Book 2 : She Becomes Glamorous After the Engagement

Chapter 48

Chapter 752: It’s Okay For Her To Blow Her Cover As Q!

Nora: “?”

Hadn’t the news about her having a secret pretty boy lover already been clarified? They had already said that the so-called “lover” was Justin!

Why were they saying that they had discovered her lover’s identity again?

The corners of her lips spasmed and she said, “The so-called ‘pretty boy’ is Justin.”

“I knew it was definitely fake news! With your personality, Mr. Hunt alone is already enough to affect your sleep. How would you possibly ever have another lover?”

Nora: “?”

After she hung up on Tanya’s call, she opened the link that her friend had sent her. The headline of the article was ‘Rich Engaged Couple Fills In Loopholes For Each Other’ while the subheading was ‘Poor Mr. H’.

The article’s content, however, was ridiculing the man for actually being willing to even take a loss such as his fiancée cheating on him, just for the sake of his political marriage with another wealthy family. He was exceptionally quick and decisive in accepting the fact that he’d been cuckolded, showing that a certain Mr. H was not as bad-ass and domineering as what everyone thought, after all.

In the comments, a group of people criticized the author for lying through his teeth and spouting nonsense when he didn’t even have any evidence.

The author then dished out tough talk:

How was there no evidence? To find out who on earth was staying in the villa, K the hacker had specially hacked into the system, but unexpectedly, he was met with friendly fire.

Although he didn’t manage to see what the other party looked like, K was sure that the person who had blocked his invasion was Q!

Q was the Smith Corporation’s network consultant. It could be said that ever since Q took up the position, the Smith Corporation’s firewall had improved even further and that there had been no major problems so far.

As everyone knew, Q only became the Smith Corporation’s network consultant after Ms. Smith returned to the Smith's. From this, one could conclude that the pretty boy whom Ms. Smith was keeping as a lover was none other than Q!

It was no wonder that Q never accepted private gigs from outsiders. As it turned out, it was because he already had such a huge patron!

The evidence presented on the Internet was complete and comprehensive. On top of that, a video of K hacking into the villa’s network system that day was also posted. In the video was a big battle involving a bunch of programming codes. The villa’s hacker had defeated K in the end.

Those who couldn’t understand the codes would say, “How amazing!”

As for those who could, all the more they would say, “They have completely reached a skill ceiling in the world of hackers! It can’t get any more impressive than that!”

Just like that, some of the comments digressed from the original topic. However, they were quickly brought back to topic by others.

“It is said that Mr. H has offended an influential figure, and it’s to the extent that his company is about to face a crisis! The political marriage between the two wealthy families is at a critical juncture right now. Without the protection of a certain Smith family, I’m afraid Mr. H will find himself in an even worse situation! No wonder he has even accepted being cuckolded!”

“Speaking of which, those three children may not be Mr. H’s either, right? Surely he isn’t raising another man’s children on top of being cuckolded, right?”

Nora merely found the endless Internet abuse funny.

They were saying that her secret lover was she herself?

Her lips curled into a sneer. As she was not sure who the one spreading the news was, she ignored all the related content on the Internet, opened her bedroom door, and went downstairs.

Justin had skipped work that day and was sitting on the sofa downstairs and watching Cherry play games.

Cherry was dissing people while she played games.

Xander was cheering for her from the sidelines.

Pete stared at the two of them in silence, sighed, and picked up the Mathematical Olympiad worksheets in front of him.

Seeing the three of them like that, a troubled Nora rubbed her temples. At last, she said, “Um, why don’t we send the three children to kindergarten?”

“I don’t wanna!” Cherry was the first to object to the suggestion. She said, “Cellphones are not allowed in kindergarten!”

Xander didn’t want to go either. “Why would I want to hang out with a bunch of stupid kids? I’m not going!”

Pete was the only one whose eyes lit up. He looked at Nora, and then at Justin. However, the words at the tip of his tongue did a U-turn and he swallowed them back down. In the end, he merely coughed and said, “I think we should go.”

“Why?”

“Why should I?”

Cherry and Xander looked at him in unison.

Pete hurriedly said, “Mommy and Daddy are usually very busy at work, so they don’t have any time to spend with us. It’s not right of us to coop ourselves up at home all the time. Besides, Mia is a pushover, so who knows if she’s being bullied at school? If we go, we can protect her. Moreover, didn’t God-mom say she wants to take you as her apprentice and teach you how to dance, Cherry?”

