Chapter 479

Jannie clamped her hand over her mouth.

As if she hadn't heard, Winnie just kept going, her car speeding away once she was behind the wheel, her concern mounting.

Under cover of night, Winnie's car pulled up in front of a bar.

"Winnie, you okay?"

"Yeah, I just need a drink. You don't drink, so you should head back," Winnie managed a strained smile.

Melanie glanced at her burn scar, shaking her head, "It's alright, I'll just have a little. I'm staying with you."

They walked into the dimly lit booth of the bar.

At the airport, Ishara arrived in the VIP lounge.

While taking a quick trip to the restroom, she stealthily sent a text to Eleanor, "Mom, Mr. Rodriguez is leaving Trento City, gone for at least two days. Winnie's on her own now. Let Uncle know, maybe tonight..." After sending the message, she painstakingly deleted the text and her eyes squinted fiercely.

In the blink of an eye, the night outside turned pitch black. The bar was a blaze of lights, and Winnie had had a couple of cocktails but was still sober. She leaned half over the table, the dim light hiding her tears as she cried without restraint.

Melanie remained silent for a while before she couldn't hold back anymore, "Winnie, is there some kind of beef between you and Lawrence that the rest of us don't know about?"

"Why would you ask that?" Winnie forced a smile.

Melanie confessed, "Actually, at the Blanchet family dinner the other night, I heard you crying in the restroom. Mr. Rodriguez wasn't at the banquet either. Plus today, you seemed so upset about him pulling strings for Ishara, I just felt something off between you two."

Winnie's teary eyes hardened. Emboldened by the alcohol, she confessed, "It's more than just beef, we share a child together."

"What?" Melanie's eyes widened.

After contemplating in her head, she concluded, "So it must be Ishara meddling in as the mistress, forcing her way between you two. I know her type, she's crafty, probably after Lawrence's influence. I get it now, your return to the Blanchet family was to contest the inheritance. And her snagging Lawrence from you would tighten her grip!"

"You really do know her well."

Winnie let out a lazy scoff, her eyes gleaming coldly, "Melanie, the other time you were about to tell me more about Ishara, we were cut short by Bentley. I need to know what's she been up to behind the scenes, do you know?"

Melanie didn't hold back, "I just stumbled upon it once-she's got some sort of lab going on. Super secretive, and nobody in the Blanchet family has caught on. I think it's because she's sick, so maybe she's looking into some shady cure."

"Is she also into something like hypnosis?" Sidney had caught an idea of it when he burst into Ishara's bedroom once.

"Well, that lab is definitely medical in nature. Ishara's got a few helpers in secret. Claire seems like just a maid, but she's deep in the cloak-and-dagger stuff for her, and there's a guy named Peter who's in on it too."

"She used to travel abroad quite a bit, claiming it was for medical treatment. Who knows what she was really up to."

"Moreover, she had a way of charming every member of the Blanchet family, like Anday Patrick who was particularly fond of her."

"I swear, with all her supposed ailments, it's a wonder she hasn't kicked the bucket after all these years!"

"She uses her illness to play the damsel in distress, winning people's sympathy and reaping plenty of benefits."

"She's just waiting for her chance to get her hands on the Blanchet fortune!"

Winnie pondered, could Ishara actually be involved in lab work? Did she know medicine, or was she even sick at all?

"So what you're saying is that she pretends to be seriously ill to get the Blanchet family to revolve around her, and that's how she gains all these advantages?"

"Growing up as the darling of the Blanchet family and having a stellar reputation in Trento City proves that."

"She pretends she wants nothing, but secretly she's after everything. To say Angela is jealous and domineering, well, she's got nothing on her."

"The difference is that her tactics are clever; no one sees through them, and everyone pampers her, always at her beck and call."

"Taking Lawrence from you, she totally bewitched him, making him abandon his principles and bottom line!"

Winnie returned to her starting point, angrily gulping down her drink.

"Winnie, I can't keep drinking with you," Melanie said, the strong alcohol burning her tongue as she staggered toward the restroom.

Winnie was slow to react, but then she remembered she should follow, not wanting to go through the trouble of trying to find her in the bar.

But, she couldn't find Melanie in the ladies' room!

Winnie sobered up a bit, growing anxious.

Just as she was about to call Melanie's cell, she spotted two figures entwined on the terrace.

One was a short-haired girl pressed against the wall-it was Melanie-her head tilted back as a man kissed her neck!

And that man...

Winnie's eyes widened in horror.

How could it be Bentley!

The towering Bentley pinned Melanie against the wall, his head buried in the crook of her neck and lips, far from the sunny demeanor he displayed in front of Winnie.

His gaze on Melanie was intense and icy as if he were staring at prey he'd been stalking.

Amidst all of that, Winnie could barely make out a faint trace of hatred.

But weren't Bentley and Melanie strangers?

Winnie remembered asking Melanie, who had acted as if she barely knew Bentley!

She was an illegitimate child, so realistically, it was quite improbable for her to become entangled with someone like Mr. Rodriguez.

"What's going on now?" Winnie thought to herself, her mind foggy and yet a surge of anger began to take hold.

An epiphany struck her; Bentley had been going on and on about pursuing her. But was it really a pursuit? Could she just be a smokescreen, and his true target was Melanie?

Thinking back to their encounters, Melanie had indeed been present at both.

Damn it, was Bentley using her? Did he fancy Melanie? His fierce expression suggested otherwise.

If he didn't like her, why would he take advantage of a drunken Melanie, kissing her like a beast?

What kind of twisted affection was this?

She was mired in confusion.

Suddenly, Bentley sensed her gaze and glanced in Winnie's direction. His lips lingered on Melanie's neck, where they left a faint, reddening mark from his kiss.

In the dark, Bentley was like a creature whose territory had been violated, unmoving.

Winnie wasn't afraid, she just felt that the longer she watched, the more awkward it would get.

Her cheeks heated up, and she quickly turned her head, hurrying away.

Back at her seat, she sipped her drink, trying to soothe her throat and clear her mind, wondering if what she had just seen was real or fantasy.

Before she could unravel her thoughts, a text message interrupted her phone.

A strange number: "Did you see that, Miss Blanchet?"

Bentley!

She cringed at the awkwardness.

Winnie maintained her composure and texted back, "Mr. Jenkins, you're engaging with my subordinate! Do you know her?"

"Just act like you didn't see anything," Bentley replied.

He sent another message, presumably to persuade her to keep quiet: "I have a daughter with Melanie."

Winnie read the message several times over, recognizing each word but unable to comprehend the sentence as a whole. It was like a bolt from the blue!