Chapter 184 Had She Been Set Up All Along?
Deborah felt uncomfortable, so she only greeted the wife of Director Zachary, Diana, who she had a good relationship with. Diane reluctantly said a few words to her and then made an excuse to leave. Usually when Diane saw her, she would be talking with her non-stop. What was going on? Deborah realized that something had gone awry, and so did Steven. On the way back, he asked her, "Aren't you quite close to Mrs. Zachary? Why is she ignoring you?
Deborah didn't know, "I don't know why either. Maybe she's going through menopause."
Steven just snorted, "What menopause? You must have offended her. Didn't I tell you that you should pay as much attention as possible when you're dealing with these people? Director Zachary will be promoted soon. We can't afford to offend him."
Deborah felt upset after being nagged by Steven, but she did not dare to refute him. She returned home in a fit of anger, but no matter how she thought about it, she couldn't figure out the reason everyone had ignored her.
Over the next few days, the more Margaret thought about her situation at home, the more unsettled she felt. In the past few years, had she been living in a bed of lies? To be honest, she did not have a good impression of Lily in the beginning. It was her good friend, Marie who had repeatedly praised Lily and said that she was beautiful and gentle. As a result, she began to like Lily.
Although she liked Lily, she had not planned on matchmaking her with her son, not until Edric met Irene.
The ideal daughter-in-law in Margaret's eyes not only needed to be beautiful, but she had to come from a good background as well. Irene did not come from a good background, so she instinctively disliked her. However, her son did not listen to her and treated Irene like she was his entire world.
She had been unhappy so she had gone to talk to Marie. Naturally, Marie had agreed with her and told her that Irene wasn't even worthy of being Lily's maid. She told Margaret that rather than marrying someone with no background or identity, Edric would be better off marrying a politician's daughter. That would be better for his career too.
Margaret thought about it and agreed. She could tell that Lily's feelings for her son were sincere. So, in order to make Irene back down, Margaret chose to stick closely to Lily.
As they got close to each other, she started to feel that Lily really was a good person. Lily knew her preferences well and everything she said made her happy. With such an understanding daughter-in-law by her side, her life would definitely be well.
After Edric and Irene got married, she still felt uncomfortable in her heart, and still could not bring herself to like Irene. No matter how nicely Irene treated her, she felt the same. Meanwhile, Lily clearly knew tha Edric was married but she still came to see her every now and then. She claimed she was visiting to keep her company and make her happy.
She used to believe Lily firmly, but now, after hearing all this bad news about Lily, she suddenly felt like she had been cheated. Had Lily been playing tricks on her all these years?
Lily must have been trying to gain something from this. Thinking about how Deborah had shamelessly seduced her best friend's husband to gain such a position, Margaret began to suspect that Lily had been planning something from the start just like her mother.
This idea made Margaret very uncomfortable. When she thought about how brazen Lily had been about wanting to get pregnant with Edric's child, Margaret became more and more suspicious, and thought, "Had it been a plot all along?"
Being set up by someone was no simple matter. Margaret felt extremely unsettled, so she called Marie to discuss about it. When they met, she asked, "Marie, have you heard of any gossip about Lily recently?'
It was an odd question to ask, and Marie could tell something was wrong. However, she couldn't read Margaret's thoughts, so she asked with a smile, "Why would you ask this all of a sudden? What happened?"
"Recently, I've heard some negative comments about her. So I wanted to ask you about them," Margaret told Marie about what Amanda said about Lily, "I don't feel good about it. My leg has been bad, so I haven't been out. I don't know what's going on outside, so I called you here to ask you."
"I didn't hear anything of the sort," Marie was surprised when she heard that. She tried to persuade her, "Isn't Amanda rivals with Deborah? Maybe she deliberately slandered Lily because she hates Deborah. I don't think her words are trustworthy."
"Amanda and Deborah have been rivals for a long time. If she was doing this out of resentment, why didn't she slander Lily earlier on? Why did she have to wait until now to talk about this?" Margaret had no clue of course that the woman in front of her whom she regarded as a friend had actually played a role in the matter. She also thought that Marie had been deceived by Lily like herself, so she showed the video to Marie, "Before Amanda told me all of this, I had also received this. Take a look."
Marie was shocked to see the video. Who on earth wanted to mess with Lily? She was surprised, but she didn't show it on her face. She just tried her best to persuade Margaret to dispel her doubts. "Wasn't Lily in a bad mood because of Irene? The doctor said that she seemed to have been traumatised. Deborah also said that Lily has not been her usual self lately. She seemed to be a little manic and often lost her temper. When she was questioned after returning to normal, her answers were a little delusional. It was probably because she doesn't have control over her hallucinations." "Hallucinations and panic? Aren't those symptoms of mental illness?" Margaret was anxious, "Is Lily mentally ill? If that's the case, will her children be abnormal as well?"
