Mysterious Mrs. Pansy

After a few days of rest at home, Jane’s injured leg was almost healed.

Promotional shooting for the Ice and Fire series was scheduled to take place later that day, and she was feeling ready.

Jane purposefully arrived at the studio half an hour early to speak with the staff, wanting to confirm that everything had been properly prepared.

A half hour passed, Annie and Bruce, as well as Osborn, arrived.

“Are you ready?” Jane asked the makeup artist after she checked again and found nothing wrong.

The makeup artist nodded and said, “I’m ready.”

“I’m going to change my clothes.” Annie looked blankly at Jane.

“Where are they?”

“Here.”

Jane handed her a garment bag.

The dress inside was designed by Jane herself, and it was hot off Loe Studio’s racks.

Jane had taken great care to match the design to the feeling of Ice and Fire.

Annie took the dress; she and her agent entered the dressing room.

When Annie reappeared, she was wearing the dress. She looked like she was cloaked in fire. It was tailored to her shape, and the overall effect was incredibly flattering.

In short, Annie was stunning, and no one could take their eyes off her.

The effect was beyond even the designer’s expectations.

Annie’s performance in the Ice theme hadn’t been good, but she could accentuate the Fire theme to great advantage.

Jane was about to ask the make-up artist to do the make-up for Annie, when Annie stopped her.

“Jane, do you seriously expect me to wear this?”

“What’s the problem?”

Jane frowned and looked Annie over once more.

The dress was perfect.

Annie turned around slowly.

Everyone was surprised when they got a closer look at her back. It was accentuated by a row of diamond buttons, which shone brilliantly against the red material of the dress.

But in the middle, the largest and most dazzling diamond was missing.

What happened? People exchanges glances, but no one was the wiser for it.

Where had it gone? “Jane, don’t you have any respect for your work? This dress isn’t ready for the shoot!”

Annie said without ever breaking eye contact with Jane.

Jane frowned.

She had checked the dress just now and there had been nothing wrong. She had designed the dress.

There were ten diamond buttons in total, all of which were decoratively arranged in a vertical row down the back.

All ten had been there when she had thoroughly checked it minutes ago.

Seeing that Jane was deep in thought, Osborn stepped forward and asked, “Did it fall off in the dressing room, perhaps?”

“No,” Jane replied without hesitation. She was certain that hadn’t happened.

Every article of clothing produced by Loe Studio was personally checked by Nana in to ensure the quality.

The diamond would have been securely fastened.

And Jane had made a point of reminding Nana to pay special attention to the diamonds.

It was simply impossible that the missing diamond had fallen off so easily.

Moreover, if it had come loose and fallen off, there should be some thread left to mark the spot. But there was none. Someone must have carefully cut it off.

Osborn frowned and asked his agent to look for it in the fitting room. After a while, the agent returned.

“I searched the whole room and didn’t find it. Maybe it fell out here? I’ll keep looking.”

“There’s no need!” Jane moved close to Annie.

“Give it back, please.” Annie was all innocence.

“Give what back, Jane?”

Jane said, “The diamond button that you deliberately cut off the dress.”

“That’s ridiculous!”

Annie continued to feign innocence, but she couldn’t prevent the quick look of panic that flashed across her eyes. She had done it to frame Jane.

Florence had told her that Patrick was a man who was meticulous about his work. If Jane made a serious mistake, she would face harsh consequences.

For example, if a diamond was lost because it was poorly attached to a dress that Jane was responsible for, there was a good chance that she would be fired.

Annie saw a good opportunity to damage Jane’s reputation and she seized it.

But she hadn’t expected Jane to be astute enough to realize what she had done and bold enough to publicly accuse her.

Annie calmed herself with the knowledge that there was no evidence to prove Jane’s accusation because she had flushed the button down the toilet.

As Annie became calmer, she also became more confident. She raised her voice and said, “I cut the diamond off? You must be joking. Jane, tell me, why would I do that? I worked hard to become Pansy Group’s spokesperson. They customized this dress for me to wear at today’s shoot. Why would I prevent the shoot from happening?”

“I also want to know why you did that.”

Jane narrowed her eyes and coldly stared at Annie as she considered the woman’s possible motives.

Obviously, what Annie did was against her. But she had only known Annie for a few days.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

What reason could she have to be so hostile? Was it simply because she had criticized Annie at her audition? Was Annie that petty? If this was an act of vengeance, it was a very stupid one.

Pansy Group only gave her this opportunity to be the spokesperson for the sake of Bruce.

And it seemed like she was intentionally destroying that very opportunity, along with her reputation.

“Honey, you have to say something.”

Annie pursed her lips in grievance and grabbed Bruce’s arm.

“Jane made a mistake and now she wants to pass the blame to me.”

Bruce was about to speak, but Osborn interrupted him.

“Annie, please don’t make accusations without evidence.” He trusted Jane unconditionally.

She would never make such a stupid mistake.

If Jane said Annie cut the diamond off the dress on purpose, then that was what had happened.

Annie saw that Osborn was intent on defending Jane, and became even more aggrieved.

“Honey, stop them from ganging up on me,” she whined to Bruce.

The rest of the people in the room began to ask themselves who was really at fault.

“Annie wouldn’t have done that, would she?”

“Yeah, she had no reason to.”

“So then, Jane is to blame?”

Jane smiled sarcastically.

Annie was indeed a movie star. Her acting convinced almost everyone. She was about to say something when a cold, male voice drew the room’s attention.

“What happened here?”