Chapter 221: Brooke York’s Bad Idea

“Alright. Considering we’re the same age and bound together by this whole mess, it means our paths were meant to cross,” Sophie Lane said after a moment of consideration. “For the sake of that connection, I agree. I’ll give you a little time, but don’t disappoint me, and don’t make me wait too long!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t!” Hearing Sophie agree, Brooke York breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she had time, she would completely resolve this matter.

“Alright then, I hope you keep your word. Thanks for treating me to the milk tea—it’s delicious. I’ll be going now.”

In a great mood, Sophie picked up her drink and left the shop.

Almost the moment she was out the door, Brooke’s expression darkened. “Threatening me? You really don’t know who you’re dealing with. I’ll make sure you learn exactly what happens when you cross me.”

“Brooke, shouldn’t you be in class right now? Why are you back?”

Alice Cole was currently applying a face mask. Seeing Brooke return surprised her quite a bit. It was school hours, and the two cities were so far apart. How could she just come back on a whim? Alice hurriedly peeled the mask off her face.

“Sophie Lane came looking for me.” Brooke flopped down onto the sofa, explaining the reason for her sudden return.

“Sophie Lane?” Alice didn’t react immediately, seemingly having no idea who that was.

“You don’t know who Sophie is?” Brooke asked, catching the confusion in Alice’s tone.

Alice shook her head. She had never heard the name before. In fact, she didn’t know anyone with the surname Lane.

“She’s the girl whose university spot I took. Her name is Sophie Lane.”

With Brooke’s explanation, realization dawned on Alice. “Oh, it’s her! Why did she look for you? Does she want her university spot back?” Alice grew nervous, terrified that Sophie was trying to reclaim her admission. If she wanted it back, what would happen to her daughter?

That was unacceptable. The spot belonged to her daughter now, and no one was going to snatch it away.

“No, she wants money from me.”

Hearing that it was just about money, Alice breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she wasn’t asking for the spot back, it was fine.

“That’s fine, then. Money problems are easy to solve—as long as it’s not the degree. But why would she look for you? Shouldn’t she have gone to your father?”

“Exactly! She came straight to me and demanded a million. Where am I supposed to get that kind of money? She said if I don’t pay up, she’ll expose the fact that I bought her university admission and stole her spot.”

Brooke felt utterly annoyed just thinking about it. Why seek her out? Dealing with Chloe York was already exhausting enough. Why did this have to land on her plate too? Couldn’t she just go to Miles York?

“Why is that girl so wicked? She already took the money and agreed to the deal back then. How can she come back asking for more now?”

Hearing that Alice was actually focusing on this detail, Brooke grew even more furious. “Mom, is that really what you should be focusing on? The point is that she actually came to me for money and threatened me! How dare she threaten me? I am the young lady of the York family! I am of high status! What right does she have to threaten and extort me?”

What she really wanted to say was that she was the female lead! She, the protagonist, was being threatened by a supporting character—no, not even a supporting character, just a piece of cannon fodder! It would be humiliating if anyone found out. She, the main character, had actually been threatened!

Alice hastily changed her tune. “Right, right. How dare she threaten you? It’s simply outrageous. You are the apple of the York family’s eye. How could you be threatened by anyone?”

Brooke didn’t respond. Instead, she lowered her eyes, seemingly lost in thought.

“So, Brooke, what do you want to do?” Alice asked tentatively.

She felt it was best to listen to Brooke. Her daughter was quite opinionated, and whenever she had a firm idea in her head, it was better to follow her lead; otherwise, she would get upset.

“Get rid of her. That way, I won’t have to worry about her threatening me anymore,” Brooke said, her tone dripping with malice.

“What?” Alice hadn’t expected Brooke to say such a thing. How could she harbor such vicious and terrifying thoughts?

She had assumed the solution would either be paying the money or letting Miles handle it, with Brooke just venting some anger. She never imagined her daughter would want to eliminate the girl entirely.

“Brooke, we don’t do things like that, okay?” Alice coaxed softly, terrified that Brooke might actually do something impulsive.

If she committed a crime like that, her daughter would truly be ruined forever. She only had this one daughter; she couldn’t allow her to have blood on her hands!

“What do you know? She’s threatening me! If she exposes this, I’m ruined!” Brooke lashed out.

Her mother truly understood nothing. All she knew how to say was that this wouldn’t work and that wouldn’t work. Aside from that, she had nothing constructive to offer. What use was a mother like her? No wonder she and her father held equal shares in the business, yet it was her father managing the company instead of her.

After a moment of thought, Alice grasped Brooke’s hand, her eyes filled with determination. “Brooke, let me handle this matter, alright?”

“You handle it? How are you going to handle it? Tell me, what’s your plan?” Brooke demanded bluntly, pressing Alice to explain right then and there what she intended to do.

Alice genuinely had no idea how to proceed. She had never dealt with anything like this before, nor had she ever been extorted. How was she supposed to know what to do? Her only real method of handling it was to tell Miles and see what he had to say.

“See? You don’t know either. Yet you disagree with my method. So what, we just let her keep threatening me? Or are we going to hand over a million?

“And do we keep paying her forever? As long as she threatens me, we just keep paying? Just let her lead us by the nose?” Brooke refused to back down, determined to force Alice to say something reassuring.

“Brooke, how about this? I’ll talk to your father and see what he can do. After all, he’s the one who found this girl, right? Since she dares to threaten you, we’ll let your father deal with it. How does that sound?” Alice desperately hoped Brooke would agree, because her daughter’s idea was simply too dangerous.

“Fine. Go talk to Dad about it.”

“Okay, good. I’ll tell him. Your father will definitely resolve this. Even if it comes to paying money, he’ll be the one paying this Sophie Lane, not you.”

“Mhm. Mom, since I’m already back, I’ll just rest at home for the night and head back to school tomorrow.”

“Of course, of course. This is your home, you can rest whenever you want!”

“Okay! I’m going back to my room now.”

“Alright!”

Only when Brooke went upstairs did Alice finally relax her taut nerves.

“How did this child turn out like this?” she murmured to herself. “To actually harbor such thoughts… It seems I’ll have to have a serious talk with Miles when he gets back.”

Back in her room, Brooke sat on her bed, growing angrier the more she thought about it. “No, I still need to handle this my own way.

“If I let my mother handle it, all she’ll do is tell Miles, and he’ll just throw money at the problem. What if Sophie comes after me again later? It’ll never end.”

Making up her mind, Brooke resolved to take matters into her own hands.