Then, lowering her head, she added shyly, “This dress belonged to Alina, and I just couldn’t help but try it on since I had been disguising myself as a man for a long time. But I did return it to her.”
Damn it! Awesome! I was cheering for Joanna in my heart. I didn’t think she would be able to perfectly say the words I wanted her to.
Now that Joanna had testified, Rufus would definitely not find out anything even if he continued to investigate. After all, it had been so many years, and those needed to be erased had all been dealt with by Laura.
It was unlikely for Rufus to question an incarcerated Alina just for that matter.
“Where is your mole?” Rufus asked in a low, yet stern, voice, as he studied Joanna’s face intently.
I was stunned. What mole?
Then I remembered the tiny mole at the corner of Crystal’s eye.
My god! Why did Rufus have to be so meticulous?
“Right after becoming Alpha of the pack, I got into a car accident. I suffered an injury around my eye and I had to undergo a surgery. Because of that, my mole was removed,” Joanna answered calmly. Although we both knew she was lying, her answer sounded convincing enough for there was indeed an accident and she indeed had the surgery. There was still a small scar at the corner of her eye, which was barely noticeable.
I also echoed, “I’ve heard of this accident. It seemed to have been orchestrated by the elders of your pack.”
“Yes, they were just a group of old timers who looked down on women. They wanted to kill me so they could have a new Alpha, a male one. At that time, the whole bridge was blown up. Fortunately, Harry was with me and risked his own life to save me.” Joanna’s expression remained unchanged, but her voice betrayed her grief. “It’s all in the past. Your pack is continuously improving and progressing.” While comforting Joanna, I peeped at Rufus. He was sitting on the throne with an indifferent expression, as if he was not interested in this narrative.
Flora’s POV
Sure enough, Rufus didn’t create more hurdles and let us leave after a short silence.
As soon as I stepped out, I couldn’t stop the smile that split my face. When we were far away enough from Rufus’ palace that it wasn’t even in sight anymore, I finally dared to laugh. Hugging Joanna warmly, I said, “You are truly my heroine. How are you so smart? Your words matched my lie perfectly.”
Joanna smiled and explained, “Rufus suddenly summoned me and questioned me about the period when I had disguised myself as a man. In that room, you were the only one who could’ve mentioned it. So regardless of what he asked me, as long as I mentioned you, it would be fine.”
“What about that dress? How did you know you needed to claim you were the one in that photo?” I continued asking.
Joanna grabbed my hand and pulled me down on a bench as she replied, “That photo had become viral. I also saw it on Harry’s phone back then. Although only the woman’s side profile was visible, I knew she must be Crystal. After all, you two are very close. Besides, since you were so nervous and had lied, I deduced that something was wrong. I couldn’t expose Crystal, so I had to say I was that woman. Additionally, as you had mentioned to Rufus about my disguise as a man, I could roughly gauge what had happened. It was also quite easy to say that the dress belonged to Alina. The news that Rufus almost strangled her in anger at the ball is widespread. Even I, a person who rarely surfs the Internet, have heard of it.”
“You are so amazing!” I held Joanna’s arm and praised her openly. If she had been a male, she would have been chased by many she-wolves, probably including me! She was so gorgeous and smart.
“I just made a few guesses. I didn’t expect to get them right.” Joanna colored and smiled shyly.
“No, no, no. Your deductions were so logical. You didn’t just make random guesses.” I was so relieved that I clutched Joanna’s hand and wanted to take her to see Crystal.
However, Joanna stopped me. In a calm voice, she said, “We’d better not go and meet Crystal so openly now. Although we managed to hoodwink Rufus, no one knows what is running through his mind. I don’t believe that he has given up his suspicions. He will definitely continue his surveillance of Crystal.”
“I almost forgot that.” I smacked my palm on my forehead. Fortunately, Joanna warned me. We were better off keeping a low profile now.
“We can walk around for a while and go meet her later. This will show Rufus that we are not nervous,” Joanna suggested.
I nodded. “Yes, in Rufus’ eyes, we are better friends with each other than with Crystal. So we can’t be agitated now. We will have to act naturally and give Rufus the impression that his questions haven’t rattled us.”
“Yes, that is exactly what I meant.”
After reaching an agreement, Joanna and I went to a nice restaurant outside the palace for breakfast. During breakfast, Joanna spotted someone following us. He must have been sent by Rufus.
I continued talking to Joanna as if nothing was wrong. I cracked jokes during the meal to make her laugh and then we went shopping. I bought a few things for Lucas while Joanna purchased a scarf for Harry.
We behaved like friends who hadn’t met each other for several years. We went shopping, ate delicious food, and chatted about our own families.
We hung out together till the afternoon. After confirming that no one was following us anymore, we went to meet Crystal.
Rufus’ POV
After Flora and Joanna left, I remained quietly on the throne for a while, thinking about our conversations from earlier. Then, I asked a subordinate beside me, “What do you think of their stories?”
As for me, I didn’t buy a single word of it. Actually, both their accounts were consistent, but they were pretty far -fetched.
Joanna was brought up by Noreen and was trained as a killer since she was a child.
I had never met Noreen in person, but I knew from my mother that that black witch was a ruthless and powerful woman. Noreen would never do meaningless things, nor waste her time cultivating a fool.
Since Joanna could disguise as a boy and lurk in the school and the army for so long, she must have a rigorous and low-key way of doing things. If that was the case, stealing a dress would be the last thing she would do. Her justification for trying on the dress was that she was sick of wearing men’s clothes all the time.
She would never do such a stupid thing.
Besides, Alina was a vindictive woman. Would she be so forgiving if she found out that Joanna had stolen her dress?
The answer was definitely no. Alina would either cause a scene, or make Joanna’s life a living hell. But as far as I could tell, Alina and Joanna used to get along just fine. There were many logical loopholes in Flora’s and Joanna’s stories, but I couldn’t seem to point a finger on a glaring mistake. So I had to let them go back for now.
The subordinate said frankly, “After receiving your order yesterday, I went and searched online with the photos of Alpha Crystal snapped from the surveillance footage, and found that there was no useful information about her everywhere. Later, our spies claimed Flora had spent the night at Crystal’s, so I set out to investigate her first. I didn’t expect to indeed find some clues.”
“So, you also don’t believe what they just said?” I asked with my brows furrowed.
The subordinate lowered his head and said nothing. His mere silence confirmed my suspicions.
I sneered. Flora and Joanna thought they had deceived everyone, but their clumsy lies were too apparent. Only fools would believe what they said.
Although the picture only showed the woman in profile and was not enough to prove that it was Crystal, it was definitely not Joanna.
“The truth is, Crystal’s background is too clean. I find it a little strange,” my subordinate added.
I sneered, “Of course it’s strange. How could a person not leave any information on the Internet at all? It’s very suspicious to say the least.”
Joanna’s responses were indeed flawless, but I had seen Flora’s demeanor. It was obvious that she was guilty. The moment she heard I wanted to see Joanna, she grew even more flustered.
Also, she mentioned that Crystal used to be rebellious when she was young. But Crystal didn’t seem to be defiant at all. Even if she was, she knew where to draw the lines and would definitely not cross them.
Besides, a rebellious person wouldn’t live the same way as the nuns. The fact that she carried some jerk’s offspring struck me as the most rebellious act she had ever committed.
Thinking of this, I became even more suspicious. If Crystal was Leonard’s distant relative, she should have been born into a good family. But my men couldn’t dig up anything about her parents. Their titles and deeds should have been registered even though Crystal’s parents were already dead.
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