Reborn With a Money-Making System: Ruined Actress to Nation's Treasure-Chapter 148: Vanilla Mochi
"Mrs. Davenport told us that she doesn’t want any visitors," the nurse at the reception desk said. She tried to smile, but I could clearly see the nervousness in her eyes.
I took a slow breath and tightened my hold on the flower bouquet I brought. "Can you please tell her that her daughter is here to visit?" I asked.
The nurse—her name tag said Poppie—shook her head quickly, looking even more uneasy. "We’re really sorry, Miss, but Mrs. Davenport insisted she doesn’t want anyone visiting her... not even family."
What kind of person stops their own family from visiting? Well, sure... maybe some families are awful jerks and deserve to be banned from the hospital. But I wasn’t here to cause trouble. I came bringing flowers and just a tiny bit of hope that I could watch Addison die with my own eyes.
But what bothered me more was the nurse’s reaction. Why did she look so nervous around me? It wasn’t like I was threatening her or forcing my way in.
However, after I looked at her several times, I finally realized that the nurse kept glancing nervously at Lando, who was standing beside me.
Was she nervous because she recognized him as one of the Brixtons? Or did she not care about the Brixtons and actually knew who Lando truly was?
"How about this..." I leaned forward slightly and lowered my voice. "Just tell my mother that I brought vanilla mochi. I bought it from the FindMe website. She loves that mochi. I’m sure she’ll let me in once she hears that."
Nurse Poppie stared at me with a doubtful look, like she couldn’t decide whether I was lying or just being dramatic. Still, I sounded confident enough, so she decided to try.
"Please wait for a moment, Miss," she said before calling Addison’s room. She whispered into the phone, too quietly for me to hear a single word.
Not long after, the nurse finally lifted her head with a smile on her face. "Mrs. Davenport told us to let you visit her, Miss."
I smiled brightly once I heard those words. The nurse then told me which room Addison was being treated in and gave me directions to get there.
"Thank you, nurse," I said.
I thanked her and started pushing Lando’s wheelchair toward the elevator. Two doctors in plain clothes followed us closely from behind.
Addison was treated in a VVIP room located on the top floor of the hospital. As soon as the elevator doors opened, I saw several men in bodyguard uniforms standing in front of her room.
"Miss Helcia," one of them spoke firmly, "Madam only wants to meet with you. These people cannot enter."
I looked at the bodyguards with the most pitiful look I could manage. "But he’s her son-in-law. Doesn’t she have at least one exception?"
The bodyguard shook his head without hesitation. "This is for Madam’s safety, so please understand, Miss."
For her safety, my ass.
Addison didn’t care about safety. She just didn’t want anyone else to hear the dirty secrets she tried so hard to hide.
"It’s alright, I can wait here," Lando said calmly. He had already expected this to happen, so his disappointed expression was just for show.
I bent down slightly and whispered into his ear, which was covered by an earphone. "I will scream your name if I need your help."
Lando’s gaze flicked to the phone tucked in my shirt pocket. The call was still connected to his number, meaning he could listen to everything from outside the door.
"Be careful," he whispered.
I gave him a tiny smile before stepping inside Addison’s room. To my surprise, Gideon and Madeline were nowhere to be seen.
If Addison had really been in a terrible accident, shouldn’t her whole loving family be here? Oh right... maybe they didn’t care either.
"You unfilial child!" Addison snapped the moment the door shut behind me. "How dare you force me to attend the hearing! Do you have no shame?!"
She sat on the hospital bed, half-covered by a blanket. A cast wrapped her neck and one of her legs—looking both pitiful and extremely annoying at the same time.
"Nice to see you too, Mother," I replied with my sweetest smile. I walked over and sat on the couch like it was my own home. I even reached for a sealed bottle of mineral water from the table. "I didn’t expect you to still have that much energy."
I purposely dragged out the word Mother, because Helcia was never allowed to call her that before. And just as I guessed, Addison’s face turned a furious shade of red. It was like I had stepped directly on her pride.
"Careful, Mother," I added lightly before she could explode again. "Too much anger can make you age faster. Then Father might not like you anymore. Oh wait..." I gasped dramatically. "That’s right. You already found someone to replace Father."
A box of vanilla mochi from FindMe.
That was the thing that made Addison change her mind and allow me to meet her.
Why? Because she needed to protect her precious secret.
FindMe is a dating app where people show off their pictures, update their relationship statuses, and flirt in private messages. And Addison used it to talk to her affair partner... someone definitely not her husband.
I still didn’t know how he did it, but Ethan somehow managed to pull the right strings and dig up a mountain of proof about Addison’s little affair with Jeremy Tyler, the CFO of Goldenline Bank.
They really tried to hide their dirty secret well by using fake names on FindMe, acting like a pair of clueless teenagers who thought no one would ever find out.
But Ethan... Ethan was too smart for them.
He found proof that the account @Vanilla_Mochichi belonged to none other than Addison Davenport. All because she once sent a picture of a box of vanilla mochi, and her face showed up in the reflection of a shiny thermos right in front of her.
To make it worse, the reflection was so clear that by simply increasing the resolution, anyone could tell it was really Addison. Ethan had more evidence too, but I wasn’t planning to reveal all my cards today.
"Nonsense!" Addison screamed at me, but I didn’t show even the slightest fear. Why would I? One of her legs was clearly broken, so there was no way she could get off that bed and suddenly run toward me, right?
"You’re making this up!" she shouted again, her voice cracking. "You’re not satisfied ruining my daughter’s life, so now you want to destroy mine with false accusations?!"
I couldn’t help but laugh when I heard that. "False accusations?" I repeated, my eyebrow raised. "If it’s false, then why did you let me in here? Mother... you don’t even like vanilla mochi that much."
"Shut up, you bitch!" When Addison could no longer argue, she used all her remaining strength to insult me instead. "You’re just like that slut mother of yours! Born only to destroy other people’s lives! I should’ve thrown you away long ago instead of letting you eat and sleep under my roof!"
Addison continued to insult me, but now her words just went in one ear and out the other because I wasn’t the real Helcia.
When her voice finally died down, I leaned back and smiled. "Ruin your life? Why would I bother?" I said. "You’ve already done a perfect job ruining it yourself."
"You don’t even have any proof!" Addison spat in desperation. "How dare you accuse someone of having an affair without any evidence?!"
Addison looked completely panicked, and her teeth wouldn’t stop grinding together.
Sure, Jeremy Tyler was rich. He had a fancy position, a high salary, and a shiny reputation. But all of that was nothing compared to Gideon. And Addison knew it better than anyone.
Besides, if Addison suddenly got divorced by Gideon, her life could crumble overnight.
Sure, she would still receive some settlement money, but not that much because they had signed a prenup stating that if one of them cheated, the cheater gets nothing from the joint assets.
Yeah, the rule was bullshit, especially since Gideon cheated first... and probably still cheats with younger women every other weekend.
However, because Gideon was the one with all the money, if Addison had divorced him back then, she wouldn’t have received as much as she could by staying married to him.
She had stayed with that cheater for so many years, so of course she didn’t want to let him go just like that.
"I have a lot of proof, but... I don’t feel like showing it to you," I said nonchalantly.
Addison took a deep breath and exhaled harshly. "You’re just talking nonsense! If you can’t show the proof right now, then it means you don’t have any proof at all!"
I smiled at her. "Do you want to make a bet?"
