Kicked Out, Flash-Married, and Now He Won't Let Me Go

The reporter’s remarks were incredibly sharp.

Vivian Lowell frowned as she listened. She gently pulled Eleanor Rhodes’s arm, signaling her to ignore the woman, and said, "I’ll say this one last time. Please leave.

"Otherwise... don’t blame me for being impolite."

The reporter froze for a moment.

She probably hadn’t expected Vivian to threaten her like this. She let out a soft smile and said, "As a member of the press, I only want to report the facts. I mean no harm.

"Why must you be so aggressive and threaten me, Mrs. Faulkner? I know you hold an extraordinary status, but we live in a society governed by law. Are you trying to abuse your power?"

Mimicking the reporter’s demeanor, Vivian also smiled and countered, "What do you think I’m trying to do?"

The reporter was left speechless.

The smile instantly stiffened on her face. Seeing the security guards arrive, Vivian gestured for them to escort the woman away immediately.

The nuisance was finally gone.

The hotpot restaurant manager came over to apologize, explaining that the woman had created a disturbance at the entrance and barged in. He admitted they hadn’t allocated their staff properly, which ended up causing trouble for Vivian.

Seeing the manager’s sincere apology, Vivian didn’t make things difficult for him. "It’s fine. Just strengthen your staff training in the future."

"Yes, of course," the manager said with an apologetic smile before stepping away. Once out of earshot, he muttered harsh warnings to the servers. "All of you, be extra careful! That is Mrs. Faulkner!

"If you offend her, do you think our hotpot restaurant will survive in this mall? You bunch of idiots! Look alive!"

Hearing the manager scold his staff, Vivian couldn’t help but smile and shake her head. She had to admit that sometimes, status truly was the most effective tool.

It was true in ancient times, and it remained true today.

"Eleanor."

Seeing Eleanor’s poor complexion, Vivian comforted her. "It’s alright. There are all kinds of people in this world. They have nothing to do with us, so don’t take it to heart."

"Mhm..."

Eleanor replied somewhat absentmindedly. She took out her phone and stared at it, her expression consistently grave. It was unclear what she was looking at.

Vivian felt a bit worried. She had just picked up a freshly cooked piece of beef tripe for Eleanor and was about to offer more words of comfort when Eleanor suddenly shoved her phone over.

"Vivian, I just realized something!"

Vivian paused. Eleanor had already shuffled over to sit beside her, displaying her phone’s call history screen right in front of Vivian’s face.

"Vivian! That reporter just said Wendy Wynn contacted me. She was right! Before we watched the movie today, Wendy did call me, but I didn’t answer.

"She even called me again just over an hour ago. Logically, it shouldn’t take more than an hour to get here from Concordia Hospital. But aren’t these reporters getting their information way too fast?

"That reporter must have been specifically hired and sent over by Wendy! There are too many unscrupulous media outlets nowadays! When they report the news, they only care about grabbing attention and don’t care at all about the authenticity of the content!

"They intentionally use ambiguous headlines to make people want to click. But once you actually read the whole article, you realize it has absolutely nothing to do with the title!"

Vivian entirely agreed.

When she used to audit journalism classes, she heard the professor say that news must strive for authenticity. Once fabricated stories reached a certain level of circulation, they legally constituted rumor-mongering.

And spreading rumors carried legal consequences!

That being said, Vivian also noticed that modern media was becoming increasingly reckless, often focusing solely on web traffic rather than creating genuine content.

This was an era of fragmented information. Everyone had little pockets of free time to browse the internet, but due to time constraints, they often couldn’t grasp the whole picture.

These misleading articles were incredibly harmful!

However, Vivian was still a little surprised.

She had assumed Eleanor would be upset and discouraged by the reporter’s words, but it seemed Eleanor had grown up quite a bit.

"Okay, Eleanor, I understand."

Vivian handed the phone back and said, "I’ll have someone keep an eye on Wendy’s movements regarding this matter. Just relax.

"Wendy has done a lot of terrible things. I actually contacted Mrs. Sterling this morning. She said she’s going to release information about Wendy online so that everyone can see her true colors.

"As long as this matter is cleared up, no one will be able to gossip about you anymore."

