<b>Chapter 168 </b>


    She wasn’t lying about meeting a friend that night; running into Le was indeed a chance encounter.


    However, the truth was that Le hadn’t invited her. Beatrice had ditched her friend the moment she saw Le and eagerly jumped at the opportunity


    to be with her.


    Ever since Beatrice started getting close to Le, she had been thinking of ways to stay in her good graces. As the heiress of the Haynes family, Le attracted attention wherever she went. Now, with Beatrice wanting to connect with the influential Hargreaves family through marriage, she realized she needed to do more than just win over Javier–she had to make herself an essential part of Le’s life.


    Beatrice believed that if she could improve her status, Javier’s mother would stop ignoring her.


    Le seemed like the ideal person to help her do just that.


    It turned out that her decision was correct.


    Beatrice had been spending a lot of time with Le, and they had gone shopping, dined out, and more. Although it sometimes felt embarrassing to act like a sycophant, the benefits were clear.


    Even those wealthy heiresses in Shoneport, who once excluded her, began inviting her to join their outings.


    Javier’s mother also started treating Beatrice more kindly, and the snide remarks stopped.


    Even during dates with Javier, his mom <i>no </i>longer tried to pull him away early.


    Beatrice was convinced that by associating with Le, she could finally get into the Hargreaves family and join the circle of socialites she longed to be part of.


    However, everything came crashing down when Le got caught up in a drug scandal, and Beatrice’s name was linked to <b>it </b>too.


    She felt a wave of regret, knowing that in such circles, anyone involved in a drug issue would bepletely shut out afterward.


    All the connections she had worked so hard to build were destroyed.


    Javier, who was overwhelmed by his responsibilities, was too tired to address Beatrice’s recent behavior. His feelings for her were dwindling fast.


    Finally, he said, “Beatrice, I’ve been busy with worktely. Please don’t reach out to me for a while.”


    Beatrice’s face fell instantly upon hearing his words. She jumped up from the couch, panic in her voice as she asked, “Javier, are you breaking up with me?” Her expression was a mixture of fear and distress.


    Javier didn’t answer, and he just let out a sigh before hanging up.


    His silence said it all.


    Beatrice listened to the continuous sound of the call that had ended, and it felt as if her entire world had fallen apart. She sank back onto the couch, feeling hopeless and thinking, ‘This is it. In the end, it was Le who brought me down.‘


    Sitting there,pletely heartbroken, tears streamed down her face as she struggled to figure out what to do next.


    Just then, her phone rang again. Beatrice’s heart raced with excitement, hoping it was Javier calling her back. But when sh


    Robert instead.


    d at the screen, it <b>was </b>


    Trying to sound strong and keep her tears in check, she answered, “Hello?”


    “Beatrice, what’s wrong with your voice?” Robert asked, sounding worried.


    He quickly noticed the worry in her tone and inquired with concern.


    Beatrice choked out, “Robert, L…”


    “Don’t cry, don’t cry. Just tell me what’s going on,” Robert said, his voice full of concern. Then, as if something clicked, he asked<b>, </b>“Is this about se


    scandal?”


    Beatrice’s sobs faltered for a second, then she started crying even more softly, her voice choked with helplessness. “I don’t even know <b>how </b>everythier ended up like this…”


    “Don’t cry. I’ll handle this…” Robert reassured.


    It was Sunday, so there was no school. Briar had been convinced to go for a morning run by Ashton, who then treated her to a big breakfast. With <b>nothing </b>else to upy her time, she climbed back into bed, sprawled outfortably, and soon drifted off to sleep again.


    When she finally woke up, it was because her phone was ringing.


    Briar noticed it was Alexia calling from Qathana and groaned, “Alexia, you’d better have a good reason for calling me.”


    Alexia hesitated before asking, “Did I wake you up?”


    Briar snorted, “What do you think?”


    Alexia yfully teased, “Isn’t it already afternoon there? Why are you still in bed? Please don’t tell me you were up all night… having some fun?”


    Briar rolled her eyes hard as she replied, “Seriously, can you dial down the suggestivements? If you keep it up, you’ll start to think everyone’s just rolling out of someone else’s bed.”


    Alexiaughed in response, “Okay, okay! No need to get so upset.”


    Briar clenched her teeth and said, “Now, what’s the reason for your call?<b>” </b>


    When discussing business, Alexia became a lot more serious as she stated, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news<b>…</b><b>” </b>


    Briar sat up and interrupted, “Let’s hear the bad news first.”


    Alexia was momentarily speechless.


    “Seriously, you have no sense of fun at all!” Alexia muttered. “Alright, the bad news is, someone’s got their eyes on you. There’s a hit out for you on the Hacker Alliance–6 million dors for your head.


    “Briar, look at you. Take a little vacation and your price drops like crazy! And your market value is really poor in Dasmieca, Come on, how is your life only


    worth 6 million dors now?”


    Briar ignored the rest <i>of </i>Alexia’s nonsense and asked, “And what is the good news?”


    Alexia giggled, “The good news is, less than half an hour after the hit was posted, your man forced the order to be canceled using 24 million dors.”


    “Ashton?” Briar raised an eyebrow and asked. “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”


    Alexiaughed even louder, “If we told you, how were we supposed to make 24 million dors off your man?”


    In the Hacker Alliance, there was an important rule: once someone ced an order, it was very difficult to cancel it. If they did want <b>to </b>cancel<b>, </b><b>they </b>would have to pay a hefty penalty of at least four times what they originally paid.


    Alexia chuckled as she exined, “We were being pretty generous. We only charged your man four times the cancetion fee because <b>of </b><b>you</b><b>.</b>”


    Briar felt her irritation grow as Alexiaughed. “So, who hired someone to take me out?” she asked directly.


    “Sorry, but we have rules against sharing client information,” Alexia replied, maintaining her professional tone.


    Briar’s annoyance only grew, and she stated, “Fine, I’ll just hang up and find out myself.”


    As an insider in the Hacker Alliance, she knew she could easily ess the client’s details if she wanted to.


    Alexia warned her, “Go ahead and check, but don’t me us. We can’t leak client info officially.”


    “Understood. I’m ending the call now,” Briar said, disconnecting before Alexia could respond.


    Then she grabbed herptop, logged into the Hacker Alliance’s internalwork, and quickly found the order that Ashton had canceled forcefully for 24 million dors.


    She then grabbed herptop and logged into the Hacker Alliance’s private system. When she saw the client’s information, a coldugh escaped her<b>. </b><b>It </b>was surprising, yet everything now made sense.


    Right at the top of the details, it read: Anonymous Order Client: Hayden Garza.