Mandy just stared at Lina with her eyes widened. Whereas Lina was enjoying the terrified look on her face.
'If you are so scared then don't do such dumb things that would definitely lead back to you.' She admonished her inwardly.
"Why would I know about it? It's what you use… haha…" Mandy tried to salvage the situation.
"Uh-uh… Sure. But remember, next time something of this sort happens. Be prepared to pack up all your stuff." Lina tilted her head and smiled.
'Did this bitch just threaten us?' Lucille glared at Lina and was about to speak up.
"Who the hell do you think you are? To make me pack up my stuff!" Mandy got up from her seat and stalked towards Lina.
Lina just looked up when Mandy was practically bent over her.
"If someone has to leave this house, I think that it's you!" She poked Lina's forehead.
'Okay. I'm done!' Lina swatted her hand away and slowly stood up.
"And why would that be?" She challenged with a smirk on her face.
"Because this house no longer belongs to you. Your father ran away with his family a long time back and you have no right to come back here and act like you are the heiress here!" Mandy gnashed her teeth as she told Lina off.
Lina's eyes darkened when she heard Mandy bad-mouth her father.
"What did you just say about my father?" Her voice was low and her body trembled.
"What? Suddenly you can't hear what I said? Let me repeat myself once again." Mandy scoffed proudly.
"Mandy, stop it!" Lucille quickly came between them and put a stop to the drama because the servants had started to gather around.
"Lina, you don't have to provoke Mandy every chance you get. We know that you are scared that Mandy will take away your part of the inheritance but we do not have any such plans. So please don't be so guarded against us." Lucille's behavior changed and she gently patted Lina's shoulder while she spoke.
Lina moved away from her hand and this action made Lucille gasp. She looked disheartened and sad when Lina avoided her.
"Aunt, it looks like you forgot about the little encounter you have with big brother on Sunday. Should I call him to come and refresh your memory?" Lina sneered at Lucille.
Lina taunted about the little chat she had with Wayne and how he advised Lucille to behave.
"He did say that you are getting old." Lina gasped and then nodded in understanding.
"Mom, are you going to keep tolerating her arrogant behavior?" Mandy yanked on Lucille's hand and turned her around.
Lucille almost fell over when she was tugged but she steadied herself and shook her head.
"We have to adjust, baby. After all, we are the ones who are inconveniencing them." She spoke like a saint who was silently bearing all the pain.
Lina was amused by her behavior but did not bother to say anything in her defense.
"What is going on here?" They heard a man's voice and everyone turned that way.
Lina was relieved to see that Wade had appeared because she had zero patience to talk to them.
Wade had arrived when Mandy was going on and on about how Lina was nobody to kick her out of Yang Manor.
"Aunt, you are right about one thing." He walked towards her.
Lucille was surprised to see that Wade was standing on her side.
"You SHOULD adjust because you really are inconveniencing our family." He spoke harshly.
Mandy was shocked to see the sweet brother Wade speak such rude words.
But this was because he recalled Uncle Ace's sad face when he saw their faces.
'If I'm easy on them then they will just take it for granted.' He strengthened his resolve.
"And you!" He whirled to Mandy.
"This will be the last time you ever speak against my family members." He commanded strongly.
"Am I not a member of your family then?" She screeched with tears welling up in her eyes.
"That depends on how you behave. So it's better if you look back at your actions and decide whether you treat us the same way." Finishing his words, he looked at Lina.
"We need to talk. Let's go." He dragged her upstairs.
He had tried to be nice to Mandy because he felt bad that her own mother was using her.
But when he heard about that incident from Butler Ping, all feelings of pity had vanished.
---
Back in Lina's room, Wade stood by the balcony and looked over the garden.
"Today, Leon came to see me." He started.
Lina was perched on the bed and was munching on some popcorn.
It was as if that strong woman who was ready to punch Mandy because she disrespected Simon Yang was not her.
He retold about what had happened during their meeting.
Apparently, Leon had come down to yell at his sister for sneaking the food that she had cooked into his lunch, but he had overheard a much more interesting conversation.
He had even recorded the entire scene on his phone and he had sent a copy to Wade.
Lina watched the video and hummed.
"So there's someone who wants me to look bad. But who?" She tossed the phone back to him and stroked her chin.
"What do you plan to do?" He asked as he caught the phone.
He had already informed her of his plan to fire and ban Wendy Qin from Obsidia, Yang and Luo Industries.
"You can continue with the same plan. No need to change anything." Wade was shocked to hear her words.
"But Nana, we know for sure that someone else was also involved. What about this other person?" He pointed to his phone to remind her.
"This person is just the mediator. We still do not know who the real mastermind is, so for now just let them be. let's keep a watch over them and catch them red-handed when they slip up." She snickered while enlightening him about her plans.
Wade agreed with her words and decided to send his men to watch over the new person.
'Let's see how long you can hide.'
Lina thought of the familiar face that she had seen on the video.
---
Two days went by quickly and soon it was the day of the press conference.
Lina's idea of letting the socialites gossip about LY's auction was a grand hit. Because, from the moment they had received the invites, they immediately phoned their friends to brag about it.
The social circles were on fire with this news and everyone was reaching out to Obsidia to authenticate the rumors that were circulating.
The PR team worked fast and the press meet was conducted in Obsidia's own conference hall on one of the lower floors.
They had just invited a selected few of the top media houses to preserve the integrity of the press meet.
They wanted to avoid any drama that was common in such meets.
Lina watched with Wade from the private room which was over the hall and gave them a great view of everything happening below.
Ivan Zhou had just announced that Obsidia truly was organizing an auction for LY's designs this coming Saturday.
He was now standing with a mic in his hand as he answered the reporters' queries.
"Director Zhou, this is the first time that LY will be auctioning his designs. Will he be personally making an appearance?"
The crowd got noisy when one of them asked this.
"LY would love to attend the auction but he is busy preparing for his next collections. I'm sure you wouldn't want him to be distracted right?" Ivan skillfully dealt with the question.
"What is the theme of the auction?"
He explained about Lina's concept of "A lifetime with you" and the reporters quickly noted everything down.
"What do you think will be Talia's response to this new method that Obsidia has used to gain popularity?"
One of them just wanted to spark a public feud between the two rival companies.
"You would have to ask their PR team because I am in no way aware of how they function." Ivan flashed his winning smile at the camera.
"We shall end this press conference for now. I hope that all your questions have been answered." He bowed at them and got off stage.
The reporters tried to follow him to ask further questions about this matter but they were stopped by the security guards.
Satisfied with this exclusive press meet that they were invited to, they rushed back to their companies to edit the footage and then post it online.
Back in the private room, Wade was pleased with how Ivan had handled the reporters.
While Lina swooned over his serious face when he was focused on answering them.
The rest of the invites would soon reach the other companies and families by the end of the day. So they had a lot of work to do after the press meet.
"When will Benji be arriving?" Wade inquired in an attempt to wake her up from her daydream.
Because Lina had a foolish grin on her face as she gazed at the door that Ivan had just used to exit the conference hall
"He'll be here in a few days." Lina turned away from the window and responded to his question.
"We will have so much fun once he's here!" She squealed when she thought of that awesome man who had always made her life easy and smooth sailing.