Filed to story: Mia Bowen and Timothy Barrett Novel
After she completed her task, she deleted her anonymous account and removed the pendrive. Everything was carried out unnoticed.
Nathan gave her the pendrive. After all, he was capable of locating the other party’s IP address when she fell victim to an online slander twice.
She asked him what one should do to prevent someone from finding out their IP address.
Nathan thought she had a certain target in mind, so he gave her the pendrive. He mentioned that there was a special software in it which would make the other party locate a fake IP address.
Mia didn’t expect it to be handy that soon. Nonetheless, she felt the adrenaline rush from not doing the right thing.
She would make Shelly very sorry this time, and she would make sure that she wouldn’t dare to lay a finger on her again.
Once she was done, she realized she had received a refund of a hundred thousand dollars. Did Timothy not accept the payment?
Back then, Sharon gave Bob and Mary a hundred¨Cthousand¨Cdollar cheque when they came asking for money at their marital home.
The last thing Mia wanted was to owe the Barretts money. Thus, she transferred the exact amount to Timothy.
Why didn’t he accept the payment? She didn’t want to be indebted to him.
Mia added him back again, and she was surprised to see that he accepted her request immediately. She was puzzled.
Did he not block her?
Back then, he even called her to chastise her about blocking him. Nevertheless, she was still taken aback by the fact that he didn’t block her.
Mia transferred a hundred thousand dollars to him again.
She wondered if he would be reluctant to accept the money again. After all, a hundred thousand dollars wasn’t any different from a dollar to him, who was the scion of an affluent family.
Thus, she texted, “Please accept the payment.”
After she texted him, she yawned, then fell asleep quickly.
The next day, she took her phone and glanced at it once she woke up. There were a dozen missed calls. She
She sat up and went for the trending entertainment headlines. After a brief glance at it, she wasn’t surprised when she saw Shelly being mentioned in it.
“The Barrett socialite having fun on some drugs and men!”
The news was all over the place. It was impossible to bring it down.
A triumphant smile flashed across Mia’s face when she saw the headlines.
In the next second, Shelly called again. Mia picked it up this time.
“Morning, Ms. Barrett,”
“Mia! Did you do it? Was it you? You were the only one who knew about this!”
Shelly’s shrill voice almost tore her eardrums apart from the other end of the phone.
Putting the phone further away from her, Mia drawled, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Stop pretending. Mia! I’m telling you, you’re certainly messing with the wrong person. I’m one of the Barretts, and my family will do anything to protect me. Just you wait. I won’t let you off the hook! I’ll kill you.”
Mia snapped icily, “I warned you back then. Don’t you dare piss me off again!”
“Who do you think you are, Mia? I’m a Barrett, and you’re nothing but a maggot from the slums! Targeting you is as easy as trampling an ant. How dare you sneak up on me? Just you wait. I won’t spare your family!”
Mia scoffed.
“Well, go ahead. But if you’re going to be that reckless, I have another video which is even more explicit. And mind you, you were naked in it. I’m sure plenty of people will be more than glad to see your body for themselves.”
The other end of the phone became silent in an instant.
Mia’s gaze was piercing as she held her phone.
After a while, Shelly screamed furiously from the other end of the phone.
“Mia, who’d expect you to be such a bitch? I asked you multiple times before if you had deleted all the videos, and you said you did! But in the end, you still have a trick up your sleeve.”
“Yeah, I did. If only you and your mother respected me and didn’t order me around like a slave, I wouldn’t have kept this video with me. After all, it’s super disgusting.”
Shelly shrieked frantically, “You bitch! Who are you calling disgusting?”
“You, obviously. Did you forget how you shimmied out of your clothes in the blink of an eye and fucked with the guys once you got high?”
Mia had meant to provoke Shelly. She could hear her hysterical screams on the other end of the phone. She might even be hurling things at the ground at this moment.
Mia smirked and quipped, “Why don’t you get yourself a better publicity team to get yourself out of this mess instead of looking for my trouble?”
She hung up right away and blocked her. Shelly was nothing more than a dumbass who couldn’t control her temper. The last thing she wanted was to be harassed by her.
Just then, she received a new notification from Timothy. Her gaze wavered when she saw his message.
He merely replied, “?”
What did he mean by that?
In response, Mia texted, “I expect you to be completely capable of accepting the payment, right?”
Timothy exited his bedroom and made his way to the living room.
Heath hurried toward him as he said, “Mr. Barrett, there’s an emergency. The stock prices are deflating.”
As he said so, he handed him the iPad which showed Shelly’s news topping the entertainment headlines.
Timothy’s expression darkened as he cursed, “Damn it! Get someone to lock Shelly up, and don’t let anyone out there take her pictures.”
“I’ve contacted Ms. Lane, and she said Shelly wouldn’t go out at all.”
As Timothy tugged on his tie, he recalled Mia mentioning that she was going to teach them a lesson. Was this her doing?
He looked at Heath as he ordered, “Make publicity tend to this now. Make them do whatever they can to reduce the impact on our company.”
“Noted. The publicity team will be at the company for an emergency meeting, and they’ll come up with a plan
Timothy leaned back on the couch as he massaged his temples. He called Mia, and she answered the call in a hushed tone.
“Hello? What is it?”
“Do you think a hundred thousand dollars is enough?”
“Shouldn’t that be all?” Mia retorted, slightly bewildered.
She turned back to her bedroom from the living room again. Was Timothy trying to scam her?
“The video you released caused our stock prices to deflate, and we lost millions. So, do you think a hundred thousand dollars will suffice?”
After a brief pause, Mia sneered.
“What does that have anything to do with me? Haven’t you heard of a chain reaction? In fact, you should be blaming Shelly instead of me.”
“The video was probably taken a year ago. You kept it with you for so long, and you showed your cards at the most critical moment. Mia, I’ve really underestimated you.”
Mia inhaled sharply when she sensed the coldness in his voice.
“Indeed. And there’s more I have to tell you¨Cthe video isn’t complete. I have more of it, and it’s even more explicit.”
Timothy gritted his teeth as he ordered, “Give me the video.”
Although he didn’t really care about Shelly, he wouldn’t let her ruin his company image.
“Why would I do that? This is my leverage to keep Shelly from doing crazy things to me. If she behaves, the video won’t ever be released.”
“Mia, I’m sure you’re aware that exposing the video violates the law as well. Do you think you can hide your traces on the internet?”
Mia pursed her lips and remarked, “If you’re capable, go ahead and investigate. Once you find something. come back and negotiate the terms with me.”
Just then, Connor’s voice echoed from outside the door, “Mla.”
“On my way.” Mia replied, promptly ending the call.
On the other end of the call, Timothy detected a man’s voice, finding it somewhat familiar¨Cit sounded like
Connor, Maya’s brother.
Timothy couldn’t help but wonder. Why was Connor with Mia this early in the morning? Could they have spent the night together?
As these thoughts raced through Timothy’s mind, an uneasy feeling settled in his heart.
With a stern expression, he directed his attention to Heath, asking. “How’s the progress on investigating the redevelopment of Mia’s old neighborhood?”
Feeling overwhelmed, Heath replied, “What old neighborhood redevelopment? Oh, you mean the project on the east side of the city?