"Mhm... Vivian, thank you." Eleanor smiled somewhat bashfully. She then noticed a heavily shrunken piece of tripe floating in the boiling broth and hurriedly reached for it with her chopsticks.

"Oh no, it’s my fault! I was so busy talking to you that the tripe got overcooked!"

Hearing Eleanor’s lament, Vivian burst into laughter. She picked up a fresh piece of tripe, dipped it into the hotpot, and said, "It’s fine.

"If that piece is overcooked, we’ll just cook a new one. Here, ten-second tripe, it’s ready!"

"It’s so hot! And so crispy!"

The two friends happily enjoyed their meal.

Not long after, Julian Faulkner arrived.

Vivian didn’t mention the incident with the reporter to him. After all, it had already been resolved, and bringing it up would only add to his troubles.

By the time the three of them finished eating, it was getting late.

Eleanor volunteered to pay the bill. Julian finally found an opportunity to speak with Vivian privately. "After the police interrogated that delivery driver today, he claimed he was simply dissatisfied with his life.

"The current job market is tough. He said the number of delivery orders has been decreasing, and the pay per delivery is dropping. Despite spending long hours on the road every day, he makes less money than before.

"He has to support the elderly and children in his family, so he’s under a lot of pressure. After accidentally coming across the news, he happened to spot Eleanor in the mall and decided to take his frustrations out on society.

"The police sent him to the hospital for an evaluation, which confirmed he does have some underlying mental health issues. But don’t worry, Vivian, I will continue to investigate this."

Mental health issues! What a convenient excuse!

Vivian had seen plenty of news reports where people committed heinous crimes and then used mental illness as a shield to escape legal punishment.

That was absolutely unacceptable!

If everyone did that, wouldn’t crime become completely consequence-free?

Vivian understood what Julian meant. He obviously found the man’s story highly suspicious and intended to keep digging.

He wanted to see if there was another secret hiding behind this culprit!

Like the possibility that someone else had orchestrated the attack!

Julian would never let anyone who tried to harm Vivian off the hook. He would make sure they received the punishment they deserved!

"Okay."

Vivian nodded and said, "I think there’s definitely something wrong with Wendy’s little stunt this time. She has completely offended the Sterling Family. With Ms. Sterling standing in her way, it’s impossible for her to ever get back together with Henry.

"Naturally, whether her goal was to scheme for the Sterling Family’s wealth or to reconcile with Henry, both avenues are now dead ends."

Julian was noncommittal. "In that case, there must be a hidden motive behind everything she’s doing."

"Mhm." Vivian thought for a moment. Eleanor would be back soon. It was better to wait until later to tell Julian about the reporter at the hotpot restaurant.

Otherwise, if Eleanor overheard them bringing up the unpleasant incident, her mood would just sour all over again.

Eleanor soon returned from paying the bill. She looked hurried, running over and anxiously grabbing Vivian’s hand. "Vivian, guess who I just saw over there!?"

Hmm?

Vivian didn’t know what kind of suspense Eleanor was trying to build and found it a bit strange. Eleanor was already pulling her along, pointing in a specific direction. "Over there!"

Following Eleanor’s pointing finger, Vivian looked over and saw a man and a woman holding hands, intimately picking out jewelry in a store not far away.

It was a well-known jewelry brand, though not a luxury one. They sold standard jewelry—gold, silver, and diamond rings—with relatively affordable prices.

Many people came to this kind of shop to pick out their wedding jewelry.

And right there, Vivian spotted a familiar face.

Rachel Faulkner.

And the man with Rachel was actually Mason Grant!?

Vivian almost thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. After spotting Rachel, she hurriedly called out to Julian behind her to come take a look. "Over there!"

Ever since that night when Rachel had enraged Grandma Faulkner and left with Sylvia and Finn Drake, Vivian hadn’t heard any news about her.

Word had it that Sylvia hadn’t taken them in either. The previously negotiated collaborations between the Drake Family and Felix Faulkner had all fallen through due to the intervention of Joy Drake and her brother.

Sylvia was an incredibly snobbish person. She had only built a relationship with Felix in the first place because she wanted to get her hands on the Faulkner Family’s shares and cozy up to Julian.

