Chapter 27: Hooked

Vivian Hale raised an eyebrow upon hearing this.

As expected, she had taken the bait.

Lowering her eyes, she reached directly into her bag, pulled out the card, and handed it to Tiffany Rose.

"Of course. It's merely a single card. I happen to have another one on hand anyway. You just helped the Cross Group save so much face, so it's only right to give you a beauty card as a reward."

Tiffany was instantly overjoyed.

No longer caring about any of her superficial pretenses, she snatched the beauty card right out of her hand.

The black-gold surface of the card looked understated yet luxurious.

A rush of absolute satisfaction filled Tiffany's heart, and she took a deep breath to calm her emotions.

Yet when she looked up again, she still couldn't resist taunting Vivian.

"Then I must thank Miss Hale... This item is mine now."

She deliberately glanced at Adrian Cross, speaking with a heavy implication.

She also let out a sigh of relief in her heart; she could finally deliver what she owed to that old woman.

Vivian merely offered a faint smile.

Tiffany’s words didn't wound her in the slightest.

With everything progressing smoothly, Tiffany was losing all sense of propriety.

She even slid her hand behind Adrian’s back, wrapping her arm around the man's waist in an ambiguous gesture while quietly resting her head against his shoulder.

Her tone carried a distinctly spoiled whine.

"Items should be put to their full use. Besides, Miss Hale has no need for skin maintenance anyway. Oh, by the way, Mr. Cross, why don't we go have a meal later to celebrate? What do you think?"

Gazing at the two of them pressing against each other, Vivian curled her lips into a smile and spoke sensibly, "Since that's the case, Honey, you really ought to celebrate properly with Miss Rose. I'll go home and brew some soup for you; make sure you drink less alcohol."

With that, she picked up her bag beside her and departed.

A dark glint flashed through Adrian’s eyes, and he opened his mouth, about to call her back.

To his surprise, Tiffany wrapped her arms tightly around him instead.

She tilted her pure little face up, her watery eyes filled with a heavy display of calculated anticipation.

"Adrian, you've ignored me for so many days already. Don't think about Vivian Hale anymore today, just focus on accompanying me. I want to give this beauty card to Auntie. I didn't take good care of her some time ago, so I want to make it up to her as much as possible."

Adrian’s heart stirred, recalling the scene from earlier where Tiffany had been praised by so many prominent figures...

Furthermore, she truly seemed to care about his mother.

He reached his hand out to playfully scratch her nose, his tone finally reclaiming its former intimacy.

"Alright, we'll do whatever you say."

Tiffany instantly broke into a wide smile.

Within less than an hour, the beauty card obtained from Vivian’s hands was transferred straight into Eleanor Cross's possession.

The noblewoman, who had previously found Tiffany rather displeased, felt the gold-embossed surface of the card and instantly broke into a massive smile, her attitude performing a complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn.

This Tiffany wasn't any worse than Vivian Hale after all!

Her face was covered in smiles, completely forgetting that even the money she used for her beauty treatments right now was generated by those commercial storefront properties Vivian had personally selected and purchased for her.

That very afternoon, she drove straight down to Star Source.

Star Source was a medical beauty facility that every noblewoman in the capital's social circle aspired to visit. The office venue alone occupied a small, vintage European-style mansion in the middle of the CBD, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold.

Everything from foot massages, bathing, to medical cosmetic surgeries was available.

Eleanor wore a pair of sunglasses and clutched an Hermès bag, stepping out of her car with an arrogant air.

She then used two fingers to fish that black card out of her bag, floating it nonchalantly over to the receptionist.

"Arrange a full-service routine for me. Start with a foot massage, then a full-body massage, followed by the anti-aging treatment..."

"Certainly, Ma'am."

The receptionist girl responded respectfully, reaching her hand out to take the card.

Yet the moment she saw the card clearly, her movements paused for a split second.

Eleanor didn't notice. Very quickly, after the card was swiped through the machine, Eleanor was led down to the entrance of a private room.

The receptionist ahead smiled slightly, "We've arrived. You can go inside. You're only a few minutes late; the boss over there won't blame you."

