Revenge Against My Ex-husband
Chapter 171 Working Together

Finally, Lily decided to meet Joanne at a café near the Cook family home. Joanne rushed to the café and found that Lily had yet to arrive. Slightly infuriated, she thought, "What's wrong with her? I'd already agreed to meet her near her place, and yet she's making me wait?"

While she was holding in her dissatisfaction, Lily walked in and urged her the moment she sat down, "Hurry up and speak, I'm in a rush."

"Miss Cook, why are you so busy?" Joanne sneered. "If that's the case, I'm not gonna talk about it. You'd better go and attend to your business."

"Miss White, what do you mean? It was not easy for me to take the time to meet you. How can you fool me like this?" Lily was annoyed.

"I'm not fooling around with you. The things I want to tell you, they're crucial. You have to show your sincerity," Joanne said as she ordered the waiter to serve the drinks. She picked the cup and took a sip. However, Lily did not budge. Joanne found her acting even weirder. However, she wasn't aware that Lily was feeling anxious as she watched Joanne sip her tea languidly. Not wanting to dilly-dally any further, she asked, "What kind of sincerity do you want me to prove?"

"Miss Cook, you must answer a few questions of mine with honesty." Joanne stared at Lily. "Have you given up on Edric or not?"

"I-" To Lily, Joanne was just an outsider. How could she tell an outsider that she still harbored feelings for Edric?

Lily's reaction was only natural. Although Joanne was young, she was cunning. She didn't need Lily to answer this question but rather make use of the question to judge her sentiments. If Lily replied decisively, then her reaction proved that she had indeed moved on from Edric. However, Lily's hesitation at that moment cleared the air for her.

"Miss Cook, you don't have to answer anymore. It's clear to me now." Joanne set down the cup.

"Miss Cook, you're in a dither because you have yet to trust me. That's understandable. Since that's the case, allow me to be frank with you too. I dislike your half-sister, Irene, very much. I reckon you must have heard some rumors about that, Miss Cook. So, I won't share the reasons, and I'll be blunt with you. I'm here to seek your cooperation."

"How are we going to have a cooperation?"

"I want to face Irene head-on and make her stay away from Nathan and Jordan. I believe, Miss Cook, we share the same goals. It wouldn't be easy to face her individually, so I purposely came to you to show my sincerity. So, I hope you would do the same for me, Miss Cook."

Lily lowered her guard at this point. "Miss White, what plans do you have in mind?"

This was an indication that she had agreed to cooperate with her, which was entirely within Joanne's expectations. "I suppose you know that Irene's son is Edric's?"

At Lily's nod, Joanne probed further, "So, do you also know about Irene's pregnancy, Miss Cook?"

"Pregnant? Irene is pregnant?" Lily was stumped. Margaret hadn't told Marie about this matter, so naturally, she wouldn't know.

Joanne had always thought that Lily knew about Irene's pregnancy. When she saw how astonished she was, she knew that Lily had been kept in the dark. She lowered her voice.

"To save her son, Irene is bearing Edric's child again. If this child is born, she and Edric will have two children. By that time, it would be difficult for you to turn the tables, Miss Cook. Do you understand what I mean?"

Lily could not comprehend her meaning. Dumbfounded by the news, she failed to digest the information. Joanne added as she stared at her, "I think we should come up with a solid plan together. Miss Cook, are you still with me?"

Seeing that Lily seemed to be lost in thought, Joanne waved her hand.

Snapping back to her senses, Lily looked at the faint smile on Joanne's face. She felt her face flush warm. She had just lost her composure. Her mother was right. She needed more experience to improve herself. She was much more old-fashioned compared to Joanne.

The truth of Irene's pregnancy was unverified. She couldn't make this decision independently, and she wanted to discuss this with her mother. Lily controlled herself and tried to chuckle, as if she was shrugging off the matter. "Thank you for letting me know about this, Miss White. I've been out for too long, and I'm afraid that my mother would be worried about me. I'll take my leave. We'll stay in contact."

Lily meant to go home first to discuss this matter with Deborah. Joanne knew her intentions and did not stop her. She passed Lily a name card and said, "This is my personal number. You can call me for anything, Miss Cook. I hope I can have more tea time with you in the future, Miss Cook."

"Thank you very much, Miss White. I hope that we can be friends in the future." Lily received the name card and tried her best to maintain her elegance as she left the café.

Edric had never doubted Rowane. However, he felt stirred up after hearing that Rowane had made up a lie to provoke Irene.

Rowane was a kind person in his eyes. He had never expected that she would do such a thing behind his back. If someone else were to do so, Edric would suspect that the person had ill intentions. However, Irene was the one who told him so. She would never tell lies.

Edric was doubtful. He had to meet with Rowane to replace out her intentions.

However, Rowane had been uncontactable ever since she had gone abroad to study. Her previous number had been cut off a long time ago, and she never gave Edric her new number. Edric called John and was about to ask John to search for Rowane's number. When the line was connected, John spoke first, "Mr. Myers, where are you? I have something important to tell you."

If John said the matter was important, it would certainly be. Edric had a hunch that he must have discovered something after investigating and replied, "I'll reach the office in twenty minutes. We'll talk about it then."