After that plan failed, Felix lost his usefulness. Naturally, Sylvia just casually tossed a small sum of money at the ungrateful father and daughter to send them packing.

Since then, there had been little news about Felix and Rachel, other than that they had bought a large flat and seemed to have settled down temporarily in Aethelburg.

Meanwhile, Felix had been highly active, seemingly determined to make a comeback and start a new company by constantly seeking investors.

However, most of the wealthy elite circles in Aethelburg were well aware of the Faulkner Family’s internal drama. Knowing that Felix was untrustworthy, they naturally refused to invest in him!

Up to this point, Felix was still just scraping by on the money Julian had originally given him to buy the flat, supplemented by the severance Sylvia had thrown his way.

Julian’s original thought was that no matter how much Felix tried to lay low, the man had spent the first half of his life accustomed to lavish spending. Now that he was suddenly strapped for cash, he definitely wouldn’t be able to handle it.

It might be fine in the short term, but once the funds dried up and Felix couldn’t hold out any longer, he would naturally have to submit to Julian. That way, Julian wouldn’t have to expend any extra effort to deal with Felix and Rachel.

Furthermore, Julian had continuously been having people investigate all the things Rachel had done.

Things like evidence of Rachel’s past communications with Robert Lowell and Sharon Galahad, as well as the real reason Sharon was suddenly involved in a car crash—proof that her vehicle had been tampered with.

Combined with the autopsy report, the evidence was now quite substantial. It was safe to say that Julian could contact the police to arrest her whenever he wanted!

During her detention, he could bring out all the findings and formally press charges against Rachel!

The only slight complication was that although Rachel had returned to Veridia, she still retained her foreign citizenship.

She was not a Veridian citizen. If she broke the law and contacted her embassy to secure her departure from Veridia, it was hard to say how the case would ultimately be judged!

Julian wanted to completely eliminate any chance of Rachel getting away with her crimes, which was why he had held off on taking action!

He hadn’t expected to see Rachel and Mason out shopping together now, acting so intimately that they were unmistakably a couple.

Vivian felt a wave of nausea.

Mason Grant was truly scum.

In the past, he had been with Vivian for the sake of a family marriage alliance. Later, when Shelly Lowell appeared, he had immediately dumped her for Shelly without a second thought. At the same time, upon realizing Vivian still held some value, he had tried to keep stringing her along.

And now, it was Rachel Faulkner.

To be more accurate...

Vivian suddenly recalled that a month or two ago, when she and Julian were eating at a Japanese restaurant, they had bumped into Mason and Rachel dining together. Vivian had already sensed something off that night.

There was also that one time Rachel hadn’t returned home all night and had come back smelling like the specific cologne Mason was so fond of.

Did that mean these two had actually been seeing each other in secret for a long time?

Vivian blinked as many things started to become clear.

It seemed that even before Felix had returned to the country, the Grant Family had been providing support to Rachel behind the scenes.

In this very moment, everything clicked into place in Vivian’s mind.

It appeared Mason also hated Robert Lowell and Sharon Galahad. He clearly could have had better, yet they had stubbornly forced a completely useless Shelly onto him!

The Grant Family had never considered his feelings!

Coupled with Mason’s extreme selfishness, he had always believed that Vivian was the one who had betrayed him. Driven by all of this, he also wanted to exact revenge on the Lowell Family and on Vivian!

Rachel and Mason had hit it off immediately and orchestrated all those malicious acts together.

Although the Grant Family was only considered second-tier within Aethelburg’s elite circles, they still possessed a certain level of capability and possessed deep-rooted resources. It wasn’t surprising that they could pull off such deeds.

"Julian."

Vivian closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her emotions. Then, she took out her phone and snapped several pictures of the intimate couple.

"This is perfect. The investigation we’ve been running might be able to start right here."

Hearing this, Julian looked over in slight surprise, not entirely understanding what Vivian meant.

The corners of Vivian’s lips curled up. She zoomed in on the photos showing Rachel and Mason’s intimacy and said, "The Grant Family and Rachel Faulkner. They teamed up to take revenge on the Lowell Family and on me.

"If the affair between these two is exposed, I imagine the public outcry will absolutely crush them!"

Now, it was her turn to fight back!