The Rebirth of a Scorned Heiress

“Are you alright?” Chloe asked worriedly while checking Lily for any physical pain or discomfort. Helplessly, Lily gave a nod for the tenth time since they got home.

“I am fine, Mom, nothing is wrong with me,” she replied.

“You were going through such a thing, you should have called us! No one can bully my daughter like that and go scot-free!” Chloe fumed angrily. “Even that young man, how could you fall in love with such a scumbag? He is nothing but a useless and a fickle-minded idiot!” She continued.

“I was not in love with him,” Lily confessed. It was not a lie, the original Lily, according to her memories, only liked Zach, and she was not in love with him. It was only natural that the bit of likeness would disappear when Victoria replaced her.

“My daughter has truly suffered outside! Look at you, you have lost so much weight, that your clothes barely fit. I should make a lot of nutritious food for you to take back with you, are you staying the night? You should” Chloe rants, feeling stressed and worried.

Her husband stepped forward and patted her shoulders lightly. “You will scare your daughter away if you keep being like this” he urged and Chloe sat down with a deflated sigh.

“We should have asked for compensation from those stuck-up idiots! How could they treat my daughter so badly and just go like that? I’m so vexed” she puffed and Lily sighed with a facepalm.

“Mother, you have nothing to worry about, they will compensate us enough when it’s time, I won’t allow them to slander us like that and just walk away!” She assured and Chloe nodded in agreement while her husband frowned worriedly.

“I think we have done enough. We have already offended the Smith family, if we do more they might turn to bite us!” He reasoned, earning him a glare from his angry wife.

“What are you talking about? Offended them who? Who started it?” She demanded and he sighed.

“You know what I’m talking about. In the end, they are still one of the richest families in this city and you know those who go against those kinds of families usually don’t end up well” he explained.

Chloe’s anger died down a bit but her unwillingness to just allow her daughter to suffer such a grievance remained. She walked into the kitchen and began to prepare food and snacks for Lily to take along to distract her mind while plotting ways to deal with the Smith family.

‘Should I call him?’ she thought but shook her head the next moment. ‘There is no need, we will just let it slide this time, but next time! Hmph, I will show those people there are more powerful people in this world!’

While she was busy debating with herself in the kitchen, Lily and her father were having another discussion.

“We can’t keep pushing it this way or else we will end up the guilty one. Besides, the post was made with an anonymous account and you can’t prove that Merissa truly did it” he reasoned, feeling worried that his daughter might still want to keep pushing the topic.

“I know my limits Father and I won’t do anything out of line, you have to trust your daughter!” She replied with a reassuring smile. “I didn’t come home today because of this case”

“Is that so? Why did you come home then? You usually don’t come back until it’s school break. Is there something you need?” He asked and Lily gave a nod.

“Now that you have quit your job at the Smiths, what will you be doing?” She asked and her father smiled.

“Is our Lily flower worried about her parents?” He asked with an amused smile, making Lily flush in embarrassment.

“Of course, you are in this situation because of me”

“Don’t ever say that! None of it is your fault!” He argued.

“Okay! Okay! So do you and Mother have a plan?” She asked.

“We do, we have been planning this for a while but we want your brother to finish his college examination before we start planning on executing it” he stated.

“Your maternal grandfather left a farmhouse and an orchard of apples and oranges to your mother before he died. We’ve been paying people to manage it all this while, but now that we are both jobless, we can move to the farmhouse and then manage it ourselves” he explained and Lily gave a nod.

“That’s a good plan, you two are too old to be working for others and whenever we are on holiday in the school, we will come help out!” She reassured her father.

“For the first few years, the income may be a little low and that is why we have been holding off your school fees and your brother’s…”

“You have nothing to worry about! I can take care of myself and soon enough, I will be able to take care of the family!” She reached into her bag and brought out an envelope filled with a hundred thousand dollars and pushed it into his hands.

“You don’t worry, the money has been obtained legally, I promise!” She quickly explained as she noticed the horrified look in her father’s eyes. “I wanted you and Mother to start a business but it’s even better now, you can just invest it into the farm” she explained.

“I can’t take this! It’s too much! You can just use it for yourself!” He pushed back the money and Lily shook her head helplessly.

“I have my share! Please don’t tell Mum for now, I will tell her when it is time so that she won’t get overly excited. I am going to Paris for a fashion show at the end of the month” she announced with a bright smile, trying to take her father’s mind off the money topic.

“Paris? When? How?” He asked and Lily covered his mouth while looking in the kitchen’s direction. He nodded in understanding and kept his voice down as he repeated his question.

“An acquaintance invited me, her family is one of the sponsors for the show and I’ll get to meet more talented people! Very soon, I will be able to start on my own!” She declared and her father’s eyes watered with joy.

He pulled her into his embrace and laughed. “I’m so happy and proud of you!” He announced. “Don’t worry your family will always support your dreams!”

*****

“What do you mean you can’t take down the post?” Mr Smith demanded impatiently, his hand tightening around the phone.

“We have been trying to take down the post all night but we were unable to do it!” The man on the other side of the phone reported and Mr Smith scowled.NôvelDrama.Org content.

“It’s just a post on a school forum, why can’t you take it down? Isn’t that your line of work?” He demanded.

“I’m afraid the post is being monitored and handled by a top hacker Mr Smith, when we take it down now, it comes back up in the next minute, each time spreading its wings forward” the man explained.

“What top hacker?! The girl who posted that is the daughter of my family servant! Do you think she can afford to employ a top hacker? You know how much top hackers are worth?” He demanded. “If you are incompetent, say it and don’t overpraise a country bumpkin!” He yelled and ended the call.

“What did they say?” Mrs Smith asked cautiously. She and her daughter had been walking on eggshells around him since Lily and her family left.

“That’s the third hacker that couldn’t take down the post!” He gritted out angrily. His phone beeped as he got a message from an unknown contact.

Unknown: I’m quite enjoying the game, why don’t you try to take down the post again and see if your family news will not make it to the top news tomorrow morning?

His hands trembled and the phone fell as he read the message, his face paled.

“What have you done!” He breathed out. How had things turned out this way?

“What happened?” Mrs Smith asked as she picked up the phone, reading the message, her eyes darkened in rage. “How dare some lowly idiot threaten my family?” She yelled.

“Shut up! Shut up! If you don’t know how things work!” Her husband countered, his cold voice startling her. “If you had not brought up your daughter like that would we have been in this situation right now?”

“What are you talking about?! Are you trying to take out your anger on our daughter? I won’t allow you! What had she done wrong? She was only putting that bumpkin in her place! Without our family will her family be able to eat?” she argued arrogantly

“Shut up! Can’t you see this is no longer about your daughter and Lily? Our rivals must have gotten hold of this opportunity to see us fail! If we lose this project we will not be able to get the internal project we want, why can’t you think beyond your ego for once?” He sneered

“There is no way this could be Lily! Someone else is trying to sabotage us using this opportunity,” he added.

“Then what do we do?” She asked, already understanding the turn of events.

“What else? We will have to give them what they want! As long as it won’t ruin our company’s reputation,” He replied and collected the phone from her and replied to the message.

Mr Smith: What do you want as compensation to take down the post? Who sent you? I’ll pay you double what they gave you!

Unknown: hehehe double you say? I don’t need your money.

Have your daughter publicly apologise for what she did and send a sum of 5 million dollars to this account (number attached). Failure to meet these requirements by noon tomorrow is your worst dream come true, forget about losing the contract because even your company will go bankrupt.