Chapter 557: Revealing Her Background (7)
Chapter 557: Chapter 557: Revealing Her Background (7)
Vera Xavier, at the end of her rope, reached out and tried to pinch Nathaniel Nathan’s waist. But his body was all lean muscle, and her fingers slipped, robbing the gesture of any real force.
Nathaniel Nathan just arched an eyebrow and smiled, his eyes glinting with smug satisfaction.
Vera Xavier ground her teeth at his expression, but he just changed the subject. "So, can you tell me your plan?"
The question might have seemed to come out of nowhere, but Vera Xavier knew he was asking about her plan for dealing with Susan Caldwell.
Vera Xavier smiled. "There isn’t much of a plan. If I had to sum it up, it would be a single word: crush."
Nathaniel Nathan looked at her. Her chin was tilted up, her eyes brimming with confidence and pride. "I’m going to crush her under my heel, completely and utterly. I’ll show her that even if I’m not a daughter of the Caldwell Family, even as just Vera Xavier, I can still grind that phony Caldwell heiress into the dust."
Nathaniel Nathan nodded. "Well, that’s a pretty comprehensive plan. Need my help?"
"If I need you, you’ll be the first to know," Vera Xavier said with a smile.
’Susan Caldwell’s status was simply too high. If she decided to use her influence to suppress me, I’d be at a serious disadvantage without some equivalent power to counteract it.’
’Vera’s goal was to crush Susan Caldwell. As for the *how*... well, that was for her to decide.’
’When Nathaniel heard this, he knew it meant she was willing to accept his help when the time was right. This was, in his eyes, an unequivocally good thing. It meant that in her heart, Vera had finally, officially, accepted him as one of her own.’
「After Vera Xavier and Nathaniel Nathan left.」
Brooke Mitchell took Susan Caldwell to buy a new outfit. After they had picked one out, Brooke took her to a salon to have her hair washed.
Susan Caldwell said, a little sheepishly, "I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused you today, Mrs. Mitchell."
"Don’t worry about it." Brooke Mitchell smiled. "What happened today was just an unfortunate accident."
She was a shrewd woman. She could see how differently her son treated Vera Xavier, and in her heart, her son was what mattered most. She would never do anything to embarrass him in front of outsiders.
So, even if she had a million grievances against Vera Xavier, she would never voice them in front of Susan Caldwell.
By framing the incident as an "accident," she was paving the way for a smoother explanation down the line. If the Caldwell Family came asking, she would be prepared.
Her current actions—taking Susan Caldwell shopping and to the salon—were partly because she genuinely found Susan to be a pleasant girl. But the larger reason was that she was cleaning up the mess left by Vera Xavier and Nathaniel Nathan. The Nathan and Caldwell families were prominent fixtures in Veridia; they couldn’t afford a falling out over such a trivial matter.
This was all part of the social playbook for Veridia’s elite matrons: appear gentle and courteous on the surface, but always be calculating the many considerations beneath.
The smile on Susan Caldwell’s face froze. ’So, you’re telling me I endured all that humiliation and dragged Vera into this whole drama in front of Mrs. Mitchell, just for her to sweep it all under the rug by calling it an ’accident’?’
’But she was a master of hiding her thoughts, and besides, she had already decided to play the part of a sweet, understanding girl for Brooke Mitchell. She needed to maintain that facade, and faking it was something she had always excelled at.’
’She had fooled her own parents, after all. How could she possibly fail to deceive an outsider like Brooke Mitchell?’