CHAPTER 215

Madeline shook her head, but just as she was about to say something, there was a knock on the door. "Come in," she called out.

The door opened to reveal a beautiful young lady standing there.

"Leigh, you're back!" Madeline's eyes lit up at the sight of the girl, and she rose to walk over to the door to greet her.

Leigh Shefford was one of the only two girls who worked for Madeline. Each member in Madeline's team of ten had their own skill set, and Leigh's happened to be her medical prowess. She was a doctor and secretly a medical prodigy with quite an impressive portfolio.

A while ago, someone engaged her for the treatment of a scion from Oaksbury. She had called Madeline yesterday to inform her that she would return now that the job was done, but the latter hadn't expected her to arrive so soon.

Presently, Leigh was beaming as she walked through the door and gave Madeline a tight hug in greeting.

Luke sat on the couch in the same manner as one imagined an invertebrate might and pursed his lips unhappily while narrowing his eyes when he saw the two girls hugging. He hated when others got too close to Madeline, but seeing as he knew Leigh, he decided to brush this incident off, albeit begrudgingly.

After all, Leigh did not know Madeline for as long as he had, and their bond was not quite as deep, either. That said, the only thing she had going for her was her gender. Where Luke could only settle for

just dining with Madeline, Leigh could do all the girly things with her like bunking in together and using the same restroom.

For that, Luke had to admit he was jealous of Leigh.

Meanwhile, Leigh kept in touch with Madeline regularly despite being away on business, and she was told of Luke and Logan visiting town. As such, she wasn't all that surprised to see the younger Adams brother sitting in Madeline's office right now. Smiling, she greeted, "Hey, Luke."

Luke hummed lazily in response, not at all enthusiastic or friendly.

Leigh thought this was expected behavior on his part and didn't mind his indifference in the slightest.

Following this, Madeline led Leigh by the hand to the couch. They caught each other up on all the recent happenings in their lives, and the conversation seemed endless.

While they were talking, Luke listened in disinterest as he remained sprawled on the couch, interjecting whenever he caught something interesting. Though he was interjecting, in reality, he was merely offering unnecessarily scathing input that nobody asked for.

However, Leigh and Madeline went on talking in spite of his ruthless commentary. The former, in particular, was dumbfounded by how persistent he was, but she pretended as if he never spoke, knowing that he was infuriating on purpose.

Madeline, on the other hand, would turn and shoot him a dark glare when she felt he had crossed the line with his words, but he seemed to take this as a triumph instead of feeling ashamed about it. In fact,Belongs to © n0velDrama.Org.

he even looked pleased. He was so exasperating that it was a miracle he had gone this long without suffering a well-deserved beating from anyone. Madeline shook her head, but just as she was about to say something, there was a knock on the door. "Come in," she called out.

Just like that, she and Leigh continued to ignore Luke throughout the conversation. He was like a petulant child whenever he was around Madeline, and the more attention you paid him, the rowdier he got. The best solution was to turn a blind eye to his existence entirely, and it wasn't so much about discouraging him from butting in as it was about preserving Madeline's sanity.

The conversation took an interesting turn when each woman started taking out their phones to show the other pictures they had taken.

Leigh was showing off her latest client's before-and-after pictures. "Take a look, Maddie. What do you think? Pretty good job, huh?"

Madeline assessed the young man in the picture and approved, "Indeed."

Leigh's client this time was a scion named Gabriel Vanderbilt. The photo had captured his delicately- chiseled features and innate elegance. In other words, it wasn't hard to tell that he was raised with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was handsome too and his fine looks rivaled those of any A-list celebrities.

Bumping her shoulder against Leigh's playfully, Madeline asked, "Come on, spill the beans. Did anything naughty happen between you and Young Master Vanderbilt while you were staying with him for a whole month?"

"Nothing happened between us at all, much less anything naughty," Leigh answered with a laugh. "Besides, his family is so messed up. I'd have to be out of my mind to sign up for that wild ride."

"That's true," Madeline said with a sigh. "Prolific families like the Vanderbilts are always polished on the outside but rotten within."

Whatever went down at the Vanderbilts' had been reported back to Madeline.

Gabriel had fallen sick some time ago. He had been particularly susceptible to illnesses since he was a baby, but his condition worsened after his own sister began to poison him bit by bit.

He had a close friend, Oliver Sinclair, whom his sister, Samantha Vanderbilt, had a crush on.

However, her affections were never reciprocated by Oliver, and he avoided her just to keep her from misreading his intentions. While he did not return Samantha's feelings, he was the best of friends with Gabriel, and he would often stay at the Vanderbilts' place whenever the latter got sick.

Gabriel's feeble disposition had caused the Vanderbilt cousins to vie for his position as the successor to the family, and they would grow restless whenever he fell sick, eager to prove themselves. But the Sinclairs were much more formidable than the Vanderbilts, and with Oliver around to back Gabriel up, none of the cousins dared make a move.

Samantha, however, saw her brother's condition as an opportunity for her to seduce Oliver. Anytime Gabriel fell ill, Oliver would move in. She had hoped that over time, he would take notice of her or even seek comfort in her presence. Thereafter, he could start developing feelings for her. She was confident that he would fall in love with her at some point, but it would require a lot of time and she was willing to borrow time at her brother's expense.

Samantha went on to keep Gabriel company day after day just so she could spend time with Oliver, but for some reason, Gabriel's condition kept deteriorating, and none of his usual medication worked no matter how much of it he took.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and Gabriel's parents were already at their wits' end when they heard through the grapevine that Leigh specialized in odd and complex medical cases. As such, they paid big bucks to have her move in with them so that she could treat their son.

It didn't take long after that for Leigh to discover Samantha's plot and call her out on it.

At first, Gabriel's parents wanted to cover this up and send their daughter abroad for her studies, hoping that the incident would die down in her absence. Much to their astonishment, Oliver called the police as soon as he learned the truth, so Samantha was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment.

With Oliver keeping an eye on the case, none of the lawyers Gabriel's parents had hired for Samantha was of much help. In the end, Samantha was made to serve a long sentence in prison, and even if she was released on good behavior, it would only be after she had served at least five years' worth of jail time for attempted murder.

"Sick, right?" Leigh sighed, and she sounded jaded as she said, "How will we ever have faith in humanity again if we keep getting jobs like these? It's disgusting that someone could do something so despicable to their own family."

Madeline nodded, then pulled up photos on her phone and changed the subject to lighten the mood. "Here, this is a family photo I took with my parents, my brothers, and my two uncles back at Wendel City."

"Oh, let me see!" Leigh excitedly leaned over to take a closer look. She scanned Madeline's family photo earnestly, but suddenly, the smile on her face froze as she stared at one of the figures. Grimly, she asked while pointing to the figure, "Maddie, who's that?"

She was pointing at Holly.

"That's my Aunt Holly," Madeline replied. She tilted her head to one side when she sensed the other girl's mood shift. "Leigh, what's the matter?"