"No, please. I didn’t do that. I don’t know anything about it."
"Madam, please show some mercy. Tell them not to hit us. We are innocent."
The cries of the waitresses who had served the guests that night echoed through the room. Their faces were swollen and bruised, tears streaking down their cheeks as they pleaded desperately for mercy.
Sitting calmly in a chair, Evelyn looked at them with cold disdain. There was not a trace of sympathy in her expression.
"Tell me the truth, and you can leave," she said coldly. "Otherwise, these men won’t let any of you walk out of here."
"Madam, we are telling the truth," the first waitress said hurriedly. "We don’t know anything about the drug. We didn’t spike your drink."
"Security was extremely tight at the party," another waitress added anxiously. "Everything brought into the banquet hall was thoroughly checked. If you don’t believe us, please check the surveillance footage. We were busy serving the guests the entire time. We didn’t do anything wrong."
A man standing beside Evelyn stepped forward and quietly whispered in her ear.
"Miss, I’ve already checked the surveillance footage. None of them did anything suspicious. They were genuinely busy serving the guests that night. It may have been someone else."
Evelyn’s expression turned thoughtful.
’If they didn’t spike the drink, then who did?’
The question surfaced immediately. Then another thought struck her. She had also taken the drink from Vivian herself.
’Yes... I took her glass and drank it.’ Her heart clenched. ’Could it be that Vivian’s drink had already been tampered with?’
A chill traveled up the back of her neck.
’Oh my God...’
If that was true, then someone among the guests could have put something into Vivian’s drink.
Evelyn immediately looked up at the man beside her. "Do you have the footage with you?" she asked. "I want to see it myself."
The man nodded. He took out a tablet and handed it to her.
"I brought a copy with me. Nothing suspicious was found among the staff. These waitresses appear to be innocent."
Evelyn glanced at the frightened women and casually waved her hand. "Let them go."
The man immediately gestured for the guards to take them away.
Once the room fell silent, Evelyn lowered her eyes to the tablet. She began watching the footage.
At first, there was nothing unusual.
The banquet hall was crowded with elegantly dressed guests. Music played softly in the background, and waiters and waitresses moved constantly between the tables, carrying trays of drinks and food.
Guests chatted, laughed, and mingled with one another.
Everything appeared perfectly normal.
Evelyn watched without blinking.
Minutes passed. Nothing suspicious happened.
The footage was almost painfully boring, but she refused to look away. She carefully scanned every movement, every interaction, searching for anything that might have been overlooked.
Then something caught her attention.
Vivian was walking toward Elena.
Evelyn leaned closer to the screen. Her brows slowly drew together when she saw Vivian holding a glass of wine toward Elena.
"What is she doing?" Evelyn murmured, staring at the screen. "Why is she offering Elena her drink?"
On the footage, Elena briefly looked at the glass but didn’t take it. Instead, she turned and walked away.
Vivian remained where she was, her expression darkening with irritation.
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed. A few moments later, she saw herself hurrying toward Vivian.
The memory came rushing back.
She had been desperately searching for Leo that night. Her anxiety had been overwhelming, and her throat had felt dry. When she saw Vivian holding the glass, she had taken it without thinking and gulped down the wine.
Evelyn’s fingers tightened around the tablet. At the time, she hadn’t thought anything of it. But now, watching the footage with a completely different perspective, the memory made her uneasy.
Something had been wrong with that wine. She shouldn’t have drunk that.
Her suspicion deepened when she noticed Vivian leaving the party shortly afterward.
Evelyn’s eyes widened. "Did she... plan to drug Elena?"
The thought sent a wave of unease through her.
"No..." she whispered. "No, that can’t be."
But once the suspicion had taken root, she couldn’t shake it.
She replayed the footage. This time, she watched Vivian carefully—every expression, every movement, every interaction.
Vivian barely spoke to anyone else that evening. She spent most of the time alone, seemingly waiting for something. Then, the moment she noticed Elena standing alone, she approached her with the glass of wine in her hand.
Evelyn paused the footage. Her gaze sharpened. She rewound it and played the scene again.
Then she noticed something she hadn’t seen before.
Just before approaching Elena, Vivian had rubbed the rim of the wineglass with a tissue.
