Chapter 354
“I… I wasn’t!” A flush of shame crept up Isabella’s face, a mix of panic and the embarrassment of being called out. Her complexion turned pale and flustered.
She felt that now that the family was on Serena’s side, Serena was getting more and more arrogant! How dare she humiliate her like this, time and again, in front of everyone.
Isabella bit her lower lip, looking at Serena with innocent, wronged eyes. “I just… I was just thinking about how down Mom and Dad were these past few days when you were gone. It hurt me to see them like that… so I wanted to give you a little reminder p>
“You were the one who deceived everyone, saying you were going to the research institute when you didn’t. That made everyone even more worried p>
Her voice grew more choked with emotion as she spoke, and fresh tears welled up, threatening to ruin her newly applied makeup.
Serena couldn’t be bothered with her melodramatic act. She gave Isabella a cool, dismissive look and leaned back in her chair. Her posture was relaxed, yet it radiated an invisible pressure. “And how would you know whether I was at the institute or not? What, do you have the clearance to go in and personally confirm my absence p>
Isabella’s expression shifted. She felt that Serena was deliberately humiliating her. She knew perfectly well that Isabella didn’t have clearance for the institute, yet she brought it up on purpose.
She was nothing but a nobody whose family had thrown money around to get her an apprenticeship with Mr. Harrison, a useless attempt to burnish her credentials before revealing her as the true Lancaster heiress!
And she had the gall to repeatedly flaunt the privileges bought with money.
But the more Serena tried to argue like this, didn’t it just prove she had something to hide?
And as it happened, Isabella had proof to counter Serena’s flimsy defense. “Sister, I didn’t want to say this, but you’re forcing my hand p>
“My senior colleague said that Mr. Harrison’s team hasn’t started any new projects. My colleague is Mr. Harrison’s personal assistant, Every Single one of Mr. Harrison’s
profect
is documented by him. How@ould his access be insufficient p>
“Because I asked him about it the other day, he made some inquiries around the institute. No one there has seen you. You never showed up at the institute at all p>
Upon hearing this, Serena suddenly laughed, a chilling coldness lacing the sound. “Oh? So your senior colleague is Mr. Harrison’s personal assistant, is he? I see p>
Isabella felt a sense of foreboding. “What what are you planning to do? Are you going to threaten him p>
“Of course not… I’m going to report him.” Serena’s eyes flickered upward, a mocking smile on her lips. “Doesn’t your colleague know that deliberately inquiring about and
leaking the schedule of a national research project, as well as the whereabouts of its members, constitutes the crime of of
intentionally leaking state secrets?
For serious offenses, one could end up doing a few years in prison p>
Isabella’s face instantly turned deathly white.
Her lips trembled as she scrambled to defend herself. “You… stop making false accusations! I just happened to run into my colleague and we chatted for a bit. How is that leaking anything p>
“Isabella, do you have some kind of
misunderstanding about the word ‘classified? For a national-level research institute are the details and personnet movements of unannounced projects not subject to strict confidentiality? Your private inquiries to an internal researcher are, in themselves, a violation of Elyndor law p>