Filed to story: My Husband Regrets Divorcing Me (Audrey & Cornell)
Vicki felt kids were simple creatures. A small treat would usually keep them in line.
Vicki warned, “Lying children will grow long noses. Come on, Austin. Be a good boy and come here.”
But Austin didn’t just ignore Vicki. He burst into even more tears.
Terror was etched on his face.
“You glared at me again…” Austin recoiled into Nicole’s arms.
He said with trembling lips to Nicole, “Mommy, she did more than just glare at me. She pinched me. She also threatened that if I didn’t obey her, I would never see you again…”
Turning to Jarrod with eyes wide with fear, Austin said, “Daddy, is it true what Vicki said? I was so scared of never seeing my mommy again that I did everything she told me. I’m really scared… That bad nanny told me that the doctored soy milk was Vicki’s idea. She wants to kill me… I didn’t dare to disobey her.”
As Austin spoke these words, the air around them grew heavy and cold.
Vicki felt like she was suddenly under a guillotine. Austin had been playing her all along. He had set a deep trap just waiting for her to tumble right into it.
She was stunned that such a small child could be so deviously cunning. It was downright terrifying.
Jarrod’s expression grew stormy as he approached Austin. He crouched and held Austin’s shoulders.
“No, you can always see your mommy. No one’s going to harm her. Daddy will make sure no one ever hurts you!”
Tears filled Austin’s eyes, and he looked up at Vicki as he asked Jarrod, “Daddy, can you protect me and my mommy from her?”
Jarrod reassured him, “You and your mom are going to be fine. I promise.”
Austin let out a relieved sigh and nestled closer into Nicole’s arms.
But as he looked back, his eyes briefly met Vicki’s.
Vicki found herself at a loss for words. The look in Austin’s eyes was a mirror of Jarrod’s when he was about to punish someone, terrifying enough to make anyone tremble.
Vicki felt even more convinced that Austin’s earlier interactions with her were nothing but a charade.
She had perceived him as a timid, fragile child who hardly dared to speak up. Now, she realized it was all just a show put on by this cunning little boy.
Actually, Austin was far from the child Vicki had thought he was. He had cleverly made her lower her defenses by feigning obedience.
Had Austin been openly hostile from the start, nobody would have taken his words seriously. They might have dismissed his behavior as just a typical child’s aversion to a stepmother and dismissed it.
But by first crafting an image of himself as meek and compliant, his accusations now held much more weight. Now, everyone was inclined to believe that Austin was being coerced into submitting to Vicki.
However, in reality, he had complied with Vicki’s demands without any pushback.
Vicki had believed she was the one in charge and was manipulating Austin at will. But, the truth was, she had been the puppet all along. Austin had laid a clever trap, and she had unwittingly Leaped right into it.
In a rush of panic, Vicki tried to defend herself, stammering, “No Jarrod, he’s not telling the truth… He’s lying…”
Vicki nervously tried to pull Jarrod toward her, but Jarrod shoved her away without hesitation. She lost her balance and awkwardly fell to the ground with a loud “thud”.
“Jarrod… Vicki winced in pain, tears welling up in her eyes. She didn’t expect that Jarrod would be so cruel as to push her away.”
“You’d better think carefully about what you’re going to say next,”
Jarrod said in a dangerously low voice. “Who’s lying, my son, or you?”
Jarrod’s eyes were cold as ice, and the gravity of his words made Vicki shake like a leaf.
Without waiting for a response from Vicki, he shifted his attention over to the nanny, who was already scared out of her wits.
“Did somebody put you up to this?” he asked coldly.
The nanny fell silent, all the color draining from her face. When she met Jarrod’s bone-chilling gaze, her legs went limp, and her tongue trembled as she opened her mouth to say something.
Vicki’s heart leaped to her throat when she saw that the nanny was about to speak.
The nanny didn’t dare to tell the truth now. Even if she did, it was too late. She was doomed either way.
Wiping the sweat from her brow, she stammered, “Sir… I didn’t… I mean, I wasn’t…”
“You’d better speak clearly.” Jarrod interrupted her, his patience running extremely thin.
“Lie to me and I’ll make sure your entire family suffers,” he warned, taking a step closer, enveloping the trembling nanny in his looming shadow.
The nanny’s eyes went as wide as saucers, and she was so scared that tears and snot came out. Initially, she had planned to retire after this job.
She was so blinded by the money Vicki dangled in front of her that she failed to see just how terrifying Jarrod was.
And now that she saw the light, it was too late… She had already offended the most terrifying person in the room, sealing her fate.
Vicki could tell that the nanny was hesitating again, so she spoke up to remind the nanny who she worked for.