Cherry: “…”

Despite the huge internal struggle, when she thought of how much of a pushover Mia was, she sighed and said, “Okay then, I suppose!”

Xander was still opposed to it, but Pete ignored him and said, “Then I’ll contact the kindergarten teachers and tell them that the three of us are coming to school tomorrow.”

Xander: “…”

He followed after Pete. “Hey, I didn’t say that I’m going to school. You…”

As they spoke, the two of them went upstairs to the study to call the kindergarten.

Seeing this, Cherry also followed after them. She called out, “Pete! Xander! Wait for me!”

After the three children went upstairs, Nora finally looked at Justin and asked, “Do you know about the ongoings on the Internet? Are you the one behind it?”

She thought that Justin had set up something.

However, Justin replied, “Lauren got a reporter to post that news online.”

Nora raised her brows.

Justin, however, smiled and said, “I was just about to ask you something too. Is it okay for your secret identity as Q to be exposed?”

Nora curled her lips disdainfully.

It didn’t matter to her anymore.

In the past, she had been averse to blowing her cover only because of her mother’s final words. The mysterious organization was already after her, though, so what was there for her to be afraid of now?

Practically right at this moment, Mrs. Hunt’s voice came from outside the door. “Where is that woman?! Kick that unfaithful woman who’s fooling around outside and giving Justin a bad name out of the house!”

As the voice rang out, Lauren helped Mrs. Hunt into the room.

After they entered, Mrs. Hunt’s gaze fell on Nora first. Then, she looked at Justin and said, “Justin, did you see what that woman has done? Yet you still want to protect her?! What on earth are you thinking?! How can you be so muddleheaded?! Is this a loss that you should be accepting?! Kick her out of the house! We can’t have a matriarch like her in the Hunt's!”

Her hands shook with anger. “To make matters worse, she actually made all those things she did common knowledge! How utterly embarrassing!”

Lauren also sighed. “Ms. Smith, Justin is utterly devoted to you, yet you have disappointed him so. How can you do something like that?”

She looked at Justin triumphantly. “And you too, Justin. In order to gain the Smiths’ support, you actually plan to even cover up something like that? If you choose to compromise now, that woman will only become even more brazen in the future! Look at what she’s doing all day! Apart from sleeping, she doesn’t do anything decent! Break off the engagement, Justin. You deserve better! Also, the Smith's must give us an explanation for this!”

If they insisted on an explanation from the Smith's, then the Hunt's and the Smith's were bound to fall out.

A proud Lauren thought to herself that she had really done some excellent work for Herman this time!!

Chapter 753: Press Conference

Mrs. Hunt immediately rebuked Lauren angrily. “What kind of explanation do you want from them? Nora didn’t grow up with the Smith's at all, what kind of responsibility would possibly lie with the Smith's? Don’t talk nonsense! Even if the engagement is called off, the cooperative relationship between the two families will not change! After all, the children belong to both of them. They are also Smiths’ grandchildren!”

The Hunt's weren’t trying to curry favor with the Smith's. However, if her grandson had the Smiths’ support, then he would have a much easier time in the future.

The moment Justin defeated Herman, Mrs. Hunt had sided with Justin.

Although she knew that a rift had already formed between her and her grandson the moment she stepped forward to defend Herman, everything she did was for the good of the Hunt's.

Justin could be said to have been brought up by Mrs. Hunt. Her feelings for her son and grandson were the same.

Now, she would support whoever was more capable.

Take, for example, Raymond. He was also her son, but she had still sided with Justin without any hesitation back then.

Lauren curled her lips disdainfully.

However, she did not dare to refute Mrs. Hunt. In this family, only with the old lady’s approval would she be able to go further.

She said, “Yes, yes, you’re right. Nora is not equivalent to the Smith's… I’m just afraid that the Smith's will fight for the custody of the children once they call off their engagement.”

As soon as she said that, Mrs. Hunt’s brows drew together tightly and she subconsciously said, “Pete mustn’t be given to them!”

But right after that, she hesitated. “Cherry likes her father, so she should also stay. We should respect the children’s wishes!”

Lauren sighed. “Ian Smith is not someone who will compromise easily.” Mrs. Hunt sneered, “The Smith Corporation now belongs to Joel Smith. Will he want Pete to go there and compete with his children for the family’s assets?”

