Chapter 12
The glass at the entrance was shattered into pieces and scattered all over the ground. Inside the restaurant, it was a complete mess. Pots and pans were strewn everywhere, and tables and chairs lay toppled over in disarray.
Simone glanced around at the chaos. Just as she was about to make a call to see where everyone was, she suddenly heard a sharp cry coming from one of the back rooms.
She turned and pushed the door open. Sure enough, there was Joanne, sitting casually at the dining table, with a few men in black suits standing behind her.
Claire was crouched alone in a corner. Her parents were crying, holding a little boy protectively in their arms. Their hateful glares were fixed on Claire as if she weren’t their daughter but an enemy.
Simone quickly shifted her gaze away from the three of them and walked over to Claire, helping her up. “Claire, are you okay?” she asked, looking Claire over carefully from head to toe. Only after confirming that Claire wasn’t hurt did she feel relieved.
“Simone, don’t worry. I’m fine,” Claire said and sniffled, her eyes filling with tears. She had thought Simone wouldn’t come, but to her surprise, Simone showed up even though she knew it was dangerous.
ཇ ར
After listening to her, Simone turned to Joanne. “What do you want?”
Joanne chuckled and replied, “Simone, do you know why I wrecked Claire’s family’s restaurant?” The thought of seeing Simone bow down to her later filled Joanne with satisfaction.
Simone narrowed her eyes and suddenly smiled. “Because of me,” she said. She had already figured out what Joanne had in mind when she arrived.
Simone’s decisive response momentarily caught Joanne off guard–she hadn’t expected Simone to handle things that way. But Joanne didn’t mind. “Well, at least you’re self–aware.”
Blaming everything on Simone, she sneered, “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have caused trouble for the Davis family. Claire’s only in this mess because she has a friend like you dragging her down. Don’t you feel guilty at all?”
Simone’s expression remained calm and composed. Without even stopping to think, she replied, “Why should I feel guilty?” She knew she hadn’t done anything wrong.
Joanne’s words caught in her throat, silenced by Simone’s retort. Furious, she snapped at Simone, “If you hadn’t crossed me, Claire wouldn’t have been dragged into this.”
“You’re the one who caused trouble for Claire, and you’re the one who smashed up their restaurant. What does that have to do with me? Did I force you to do it?” Simone couldn’t understand Joanne’s reasoning at all.
For a moment, Joanne couldn’t think of a retort. Frustrated, she spun around to glare at Claire. “Claire, is this what you call a good friend? You see her as a friend, but it sure doesn’t look like she feels the same about you.”
Claire pressed her lips together, staying silent. Noticing that, Joanne pressed on, “If she hadn’t gotten you involved, do you think you’d be in this situation today?”
The atmosphere in the private room was unbearably tense until a sharp voice cut through the silence,
Felix, Claire’s father, shouted, “Claire, look at the kind of friend you’ve made at school. And look at the mess she’s caused our family. Hurry up and apologize to this lady.”
After that, Felix turned to Joanne with a sycophantic look on his face, like a cur begging for scraps on the street. At that moment, dignity meant nothing.
“Shut up.” Claire stared at Felix, feeling nothing but humiliation. ‘Why do I have to be the daughter of someone like him?‘ she wondered. Felix, embarrassed by his daughter, wanted to scold her, but after noticing Joanne staying silent, he pressed his lips together and didn’t dare say more.
Just a few minutes later, the sound of police sirens echoed outside. Joanne’s face darkened instantly. “Who the hell called the cops?” The Reed family was considered one of the most influential families in Sogin, and very few ordinary people dared to cross them.
Joanne had used that family name to pull similar stunts before. She had never faced any consequences, and no one had dared to
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meddle in her affairs.
But today was different—things were truly falling apart for her. The crisp sound echoed through the private room, and Joanne’s expression kept changing.
“It was me,” Simone admitted without hesitation.
Joanne clenched her teeth in frustration and hissed, “Now that you’ve lost the Spence family’s support, aren’t you afraid of offending my family?”
Simone smirked and replied, “If I wasn’t afraid of going against the Spence family, do you really think I’d be scared of the Reed family?”
Joanne was being way too naive. In Simone’s previous life, she had at least lived to the age of twenty–eight, so she wasn’t someone who could be easily scared, let alone feel threatened by a high schooler.
Linda, Claire’s mother, trembled violently when she heard the sirens. She wrapped the boy in her arms tightly, looked up at Simone, and said with a trembling voice, “Please tell the police it was a mistake and that you called them by accident.”
ཆ་འཕོ་དོ
Afraid that Simone might refuse, she continued, “I know you and Claire are good friends, but we’re just ordinary people. We don’t want to get involved in trouble, and besides, Claire’s brother is still young and depends on us.”
The woman looked aged and tired, her voice barely above a whisper. As she spoke, her eyes darted around nervously as if she was feeling guilty about something.
Simone ignored Linda and turned her gaze to Claire. Her expression was resolute. “Claire, trust me. I can protect you. Nothing will happen to your family.”
Just then, two police officers entered the room. “Who made the call?”
Simone raised her hand and stepped forward. “These people smashed this family’s restaurant,” she said. She then explained the entire situation to the officers in detail.
In the end, everyone was taken to the police station. Since Simone was a minor, the police contacted Cyrus.
At the station, Simone cooperated with the police, giving her statement. While the group was waiting for further processing, Stanley, Joanne’s father, suddenly arrived.
When Felix and Linda heard he was offering 30 thousand dollars to settle, their eyes lit up in an instant, and they agreed to sign the settlement on the spot.
The couple took the money and left the police station with their son, completely ignoring Claire, who was left standing there all alone. Watching the family of three leave, Claire felt an overwhelming wave of despair for a moment.
Joanne raised an eyebrow at Simone, a defiant glint in her eyes. Stanley’s gaze followed his daughter’s and landed on Simone.
“So you’re Simone?” he asked. With his beer belly sticking out, he looked her over from head to toe, his face showing obvious disgust. “A broke nobody like you dares to go against our family? Do you even know what kind of fate awaits you?”
Simone glanced at the father and daughter, their features strikingly similar, her disgust barely masked. She replied slowly, “I don’t know what my fate will be, but I do know the Reed family’s fate is bound to be miserable.”
Stanley let out a cold snort, his tone full of disdain. “What a sharp tongue for a girl who’s still wet behind the ears. What kind of trouble could someone like you possibly cause?
“See how things turned out today? Even if you call the police ten more times, the result will be the same. It’ll just make me spend a bit more money.”
Just as he finished speaking, a cold and menacing voice suddenly came from the doorway. “Whether or not she can cause trouble, I don’t know. But I can guarantee I’ll knock you down like a wave hitting the shore.”
Simone’s gaze instantly shifted to the person standing in the doorway.
Cyrus walked in without looking anywhere else, his eyes focused ahead. In a few strides, he was standing in front of Simone. Before she could say anything, he gripped her shoulders and spun her around.
Their eyes met, and Simone could clearly see the worry in his gaze. She suddenly realized that Cyrus was genuinely worried about her.
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I’m glad you’re alright,” Cyrus said with a relieved sigh after making sure Simone didn’t have a single scratch on her.
