From Ashes of Scandal to His Embrace (Laurinda) novel Chapter 223

Laurinda folded her arms and looked down at Aggie, her face all wide-eyed innocence.

“Humiliate you? I’m just telling it like it is. You and your brother are Aiken’s kids. Isn’t it only natural for you to ask your real grandfather for money? He’s in a nursing home now, he doesn’t even need it. If you really beg him, I bet he’ll give you whatever he’s got stashed away. He loved Aiken so much. How could he just let Aiken’s kids end up with nowhere to go?”

Aggie glared at Laurinda, clutching the lollipop Laurinda had given her earlier. Not long ago, she’d felt bad for agreeing to Finn’s scheme against Laurinda, but that guilt had completely vanished. All she felt now was pure hatred.

“Laurinda, you’re so cold. Do you really have to force my family into a dead end? You got my mom thrown in jail, made my brother and me homeless. What, are you only happy if I end up dead?”

Adah had been right all along. Laurinda was nothing but trouble, here to ruin their family.

Laurinda just smiled, totally unfazed by the anger in Aggie’s eyes.

“Was it me who made your mom do all those things? And now you want to blame everything on me? Does that even make sense? If you want to die, that’s not something I can control. You came to me for help, and I gave you every idea I had. That’s all I can do.”

She didn’t bother saying anything else to Aggie. Laurinda just turned around and walked straight back to the infirmary. There was no way she believed Aggie would actually do anything drastic.

If Aggie really had any pride, she wouldn’t have come here begging. What did she take Laurinda for? Someone to take advantage of?

Aggie stared after Laurinda, watching her walk away without looking back. It was clear now—Laurinda wasn’t going to help her. She looked down at the slip of paper on the ground. After a long pause, she bent down, picked it up, and ran off.

What Aggie didn’t realize was that Laurinda was already back in front of the security monitors, watching everything unfold in real time.

Foley glanced over and caught the sly, almost wicked smile on Laurinda’s face. He felt a chill run down his spine.

“Thank you for your hard work, Principal. I’ll need to trouble you and the education bureau to get that money back. Whether you call the police or just talk to the parents, I’ll leave that up to you.”

The principal’s face clouded over. He’d already tried to recover the money, but those parents just ignored him, not planning to pay anything back. He couldn’t really expel the students just for this, could he?

When the principal didn’t answer, one of the staff, a woman, let out a sarcastic little laugh and spoke up, acting like she was in charge.

“Laurinda, after looking into it for days, we know those students aren’t technically eligible for aid, but asking them to pay it back would be tough on their families. Since you already handed out the money, isn’t it better to just let it go? Why make things harder for them?”

Laurinda’s eyes went icy at her words, but her smile didn’t fade.