Lauren, however, was still embellishing the story. “But Ian is still around…”

Mrs. Hunt looked at her sharply. “It’s precisely because Ian is still around that we should talk it out with them properly! Everything is negotiable! However, the fault doesn’t lie with us in this matter!”

She looked straight at Nora. “You know very well what you’ve done out there. You have let the Hunt's down! Especially when you can’t even clean up after yourself properly, causing the whole thing to blow up so badly. You’re such a good-for-nothing!”

Mrs. Hunt was right.

If the matter wasn’t exposed to outsiders, then even if she felt frustrated about it, she could still bear with Nora.

After all, it was always better for such scandals to be covered up. But now that it had been exposed, she would have to see that the matter was dealt with!

The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became. The way she was looking at Nora was as if she wanted to rip her apart. “You’re so shameless and an utter disgrace! Ugh!”

Nora ignored her. She was more than happy to watch the two act like clowns.

However, when Mrs. Hunt suddenly verbally attacked Nora, Justin would have none of it. His expression darkened and he said, “Grandma, you shouldn’t be so bitter towards Nora when it’s not clear what is going on yet!”

“It’s not clear what is going on yet?” Mrs. Hunt looked at him furiously. “You actually know very well that she cheated on you, don’t you? Are you still playing dumb with me about what is going on? They’ve even found out who she cheated with by now! Yet you are still telling me that it’s not clear what is going on yet? Justin, why have you suddenly become so muddleheaded?!”

Justin lowered his gaze. “Grandma, you’re the one who’s being muddleheaded!”

Lauren interjected, “Let’s have a good talk about who the muddleheaded one really is today. Nora, I have a question for you: The rumors on the Internet are so vivid and convincing, so was Q in that villa you visited or not?!”

Nora raised her eyebrows. She’d just woken up, so her lips were a little dry. She licked them a little before she slowly replied, “Yes, Q was there.”

Lauren scoffed, “There we go.”

Justin looked at her and said unhurriedly and dispassionately, “I was also in the villa.”

Lauren scoffed. “Justin, are you still defending her when things have already come to this point? You were also in the villa? What were you doing there? Surely you weren’t there just to watch them cozy up to each other, right? Or perhaps you’re trying to say that Q was only staying there temporarily? Why does Q have to stay in Nora’s villa when the Smith's own so many houses?

“Don’t bother coming up with some kind of excuse that Q is a security guard or something, either. Would Q act as a security guard for you guys when he’s such an amazing hacker?! Stop your poorly disguised attempts to cover up the truth!”

Mrs. Hunt also spoke earnestly. “Justin, don’t defend her anymore. I know what you are worried about. Don’t worry, I will give you my shares. With Grandma here, I won’t allow your father to overwhelm you again! As for the Smiths… Let’s move on. There is no need for you to suffer such grievances!”

Mrs. Hunt’s heart was truly aching over him. She thought that her grandson was only putting up with it because of either the Smith's or the children.

After all, Justin was a man of great forbearance.

At this point, the butler came in. When he saw them, he paused for a while before he said, “Sir, there are some reporters outside. They would like to interview you about… Ms. Smith’s ch… going out on a date.”

As soon as he said that, Lauren curled her lips disdainfully and said, “Look at what’s happening, it’s to the point that even the reporters are here! The Hunt's have really embarrassed themselves! Justin, are you still going to protect that woman?”

Mrs. Hunt also said, “Justin, you have to be firm and decisive. Go out and tell the reporters right away that you’re calling off the engagement!”

Justin looked at Nora. When he saw her giving him a slight nod, he said, “Take the reporters to the reception hall.”

“Yes, sir.”

The butler left to make the arrangements. They were going to hold a small press conference in the reception hall at home.

“Justin, you haven’t become totally muddleheaded, after all!”

Mrs. Hunt breathed a sigh of relief. She looked at Nora and said, “Let’s go over together! We’ll make things clear today!”

She took the lead.

Nora and Justin followed behind her leisurely.

Lauren suddenly came up to Nora and asked with a soft laugh, “Ms. Smith, I know it’s not appropriate of me to ask something like this, but is Q good-looking? I can’t help it; master hackers like Q and Y are simply too mysterious, so I’m really curious!”

Even though she claimed that she was asking out of curiosity, she was merely trying to bring up Q to disgust Justin!

She’d thought that Nora would be evasive about the topic, but unexpectedly, Nora actually thought about it for a while before she answered, “Yeah, Q is handsome.”