At first glance, it looked completely innocent. Perhaps she had simply wiped the glass before drinking from it.
But something about the movement bothered Evelyn. She replayed the scene over and over again.
Finally, she zoomed in on the screen.
Her breathing stopped.
Vivian had reached into her handbag and taken out something small. She poured a tiny amount of liquid onto a tissue before carefully rubbing it around the rim of the glass.
Evelyn froze.
"What the hell is she doing?" she whispered.
She replayed the footage again.
There was no mistake.
Vivian hadn’t poured anything directly into the wine. Instead, she had deliberately applied something to the rim of the glass—the very same glass she had offered to Elena.
A cold sensation spread through Evelyn’s body.
"This is not normal."
Her mind raced.
If none of the staff had tampered with the drink, then how had she been drugged that night? The answer seemed painfully obvious now.
Vivian.
Evelyn stared at the frozen image of her. She couldn’t say with absolute certainty what substance Vivian had used, but she knew one thing.
That glass had been meant for Elena. And Evelyn had drunk from it instead.
"Vivian..." she hissed, anger burning in her eyes. "I never thought you could stoop this low." Her grip tightened around the tablet. "She actually tried to drug Elena?"
The realization made her blood run cold. Vivian hadn’t simply wanted to hurt Elena. She had planned something.
And Evelyn had accidentally become the one who suffered the consequences.
At that moment, the guard who had left earlier returned to the room.
"Miss, do you need anything else?" he asked.
Evelyn slowly lifted her eyes from the tablet. "Yes."
Her voice was calm, but there was an unmistakable edge to it.
"Find out everything Vivian has done over the past few days, especially in the days leading up to the party. I want to know where she went, whom she met, and who she contacted."
The guard looked surprised by the sudden order, but he quickly bowed his head. "I’ll look into it immediately."
"Do it secretly," Evelyn added sharply. "No one can know that I’m investigating Vivian. Not even my brother."
The guard’s expression became serious. "I understand, Miss."
Evelyn rose from her chair. "Now take me to Vivian’s place."
She walked out of the room.
The guard followed closely behind.
Evelyn arrived at the Sterling mansion without showing the slightest sign of hostility.
She behaved as though nothing had changed—as though she were simply visiting an old friend, just as she had done countless times before.
But the moment Vivian heard that Evelyn had come to see her, she froze.
Her mind immediately returned to the night before at the party. ’Did she find out?’
An uneasy feeling tightened in her chest. For a moment, Vivian wished she could hide somewhere. Or simply run.
But Evelyn was already waiting downstairs. Worse, the maid had already told her that Vivian was resting in her room.
There was no way she could hide now.
"Prepare some drinks and snacks for us," Vivian ordered the maid, forcing her voice to remain steady.
Then she took a deep breath and left her room. When she entered the living room, she saw Evelyn sitting comfortably on the plush sofa.
Vivian forced a bright smile onto her face.
"Evelyn. What a pleasant surprise." She walked over and hugged her.
Evelyn returned the hug naturally, carefully concealing the truth. She already knew what Vivian had done that night. But she had no intention of revealing it yet.
"Why are you so surprised?" Evelyn asked with a light smile. "I always come to visit you, don’t I?"
She pulled away from the hug. "Now that I’ve recovered, I thought I’d come and have some fun with you."
Vivian smiled. The way Evelyn spoke and smiled, she didn’t seem to know anything.
The pressure in Vivian’s chest eased slightly. Yet her nervousness remained.
At the same time, another question troubled her. How had Evelyn survived last night?
The drug she had put into the drink should have worked.
Vivian forced herself to remain calm. "Last night at the party..." she began cautiously. "You looked anxious. Are you all right?"
Evelyn watched her closely.
There it was. The nervousness Vivian was trying so hard to conceal.
She was attempting to act normal, but she couldn’t completely hide the fear in her eyes. And because she was afraid, she had been the one to bring up the party.
’She knows exactly what she did that night.’
Evelyn’s suspicion hardened into certainty. But she maintained her calmness. She shook her head casually.
"I was worried about Leo. When I couldn’t find him, I thought something had happened to him."
Then she looked directly into Vivian’s eyes. "Tell me, why did you leave so early that night? You didn’t even eat anything. Did something happen?"