels, the violence looked lethal.
He inwardly recoiled at the sight of Max writhing on the ground like a reptile. It was a good thing that he usually kept his thoughts to himself and never had the itch to go ahead and mess with her.
The injured hand that Ji Yan was tending to twitched once.
Adrian’s face regained its usual impassiveness.
Once the video ended, the office room regained its calm again.
If not for the shattered glass desk, broken devices, and files strewn across the floor, one would not know of the storm that had razed this place down a few moments ago.
Ji Yan’s phone rang at this moment.
He was about to bandage Adrian’s hand when the man retracted it and said, ’’Check it.’’
If Ji Yan could, he would check this text in front of Adrian. God forbid it was related to that woman again.
But at the sight of Adrian’s frigid face, he pulled out his phone and went through the messages, his brows furrowing with every passing second.
’’Second Master, it seems like not only Miss Yu had a huge argument with Maxwell Hill but she also indirectly implied that she is responsible for Ruby Ambrose’s kidnapping. This...’’
Someone— make it make sense.
When Adrian remained silent, Ji Yan continued, ’’Today, before we went to Mr. Knight’s place, Miss Yu specifically requested you to make some arrangements in order to escort Ruby to their manor. And, she specifically asked for the driver to pick her up around 8 pm.’’
Ji Yan glanced at his watch, "Right now, it is past 9 pm so Maxwell went to the Eve Mansion around 7 pm.’’
These timings could not have been coincidental. Then...
"It almost seems like Miss Yu orchestrated all of it. The argument. The blame. Even the timing."
Ji Yan swallowed. "But why... why shoulder the blame for a crime she didn’t commit, against someone she protected?"
Adrian’s silence was telling. Ji Yan saw it, and his stomach twisted.
"She’s... shielding Ruby?"
Adrian’s silence was a quiet acknowledgement to his guess.
A piece of information suddenly clicked in Ji Yan’s mind, ’’Mr. Ambrose is Ruby’s stepfather and considering the rumors doing rounds in the elite circles of the entertainment society, he is a stickler for rules, even in his own family.’’
While others might not have access to such information or any ways to verify if it was true or false, the Empire of the Kings encompassed all the huge industries of the nation, so Ji Yan knew that these were not hearsays.
He just had never paid much attention to this Ambrose family before. But after Ella came into Adrian’s lives, they naturally had to know the people around her.
"Recently, Maxwell and Ruby got engaged to each other. With Ruby being kidnapped and being outside for an entire night, Hill Family would not accept it considering how much they care for their face and this marriage collaboration might take the brunt of this damage. If that happened, Mr. Ambrose would blame Ruby..."
Seeing that Adrian sat there without a single change in his expression, Ji Yan knew that he was not quite off the mark with his guess.
But coming to the next part of it rooted him in his spot.
"So, Miss Yu went to this extent to take the blame to herself so that nobody would point fingers at Ruby?" And what was more genius was that in doing so, she shifted the entire blame of this matter to Max.
If Ella kidnapped or hurt Ruby, then she would surely do it for the ex-boyfriend she was crazy for and that was Max.
In such an instance, the Hill family had no one to blame it on other than their son.
Adrian frowned, a hint of displeasure crossed his eyes. The sight of Ella’s bright smile flickered in his mind.
The idea that she would go to such an extent to protect someone made something dark spread within him.
Ji Yan looked around when he heard that sound.
From the mountain of shattered glass, he carefully picked up a phone that was broken beyond redemption.
He smiled bitterly in his heart. It was a good thing that these brands were owned by the Kings or the news about the monthly damaged devices in the Eve Mansion would start doing rounds in the outside world for sure.
Ji Yan unlocked the half broken phone and turned it towards Adrian. Through its partially dark screen, a text greeted their eyes.
[Baby, what are you up to?]
More messages kept coming.
Ji Yan’s hand that was holding the phone trembled and his forehead was filled with cold sweat as he anticipated the nature of these texts.
Miss Yu, please... I beg you, ah! There’s not even a second glass desk in here. If he wants to smash something else now, it might just be me!
However, when the texts made a certain devil’s eyes twinkle, Ji Yan mustered his courage to look in the direction of the phone.