Chapter 145

“Molly, don’t say that. I really don’t think Claire is like that,” Cindy said, her face full of honest belief.

Molly just stared at her, frustrated beyond words. “How can you trust her so easily? She lived your life for more than ten years, enjoyed everything that should’ve been yours. You really think she doesn’t want to go back to that kind of luxury? I heard she’s staying with some distant relative now. She’s basically a poor guest living in someone else’s house. If she got the chance to come back to the James family, she’d take it in a heartbeat p>

“Cindy, you are just too innocent for your own good p>

Cindy twisted the edge of her shirt until it was all wrinkled, her nerves showing. She sounded scared when she whispered, “You really think so p>

“Absolutely. You need to watch out for her. Seriously, you can’t just trust everyone,” Molly warned.

Cindy stayed quiet, lost in her own thoughts. She wondered if her parents knew about any of this. Maybe, if Claire really had refused to help that little girl, her parents wouldn’t feel bad about sending her away just because she saved someone. Maybe they’d feel like they made the right choice.

Suddenly, Claire spoke up, her voice sharp and clear across the room. “Which one of your eyes saw me stopping someone from getting help p>

She was looking straight at the boy who always seemed to have a problem with her. He looked startled for a second, but tried to act tough.

“I heard you want to study journalism, right?” Claire asked, completely calm. “If I were you, I’d pick something else. You know that saying, ‘seeing is believing’? People who spread rumors without facts don’t belong in the news. You’d just end up hurting people p>

The boy’s face went red. He stuck his chin out stubbornly. “I’m not making things up. You know what you did. My cousin saw the whole thing p>

“Oh yeah? And how exactly did she see it?” Claire pressed, eyes not leaving his face.

“She saw you block some country woman. The woman was crying like crazy,” he muttered, then sneaked a look at Claire, expecting her to look guilty. But Claire’s face didn’t change at all.

“So your cousin was there as a reporter or something?” Claire asked.

“So she didn’t see the whole thing, then,” Claire said with a small smile. “Maybe you should go check the news before you talk to me p>

The boy didn’t look convinced, but the bell rang just then. The class fell silent, everyone waiting for the teacher.

No one expected what happened next. The teacher walked in, and right behind him were two police officers.

As soon as they saw the police, everyone went quiet. You could feel the nerves buzzing in the air. Every student looked worried, hoping the officers weren’t there for them.

“Claire, can you step outside for a moment?” the teacher called.

Claire stood up. Her deskmate, Sophia, gave her a nervous glance. “Are you okay, Claire p>

Claire shook her head. “I’m fine p>

No one had heard anything about the human traffickers yet. Maybe the police were keeping things quiet for now, or maybe the news just hadn’t spread that fast.

The officers wanted more details about what happened. One of them said, “Besides asking about the incident, we wanted to get your opinion on something.” Claire looked confused. “My opinion on what p>

The officer gave a helpless little sigh. “That woman… she wants to see you. She doesn’t believe you figured her out p>

Claire rolled her eyes. “Her story was full of holes. She really doesn’t know that p>

The officer thought to himself that, sure, a cop might have picked up on clues, but Claire was just a student. How did she see through that Woman with just a few questions Even the officers were curious.

“I’m not going to see her,” Claire sajd simply. “The moment she didn’t care about the kid, it was obvious. The child didn’t even look like her and her crying was all wrong p>

The kid was badly hurt, obviously in pain, but she didn’t cling to her ‘mom’ at all and just cried like a lost

little kitten That alone was enough to know something was seriously wrong.