Chapter 173: It’s Just Snitching
"You..." Prescott hadn’t expected the forceful slap he threw to be caught. He subconsciously tried to pull his hand back but found it wouldn’t budge.
Humiliated and enraged, he raised his other hand to slap Arabella Donovan’s face.
As expected, it was caught as well.
"Can’t you just talk things out and be reasonable? You have to resort to violence, is that it?"
Arabella already had a poor impression of the man, and seeing him try to get physical again and again truly angered her.
With a dark expression, she twisted his hands. As he cried out in pain, she launched a kick into his stomach, sending him flying more than ten feet.
It wasn’t until Prescott landed with a THUD and let out a squeal like a stuck pig that everyone else in the store snapped back to reality.
Eugene Jennings’s eyes bulged like saucers. ’Where did this freakishly strong girl come from? Is this really my delicate, fragile little cousin who looks like a gust of wind could blow her over?’
’Before I left, Mom, Dad, and my big brother repeatedly warned me that I had to protect my little sister. Who’s protecting who here?!’
Mr. Sterling and the others hadn’t expected Prescott to be the one getting beaten up instead of doing the beating. After being stunned for a good while, they finally shrieked and rushed over to Prescott.
The twist from Arabella had partially dislocated both of Prescott’s wrists, and his stomach was screaming in pain.
Even so, he managed to get to his feet with his wife’s help and dialed a number with a grim face. "Mark, some little bitch just beat me up. I’m at..."
Before he could finish, his phone was snatched away. At the same time, a dozen or so bodyguards in black suits entered the store.
"Wh-what’s going on?"
The other customers in the store were frightened by the intimidating group of bodyguards and huddled together in small groups.
Eugene Jennings didn’t have time to think, once again shielding the two girls.
Arabella, however, was quite calm. Watching the bodyguards from a distance, she felt a strange sense of familiarity.
The bodyguard who had snatched Prescott’s phone ignored his furious yelling. He sneered and barked into the phone at the man shouting on the other end, "Marty, you’ve really got some nerve. One of your men actually dared to lay a hand on our Young Miss."
The person on the other end of the line went silent instantly. It was a long moment before he spoke again.
Prescott was close enough to vaguely hear what sounded like begging. His heart skipped a beat, and his eyes widened in terror as he looked at the man before him. "Wh-who are you?"
The bodyguard hung up, tossed the phone back to him, and then hurried over to Arabella’s group. "Young Miss," he asked respectfully, "are you all right?"
"Grandpa had you follow me?" Arabella raised an eyebrow. Now that he was closer, she recognized him.
He was one of the bodyguards who had followed Howard that day, accompanying Dennis Donovan and her to Lewis Village to rescue Preston. The identity of the dozen or so bodyguards in black suits was now self-evident.
"The Ninth Master and the Old Madam were worried about you being out alone, Young Miss. They ordered us to protect you covertly."
Since it was a covert protection detail, they originally weren’t supposed to reveal themselves.
But since someone had just tried to lay a hand on Arabella, it would have been inexcusable for them not to intervene.
The bodyguard glanced at Arabella, slightly worried that she might be angry about being followed.
Arabella wasn’t bothered by it. After all, her grandparents meant well. After hearing his explanation, she simply asked, "What’s your name?"
"You can call me Herman, Young Miss."
"Herman, let me try to handle this myself first. If I can’t, then you can tell Grandpa, okay?"
"Of course. Just let me know if you need anything at all."
Arabella nodded, sighed, and dialed Kieran Kerr’s number again. As the phone rang, she grumbled to herself.
’Kieran Kerr, your future wife is getting beat up! Are you coming or not? If you don’t, get ready to grovel for the rest of your life!’
Eugene Jennings: "!!!"
’Wife? Who? It can’t be my little cousin, can it? And who the hell is this Kieran Kerr? How dare he have designs on our little cousin! Does he have a death wish?’
His overprotective-cousin instincts went into overdrive. He braced himself, but when he turned his head, he saw that Arabella was staring at the salesgirl who’d just been slapped while she was on the phone.
’So, the "wife" she was talking about is...’
At that moment, Kieran Kerr, the general manager of a corporation whom Arabella had long since branded a lovesick fool, had just managed—with great difficulty—to use an incident with Arabella’s cousin-in-law to purge his company’s internal parasites. He had finally cleared out a batch of senior relatives who did nothing but occupy their posts, drag the company down, and throw their weight around by flaunting their age.
Life was good. He even felt like he had a lucky buff on this business trip, as everything was going unbelievably smoothly.
Perhaps even the heavens couldn’t stand to see him so smug, because just as he finished negotiating a deal, he got a call from Arabella.
Kieran Kerr was a little excited when he answered the call. "Miss Donovan! To what do I owe the pleasure? Speaking of which, I still haven’t properly thanked you for your help with your sister-in-law’s situation. If you and she hadn’t given me that opening, I have no idea how much time and effort it would’ve taken to oust that pack of incompetent freeloaders."
Towards the end, Kieran Kerr’s tone was undeniably cheerful. "Are you still in Stroven City, Miss Donovan? I might have a business trip there next week. I was wondering if you’d be free then. I’d like to treat you to a meal to express my gratitude."
"A meal won’t be necessary. The reason I’m bothering you today is to ask about something. Underneath that set of jewelry your mother gave me, there was a discount card for your jewelry stores. Does this card have any restrictions? For example, can it only be used at a specific store in a specific mall in Jarden, and not anywhere else?"
Kieran Kerr was stunned. It took him a moment to reply, "No, not at all. The discount card my mother gave you can be used at every single one of our franchise stores in any major mall, nationwide."
"Including in Brynn?"
"Of course." Kieran Kerr hadn’t become the general manager just by being the young master of the corporation.
Hearing Arabella’s words, he immediately sensed that something was wrong. A bad premonition even began to form in his mind.
"Are you in Brynn right now? What a coincidence, I’m also here for a business deal. Did something happen at one of our franchise stores? Give me the address, I’ll head over right away."
Hearing that Kieran Kerr was also in Brynn, Arabella raised an eyebrow and instinctively glanced over at Catherine Chamberlain.
"It’s nothing major. My cousin and I were out shopping on a whim today and happened to pass by one of your stores, so we went in to buy some gifts. When it was time to pay, I remembered the card your mother gave me and asked the salesclerk if I could use it."
"And the clerk said you couldn’t?"
"The clerk said I could, but the store manager called me a liar and said my discount card was fake. When the clerk spoke up for me, she got slapped and fired. Oh, right, he also tried to hit me."
’Though he didn’t manage to land a hit, and I beat him up instead, that’s not the point. Heh, anyone can tattle, right? Nyah nyah nyah~’
Eugene Jennings: *Pfft...*