Lauren: “?”

Was the situation already so bad to Ms. Smith that to make it worse made no real difference to her?

She took the opportunity to ask, “He is? I don’t believe you, surely he can’t be more handsome than Justin, right?”

Nora glanced at Justin. Her lips curled into a smile and she replied, “Yeah, I think Q is more handsome than him.”

After speaking, she even raised her eyebrows, looked at Justin, and asked, “What do you think?”

Lauren: “?”

Nora must be out of her mind! To think she had even ripped off the very last bit of decency. She was in for a good show later!

Chapter 754: Nora Smith Is Q!

At the same time, Lauren was also secretly delighted. Given how she had just provoked Justin, he would definitely lose his temper!

Just as she was thinking about that, Justin thought for a while before he looked at Nora with a smile and said, “Q is prettier than me.”

Lauren: “??”

She was a little confused. At the same time, she also became a little uneasy. However, she didn’t quite understand why she was feeling so uneasy.

The lack of hostility between the two also confused her very much.

Why on earth was Justin being so tolerant towards Nora?

Even Herman had been jealous when he discovered that Iris and Philip were in a relationship before!

While she was puzzled and uneasy, Nora and Justin entered the reception hall.

As soon as the two entered, the reporters started to fire questions at them madly:

“Mr. Hunt, do you have an explanation for the exposé on the Internet? Is Q really staying at Ms. Smith’s villa in the suburbs?”

Justin smiled calmly at the question. He glanced at Nora and said, “I suppose you can say that.”

His words caused an uproar among the reporters.

Was he planning to admit to the cheating?

Should Nora be revealed to be cheating, then Justin would definitely break off his engagement with her!

“So, are the two of you holding this press conference to announce your engagement annulment?”

A bold reporter voiced a question.

The Smith's and the Hunts’ political marriage impacted the New York business circle, so everyone was very concerned about it.

Mrs. Hunt nodded when she heard the question.

Unexpectedly, the next moment, Justin instead answered, “No.”

Everyone: “?”

As everyone looked at him in puzzlement, Justin explained, “I am indeed the one my fiancée was on a date with at the suburban villa.”

As soon as he said that, one of the reporters there let out a soft laugh.

Mrs. Hunt also glared at him.

Lauren frowned. Right away, she said a little sarcastically, “So, the three of you were on a date in the suburban villa? Surely it can’t be that you and Ms. Smith were playing host to Q in the suburban villa, right? And then by chance, you guys encountered someone planning to hack into the villa’s network to see who Ms. Smith is on a date with? If so, then what a huge coincidence that is!”

This was the only possibility that Lauren could think of.

The reporters snickered even more.

That excuse couldn’t get any more hilarious, alright?

On top of that, it was an utterly brainless one too!

One of the gutsy busybodies among the reporters spoke up.

“Mr. Hunt, are you still protecting your fiancée even at a time like this? Is the Hunt Corporation really done for? Has it come to the point where you have no choice but to rely on the Smith's?

“Or is it not so much that the Hunt Corporation is done for but rather, Mr. Hunt has suffered too great a loss from the infighting? You can’t break off the engagement with the Smith's, so you’re deliberately making that excuse?

“Even so, that’s too hilarious an excuse. Q is obviously staying at the Smiths’ villa, yet you are still saying that you’re the one on a date with Ms. Smith. Surely it can’t be that you are Q himself, right?! Hahaha…”

His last sentence was completely a joke.

However, it suddenly alarmed Lauren.

Her head whipped towards Justin, and she suddenly thought of something that Herman had once said: “Justin is very smart. He has demonstrated a high level of understanding of computer technology before.”

Could it be that… Justin really was Q?

No wonder he and Nora had been unusually composed just now.

The thought made her raise her head suddenly and look at Justin nervously, for fear that he would say that he was indeed Q.

If so, wouldn’t their upcoming plans be utterly disrupted?

While she was thinking, a stern and serious Justin replied, “Of course I’m not Q.”

Lauren let out a huge sigh of relief.

Everything was fine as long as he wasn’t Q!

As long as he wasn’t Q, the allegations of Nora’s cheating would be cemented!

The reporter was just joking, but unexpectedly, Justin had actually answered him so seriously, which made him pause for a moment.

Just as everyone was about to continue with their questions, a low voice rang out.

“I am Q.”