Chapter 12

The Villainess' Greatest Plot Twist

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From a distance, the servants of the Oswald mansion could already tell something was wrong the moment they heard the sharp and heavy clack, clack, clack of heels aggressively striking the lobby's marble floor.

"THAT FUCKING JERK!"

Moments later, Lady Annette Oswald, the heiress of the Oswald family fortune, marched angrily through the grand lobby like a storm. The moment she passed through the lobby, she immediately kicked off her shoes and threw them across the polished floor.

"That man's a big jerk!" she vented out, pacing like a general before war. "Did he really think he was so handsome that he could easily reject me? Ha! He's just cute, but not even that handsome that I will fall head over heels for him! Fuck him!"

As usual, none of the servants who welcomed her at the lobby said a single word. Actually, the servants of the house of Oswald were veterans when it came to handling their lady's drastic emotional meltdowns. They had long since mastered the art of standing still, nodding sympathetically, and waiting for their master's tantrums to pass. After all, this wasn't the first time their young mistress had returned home in a blaze after someone dared to offend her pride.

Fortunately, after several minutes of yelling, cursing, and violently throwing things within her reach, Annette finally began to calm down, at least for a bit. Then, she turned to her servants and said... "I want a strawberry milkshake in my room, right now! Hurry!" and without waiting for a reply, Annette stormed up the grand staircase, slamming her bedroom door behind her, where she could continue her rampage.

For a long moment, silence reigned in the lobby. Then the head maid sighed softly to her colleagues and said, "It seems like the conversation with the Vales' only son didn't go very well."

"I think so too," another servant murmured, glancing at the abandoned pair of designer heels lying tragically in the middle of the floor and some other stuff that their lady used as an outlet for her anger issues. "But at least this time, she only threw a few things, including her shoes."

That's right.

Because the last time Lady Annette truly lost her temper big time, she didn't stop at throwing shoes. She'd actually thrown a poor, helpless servant straight out the window.

On the brighter side, the window's just four feet above the ground. On the less bright side, the servant volunteered as the human frisbee. But the worst part? No one had dared to stop her. Because if they dare to prevent Annette from going crazy, they will definitely be out of work the next day.

And speaking of crazy...

Annette is now considering her next, crazy, bold move to finally persuade Eric to marry her.

"It looks like I'll have to endure wooing and seducing that asshole until he completely falls for me", she said to herself. "And when he does, that's when I start the fun part."

What many people didn't know was that Annette never truly wanted to marry Eric Vale. In fact, it's not for the reason she told the young man. Actually, her real motive was far more complicated than that.

Her reason was for revenge.

Yes! You read it right!

Revenge!

Who would've thought this story would take such a sudden, unexpected turn into a full-blown revenge drama?

But let's be clear—the revenge motive of our villainess here isn't because of some petty childhood grudge. It had nothing to do with the spilled orange juice at that long-forgotten garden party years ago. In fact, Eric himself wasn't even the villain in her story.

The truth was, Annette's grudge wasn't with him at all, but her revenge was against Eric's father, Robert Vale.

Now, you might be wondering: how did Eric's father end up tangled in this revenge plot?

The answer is simple and predictable at this point in the story.

The truth was, Robert Vale was responsible for Sir Leone Oswald's death.

Well, here's a quick backstory: everyone believed Lord Leone Oswald had died in a tragic accident. That was the story Lord Vale told everyone, and most people accepted it. But the truth was, Lord Oswald's death was not really an accident, but a product of assassination. The bullet that ended her father's life hadn't been meant for him at all; it had been intended for Lord Robert Vale. But the hitman had made a mistake, and her father had died instead.

How did Annette know this?

She had spent years searching for answers after her father's death, digging through every possible lead that could help her find the truth behind the accident. Eventually, she uncovered that Lord Vale's business rivals had orchestrated the assassination. The plan had been to eliminate Lord Vale, but somehow, her father had been caught in that plan that ended up as a tragic wrong place at the wrong time kind of story.

But Annette couldn't accept it. Someone had to be held accountable for what happened to his father.

And that's none other than him, Lord Vale himself.

But for Annette, going after Robert Vale directly wasn't a good start for a perfect revenge plot. She wants exact revenge in the same way her father was treated. And guess what? Marrying his only son was just the beginning of her much larger plan. A plan that sprawled across her bedroom wall in a chaotic constellation of sticky notes and red strings of pure revenge.

The outline of her plan was simple:

Step 1: Marry Lord Vale's only son, Eric.

Step 2: Hire a hitman to kill Eric.

Step 3: Make sure that the Vale fortune would fall neatly into her possession after her husband's death.

That was the plan. Perfect, right?

Well...it would have been, if it hadn't already started falling apart at step one.

Eric, unfortunately, dared to be stubborn and claims to be gay and allegedly in love with someone else.

As if she would really buy that story. Well, only a fool would believe Eric's claim. Because Annette certainly didn't. She had studied Eric carefully, perhaps a bit too meticulously. She knew his habits, his routines, and most importantly, his complete lack of romantic involvement.

He hadn't dated anyone.

He wasn't secretly seeing anyone.

In short, the young man's sex life records are clean, so the excuse he gave her?

That's Impossible.

Annette slowly forced herself to calm down. When she finally steadied herself, she walked toward her revenge wall. She approached the small table beside it, where her father's urn rested next to a faded, framed photo of the two of them, with her dad smiling proudly.

Annette angrily crossed her arms and pouted at the photo, as if her father could hear her.

"Don't give me that look, Dad! Do you think I'm not taking action to avenge you?"

Annette moved a little closer to look at the picture of her father. Her fingers brushed the frame as if hoping to feel him there. But every time reality reminded her that his father was gone, she couldn't control the surge of her anger.

"Fine," she muttered to the urn. Then she let out a long, frustrated sigh as she brushed a hand through her glossy, chestnut colored hair. "If Eric wants to make this difficult for us, then I'll just move on to step two."

Her gaze slid to the far corner of her revenge wall, where a small sticky note with the single name of the hitman she'd hired weeks ago was pinned.

And that name was…

Tooth Fairy.