They Wanted My Mom to Take the Blame, but the Animals Told Me Everything Chapter 07

They Wanted My Mom to Take the Blame, but the Animals Told Me Everything Chapter 07

Callie snapped her head up, a flash of genuine terror cutting through her eyes.

But it vanished in an instant. She knitted her brows, forcing a look of confusion. “What kind of crazy nonsense are you spouting? Animal abuse videos? My phone is strictly for work files and personal photos!”

“Is that so?” I said slowly. “Then do you mind showing your phone to everyone right now?”

Panic flared deep in Callie’s eyes, yet she maintained a righteous facade. “Fine, look all you want. I have a clear conscience. But I have personal photos on there that involve my privacy. I need to delete those first before handing it over.”

She pulled out her phone and her fingers began flying across the screen.

My chest tightened.

She was reacting too quickly. If she wiped it clean, all the evidence would be gone.

Just as her thumb hovered over the delete button, the cat launched herself forward like a streak of lightning.

Callie shrieked. A sharp claw left bloody welts across her arm, and the phone slipped from her grip, clattering to the floor right at my feet.

While she was still screaming in fury at the cat, I bent down and scooped up the device.

The screen didn’t show private photos.

It was open to a hidden folder filled with rows of video thumbnails.

Every single one featured a cat—bound, burned, or slashed with blades.

The camera angle was identical in each file, shot from a high angle looking down. In several clips, the tips of a pair of elegant white high heels were clearly visible.

Callie lunged forward to grab the phone, but the bodyguards blocked her path.

She thrashed like a lunatic. “That’s my private property! You can’t look at that! It’s an invasion of privacy!”

I tapped a video and turned the screen so everyone in the room could see it clearly.

Mrs. Ashford took one look and swayed on her feet. “Callie… you…”

Seeing that she could no longer hide it, Callie dissolved into frantic tears. “Mrs. Ashford, I’ve just been under so much stress lately! I only recorded those for fun! I swear I would never harm Leo!”

I cut in coldly. “You torture helpless animals because you’re stressed? Your coping mechanisms are truly vile, Miss Hanish.”

The onlookers erupted into a frenzy.

“Oh my god, she’s a monster. How can someone that beautiful do something so sickening?”

“Doesn’t she have nightmares? Look at those poor kittens…”

“She’s a total psychopath. Who would believe a person with a sick hobby like that would ever be good to a child?”

Just then, a middle-aged woman burst in.

Her eyes landed on Callie, who was collapsing on the floor sobbing, and she shrieked, “Callie! Who did this to you?”

Callie looked at the woman like she had just found her savior. “Mom! They’re all teaming up to frame me!”

Without even asking what happened, Mrs. Hanish snapped at Orion. “What’s the meaning of this, Orion? My daughter is an innocent young lady, and you’re letting these outsiders bully her?”

“I’m telling you right now, if the Ashford family doesn’t give us a proper apology for this, you can forget about marrying my daughter!”

Orion didn’t even look at her.

His eyes were fixed on his butler, who had just walked through the entrance.

“Sir, I brought him.”

A man stepped out from behind the butler. The moment his eyes landed on Callie, he spoke up in a panicked rush, “Miss Hanish, you ruined me! I’ll give you back every single cent of that fifty grand!”

“When you hired me to handle the snakes, you never told me the target was the Ashford heir! If I had known, I wouldn’t have taken the job for all the money in the world!”

Callie’s face went completely bloodless. “Who… who even are you? I don’t know you!”

The man panicked. “Miss Hanish, you can’t just turn on me now! Last Wednesday at eight in the evening, you met me at the abandoned factory on the south side of town.”

“You told me to find a barely alive cobra and to release a healthy king cobra into the Ashfords’ garden. I raised that king cobra for three years, and now it’s dead…”