CHAPTER 120: WHO COULD THAT BE?

Regina Quinn’s morning began like any other—coffee in her favorite porcelain cup, a silk robe tied neatly at her waist, and the business section of the daily newspaper spread across the long marble kitchen island.

The gentle hum of classical music played in the background as she scrolled through her tablet, checking emails and news alerts.

She had just taken a sip of her still-hot espresso when the first headline popped up on the corner of the screen.

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"EXCLUSIVE: Billionaire’s Wife, Ivy Winter’s Suspected in Best Friend’s Accident—Sources Say It Was No Coincidence."

Regina’s fingers froze mid-scroll. Her cup clinked sharply against the counter as she placed it down, her eyes narrowing at the bold letters.

"What in the world is this nonsense?" she muttered under her breath, quickly tapping the headline.

The article opened to a photo of Ivy—elegant as always, walking into Zeden General Hospital with her signature oversized sunglasses and composed look. But beneath the photo, the words were anything but composed.

"Sources claim the billionaire’s wife was seen visiting Eliana Howells—the woman hospitalized after a mysterious accident two nights ago—only to deliver a chilling, threatening message to her unconscious friend. The visit, described by a witness, raises questions about Ivy’s motives and her ties to the shocking incident..."

Regina blinked as she read through. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Why now? What would Stefan think when he sees this? Who on earth sold this news? How did they even know about this?

Her blood boiling with both anger and frustration, she read it again. And again. Her mouth hung open, the breath leaving her lungs in a short gasp as she reached for her phone with trembling fingers.

"This—this can’t be happening..." she breathed.

Another headline popped up just below the first one.

"’Sweet Dreams, Darling’: Ivy Winter’s Alleged Words to Hospitalized Friend Before Leaving Room."

Before she could even think about that more, two more headlines popped up and they were still related to the hospital issue. Who had sold this news? Was it even real? Ivy saying those things? Had she really made a mess of the situation?

She had told her to be discreet about this issue yet, she had disregarded her words. If she had been the one carrying out that sentence on Eliana, all these wouldn’t be happening right now because she would’ve been more careful.

She needed to know how the news got out and if it was truly Ivy who had caused this mess herself.

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Regina let out a sharp, angry sound and stood so fast her chair screeched backward. Her silk robe swished violently as she stormed through the room, phone clutched tightly in her hand, dialing Ivy’s number with rage tightening every muscle in her body.

How could she have let this happen? What was going to happen to their stocks? There’s no doubt that this was going to affect their company negatively. She thought, making a mental note to call her brother and find out the damage the news was doing to the company and how they could salvage the situation.

She placed around as she waited as the line rang once then twice.

"Pick up, Ivy," Regina hissed. "Pick up now!"

She kept pacing, her frustration evident until finally, the line clicked.

"Mom?" Ivy’s voice came through, bright and airy, as though she had just gotten out of bed. "Why are you calling so early?"

Regina’s voice erupted before Ivy could finish her next breath. "What in the name of God is the meaning of this?"

There was a pause. "Excuse me?" Ivy asked, her tone dipping into confusion.

"This!" Regina practically shouted, waving her tablet even though Ivy couldn’t see it. "The news, Ivy! Have you seen it?! What was that and how did that get out?"

Ivy frowned from her end, sitting up straighter in bed. "What news? Why are you yelling at me?"

"What news?" Regina echoed in disbelief. "Are you seriously asking me that right now? Ivy, don’t play stupid with me. Have you checked the internet? Or your messages? I guess not! The entire town is buzzing. There’s an article—no, multiple articles—going viral accusing you of plotting Eliana’s accident. They say you orchestrated it as revenge for her getting too close to Stefan! You and I know the truth but what I want to know now is how the hell it got out! Who else knows?"

The silence that followed was deafening.

Ivy’s heart skipped a beat. Her fingers, which had been idly brushing her hair, froze in place.

"What?" she whispered. How could anyone know about it?

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The word was small, stunned. But Regina didn’t stop.

"They have photos of you at the hospital. You walking in. You walking out. There’s even a quote in there—some ridiculous thing you supposedly said to Eliana while she was unconscious. Sweet dreams, darling. Does that sound familiar to you? Because it damn well sounds like something you’d say."

"Wait, wait, wait—" Ivy shook her head, already reaching for her phone with the other hand, scrolling frantically. "What are you talking about? Who said that? Who would write something like that about me? Where did this come from? It was something I said to Eliana while I went there. We were the only ones there abd she was damn unconscious so how did it get out?"

"That’s what I’d also love to know," Regina snapped. "Ivy, how the hell would you make such a mistake? I told you to be discreet so how could you go about revealing what you did that way even though to an unconscious Eliana? Who knows? Perhaps she wasn’t unconscious at all and had contacted magazines to print this! I swear, you’ve just burned everything we’ve built with this stupid move of yours! How could you be this stupid?!"

Ivy wasn’t listening to anything her mother was saying as she picked up her second phone to go through the internet and see what exactly her mother was yelling about.

Her throat felt dry. Her stomach twisted as she clicked through her social media, saw the notifications flooding in—hundreds of messages, tags, trending posts.

Her name was everywhere on every magazine and blog telling different tales about her. The saw the headlines and then the photos.

She tried to read what little she could read as her heart raced, her body temperature going up a little that she could feel her skin getting warm.

She read all that was being said and how it seemed as though that person had been with her in the room. Her hand flew to her mouth. The tablet slipped from her grasp, crashing to the ground.

"What...?" Ivy whispered again, this time barely audible. Was Eliana pretending to be unconscious? No, she wasn’t because if she weren’t, the articles wouldn’t say ’unconscious’ Eliana.

They would’ve said Eliana herself said it, leaving no room for her to defend herself. But seeing as it was probably a third party, maybe there was a way for her. She could actually turn this around but then the damage had been done.

How was she going to stop her divorce if Stefan were to see this? Her brows furrowed together when she saw conclusions on the matter that there was trouble in paradise for Ivy and that she was evil to hurt someone instead of solving her marital issues.

The sound of her mother still yelling on the phone felt like it came from far away.

She read through most of the articles and in that one terrible moment, Ivy Quinn realized...

Someone had been watching her. And now, the world was about to see her for who she really was. She needed to think of a way to turn this around. She couldn’t wait around for her name to be dragged in the mug or fir Stefan to see this.

"Ivy! Are you even listening?" she heard her mother call out, dragging her back to reality.

"Yes but now’s not the time to yell, mom. We need to do something...."

"Something like what? This is exactly why I was telling you to have let me handle things. I don’t even know how this is going to affect the company——"

"Is there a magazine company you can call? Perhaps I should tell them my side of the story. Maybe then things would go back to normal," Ivy interrupted again when she saw her mother wasn’t getting the point.

"What stupid side of the story? What the hell are you going to say to have the whole world believe you had nothing to do with Eliana’s accident?" Regina asked irritably.

"I’ll figure something out. Just arrange a reality show with any of the talk shows or something."

Before Regina could say anything to that, Ivy hung up, leaving Regina staring at her phone unbelievably.

Even though she actually figured something out, what if the person who’d heard her actually made a voice record or perhaps a video? What then happens when this person releases the video?

Ivy may not know it but doing a reality show to clear her name wasn’t the right next cause of action. Finding that anonymous person was the right next cause of action and that was what she was going to do.