Reborn With a Money-Making System: Ruined Actress to Nation's Treasure-Chapter 151: When One Million Becomes a Weapon
Addison kept insisting that I was asking for something impossible and stupid, but did I care? Of course not.
I didn’t come here to listen to her nonsense, but I came to give her a chance to choose what kind of misfortune she preferred.
"You better show up tomorrow, or I’ll expose your affair to the media," I said as I walked toward the exit with Lando. "I mean it."
Well, honestly, I didn’t have any media connections—No, actually, I did have a few back then. But after my scandal, every single one of them disappeared, and now that I was living in another woman’s body, I had even less reason to contact them.
However, my husband surely understood the situation better than I did.
Even though he was hiding his real identity from me, I knew he would pull some strings behind the scenes to support me if I needed it.
So I said those words partly to give him an idea.
"Helcia, I’ll make sure you are the one who suffers!" Addison shouted as she suddenly stood up. Just like Dr. Gino said, her legs were perfectly fine.
I smiled at her from the doorway while holding onto Lando’s hand so he wouldn’t fall. "Oh, Mother... you really should understand your place now." I added, "You’re no more than soon-to-be a prisoner now."
Addison would never have imagined that letting Helcia marry Lando would someday lead her straight to her own downfall.
Then again, I couldn’t imagine what would’ve happened if Lando had married Madeline instead. In the end, everything happens for a reason, even the painful ones.
I shut the door firmly, not caring about whatever curses Addison was screaming behind it.
She was falling apart, yet she still thought she had everything under control. If she hadn’t forced Helcia to take that one million loan back then, she probably could’ve enjoyed Gideon’s money for much longer.
Unfortunately, her bitter heart was the thing that led her to something beyond repair.
Who would’ve thought that the one million Helcia once considered a disaster would someday become the weapon to send her own mother to prison?
"Are your legs still hurting?" I asked gently as I knelt in front of Lando after helping him sit back in his wheelchair. "Maybe Dr. Gino can check you... or we can have you checked here in the hospital."
Lando shook his head with a soft smile. "I’m fine now." Then he added, "You don’t have to worry about me. Shouldn’t you be more worried about tomorrow?"
I winced as soon as he said that. It was because my schedule for tomorrow was extremely packed. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
The script reading for the drama Love Beneath the White Umbrella would be held again tomorrow, and since I was the female lead, there was no way I could skip it.
On top of that, tomorrow was very important because the director wanted to watch me and Tommy act out a few scenes using body language as well.
It wasn’t much, but it was crucial for him to judge how strong our chemistry would be on screen.
To make it worse, it was the final script reading, so I absolutely had to be there.
I had already told Ethan about this, and he said he would try to arrange the hearing early in the morning so it wouldn’t interfere with my schedule.
"I know, I know..." I sighed. "Mr. Rowell said hearings usually last one to two hours depending on the case. But I’m still scared the schedules will overlap."
Lando suddenly placed his hand gently on top of my head. "As long as the hearing starts at eight in the morning, you’ll still be able to attend your script reading on time."
The problem was... this hearing was arranged so suddenly. I wasn’t sure the court would accept Ethan’s request for an 8 a.m. session.
Still, I didn’t want to delay it either, because I wanted to get rid of the Addison problem as soon as possible.
Suddenly, I saw Lando take his phone out of his pocket. It kept buzzing, probably because someone had been trying to reach him.
"Is that so?" he said in a low voice after answering. "Alright, I’ll let her know."
He kept making eye contact with me while talking on the phone, so I naturally assumed the "her" he mentioned was me.
Was that Ethan calling? Did the court refuse his request? Was the hearing getting delayed again?
Before I could even ask, Lando lowered his phone and said, "The court approved our request. The hearing will be held at eight in the morning."
I widened my eyes, still unable to believe they granted such a sudden request. "How... how is that possible?" I asked, still shocked.
Lando replied in a calm, almost bored tone, "I guess the judge owes Mr. Rowell a favor."
Exchanging "favors" in the world of politics and law was completely normal, so I wasn’t too surprised by Lando’s explanation.
Whatever Lando and Ethan did behind the scenes... at least I finally got the hearing confirmed. Now, the only thing I needed was for Addison to actually show up tomorrow.
===
It looked like my threat yesterday really got into Addison’s head. After all, being divorced because she became a criminal and being divorced because of an affair were two very different things.
If Gideon divorced her because she became a criminal, Addison would still have the right to claim their shared assets.
It would be a different story if she were divorced because of her affair.
[Ding! Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host! Mission complete: Make sure Addison Davenport comes to the trial!]
[Reward: $170,000 has been added to your balance.]
[Total Balance: $897,888]
Addison stepped into the courtroom with a lawyer behind her. This time, I noticed Madeline also attending the hearing, but I couldn’t find Gideon anywhere.
Honestly, I really couldn’t understand how Gideon could miss something this important. His own wife was the main suspect, yet he didn’t even bother to show up?
He was probably busy, but still... if he had even a little respect for his wife, he should’ve been here. With him skipping the hearing like this, I became even more convinced that he had already decided to divorce Addison, whether she won today or not.
But the thing that confused me the most was... Why the hell was Addison smiling?
