Chapter 143

Simon walked out angrily, leaving his daughter still taken aback.

Queenie could only manage to nudge her mother close to her after a few seconds.

"Mom...is the vase really fake?"

Beatrice shook her head, still refusing to believe what Sean said.

"Stop scaring yourself.Do you think your father is that easy to fool? You know so well that he consulted
a lot of antique experts before buying the vase”

"Well, yes.But didn't Sean say..."

Queenie started to reason but was immediately cut off.

"Why should we believe what he says?" her mother blurted out in anger at the mention of Sean's
name.

"He is not an antique appraiser!" Queenie let out a sigh of relief.

"Then, will Dad get someone to appraise the vase again?"

Gritting her teeth, Beatrice snapped once again.

"Please, Queenie.I'm just asking for peace of mind!" she said, turning to Queenie.

"Will you stop worrying about the authenticity of the vase? Why don't you just tell me about the bet you
have with Katherine? Is it real, or did you just make it up?"

Regarding the bet between her daughter and Katherine, Beatrice had a different opinion from her
husband.



She disliked Katherine right from the start.

And just a few days ago, when Anthony brought her over, that reckless incident happened! It made her
dislike Katherine even more.

But what truly repulsed her was when the latter sent someone to hand over six thousand dollars as
compensation for the broken vase to humiliate them! So when she learned about the bet on the vase's
authenticity, Beatrice felt somehow relieved.

This way, she would have an opportunity to humiliate Katherine back.

Knowing that her mother would surely side with her, Queenie disclosed her plan right there and then.

And indeed, shortly after hearing about it, Beatrice declared in gritted teeth.

"When the results of the test come out, I will come with you to confront Katherine once and for all!"

She wouldn't just sit and tolerate Katherine insulting them with that measly six thousand dollars!

"Okay, Mom!"

Queenie chirped excitedly.

She firmly believed that the vase they had in the house would come out authentic on the result! As
soon as Simon left, someone came to collect the broken pieces of the vase for authenticity testing.

And in less than half an hour, someone reported to Celine about this move by the Johnstons, which the
latter immediately relayed to Katherine.

"Well, that was fast” Katherine commented, raising her eyebrows.

"I thought I would have to wait for a while.”



"Maybe Mr.Johnston is already doubting the authenticity of the vase” Celine said.

But Katherine couldn't care less about such trivial matters.

She only wanted to know how soon the results would come out.

"How long would it usually take for the results to be appraised?"

Knowing the process, Celine started to explain, "Since the vase is already broken, it would be easy to
test it using its broken pieces.The results would be out in an hour if there were no delays.But if there
are, it might take three to five hours."

Katherine nodded.

"I want you to pay close attention once the results are out"

Although she knew that the vase was fake, she had to have concrete evidence to prove that it indeed
was.

"Okay, Miss Wilson” Celine readily answered.

Glancing at her, Katherine then added.

"Also, keep monitoring Quest Company in the following months."

Again, without a second thought, Celine responded, "Sure thing, Miss Wilson"

Satisfied, Katherine then got to her feet.

"Alright.We'll have to start the meeting now” Celine nodded and quickly followed behind.

The meeting lasted almost an hour and ended at exactly eleven o'clock.



Soon after that, Katherine stayed for another thirty minutes to extend the meeting with the higher-ups.

It was such a tight schedule that Katherine was only able to come out of the conference room at half-
past eleven and about time for lunch.

Katherine glanced at Celine beside her.

"Let's have lunch together?" Celine nodded.

"Okay, Miss Wilson”

But suddenly, her phone rang.Glancing up at Katherine, she said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Miss
Wilson.I need to answer this first"

"Sure.Go ahead?” Katherine said right away.

As soon as Celine turned around to answer the call, Katherine received a text message.

At first, she thought that it was only a spam message.

But when she was about to delete it, she read Sean's name included on it.

She paused for a moment and then finally decided to click the message open.

It read: [This is Sean.Are you free by noon? Let's have lunch together]

Katherine clicked her tongue as she replied plainly: [I am not free]

Sean responded right away: [What about later tonight? Let's have dinner]

As soon as his second invitation was sent, he anticipated a more positive response from Katherine.



Her reply came after a few seconds, and Sean immediately opened it.

It had the same plain response, but the additional remarks made him pause.

Katherine: [I said I am not free.Actually, you're just wasting your time asking because I will never be
free for you.]

Sean tried so hard to make Katherine accept his invitation, but her reply was nothing but harsh and
cold! He gritted his teeth in annoyance, but after thinking it through for a moment, he re-edited his initial
response and typed instead: [Please don't misunderstand my invitation.I just really want to treat you out
to apologize for what I did before.I hope you let me.]

But despite his humble message, he did not receive another reply from Katherine even after a long
time of waiting.


62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda