Chapter 427 Theft
“This question again?” Linda looked at Melanie with a smile, her eyes twinkling. “You really feel a strong affinity with me, don’t you?”
Melanie’s face remained unchanged. She looked patiently at Linda, waiting for the latter’s answer.
There seemed to be no reasonable explanation for the many coincidences between them. However, Melanie clearly remembered being rescued by a mysterious stranger from the fire at the
York’s estate.
When she was unconscious, the mother of that little boy once said that she knew that she was pregnant… Since Melanie saved that little boy, said woman would do all she could to protect the
mother and child.
Wasn’t everything that Linda was doing to protect Melanie and her child?!
“I feel a strong affinity with you, too. It feels just marvelous!” Linda said.
Melanie wasn’t surprised. She didn’t expect Linda to give her a genuine answer anyway.
However, Linda’s vague answers to her questions were enough for Melanie to pinpoint the problem. Melanie smiled, and didn’t push further.
She went back, and reported to Linda and Leo about the research and development and mass production progress of her two new fragrances named “Falling Snow” and “In The Moonlight“. The factory and research and development centers were both located in Harbor City. She even invited them there for a site visit when they had the time.
Linda suggested co–branding her newly–designed jewelry series, Sun and Moon, with Melanie’s second fragrance named, In the Moonlight, to which Melanie readily agreed.
Although the Yorks and the Yanceys were considered as higher–level sources of capital, there were pros and cons in getting Jones Enterprise involved with them. But with such higher–level sources of capital throwing an olive branch at Melanie, she had no way of rejecting them.
The next day, Linda was busy tying up loose ends of her large–scale jewelry show. After taking a break in the afternoon, all the staff members gathered to go through a final rehearsal before the
actual show.
One of the staff members pushed in a remarkably huge safe.
etual day as possible and all the models were
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Some staff members and bodyguards surrounded the safe and distributed the jewelry to the models. Cries of astonishment and awe sounded from the backstage dressing room.
Although the models were experienced in their own right, Linda’s jewelry were clearly on another level compared to major brands commonly seen in the market. Her pieces were exquisitely designed and exorbitantly priced.
After all the pieces in the safe were distributed, Linda stood up and crooked a finger at Adam. “It’s finally your turn!”
One of the staff members took the cue and lowered his head to open the lock on the safe.
The Sun and Moon diamond series was worth a fortune, and it was protected by three layers of security measures to prevent theft. Everyone held their breath in expectation to see them in its full glory. After unlocking the security mechanism, a deafening silence fell upon everyone backstage.
“It’s—empty?”
The exclamation alerted Linfa, who turned back to look. She immediately looked at the bodyguard in charge of guarding the safe, and demanded, “What’s going on?!”
“Ms. Yancey, I’ll look into it right away!”
The bodyguard instructed three teams to lock down the entire venue and check through surveillance camera footage and sightings of suspicious people. Linda sat down expressionlessly, but everyone knew her blood was boiling.
“Call Mr. Wright and Ms. Murray over right now!” she instructed coldly after pondering for a
moment.
One of her subordinates quickly brought the two of them over. Their faces were filled with fear as they anxiously denied all involvement in the matter.
“Ms. Yancey, I had nothing to do with the theft of Sun and Moon!”
“Don’t panic. Take turns to explain yourself,” Linda said with a smile that sent chills down their
spines.
She first turned to Mr. Wright, who bent low and said humbly, “Ms. Yancey, I’ve worked for you for almost 20 years. You know the little tricks that I sometimes have up my sleeves, but you also know the kind of person I am. I don’t have the guts to do something on such a massive scale…”
Linda nodded, and turned to look at Kelly with an arched brow.
“What about you?” she demanded.
“Ms Yancey! I would never dare to do this, even if you threatened to beat me to death!”
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Kelly was on the verge of panicked tears which she tried hard to hold back, lest she embarrassed herself in front of everyone. She explained herself through suppressed sobs, “My dad’s company suffered huge losses because I offended you, and he gave me a thorough scolding. He even stripped me of my allowance for the year because of it…..”
What in the world?
Linda waved her hand in frustration, and her subordinate immediately signaled for Kelly to shut up.
“Everyone involved in preparing for this show is here. Out of everyone here, less than ten know the code to the safe. I don’t want to check all of them one by one. There might be a chance of an accidental leakage of the code, anyway. I’m giving you one chance. As long as you hand over the Sun and Moon collection, I promise to be lenient in punishment!”
Linda flipped her hair behind her shoulders, and waited for around one minute before she said in a darker tone, “If you don’t admit your mistake right now and I manage to find you, I’ll make sure you wish you were dead!”
Everyone exchanged glances, not daring to even breathe.
Even after waiting for a while longer, no one stepped forward to confess. The three bodyguard teams returned and reported that they could not find any clues for the time being.
“Hah!” Linda scoffed. “Did an invisible person come in and steal the collection?”
There were only a few hours left until the start of the show. It wasn’t just an issue of monetary loss with the theft of the Sun and Moon series. What was more serious was the risk on their reputation in the global fashion industry.
Even Linda began feeling panic.
Silence fell upon the huge backstage, making the air blown from the air–conditioning unit deafening. No one dared to breathe a word for fear that it might anger Linda, who was furious at
this point.
In the midst of the tense silence, Melanie walked confidently, stood right, before the open safe, and started sniffing it.
“It’s not that there are no clues whatsoever,” she said calmly.
