The other diners were all singing Jennifer's praises, but Lily wasn't having any of it. "How can you say this has nothing to do with you? He started having a seizure right here while eating your food."
"Who knows if it's something in your ingredients?"
Jennifer's face tightened. "Ma'am, that's really unreasonable."
“It's just the truth..." Lily started, but Claire jumped in before she could finish. "Smoking, drinking, staying up late, getting worked up, any of those can trigger a seizure. Food is almost never the cause."
Lily latched on immediately. "Almost never? So you admit it's still possible."
"Then let the police look into it," Jennifer answered, showing no fear at all.
The paramedics finished their check and took the man to the ambulance. One of them came back into Hearth & Kettle and found Abbott. "Dr. Abbott, were you the one who put in these needles?"
"We'd really appreciate it if you could come with us to the hospital. We don't dare pull out these gold needles ourselves."
Abbott glanced at Claire. "I can't take them out. The Carter Family's way of doing acupuncture is pretty special. She'll need to do it herself."
Before Claire could agree, someone pushed through the crowd and recognized her.
"Claire? Is that really you?"
"What are you doing here? Weren't you sent back to the countryside?"
It was Shirley, Latham's niece, who had never gotten along with Claire. Actually, it was more like Shirley had always been jealous of her.
When Claire's secret that she wasn't the real heiress got out at her eighteenth birthday, Shirley was so thrilled she stayed up all night celebrating with her friends. When she found out Claire had been sent back to the countryside that same night, she threw another party. Which pretty much led to this whole scene.
Everyone said getting a table at Hearth & Kettle was impossible, so Shirley had gone out of her way to buy a reservation for a private room from @friend, paying a small fortune. She'd brought her friends just to spread the story about Claire being a fake.
And in the middle of the group was Claire's ex-fiancé -York.
Everyone had arrived, and Shirley was just starting to feel smug, when suddenly
she spotted Claire. It was like getting struck by lightning.
Claire was just as surprised. How did she end up running into Shirley here? She glanced around, trying to.. spot any other familiar facesan thể crowd.
Shirley caught her looking and suddenly smirked, like she'd figured something out. "I know why you're here. You came for York, didn't you?"
"Why can't you just let things go? You're not even part of the James family anymore. Do you honestly think you're still York's fiancée?"
Claire noticed Shirley got extra tense whenever she mentioned York. So that was it. Shirley liked York. Claire put it together right away.
"York's here too?" Claire asked on purpose.
all.
Just as she thought, Shirley's face changed. "You really did come for York?"
"Claire?" York spoke up then, clearly surprised. He couldn't believe Claire had just been sent away and was already back in Apex, apparently looking for him. And she'd even figured out he'd be at Hearth Kettle today.
"Oh, you're actually here," Claire said, like it was nothing. She wasn't surprised at
Before she could say more, York frowned. "Claire, with your real identity, it isn't really appropriate for us to stay engaged anymore."
"Of course it's not!" Shirley jumped in, her voice sharp. "York, don't even talk to her. She's not even my uncle's daughter now."
"Your engagement was with the real James family heiress, not this fake, Claire."