“Well, how do you know she isn’t just at wolf in sheep’s clothing? Do you know her better than we do?” Erica bit out angrily.
“Miss Tillman will have an insurmountable fortune to her name once she becomes Mrs. Presgrave, so why would she come after Tillman Constructions? The both of you, however, are acting highly suspicious right now,” Rey pointed out sardonically. He was Elliot’s assistant, and being demanding aside, the job also required a sharp and analytical mind.
Naomi gaped at Rey speechlessly, and jealousy flashed in Erica’s eyes. When did Anastasia gain superiority over us?
Just then, Rey’s phone rang, and he quickly picked up after glancing at the caller ID. “Yes, President Presgrave?”
“Throw those women out of the premises right now. I don’t want them making a
scene there,” came Elliot’s curt reply. While he was not at the hospital, he had gotten word about Naomi and Erica being there and causing a scene in the
main lobby. He was admittedly bearing a grudge against them, especially after Naomi had slapped Anastasia in the face last night. That alone was enough to make him want to ruin their lives.
Rey answered solemnly, “Yes, sir.” Then, he shot the security guards a look and instructed, “Escort them out of the hospital at once and do not let them come back in again.”
The security guards leaped into action at once. Before Naomi and Erica knew what was happening, they were held by the arms and frog-marched toward the lobby exit.
“Hey! What are you doing? Let me go right now!” Naomi hollered.
However, no one heeded her warning, and just like that, the mother-daughter duo was thrown out the door. Following
this, the security guards fell into formation and stood in a line of six. effectively blocking the women’s way into the building.
“How dare that useless little wench treat us like this! If she thinks she’s so great, then why doesn’t she just kill me already?” Naomi seethed.
Humiliated and not wanting to turn into the butt of the joke now that she was thrown out of a hospital, Erica quickly grabbed her arm and urged, “Mom, we should go.”
Naomi had no choice but to leave with her daughter. Once they burrowed into their car, Erica pulled out her phone and called Alex.
“Hello?”
“Alex, Anastasia had Dad transferred to Presgrave Hospital! We tried to bring him back, but security threw us out. What do we do now?”
“What? How could you have let her take him away in the first place?”
“We didn’t let her!” Erica argued. “She signed the transfer paperwork this morning while Mom and I were away from the hospital. What if the medical
team at Presgrave Hospital manages to save him from his comatose state?”
“T’d only just switched out the old will. It’ll be the end of us if President Tillman wakes up, so you have to make sure he never does!” Alex ground out icily.
“What the hell do I do now?”
“Continue pressing them until they hand over President Tillman, and you have to find out his current condition no matter what,” Alex urged.
“Okay.” Erica hung up and glanced at Naomi, saying, “Mom, I think I have a way that might just work. We could call the press and have them expose Anastasia. We’ll make it sound like she has taken Dad away so that she could kill
him and claim Tillman Constructions all for herself. Then, we’ll use the subsequent public discourse to force her into handing Dad over.”
Naomi pondered on this and decided that. it was a viable option. Now that Anastasia had Elliot to protect her, she was untouchable. Calling the press on her and
painting her as some greedy spawn who only wanted to take the company for herself would undoubtedly disrupt her life to some extent.
“Alright then. We’ll just use the press and have her facing backlash afterward,” Naomi said, agreeing with her daughter.
Erica knew a couple of reporters from
various media companies, and she decided to have the powerhouse among them cover the news.
In the guest lounge of the press company, Erica and Naomi explained to the person they were meeting about how Anastasia was after Francis’ fortune.
The man who had joined them in the lounge was the editor-in-chief. He did not care about the truth, only about the buzz that such news would bring. The issue would become a subject of dispute among the public, which was the most valuable outcome.
But neither Naomi nor Erica told the editor-in-chief a vital piece of information, which was that of Anastasia
and Elliot’s engagement. They had only painted her as a scheming no-good wench who had been vying for Tillman Constructions.
“Very well. We’ll be more than happy to expose this woman for you. It’s a matter of life and death, after all. I’ll head on to write the article right now, and we’ll feed it to the public. Once the backlash starts kicking in, she’ll cave under the pressure and return your sick and comatose husband and father.”
