Chapter 8 The Work Of The Master

"What did I do now? Who are you calling a thief?"

Maria's brows slightly furrowed but she didn't really panic in the face of Vivian's outright accusation.

"Who else but you!" Pointing a finger at Maria's neck, Vivian almost exploded. She spouted fiercely, "You know what you did! You stole Jadee!"

A bit confused, Maria looked in the direction where Vivian was pointing and found that she was referring to her pendant.

"This thing?"

As if she still didn't care about what was happening, Maria casually took off the pendant, and threw it to Bill.

Not expecting that Maria would do something like this, Bill was startled.

Fortunately, he stretched out his hands in time and managed to catch it immediately. Vivian and Julie also came over to take a closer look and to check if it really was Jadee.

But among everyone else, Lily was the most surprised one.

It was actually good for her that the whole Jenkins family had caught Maria red-handed. But that wasn't the point.

How on earth did Maria have the same precious jade piece as Vivian?

It was supposed to be the work of an extremely famous master. There was no way that poor Maria could possess something like that.

More importantly, it was impossible that Maria was the one who stole it because all of this was just a part of Lily's plan to get back at her. She was the one who had hidden Jadee in a safe location.

Nonetheless, her plan was still going well. Lily wanted Vivian and the others to blame Maria, and it was exactly what happened. The jade piece from Maria didn't need to be the original Jadee since it just looked exactly the same.

"Maria, do you care to explain yourself? Why do you have this?" Bill asked straightforwardly, holding his aching head.

He only adopted Maria because he planned to make her marry into the Wilson family in Vivian's stead.

The Wilson family was not only one of the most powerful families in Sheffield, but in the entire country.

Even with Bill's social status, he couldn't easily get an opportunity to get acquainted with any of them.

But one day, Michael Wilson, the head of the Wilson family, suddenly came to Bill with a proposal. He wanted his grandson, Anthony, to be engaged to Bill's daughter.

Of course, Bill was overjoyed with this good news. Of all the other prominent families in Sheffield, Michael chose the ordinary Jenkins family. How could Bill refuse such a tempting proposal?

However, something unexpected happened right after the two families made an oral agreement.

The Wilson family was involved in a terrible incident. Since they were powerful and influential, it also meant that they had many enemies. One night, Anthony was ambushed by his enemies, and his legs got disabled because of this.

Moreover, even Michael, his grandfather, sustained collateral damage from the encounter and needed to be hospitalized.

Michael was so angry that he disinherited Anthony for his incompetence.

Coincidentally, the senior executives of the company where Vivian was working had suddenly ranked her high enough to be in a reality show and to star in an online drama as the main heroine.

While Vivian's career was skyrocketing, Anthony became a cripple. Naturally, like any father, Bill didn't want someone marrying his daughter if he wasn't the best for her.

But of course, Bill was afraid of offending the Wilson family. With that in mind, he came up with the brilliant idea of preparing a substitute bride.

After all, based on their oral agreement, he only promised to marry his daughter to Anthony. They didn't actually indicate which daughter it would be.

For that very reason, Bill adopted Maria. Now, he officially had two daughters.

Moreover, Maria was a few months older than Vivian. As part of the tradition, the elder daughter should get married first.

Therefore, Maria did end up being the perfect substitute.

However, Bill seemed to be quite disappointed since the daughter he adopted turned out to be someone capable of stealing from others.

Nonetheless, he was still reluctant to hand Maria over to the police even though they had conclusive evidence right in front of them.

In the back of his mind, Bill deemed it would be a perfect opportunity to teach her a lesson instead. He wished to purge all the unpleasant characteristics that she acquired growing up by disciplining her thoroughly. Besides, all his effort would be in vain if he couldn't turn her into a suitable bride for the Wilson family.

On the other hand, Maria had become impatient.

Bill and the others were still busy looking at the jade pendant, so she took the initiative and called their attention. "How long will you stare at that thing? Are you sure that's the one you're looking for?"

The Jenkins family slowly turned their heads over to Maria in disbelief. They couldn't fathom how she could still act this arrogant when they had just confirmed that she was the culprit.

"Well, wouldn't you know? After all, you're the one who stole it! How dare you steal Jadee? This is Master Vincent Geoffrey's work. You may not know the master, but I'm telling you that this work of his is easily worth over a million dollars!" Vivian scoffed coldly in a very condescending tone.

"Wait... Really? It's Vincent Geoffrey's work?"

Maria felt utterly surprised that she blurted out the name as if she couldn't believe it.

"What? So you do know who Master Vincent Geoffrey is? Turns out you're not as ignorant as I thought you are," Vivian commented, rolling her eyes hard. She wasn't really buying it.

How could a country girl know a top-level master of jade carvings? That was just impossible.

Vincent wasn't like the other popular artists or celebrities. He had always been mysterious and seldom appeared in public.

But unlike Vivian, Julie felt that based on Maria's tone, there might be a hidden story regarding this matter.

"Do you really know Vincent Geoffrey?" Julie asked. It was evident from her tone that she was curious.

After hesitating for a bit, Maria answered, "Well, yes. I know him... But not really well."

Indeed, they didn't know each other very well.

Besides, in Maria's point of view, if two people didn't have a close relationship and constant communication for at least a few years, they couldn't really call each other friends.