Her Rebirth of Retribution
Chapter 20 Exposing The Hypocrisy Of Her Stepmother

Now she knew she had gotten it wrong all this while, and Mirabelle was scheming beyond her imagination. She used such intelligent tactics - able to lie like this at a tender age of thirteen! She realized she was lagging far behind in this aspect.

The raindrops continued to fall, drenching her hair.

Her heart suddenly felt so cold - it was only two nights and a day into her reborn life, and she had seen how evil people could be, and it was truly a tough situation to be in.

She lost to these schemers in her previous life because she was always a step too late. She was always too late to see these enemies' true colors, and spent too much time on futile things.

Her love for Kallum, her affection for her father, her friendship with Mirabelle - they were all in futility.

But this time she wasn't going to make the same mistakes. No matter how strong her enemies were, she was going to protect everything that belonged to her.

She had dreams, she was still young, it wasn't too late, it wasn't...

But why did she feel so miserable?

Calista held her hand up to her chest and slowly squatted down on the ground.

Hatred, anger, such unnecessary suffering, such unfair defeat...she felt utterly miserable.

Suddenly a car stopped next to her and Wyatt hurried over to her. "Hello there, are you ok? It's you?!"

His face grew worried, "Why are you still here? I thought you went back a long time ago?"

When she heard his voice, Calista slowly pulled herself out from those painfully suppressed feelings, and let Wyatt help her to the car.

She was all wet, so Wyatt found an extra shirt in the trunk and gave it to her to wear.

Calista was quiet and cooperative, like a beautiful marionette.

Finally they were set to go, and Wyatt said, "I'll send you home."

With that, he started driving toward the Shang house.

Suddenly Calista realized she didn't want to go back to the house, because earlier that day Quincy had said that her father wasn't coming home that night, and she would get no peace if she went back. Wyatt shot her a quick glance and asked, "Are you ok?"

Calista didn't reply, so he thought for a while and then awkwardly said, "About what happened this afternoon...I'd like to apologize. Those two men...are indeed connected to Quincy, but I'm sure there's some misunderstanding somewhere!" Carson's case was not under his charge, so in the afternoon he interrogated Zane and Yael, and it turned out that he had really misunderstood Calista.

Calista snorted and turned her head towards Wyatt, "You don't have to apologize. You're not related to me, so how you view me or whether you've misunderstood me or not doesn't matter to me."

Wyatt frowned and looked a little deflated, and finally managed to squeeze out a response after a while, "Aunt Yelena married into your family, so that makes me your cousin. How can you say we're not related?"

Calista laughed when she heard this.

She raised an eyebrow and glanced at him. Her features were even more exquisite in the dim light, and her eyes were cold and there was an evil glint in them.

"Ok then my dear cousin, since I helped the police to catch a criminal, do I get any reward?"

Wyatt was mesmerized by her smile for a while, before replying in a flat voice, "Some cash and a medal."

It wasn't much cash, so this eldest daughter of the Staffords wouldn't care for it, he thought, thinking she would say she wanted the medal.

"I want the cash." Calista's words shocked Wyatt.

"How much do I get?" Calista asked.

Wyatt found this puzzling. Carson was convicted of a violent crime, so the police was willing to give $10,000 as a reward. Calista helped to crack the case even though she was unable to tell the police where she got the clues from, but Mr. Kallum had used his influence to protect her from any suspicion that she was connected to the case, so she could have this cash reward.

"You get $10,000," Wyatt replied, then couldn't help but ask, "Are you very short on cash? Doesn't my aunt give you $50,000 to spend every month? You're only a student, why do you want so much money for?"

Calista knew it was difficult to explain, so she just replied, "Then can you lend me $10,000 first? I need it urgently."

This wasn't much money to him. Even if there was no cash reward, if Calista asked him for money he would still give it to her.

He was only a policeman, but everyone knew this was just a passing phase. Eventually his position would rise higher and higher, and his family didn't even need the money in the first place.

Wyatt took out his long wallet, and there was quite a bit of cash in it. He gave the whole wad to Calista, but she counted out exactly $10,000 and returned him the excess.

Wyatt was speechless. It was a bit of a stretch but they were still considered relatives, and considering that both families were quite well to do, did she really have to be so calculative? He was a little disappointed, and felt that Calista was as unfriendly as he had heard.

They had almost reached the house when Calista suddenly leaned over and smiled, "Park the car outside, I'll bring you to watch a good show."

Wyatt could smell a faint fragrance from her as she drew close to him, and he suddenly felt his heart beat very fast, and just nodded without thinking. When he came to his senses, he started to worry because he had a hunch that the good show Calista wanted him to watch wasn't anything good at all.

He parked the car in the driveway and was about to knock on the door when Calista stopped him and pointed to the side of the house. "Hide over there." Wyatt walked to the side, not understanding why he was being so obedient.

Calista pressed the door bell and the door opened almost immediately. The person who opened the door was not Lilian, but Yelena.

When she saw that Calista was all drenched, Yelena smirked.

She hadn't settled her score with Calista yet, and this girl actually dared to come back!

"Why did you come back? I thought you had wings to fly? Now you've learnt how to threaten others and create rifts between people! What did you tell Wyatt? You think he'll believe you?"

Calista quietly replied, "I came back because I don't have any money and I don't have anywhere to go to. If you give me some money I'll leave immediately."

Yelena spat in her face. Calista must be nuts! Asking her for money?!

"Stupid girl, have you been scared silly by last night or have you gone mad thinking about money? You dare to come here and ask me for money? I've fed you, clothed you and sent you to school and you still want money? Dream on!"

Calista laughed bitterly, "You always brag to others about how well you treat me, how much money you give me. Aren't you afraid that one day they'll replace out you've never given me money? You've given me cheap clothes to wear and made me eat leftovers. If anyone ever replaces out, your reputation will fall to pieces."

When Calista mentioned the word reputation, Yelena immediately remembered how embarrassing it was for her the night before. She looked at Calista threateningly, raising her finely trimmed eyebrows.

"Good on you, stupid girl! Go ahead and tell everyone! See who will believe you! All these years they've cemented their image of you already. You can go ahead and say anything you want, they'll just think you're lying!"

Calista laughed as she shook her head, "Since you dare to talk to me like this, I suppose you've found someone to write an excellent thesis for Quincy. As the saying goes, spare the rod and spoil the child. Quincy has been so spoilt by you she's as good as useless. Even if she does enter the college easily, she'll do badly there."

Yelena was almost driven to her death by these words. Calista used to just remain silent and her very presence annoyed her. But now Calista was like a crazy person saying anything she wanted, and it made her furious!