Echoes of Vengeance: The Sweet Wife's Perfect Revenge-Chapter 207: The Tables Turn

When Giselle stood up, the investigation team and the captain thought they were departing, but Giselle turned to Aveline, "Ms. Laurent, demand my presence if they dare cross the line of civility."

"Certainly," Aveline responded with a faint nod.

Giselle wanted to stay through the interrogation, especially when they knew the cops were involved in framing her. However, Aveline insisted that she could handle it while she sent the notice to opportunists who assumed they could take advantage of Aveline and the Laurents. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

The onlookers: "..."

They were stunned to realize Aveline was staying back for the interrogation. And she didn't fear them enough to have her lawyer. She was ready to face them alone.

Aveline turned back to the man sitting in front of her. When he didn't react, she said, "I might start charging for staring at me."

The team dispersed instantly. Considering how beautiful and rich she was, with Giselle behind her, they believed they couldn't make it happen.

The captain suddenly stood up, and he and three other officers guided her towards the interrogation room. Definitely not the room they had planned to trouble her with.

A long table divided the room. On the other side sat four men: the captain, a municipal officer, a district prosecutor, and a fire marshal.

In front of them, a fortress of folders and files, reports, evidence, and accusations, they had prepared the whole night to bury her.

Aveline took her seat in silence, folding her hands neatly in her lap.

The captain leaned forward, his voice sharp to gain control over the situation, "Miss Laurent, you are here under suspicion of negligence causing death and injury, multiple safety violations, and endangerment of public safety. Do you understand the seriousness of these allegations?"

Aveline softly blinked, her gaze locked on his eyes, her expression serene. "I understand," she said calmly, as if her voice was part of the air that shouldn't be disturbed. "And I'm here to cooperate." She paused deliberately before continuing, "But let's be clear, frame your questions lawfully, or you'll be addressing my lawyer."

The prosecutor, hawk-eyed and stern, wasted no time after that, "Who authorized the safety inspections for the event?"

Without hesitation, Aveline opened the folder Giselle had left behind for her. She slid a stamped certificate across the table. "The municipal board. They delayed it till the day of the event. Clearance signed, sealed, and stamped by your very own authority."

The municipal officer shifted, his lips pressing thin. The captain scribbled down the name of the inspector, Ben Collins.

"Then who approved the temporary wall partition?" he pressed. "Witnesses say it looked unstable from the start."

Aveline smiled. Thirty workers had tried to push the wall after the installation, yet it hadn't even shaken in the least. "Your words just prove you haven't taken a look at the security footage you confiscated." Her voice was low and steady with a hint of disdain.

The captain clenched his teeth, but he didn't dare to hurl a word at her. He was instructed to erase the footage, but Giselle and Aveline were ready to throw the noose around their necks.

Aveline continued answering the question, "I was there during every safety check. The wall was reinforced by the contracted team. It held without issue. Nothing suggested danger." She highlighted that there were multiple safety checks.

Her calmness unsettled the panel. The prosecutor's tone hardened. "But people died."

Aveline clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms. Six deaths were haunting her, though she wasn't the reason. But she didn't find it necessary to respond to those words.

If they thought she would panic and start defending every word they uttered, they were utterly wrong. She tilted her head and merely looked at the prosecutor.

The prosecutor fidgeted with his pen, barely looking her in the eye for a few seconds. He almost... almost stammered, "Six have died at your event. Aren't you going to take responsibility for it?"

"Of course, I have decided to help those families financially as a goodwill gesture." Aveline's response wasn't immediate, but she didn't waver.

The prosecutor was baffled at her response. He jabbed his question at her, "Your negligence is the result of six deaths." His voice rose a few decibels.

Her brows raised at his question. Her reaction was mild. "Unless you can show evidence that I ignored explicit warnings, you cannot call that negligence. Try again."

The captain glanced at his team, who were losing their cool, and Aveline, sitting like a calm goddess. He had imagined making her cry under their pressure, but her serenity was beating them back.

The fire marshal leaned forward, irritation lacing his words. "The extinguishers malfunctioned. Exits were blocked. That's Fire and Safety Act violations."

Aveline turned to the man who spoke. For a moment, her expression was one of disappointment, as if she was reluctant to repeat herself, "If you had watched the surveillance footage, we could have saved a lot of time."

Then she smiled in understanding, "That's alright." She continued after a pause, "To answer your question, the extinguishers weren't even used until the firefighters arrived at the scene. And the extinguishers were purchased from a licensed supplier vetted by your own board."

