Chapter: 238

"Everyone knows that you and Lukas are having an affair-"

The rest of her words were lost as a sharp, solid slap rang through the air.

Rachel's hand stung a little from how hard she'd slapped the maid, but it was worth it. The sound was so loud that it brought Lukas running out to see what was going on.

"Miss Bennet, what happened?" he asked as he approached.

“How dare you lay a hand on me?" the maid cried, covering her burning cheek with her hands. She looked absolutely furious.

Rachel briefly glanced at Lukas, then back at the maid.

"How dare I?" she sneered.

Lukas immediately realized what had happened. He'd already spoken to these two maids about gossiping about Rachel behind her back, but it seemed that they had paid him no heed.

"You two! Apologize to Miss Bennet! Right now!" he said strictly.

The more timid maid instantly went even paler than before. She lowered her eyes to the ground so she wouldn't have to look into Rachel's furious stare anymore. Her lips trembled as she started to form an apology, but before she could say anything, her companion piped up again. The second maid pointed an accusing finger at Rachel and seethed, “Lukas! She's the one who slapped me! Why should we apologize to her?"

"You..." Lukas’ face darkened.

"What's going on here?" said a low, cold voice near the door. Rachel felt her skin prickle at the sound, and she was sure she could feel his eyes boring into her.

"Mr. Sullivan, you're back," Lukas said and turned around to face him.

Before he could say anything else, the arrogant maid threw herself to her knees in front of Victor. She gazed up at him with eyes shimmering with tears, making herself look as pathetic as possible.

"Mr. Sullivan, please help me!"

Victor looked down at her with that neutral expression he wore so well. But that changed when he saw the angry red handprint on her cheek. His face darkened as he said, "Who hit you?"

The maid reached up and covered the mark with her hands. Her lips were quivering as though she were struggling to speak, and her body was shaking. But it was all for show, that much was obvious. In a halting voice she said, "I... I..."

“Tell me!" Victor cut in roughly. His icy eyes were glittering with impatience at her show.

For a moment, the maid was silent. Then she blurted out, "It was Miss Bennet!" The maid pressed her face into her hands and forced herself to sob even harder. Then she turned her tear-stained face up to Victor and whimpered, “Recently, whenever I go up to Miss Bennet's room, I always hear a man's voice. She so rarely comes out that I started to get worried... I just asked her if there was something wrong, but she started shouting at me. She didn't even give me a chance to speak or explain. She accused me of being nosy and then..."

Rachel cocked an eyebrow as she listened to the maid's nonsense story.

But she had to give her credit where it was due; the maid did give a very convincing performance. If she hadn't known that the maid was lying, she would have been inclined to believe her.

Not to mention that the maid had somehow willed herself to be able to sob the way she was. It made her look even more pathetic.

The maid rubbed her palm across her cheek to try and dry off some of the fake tears, then clasped her hands in front of her body.

"When Miss Bennet came home just now, I asked her if she'd had any dinner.

I knew she'd been out the entire day and I just wanted to make sure she'd had something to eat. I even offered to make her some food. I think Miss Bennet misunderstood what I saying, because she slapped me out of the blue. She... She also said..."