As Matthew looked at Clarissa, he didn’t answer her at once.
All he did was take in the sight of her, which he could never have enough.
Blushing from his stare, she blinked before asking, “Matthew, I asked you a question. Why aren’t you saying anything and looking at me instead? Don’t you recognize me anymore?”
Matthew beamed at her with glistening eyes.
“Mmm-hmm. I can hardly recognize you. You have grown prettier over the few days I was gone,” he teased.
Clarissa bit her lip and smiled. Extending her hand, she pushed him away to stop him from coming closer.
“You have become better at flattery the few days you’re gone.”
Matthew raised an eyebrow. “It’s not that I’m better at it, it’s because I miss you too much and can’t help myself. Every word I said stems from the bottom of my heart.”
“Tsk Tsk Tsk…”
Clarissa tsked before bursting into laughter.
Amidst the crisp sound of her laughter, she pulled Matthew closer and pecked him on his lips.
“Alright, you made my day.”
Matthew went along with her pull and locked lips with her again.
Clarissa was unable to avoid him and was fondled by him in the car. The moment they reach home, they could no longer hold back their desire for each other. Nothing was going to stop them from unleashing their passion.
They continued from the afternoon she picked him up from the airport to the evening of the very next day.
Only on the third day did Clarissa come down to the living hall.
Hmm, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
As Clarissa descended the stairs rubbing her back, Matthew had already gone to the office.
After she had breakfast, she curled herself up on the sofa languidly and didn’t intend to move a muscle.
The only part of her that moved was her finger scrolling through her phone. She saw that the controversy surrounding Shermaine had not died down one bit.
Other than the exposé on the first day being censored which triggered a backlash from the netizens, the subsequent exposés were left untouched. No one dared to censor them for fear of creating another outrage.
As for Shermaine’s latest scandal, it related to the rumors involving a prominent company president which was planted by the Smallwoods themselves. Their relationship had always been one-sided while the pictures of her being together with that president were all taken by the paparazzi paid for by her.
The netizens cursed and swore at her while pitying the president involved. Her earlier schemes had caused him to be labeled a jerk by the public.
Furthermore, there was also news about her time in school where she dated a couple of guys at the same time. Some of the guys she dated got into a brutal fight where one of them ended up being killed. After the incident, Shermaine disavowed her relationship with them and declared that she was innocent. However, the diary of the male student who died had revealed intimate details of their relationship. As for his family, they didn’t have the opportunity to bring her to court. Hence, they could only expose her hypocrisy this way.
During Shermaine’s time in university, history repeated itself. But this time, her methods had evolved further. She only flirted with a bunch of guys which all her dorm mates knew about. Hence, they stood out to expose Shermaine for all her misdeeds during that time.
The most vicious incident involved a pretty classmate who was duped by Shermaine and ended up being raped by a rich kid. She had attended a party after being coaxed by Shermaine and fell into her trap.
In a nutshell, there were innumerable incidents similar to that.
And that was how the public found out how evil Shermaine was. Her wickedness was simply unimaginable and had broken every possible human sensitivity to disgust.
If only there was enough evidence, Shermaine would have been convicted for her crimes.
Sadly, other than the cases that the Smallwoods paid to cover up, the others were not brought to light because they did not have sufficient evidence.
Therefore, they could only leverage the current controversy to voice their grievances and denounce Shermaine.
Although they weren’t sure if Shermaine would be punished by the law, it was enough to utterly destroy her reputation.
Clarissa sneered as she felt Shermaine’s punishment wasn’t severe enough.
She could only hope that God was merciful enough to allow evidence of Shermaine’s wrongdoings to be discovered, so that she would be imprisoned and not be able to hurt anyone else.
As for Shermaine, she had become the number one public enemy.
She went to many people but no one was able to help her.
Shermaine was aware that this was an act of revenge against her by both Clarissa and Matthew.
She knew her scheme had failed when the news of Clarissa being gang-raped didn’t surface.
Instead, what followed was the flood of allegations against her. They weren’t considered slander as all of them were true. Even her wrongdoings from more than ten years ago were dug up in detail. Evidently, the person behind the exposé had wanted to ruin her.
Shermaine knew that this person was undoubtedly Clarissa, and only Matthew had the capability to gather such detailed information and have them exposed online.
Her company had also cut off contact with her. When she called Henry he didn’t answer at all.