"She is not mentally ill," Marie comforted, "She only reacts like so when she is triggered. Think about it, she has been spoiled since she was a child. Her parents have treated her like a princess. How could she accept the reality of being beaten by Irene? She will be fine after a while."
Speaking of Lily, Margaret thought of Irene. If it weren't for Deborah's shameless interference, Irene would be the apple of Steven's eyes. If Irene truly was Steven's only daughter, she herself would not object to Irene dating Edric, and none of this would have happened.
Thinking of this, she snorted, "What princess? The thought of it angers me. Before this, I only knew that Deborah was a mistress, but I didn't know that what she had done was even more disgusting than that." "What do you mean?" Marie had a bad feeling. What did Amanda say to Margaret?
"Let me tell you, Deborah is not only a mistress, she's a thousand times worse. She snatched her best friend's husband away. If I had known that Deborah was such a disgusting person, I would never have let Lily have anything to do with Edric," Margaret was angry.
"You can't judge a book by its cover. People can change. What's more, Lily is Lily, and Deborah is Deborah. They are different people," Marie was starting to get a little anxious, but she had to try her best to persuade her with a smile.
"It's not like that. I used to have no impression of Lily until I heard you say that she's a good person, so I also started to think she was good. Now thinking about it carefully, it's so odd. She knew that Edric was married, yet she came everyday to please me. Do you think she wants to be a mistress like her shameless mother?"
"No! You're thinking too much."
"I also hope that I'm overthinking, but now I can't help but think that way," Margaret had been keeping all of this in her heart for so long. She naturally regarded Marie as her best friend, so she told her all her worries, "At that time, she clearly knew that Irene was her sister, but she pretended to not know her when she came to my house and deliberately found a chance to get close to Edric. It's clear that her motives aren't as simple as they seem."
"Was she not doing all that for Irene's good? You're really thinking too much. Think about it. With Steven's status, Lily has no need to become a mistress. Many rich families are dying to marry her into the family."
"What you said makes sense, but I still feel that something is off. I invited you out here today not just to tell you all this, I was also hoping you'd help me take note of this and see if these rumors were true." After Marie left the Myers family's home, she immediately called Deborah and told her everything Margaret had said. Deborah was very surprised to hear all of this, "Didn't we do all of those things in secret? How did word get out?"
"I don't know. Think about it carefully, where did we go wrong? We have to find a way to remedy it. Margaret has begun to suspect, but her legs are in bad shape so she can't go out to confirm the suspicions personally. Once her legs have recovered, we're doomed."
"I got it," After hanging up on the call, Deborah's face suddenly darkened. Lily, who was beside her, saw that her mother's expression was not looking too good so she asked, "Mom, what happened?" "Margaret heard some rumours about us from Amanda. She asked Marie to verify them," Deborah briefly told her the whole story.
Lily didn't know that she had become the object of everyone's criticisms. She was pregnant now and did not have the energy to go to those parties. Every day, she just stayed at home and dreamed about her life with her twins.
Hearing her mother's words, she was dumbfounded, "What should I do? If even Margaret hates me, how do I stand a chance anymore?" "You're pregnant, aren't you?" Deborah comforted her, "Right now we have to focus on finding out who had hurt us behind our backs."
Deborah frowned, "Back then, only a few of us had teamed together to plot against Irene, and only a few people knew about you. Marie won't tell anyone, so that leaves Freya. Could it be her?"
Hearing her mother's words, Lily also remembered that Freya had paid her a visit only to be rejected, "Mom, it must be that b*tch Freya. She came to me last time but I ignored her. She must be taking revenge because she harbors hatred towards me."
"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Deborah couldn't help but complain, "If you had told me earlier, we wouldn't have reached this point."
"At that time, I was afraid that her presence would upset Edric. I had cut her off after that incident with Irene. If I had rekindled the relationship with her then, Edric would definitely have gotten suspicious. So I rejected her when she came to me."
"You're too soft. Like they say, if you don't train your dog well, it'll turn into a wolf. Even if you don't want to have anything to do with her, you have to take control over her," Deborah complained.
"Mom, now is not the time to be blaming me. Make that b*tch disappear as soon as possible, or she will stop at nothing to hurt me."
"I know. Let me think about how to send this b*tch away."