An Understated Dominance - Chapter 222

“You jerk!” James shouted as he stood up, ready to hurl insults. But then he noticed that Dustin had already left. “That kid is lucky he got away. Otherwise, I would have taught him a lesson!”

“He can’t run forever! After what he did, I’ll make sure he stays in jail for life!” Florence clenched her teeth. “That’s right! We can’t let him go!” Julie and the others quickly agreed. Dustin had gone too far!

Just then, Dahlia started to wake up. “You’re finally awake!” Florence exclaimed, her mood brightening. “How do you feel?”

“What are all of you doing here, Mom?” Dahlia rubbed her aching temples, struggling to piece her memories together.

“Lyra called us to say you might be in danger, so we rushed over. Thank goodness we made it in time, or Dustin would have hurt you!” Florence’s anger flared again.

“Dustin?” Dahlia frowned, trying to remember. “Where is he?”

“Don’t worry. We chased him away,” Florence reassured her.

“That’s right. We also called the police. We’ll catch that guy!” James added.

“Why would you arrest him? He was the one who saved me!” Dahlia exclaimed.

“What? He saved you?” Everyone was taken aback, exchanging shocked looks. Confusion spread across their faces.

“You’re joking, right, Dahlia? He couldn’t have rescued you. We saw him touching you and getting ready to do something awful!” Florence clearly didn’t believe her.

“She’s right, Sis. He tried to take your clothes off while you were unconscious!” James added fuel to the fire.

“We can all say that Dustin was the one who did it!” Julie and a few others agreed.

Dahlia shook her head vigorously, which only made her head feel heavier from the alcohol.

“Who else could it be? There were only the two of you in this room when we got here,” Florence pointed out.

“It was Matt Laney, that jerk!” Dahlia struggled to remember what had happened.

“You must be drunk, Dahlia. Matt is a good guy. He wouldn’t do something like this,” someone replied.

“Did Dustin give you something? Is that why you’re confused?” another person asked.

“I heard some drugs can cause hallucinations. Maybe that’s why your memory is mixed up,” someone else said.

One after another, the people in the room denied Dahlia’s claims, making her doubt herself.

“Did I really remember wrong? But how could that be?” she thought, looking at her injuries. It was hard to believe that Dustin had hurt her.

—

Chapter 222

“Hey, there’s a phone here, and it’s recording a video,” Julie said as she picked up a phone from the television cabinet.

“It must belong to that jerk!” Florence exclaimed angrily. “He was planning to record himself hurting Dahlia! How disgusting!”

“There’s no way he can defend himself now that we have this evidence!” someone added.

“We have to get him arrested!” the crowd started shouting insults at Dustin.

“No, it can’t be. Dustin wouldn’t do that,” Dahlia shook her head, unable to accept it.

“Why are you still defending him, Dahlia? Why do you still care about that jerk? Matt is so much better for you! I’ll show you Dustin’s true self right now!” Florence yelled and hit play on the video.

As they watched, everyone fell silent in shock.

“Matt Laney?” Florence stood frozen, staring in disbelief at the man violently attacking Dahlia in the video.

Everyone else was just as stunned. They could never have imagined such a thing.

They had all thought that Matt, a respectful man from a noble family, was the one who kidnapped Dahlia and tried to hurt her. How could this be true?

But the video showed everything. It was Matt, the “decent” man, not Dustin, who had done the terrible things. Everyone felt embarrassed as they remembered their earlier comments, and they grew quiet.

“I told you it wasn’t Dustin, but none of you believed me! Now, who’s the real monster? Who’s the hypocrite?” Dahlia exclaimed in frustration.

Florence, not wanting to back down, replied, “I might have been wrong, but so what? Dustin was once married to you; he should have protected you. We didn’t force him to do that! And why didn’t he explain himself? If he had, we wouldn’t have misunderstood.”

“Explain himself? Dahlia scoffed. “Would you have believed him if he had?”

“That’s for us to decide, but it’s his fault for not saying anything. He brought this on himself!” Florence argued.

“Exactly! He deserved it!” James chimed in. “So what if they misunderstood a loser?”

Dahlia was deeply disappointed. “You’re all impossible!” she shouted.

Feeling overwhelmed, she got up and pushed past them to run outside. She wanted to catch Dustin before he left. But by the time she reached the hotel entrance, he was already gone.