Eleanor froze, not fully understanding the comment, but seeing the smile on the receptionist's face, she stepped inside anyway.

The door was shut behind her.

However, in the very next second, she realized something was wrong.

Inside were five lounge chairs, alongside five foot-soaking tubs.

Five middle-aged men sat on the chairs, their expressions heavily laced with impatience.

"Hurry up and come over. I've been exhausted all day and want to relax properly."

Eleanor stood frozen on the spot, and in the next heartbeat, she saw one of the men speak up.

"Alright, stop acting so reserved. Hurry over here. Looking at your age, your technique ought to be pretty decent, right?"

"Exactly, hurry over and massage me."

Eleanor was instantly consumed with humiliation and rage.

"What absolute nonsense are you spouting?! Are you insane?! I came here for a beauty treatment, what foot massage? Who do you think you are to deserve that?!"

She was trembling fiercely from rage. Was this how Star Source treated an elite VIP like her? This was simply pushing things too far; she was going to sue them!

Leaving behind those words, Eleanor turned to storm out of the room.

To her shock, when the men who had been scolded saw this, their expressions underwent a violent transformation.

One man, whose face was covered in thick layers of fat, clamped his hand around Eleanor’s arm with a freezing gaze.

"A mere wretched technician dares to shout at us and insult us? Fine, today you must massage us until we are comfortable, or else I'll make things ugly for you."

Eleanor hadn't expected them to suddenly lay hands on her. Failing to maintain her footing, she stepped directly into the foot-soaking tub ahead of her.

With a loud clatter.

The medicinal water meant for soaking feet splashed all over her head and body, her originally white silk top turning brown in an instant.

Furthermore, a foul stench wafted directly into her nostrils.

One of the men broke into a sudden laugh.

"Hahaha! We asked you to give a massage and you refused, but it turns out you just prefer drinking foot-soaking water?"

Eleanor couldn't endure it for another second, letting out a loud shriek.

Lowering her head, she charged blindly out of the room like a rampaging animal.

Clutching her bag, which had already lost one side of its chain, she rushed down to the front desk and slammed that black-gold card onto the table, her eyes completely bloodshot.

"Is this how your establishment treats VIP clients?! Call the police, I want to call the police right now!"

The young girl at the front desk was just about to speak when a woman around thirty years old wearing gold-rimmed glasses walked over.

Her expression was heavily darkened, "May, what's going on here? The complaint call from Room 32 has already reached my desk."

May scrambled to explain, "Manager Wang, it's like this. This older lady came in holding an employee card. Seeing that there was a schedule arranged on her card, I brought her straight down to do her shift. I don't know what happened after she went inside, but now she's saying she wants to call the police?"

Eleanor was stunned on the spot, her mouth hanging open in utter disbelief. "What did you say? This isn't a membership card? This is an employee card?! What absolute nonsense are you spouting?!"

Manager Wang looked at the woman before her, then looked at the card, a trace of amusement suddenly flashing through the depths of her eyes.

"Ma'am, there must be a misunderstanding somewhere. Why don't you hand the card over let me take a look?"

Eleanor frantically picked up the black-gold card and thrust it over.

Manager Wang looked over it, swiped it through the machine once more, and then explained with a smiling face.

"Our apologies, Ma'am, but our employee is not mistaken. This is indeed our employee card. Our membership cards look like this."

As she spoke, she pulled out another card.

Eleanor looked over; this card was completely different from her own.

Yet it was identical to the one Vivian Hale had given her in the past.

Eleanor’s eyes widened, and the world began to spin violently before her.

So, Tiffany Rose had used an employee card to play her for a fool, leading her to be casually degraded as a foot-massage technician?

No longer caring about anything else, she dropped the card, pushed past the crowd, and rushed out the door.

That tramp!! She harmed me on purpose.

To her fury, she was blocked once again.

"Ma'am, please wait a moment. Our employee cards are tied to salary distributions and undergo strict verification. The information listed on this card does not belong to you. May I ask where you obtained it? Did you steal it..."