Luna instinctively glanced at Gwen after the recording ended.
Gwen, too, turned to stare at her.
Both their faces were etched with utter disbelief.
How...could this be? Did the Hughes family not adore Denise beyond anyone else? Did Steven not say
that Mr.and Mrs.Hughes practically treated Denise like their own? How could they have chosen to give
up on Denise so easily after knowing she had offended Thomas?
"Although I must say, this seems pretty consistent with their style."
Gwen was the first one to break out of her stupor.
She curled her lips into a smirk and added, "More than two decades ago, they had abandoned a one-
year-old baby just because of their superstitious beliefs, so we shouldn't be surprised that they'd
choose to give up on their daughter just to get on Thomas and Joshua's good sides.Regardless..."
Gwen sneered and turned to glance at Denise.
"I can't help feeling bad for her.According to Steven, Denise hadn't truly loved Thomas at all—she just
chose to because she knew that this was the man her parents wanted her to marry."
Luna glanced at Denise, frowning.
Even though this woman was deceitful and cunning, she was still beautiful, and one could easily tell
that she had grown up in a comfortable and luxurious home.
However, whenever she recalled the conversation between Steven and his parents, Luna could not
help feeling bad for her.
One would have developed attachments to a pet dog, much less a living, breathing human they had
raised for 20 years.
Even Steven, who had been in a coma for five years, was outwardly resistant when he learned of his
parents' plans to abandon Denise,иσνєℓєвσσк.¢σм yet Mr.and Mrs.Hughes did not seem at all hesitant
to do so.
At the thought of this, Luna furrowed her brow and asked, "Can one even fall in love with a stranger
just to live up to other people's expectations?"
Gwen curled her lips into a smile.
Perhaps she had never liked Thomas at all, but because her parents and Mrs.Howard had been '
advertizing’ Thomas to her for so many years, she fell into the trap of believing she loved him."
Finally, she sighed and added, "None of this matters anymore, though.
The fact that Denise and Mrs.Howard had driven a wedge between Thomas and Yannie...is not
something we should forgive easily.
"Or, to better put it, neither of us, apart from Thomas and Yannie, have the right to forgive her, so the
best thing we can do is to keep her here for a while until Thomas and Yannie patch things up, then we
can hand her over to them for punishment."
Luna nodded.
Gwen was right.
Neither of them had the right to punish Denise on behalf of Thomas and Yannie, so she had never
intended to torture Denise at all.
Therefore, the only thing they could do was to keep Denise hostage and, while they were at it, make
her suffer a little before finally handing her over to Thomas and Yannie.
"What a pity."
Luna sighed.
"I had hoped that by keeping her hostage, we'd be able to threaten Steven into providing us evidence
of the Hughes and Miller families' crimes..."
"It's okay."
Gwen curled her lips into a smirk.
"We can still obtain evidence on our own without his help."
"I can help you," all of a sudden, a woman's voice rang out from behind them.Gwen turned around in
disbelief.
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