Ariel frowned. Her heart sank. “Why?”

“You know the reason better than I do. I hope you won’t attempt something you shouldn’t.” Jayson hung up right after saying that.

Ariel had a look of bewilderment on her face. Then, it slowly dawned on her what Jayson meant by those words.

He must have realized what she was trying to do.

Jayson realized Ariel was planning on exposing the truth of what really happened in the past. She wanted to crush the fame and glory Sarah had earned by using Elena’s painting.

However, Jayson would not allow her to harm Sarah in any way. He could not possibly watch Ariel damage Nancy’s reputation because of the incidents involving Sarah.

Ariel quickly realized that Jayson was trying to protect Nancy. For that, he chose to disregard the fact that Sarah had exploited Elena to reach her current success.

Ariel balled her fists. She stared at the painting on the table intently. The initial feelings of joy and gratitude were instantly replaced with one of bitterness. It cleared her head right away.

Ariel spent just two minutes persuading herself to come to terms with the current situation. Wasting her time wallowing in sadness was not something she would do anymore.

When Ariel was about to put away the painting, Chad entered her office. He spotted the painting on her table and exclaimed, “You have that painting in your possession?”

Ariel paused. “What do you mean?”

Chad walked over to the table and took a closer look. He replied, “That’s right. This is the painting! I’ve heard it from a friend who lives overseas and owns an auction house dealing specifically with artworks. An anonymous rich man bought this painting at a price of 80 million dollars two days ago during an auction.”

Ariel was momentarily stunned.

“80 million dollars?” She exclaimed internally.

Chad continued, “My friend said that the starting price of this painting was only 1.5 million dollars. At the time, a prince from a certain country had his eyes on the painting too. You know how members of the royal family are usually insanely loaded. They normally don’t care about the price when they’ve found something they like.

“He and the anonymous buyer kept going until the price of the painting reached an amount of 50 million dollars. Somehow, the anonymous buyer called out a ridiculously high price and managed to secure the painting in the end.”

A painting with a starting price of 1.5 million dollars was sold at a final price of 80 million dollars.

Those men’s level of wealth was on an unfathomable scale. This incident had even become hot news among their circle of friends. They would not spend money like that even if they had that much to spare.

Chad’s friend also said that the buyer had declared that he would pay however much money was required to secure the painting.

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Ariel was astonished. She knew that Jayson would mostly make it happen once he had promised someone something. Yet, she never imagined he would spend 80 million dollars.

She just could not understand what Jayson was thinking. Ariel shook her head.

The biggest problem for her now was that Jayson did not want her to use Elena’s painting to bring Sarah down. However, Ariel was not going to give up on her plans.

Anyhow, she would find the opportunity to take back the glory and achievements Sarah had stolen from Elena.

Katie had been urging Ariel to move back in with them after she learned that the latter was getting divorced.

Ariel used the excuse that her current rental place was located nearer to her workplace to turn down the suggestion.

Her condition could be quite unstable at times. Sometimes, Ariel would experience severe side–effects of her medication. There was a high risk of her family noticing about her illness if they were to stay under the same roof.

On Friday, Chad came into Ariel’s office as soon as he got back from an outing. “I have good news. Are you free tomorrow?”

Ariel put down her pen. “What’s the matter?”

“My dad has a project which will be commencing soon. Many parties will be involved in it, including the military, the government, and various business corporations. They’ll work on developing a new flight system and the relevant tools.

“In an effort to nurture and promote talent, they’ll pick several candidates from different corporations to join the team and learn from the process. I want you to join the team as Faye Tech’s representative.”

Ariel was quite surprised. “Are you sure I’m suitable for the role?”

“You’re the most competent expert we have in Faye Tech. How could you not be suitable for the role? We’ll only be visiting the tech zone tomorrow to have a look at the latest military tech tools and inventions they’ve been using for the past two years. You should join me on this tour.”

Ariel had no objections. As for the opportunity to join the team, the parties involved would probably make other necessary arrangements for it.

The tech zone was located right beside the research institute.

One would need to have a pass and go through several strict security checks to enter the zone. After they got in, the two of them were taken to the exhibit hall in a car.

Ariel and Chad got out of the car upon arriving at their destination.

Ariel had been here many times when she was leading the team for the creation of the U.N2 reconnaissance and strike drone. She was feeling both conflicted and excited to be able to return here after so many years.

Initially, this was the place she could shine and flourish the most in life…

While she was momentarily distracted, Ariel’s notebook and her pen that was wedged between the pages fell onto the floor.

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Ariel bent forward to pick her things up. At the same time, someone stepped toward her and leaned forward to help pick up those items too. Their hands bumped into each other.