Chapter 355 Not In Vain
Chapter 355 Not In Vain
Maria quickly dialed a number. "Quick, I need to find out where Peggy is. Hurry!"
Then she tried to call James again, but he never answered.
Maria walked quickly toward the security office of the gated community while trying to reach James at the same time.
She asked to be shown the surveillance footage of Peggy's apartment, but the staff refused her politely.
She tried calling up Norman as she hovered by the security office's door, but he was similarly out of reach. Things were starting to look too dire.
Angry and upset, Maria bit her bottom lip hard. At this point, she could do nothing but wait and worry.
Just as she was about to lose her patience, her phone rang. "Hey, sorry about your missed calls. I was in a meeting," James apologized.
He was usually unreachable via phone because he was always busy. Before he could say anything further, Maria interrupted him, "It doesn't matter. I need to check the surveillance footage near Peggy's apartment. Please help me."
"Which neighborhood?"
"Sunny Community."
"Got it." With that, he hung up the phone.
She didn't have to wait long. Within two minutes, the staff in the monitoring room received a call. After the call ended, he rushed out and asked her, "Are you Ms. Song?"
"Yes."
"Please come in. I was just on the phone with my supervisor."
"Okay, thank you!"
Maria quickly scanned through the surveillance videos of the area where Peggy lived. To her surprise, she saw two men carrying a sack out of her door. Other screens showed them getting in a car and driving away toward the east.
There was no doubt in her mind that Peggy was in that sack. With trembling hands, Maria immediately called the police and asked them to continue searching for Peggy.
The entire HM Group took a massive hit with Colby's scandal. In particular, the company's stock price plummeted.
Colby had spent millions on paying off the media to sweep his scandal under the rug, but the tactic proved futile. As it turned out, someone was even more determined to reveal the truth and paid a higher amount. At the moment, the Internet was full of heated discussions about it.
Meanwhile, Rosa seethed as she stared wordlessly at the intractable man in front of her.
Her disgust for him knew no bounds.
Her husband actually slept with a bald ex-convict! 'Is this some kind of sick fetish?' she wondered, feeling sick to her stomach.
Although Colby tirelessly explained to her that the woman drugged him, she couldn't help feeling repulsed by the whole incident.
The stock price of HM Group had dropped, but Colby simply wouldn't give up. He had someone contact Maria and pass along the message. "Tell her that I have Peggy at hand. Remove the news, and I will let her go immediately."
When she received the threatening call, Maria calmed herself down and agreed to the man's request.
The news had already spread. Even if they managed to take down the headlines and hot topics, everyone would have already known about the matter.
Soon after, Colby's scandal seemed to have vanished into thin air. He no longer saw himself on the Internet anymore.
His temper flaring out of control, he growled through gritted teeth, "It must be Maria! The bitch set me up!"
Rosa sneered at him, "How could you not have foreseen this happening while you were having fun with that slut?" NôvelDrama.Org owns all content.
"I wasn't having fun!" Colby shouted at the top of his lungs. "Nothing happened between me and that woman!" Just then, he realized how diabolical Maria was. She had him at the palm of her hand and played him without getting hurt.
Rosa doubted this but saw no reason for him to lie under the circumstances. She mocked him coldly, "But Joslyn told me that you took her home!"
"I met her at the gate of our house. She was injured back then. Nothing happened that night!" A sudden thought made him stop short. Maria happened to bump into him at the gate. Was it all
planned in advance?
Casting a suspicious glance at Rosa, he asked, "Why did you suddenly come back?"
"I heard that you brought that slut home. I came back because I was afraid that you would get duped."
"Who told you that? Joslyn?" Joslyn should be there when he brought Maria home.
"Yes."
The answer confused Colby. It was impossible for Joslyn to stab him in the back. Why, then, did Maria show up at his door that night?
When Maria finally found Peggy, she was in a horrifying shape. She was trussed up like cattle, and her wig was nowhere to be found. Even worse, there were signs of sexual assault on her body.
Maria asked her men to step out. Then, she untied the rope winding around Peggy's body, took off her own coat, and draped it over the hurt woman's violently trembling shoulders. Tears ran down her face as she hugged the other woman's frail form. "Peggy, you are such a fool!"
With a weak smile, Peggy replied in a halting voice, "I'm sorry, Maria. I'm being such a bother, aren't I?"
"Why didn't you discuss your plan with me?" Maria cried out, her red-rimmed eyes searching the other woman's. Her heart broke as she watched the empty expression behind that smile.
Pushing Maria away, Peggy exclaimed, "Don't touch me! I'm dirty!" She had drugged Colby and slept with him. He had ordered two of his men to bring her here and rape her.
"Don't say that!" Maria wiped her tears away and clung even more tightly to her.
"I'm fine. You know that I've had many boyfriends even before I married my ex-husband. I'm no longer a shy, retiring virgin, so they didn't damage me beyond repair. I'm still alive, and that's what counts. " Peggy's clothes hang in tatters around her, so she had no choice but to take Maria's coat.
Even after such an ordeal, Peggy gave Maria a brave smile. In the face of the woman's indifference, a confusing mix of emotions flooded Maria.
Quickly wrapping the thick garment around herself, Peggy nudged Maria and said, "Let's go."
Then, the two of them got into the car together.
"Did you get your revenge on Colby using my video?" Peggy asked.
"Yes." Maria was itching to give Peggy a scolding, but the other woman's embarrassed look made her feel both sorry and guilty towards her.
She knew that Peggy did all of those crazy things just to avenge her. If she had known of her plans beforehand, she never would have allowed her to push through with it. She shouldn't have provoked Colby by herself.
"That's good. That means that the things I've done weren't in vain." Peggy sighed with relief.
Her heart bleeding for her friend, Maria patted her shoulder. "How could you not discuss it with me and just do those things recklessly? You're a woman, too. Don't you have any sense of selfpreservation left?" Even if she said that she didn't care, Peggy was probably worried about her reputation.
Peggy flashed an answering smile at Maria. "If I informed you, would you have let me go to Colby on my own?" "Of course not. Colby is way too cunning for us to deal with. Even the two of us combined, we can't possibly win against him."
"It doesn't matter. I've caused him trouble, and that's good enough for me. My sacrifice was not in vain." The sun shone into the car, illuminating the heartfelt smile on Peggy's face.
Then, she proceeded to tell Maria in detail the events of that day.
Peggy knew that Maria was hell-bent on her revenge against Rosa and wanted to help her. However, she had neither power nor influence.
She remembered that Maria asked Colby to get her out of the jail. With the excuse of thanking him, she stayed at the club he frequented and brought him a drugged drink.
That night, the toast proceeded to its natural conclusion, and Peggy recorded the whole thing using a hidden camera that she had prepared beforehand. In the video she uploaded, there were shots of the two of them with their faces exposed.
As soon as the video gained traction on social media, Colby had someone kidnap her to make her pay for ruining his image.
Thankfully, Maria and her men arrived just in time to save her face from being mutilated by two of Colby's minions.
Indeed, Peggy's revelation caused a world of trouble for Colby. He was taken into police custody for a thorough investigation and had to spend a ton of money to settle the matter.
Worried that Colby might take revenge on the other woman again, Maria offered Peggy a tidy sum and instructed her to leave H City so that she could start a new life in a place where no one knew her.
However, Peggy adamantly refused her offer. To spare Maria any trouble, she resigned from DS Group and applied for police protection. After some time, she borrowed some capital from Maria and set up her own fashion magazine.