'Tap, tap, tap...'

Everyone turned to her well-manicured nails tapping on the paper. It was a copy of the bills. Before they could look into details, Aveline continued.

"And the exits?" She flipped the page and tapped on photos where each door was clear and unobstructed. "These are the snapshots from the video we had taken just a moment before the event started. If they were blocked during the incident, someone tampered with them. It points to sabotage. So I strongly recommend you watch the surveillance footage."

The room stiffened. The captain's jaw tightened.

"Families of the dead are filing wrongful death suits against you," the prosecutor pressed. "They want compensation for medical bills, for loss of income, for emotional distress."

Aveline nodded, "Which they are entitled to." She said smoothly. "But only after liability is proven. And since evidence already suggests sabotage, pinning this on me is not only premature, it is unethical and unlawful."

The municipal officer interjected. "Vendors are also suing for damages. Inventory destroyed. Hazard pay."

Aveline met his eyes, "Insurance covers that." She countered without pause. "Most of those vendors already filed claims and are attempting double payouts. If they continue, I'll file fraud charges. Next."

The fire marshal desperately shuffled through notes. "The Cullens are claiming breach of contract. Loss of reputation. Loss of business opportunities. Compensation clauses, they're demanding ten times the project cost. Psychological trauma. Loss of talent. Loss of manpower. Even reimbursement for jewelry and couture."

Aveline chuckled. But there was no warmth, only a bone-chillingly cold tone. "The Cullens? The same Cullens who insisted on Grace and Bloom? Who signed every clause themselves? The same Cullens who praised me and my team in front of the media?"

She resisted rolling her eyes, "They want to claim psychological trauma while listing lost couture and jewelry in the same breath? Ask them to bring that to court. My lawyer will shred their own reputation faster than any collapse ever could."

The prosecutor's pen snapped between his fingers. She wasn't losing her composure whatsoever. And with each word, she was washing off the suits against her.

"And the forty-nine guests?" another officer added. "Trauma suits. Panic attacks. Social humiliation."

"Social humiliation?" Aveline repeated in shock. "If anyone is humiliated in all this, isn't it me?" She asked with a hint of disbelief. "They want new gowns and designer replacements under the guise of trauma? That's not law, that's opportunism. File it, and my lawyer and the judges will laugh it off."

'Bam.'

The captain slammed his palm on the table, his patience breaking. "Enough! Then let's go straight to the footage. We need the recordings from that night."

"Then play them," Aveline said at once, her tone like a dare.

The captain's face darkened. "The cameras we confiscated have malfunctioned. Nothing was recorded."

He expected her to break there, panic, and lose her composure. But Aveline eased back, looking him in the eye.

"How convenient," she said, her voice like ice. "All 32 cameras, simultaneously? During a fatal incident? That's alright, I will file for evidence tampering before I leave this building. Do you want to know tomorrow's headline? 'Authorities Destroy Evidence of the Tragedy'? Because I will make sure every outlet prints it."

The prosecutor snapped, "Careful, Ms. Laurent..."

"No," Aveline calmly cut him off. "You be careful. I have sat here quietly while you circled like jackals. Yet you've produced not a shred of evidence from the night. If you continue this, I will add harassment to my filings. So here's your choice."

The panel members unawarly held their breath to hear her.

"Bring evidence or count the bars by the end of the night."

The room went silent and suffocating. The four men glanced at one another. In reality, they had nothing against Aveline. They had thought the hard drives had the final copy of the event surveillance. Without it, they expected Aveline to cower.

But she was threatening them confidently.

As though she wasn't the one who had spoken to them, Aveline spoke. Softer, almost sounding helpless, "Find whoever sabotaged the event. That's all that matters. Stop circling me. Start hunting the truth."

The men looked away from her. Her soft voice wasn't a helpless plea, it was her ultimatum to focus on the culprit.

For the first time since the sabotage, Aveline let out a fragile breath of relief, watching their faces pale.

The battle wasn't over, and she wasn't fighting alone.

The supposedly whole-day and torturous-night interrogation of Aveline came to an end in an hour. The panel members stood up, and the captain pointed at the door for Aveline.

Aveline stood up, her eyes brushing over each man who didn't dare to meet her eye. And she walked out, calm and untouchable.

The moment she stepped out, she saw him, leaning against the wall, his green eyes fixed on her, and his lips faintly curved when he met her eyes.

He said nothing. He just beckoned her, a silent command and an invitation all at once. And she stepped closer, burying herself against his chest.