Even her manager, Lizzie, ignored her. When she subsequently enlisted the Wynters’ help to censor the news, it ended up creating a bigger backlash.
After that, Jacque stopped helping her when he came to realize the allegations were true.
In his anger, he regretted even helping her out in the first place.
Therefore, the only ones left who could save Shermaine were her own family.
In reality, James found out his daughter was actually a vicious person in his attempts to help her.
Although he was aware of her arrogant demeanor, he didn’t expect to discover the sheer amount of ill deeds that she had committed. Nevertheless, she was still his daughter at the end of the day, so he had little choice but to defend her.
Hence, he spent a fortune hiring cyber troopers to change the tide of public perception but to no avail.
When he tried looking for alternatives, he couldn’t find anyone else who was willing to help Shermaine.
After a few days, the Smallwoods grew desperate but were powerless to do anything.
Shermaine had also given up on saving her reputation as whatever she said now was useless.
All she could do was vent her frustrations in her room, cursing Clarissa vilely in her heart, and almost got a voodoo doll of Clarissa to stick pins in.
However, the worst had yet to come as the police came knocking on her door next.
The disfigured actress, the parents of the deceased male student, the family of the raped girl, and many other victims had filed their respective police reports. Therefore, Shermaine would likely be busy dealing with her accusations and likely not have anytime to undermine anyone else.
Within a single night, Shermaine had fallen off her pedestal into the depths of an abyss.
Someplace else, Sienna had been watching everything quietly.
She didn’t believe Clarissa was capable of this as she could recognize Matthew’s methods of dealing with things when she saw them.
Sienna was surprised at the extreme lengths Matthew had gone to and wondered if it was motivated by Matthew himself or for Clarissa’s sake.
…
At the Tyson residence, Ellie had already informed Margaret of what was happening online.
“Grandma, the deceased male student was the reason I resented Shermaine. I knew him well and was aware of Shermaine fooling around with his feelings. Furthermore, he got to know Shermaine through me.”
After so many years, Ellie finally explained the truth to them.
She was previously reluctant to share it due to the guilt she felt.
Besides, they wouldn’t have believed her even if she told them. During that time, Shermaine had visited the Tyson residence to declare her innocence which the Tysons believed.
“Look, everyone is pressing charges against her. Do you still believe her now?”
“Did she really do all that? The number of incidents and the cruelty are appalling. Is it possible that she had been set up?”
“Set up? Look, the police have already filed the cases. How can it still be a set-up? The victims have revealed their own identity which means they are not afraid of being investigated and attest to the authenticity of their accusations. Grandma, only Shermaine can commit such a vicious atrocity against Uncle Matt’s company. Luckily, he was smart and managed to fend her off. Or else, he would have gone bankrupt by her malicious act then. Is that what you want to see? When that happens, it will already be too late as our family will be at her mercy. She will then show her true colors by lording it over us as we have all fallen into her evil grasp.”
Margaret was horrified when the image of what Ellie had described flashed across her mind.
“I didn’t expect her to turn out like that. Ever since she was young, she managed to put on such a convincing facade. How did…”
“You can never judge a book by its cover. By now, it’s obvious whoever you thought was good, wasn’t. And whoever you thought wasn’t, turned out to be a wonderful lady.”
However, Margaret didn’t understand what Ellie was trying to hint at. Instead, she was still shocked at Shermaine’s true nature.
Ellie simply shook her head in disappointment.
As for the others, their reaction was mellower than Margaret’s.
“Dad, Mom, look, many people are not what they make themselves out to be. Let’s take Sienna for example, how do you know her character isn’t similar to that of Shermaine’s?”
Yuliana shot Ellie a glance. “Sienna isn’t Shermaine so stop with your games.”
Just as she spoke, she returned to her room.
Ellie snorted, as she was confident of finding skeletons in Sienna’s closet too.
In the bedroom at night, Matthias suddenly remarked to his wife who was busy applying cream on herself, “Matthew must be behind what happened to Shermaine.”
Yuliana frowned. “Even if he resented her, I think he went overboard this time.”
After a brief moment of silence, Matthias replied, “Matthew is known to be ruthless. And it’s now obvious that Sienna doesn’t stand a chance.”
Yuliana turned around and looked at her husband. “Do you mean that Matthew would do the same to her? Is he that cruel?”
When Matthias didn’t reply, Yuliana couldn’t help but ask, “I really don’t understand what Matthew sees in Clarissa for him to take such extreme measures on her behalf.”