Twenty minutes later, Edric entered the office. John followed from behind when he saw him coming, and they went into the office. Edric's mind was filled with Rowane's whereabouts. He asked before John could say anything, "Is there any news about Rowane?"

John shook his head. "Ever since Rowane left the country, her number had been unreachable. She hasn't reached out to us as well. I've checked her institution overseas, but there's no such person."

It was strange that she went missing after studying abroad. "This is getting stranger." Edric frowned and thought, "Unless Rowane had been lying to me all this while and she had never gone abroad at all?" A sense of betrayal rose within Edric's heart, and his face became stoic. "Go and replace out who she has been in touch with during that time."

"I checked. She had contacted Marie most of the time," John replied.

"Marie?" Edric was flabbergasted. He and Rowane used to suspect that Marie was Rowane's mother. However, Rowane had denied it eventually. Since Marie was not Rowane's mother, why did she contact Marie? Something was off.

He recalled that Rowane had called Irene and lied to her. Edric felt a strong discomfort surge in his heart, but he controlled his composure. Then, he recounted the whole story about Rowane treating him to a meal. "What do you think about this?"

"Is Rowane such a person?" John staggered. He had been in contact with Rowane for some time, so he had a good impression of her. John was reeling in disbelief at the sudden revelation of her hidden side. "Irene wouldn't lie. Rowane must have called her. Say, what ulterior motive do you think she had?"

"Maybe she was bribed by Madam?" John asked tentatively.

"My thoughts exactly. However, what was the purpose in getting me drunk? Just to provoke Irene and make her leave?" Edric thought that she would be blowing the situation out of its proportion by doing this. What had happened that night was not a simple matter. Although he was intolerant towards alcohol, he would not have passed out with a mere few drinks. Then, he recalled Lily's sudden appearance. Edric could not help but flinch. In his memory, he had only drunk a few glasses of wine that night and had not been drunk to the point of compromising his consciousness. However, that night, he had unknowingly fallen asleep, and Lily had sent him home. This was a rather unusual matter.

"Mr. Myers, do they want to recreate the birthday party scenario again?" John reminded.

"What about the birthday party?" At John's words, Edric dredged up the dirty things that had happened on Margaret's birthday.

Marie had a good relationship with Margaret. Had they bribed Rowane? Had Rowane drugged him and staged him to be with Lily?

If this speculation was tenable, then there had to be something he did not know happened that night. Eric didn't dare to think about what could have happened. He felt his heart slam against his chest. "Lily hasn't made any moves recently, right?"

"She had gone to the hospital for a body checkup before this. I asked someone to tail her and saw her entering the Gynecology department. Later, I asked someone to inquire about what she did, but we found nothing."

"What do you mean? She didn't have a checkup?"

"No, the person who followed her saw her getting her checkup. However, the hospital had none of her records, which meant that Lily used another person's name for her checkup. I found it strange. Why did she have to be so sneaky? Was she plotting something?"

"Stop beating around the bush." Edric was slightly impatient.

"So, I went to investigate this matter personally. I asked the gynecologist to identify Lily from her photos and then examined all of her records. Then, I went to another hospital to replace several gynecologists to cross examine those results. In conclusion, everyone deciphered that these inspections were done before someone went in for in-vitro fertilization."

"Excuse me?" Edric raised his voice out of the ordinary. "Lily is going for IVF? This is unexpected. Why would she want to go for IVF?"

"I found out that although Lily did all these tests, she didn't undergo any operations, which just adds up to the strangeness. I couldn't wrap my head around what she was planning to do, so I came to tell you." This situation was too sudden that it left Edric's mind a jumble. His mind was in a mess, and he could not figure out his thoughts.

John noticed the tight knot between his eyebrows and did not dare to add anything. After realizing that Edric was not speaking for a moment, he tested the waters by asking, "Is Madam Myers asking Lily to use surrogacy again?" John wasn't completely sure and his words were underlined with hesitation.

Margaret had always been dissatisfied with the relationship between him and Irene. What's more, Lily had never given up on him. After a moment, Edric put two and two together and stood up abruptly. "This isn't good. I might have been set up!"

"Don't panic, Mr. Myers. This matter may not be as serious as what we're making it out to be. Let's check what happened that night first. Didn't we hire a designated driver that night? Let's go to the hotel immediately to replace out who the driver was and get a clear grasp about the situation."

Edric and John rushed to Rotate Palace, wanting to replace the designated driver that night to get to the bottom of things. However, the hotel told Edric that there was no such driver, and that Rowane was the one who had called the driver. Edric was sullen, knowing very well that he had been framed ever since the dinner invitation.

Since someone had set up a trap for him to jump in, how would he replace that driver so easily? It would be meaningless for them to look for that driver at that moment. Wearing a gloomy face, Edric left the hotel without saying a word.

"Mr. Myers, what should we do now?" John also realized the seriousness of the matter.

"Home!" Edric spat.

"Madam is injured now..." John was worried that he would go back and argue with Margaret, so he reminded him about Margaret's injury. Edric shook his head and said, "It's meaningless to raise a row now. The only reason I want to go home is to know what happened that night."

"If all this was all Madam Myer's plans, she won't tell you."

"Someone is bound to come clean to me, even if it isn't her," Edric sneered. "Have you forgotten about the surveillance cameras at home? I'm going to see for myself what happened that night!"