“Come on, hurry up and spit it out. Did someone instruct you to do it? Or have you been falsely accused? Just tell us the truth! If you’ve made a mistake, admit it. No one’s forcing you to do anything…”
“Vicki, shut up!” Jarrod snapped.
Vicki was startled, but this time, it didn’t take long for her to recover.
She expertly squeezed out a few tears and wailed, “Jarrod, I also want to know the truth, okay? I want to know the truth more than anyone else here, because the truth is that I’m innocent!”
Unmoved by her tears, Jarrod said icily, “Say one more word and I’ll drag you out of here myself. I’ll question her first, and then I’ll question you.”
Vicki shut her mouth and didn’t dare to make another sound.
However, Vicki’s words had successfully brought the nanny back to her senses.
The nanny knew if she admitted to the crime, she was doomed. If she didn’t admit to it, then Vicki would definitely find a way out for her and her family.
Moreover, she couldn’t confess her crimes and openly admit Vicki was the mastermind. She had too much to lose. Her kids had been able to buy a house and settle down in Ardlens thanks to the money from Vicki.
The nanny resolved not to let the chain break now, so she took a deep breath and said firmly, “Sir, I’m innocent. I swear on my life that I never put anything in Austin’s milk. He’s lying!”
The nanny was confident that Austin didn’t have any evidence, so she brazenly added, “I might be poor, but I still have dignity. I refuse to let your son slander me. I’ve had my fair share of years on this earth, and I don’t mind killing myself just to prove my innocence.”
Hearing this, Vicki secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She had singled out this nanny because she was the most cunning and clever servant here. More importantly, the nanny was the easiest to bribe. Because the nanny’s son was so eager to buy a house, he constantly pestered the nanny for money.
But even if the nanny worked every day for the rest of her life, her measly salary wouldn’t be enough to pay for an expensive house.
So, Vicki seized this as an opportunity to tempt the nanny with a generous offer: if the nanny did this one thing for her, then she would provide the money for the house, no questions asked.
As a result, the nanny was able to buy a nice house for her son in Ardlens, and in turn, her son was finally able to climb the ranks in society. Things were just starting to look up for the nanny and her family, and she wasn’t ready to let that go.
Filled with righteous indignation, the nanny insisted on her innocence and even offered to bang her head against the wall to prove it. Of course, she was only pretending. Since rich families cared so much about their image, they wouldn’t want to make a big deal out of this issue, especially without any evidence.
As expected, the bodyguards grabbed the nanny by the arms, restraining her from acting recklessly.
The nanny cried out indignantly, fully immersed in the role of the victim.
All of a sudden, Austin spoke up. “I have evidence!”
Stunned silence followed. Everyone was shocked. What kind of “evidence” could a child possibly have?
Austin took off the whistle that hung around his neck and held it up for everyone to see.
“This is a whistle that can also take pictures. I took pictures of the nanny putting something in my soy milk. I also took pictures of the small bottle she threw away afterward. There’s a name of some kind of clinic on it. Oh, and I also took pictures of the nanny and Vicki alone in a small room.”
This whistle had been a birthday present from Roscoe. Austin really liked the gift and had always worn it around his neck.
Even Nicole didn’t know that it doubled as a camera, let alone the others.
Who would’ve thought that Austin, a mere child, was clever enough to snap photos of the nanny spiking his milk?
Austin had always been so quiet and obedient that everyone just assumed he was a harmless kid. But it turned out he was quite cunning and intelligent.
He knew that resisting would only piss Jarrod off, and that the more he misbehaved, the less likely Jarrod would trust him. It was better to obey and pretend to be timid, waiting patiently for the right moment to strike. And now, that moment had come.
The nanny was utterly dumbfounded. She didn’t expect that Austin would expose her like this. It turned out he had documented all her movements. Damn it! She had really underestimated this child.
The nanny opened her mouth, but no words came out. Too scared to speak, she stopped threatening to bang her head against the wall to prove her innocence.
Jarrod saw right through the nanny’s dazed expression and angrily kicked her without warning. “How dare you hurt my son!” he roared at the top of his lungs. “You really want your family to suffer, don’t you?”
“Show some mercy, Mr. Schultz! It’s all a misunderstanding!” The nanny was truly scared out of her wits now. “It… It wasn’t poison… It was… I didn’t do it! I swear I didn’t…”
Jarrod didn’t even spare the nanny another glance. He barked at the bodyguards, “Get this bitch out of my sight and interrogate her someplace else. I don’t care what you have to do. Just find out who hired her to hurt my son!”
The bodyguards immediately dragged the crying nanny away, kicking and screaming.
The moment the nanny’s pained cries faded away, Jarrod’s cold gaze landed on Vicki’s pale face.