The doxxing threat was no longer a cause for concern, so the following day, Joanne went to work as usual.

What Joanne did not know was that Mia's hatred for her had reached its breaking point.

When Joanne and Brian visited during their post-nuptial homecoming, Mia had intended to use her leg injury as an excuse to get closer to Brian. But what ended up happening was beyond her expectations. Instead of catching Brian's attention, she got sent to the hospital by Joanne. It was like trying to steal a chicken using rice as bait, but ended up having the bait stolen instead.

Ever since that day, Mia had been plotting her revenge. Now, her opportunity had finally come.

Countless of Rosalyn's diehard fans on the internet were looking for Joanne. So if she leaked Joanne's personal details onto the internet, it would eliminate the need for her to execute her revenge with her own two hands. There would be hordes of people out there willing to teach Joanne a lesson on her behalf.

Murdering with a borrowed knife. Such a brilliant tactic, and she had come up with it all by herself. She could not help but look upon herself in admiration!

At noon, Mia sat comfortably on her couch. She clicked the link to the forum thread, the same thread whose purpose was to doxx Joanne. After that, she wrote a post containing all of Joanne's personal information.

She even went as far as revealing Joanne's occupation, saying that Joanne was the only female medical examiner in her city's police force. She included a photo of Joanne, and then ended the post by saying: if there aren't any contingencies, Joanne will get off work at 5pm.

Even though the thread had grown inactive, Joanne had piqued the curiosity of quite a lot of people. Occasionally, the thread would still get quite a few visitors. After Mia had made her post, the thread was once again bustling with activity. The OP thought they might as well just organize an operation to besiege and assault Joanne...

While all that was happening, Joanne remained completely in the dark.

As usual, when she got off work that evening, Joanne took her car and drove home. She was unaware of the fact that her phone, which she had kept in her bag, had died.

Meanwhile Freya, who was lazing around at home, had opened up the forum thread again out of boredom. When she did, she discovered that the number of pages in that forum had grown from yesterday's 300 to over 500 pages. The forum had gained over twenty thousand replies in just a day's time.

"But didn't the thread become inactive after I warned off those people?" Freya thought. "Now, all of sudden the thread was bumped? Something must've happened!"

Freya opened up the thread hastily. Then, she saw that Joanne's personal details had been exposed and that the OP had called upon an attempt to besiege Joanne...

"Damn it! Who did this?!!"

She grabbed her phone and immediately dialed Joanne's number. When she was informed that Joanne's phone was shut off, she called Chris.

Chris contacted Gavin right away.

Since the matter concerned Joanne's personal safety, Gavin braved it out and interrupted Brian's meeting. He informed Brian that Joanne was likely to be surrounded and harassed on her way home.

Brian's face changed immediately. He stood up abruptly. "Meeting's over."

Brian's behavior had taken the attending employees by surprise. Even Gavin had nearly jumped out of his skin. "You go after Joanne, I'll trace her location."

While everyone else was panicking, a clueless Joanne was listening to music in her car as she drove.

She got off work during a peak hour, so traffic was heavy on the way back. It had not been easy, but eventually, she exited the highway and entered the residential district, thinking that she could finally drive without having to worry about a traffic jam. But before she had time to rejoice, she saw a BMW Z4 parked horizontally across the middle of the road, completely blocking her way.

"Whose car is that?" Joanne thought. "Seems to have broken down on a whim too."

Joanne got off her car. Two girls stepped out from the Z4. Both wore immaculate makeup and sported wavy hairstyles which had no doubt been painstakingly done. Both were wearing high school uniforms.

Both girls began to size Joanne up. "It's her. Looks exactly the same as the one in that photo the OP had sent us," one of them said.

The other girl nodded and made a few phone calls to summon the rest of their group.

Joanne was in a state of fogginess. The leader of the group walked up to her in an imposing manner. "Hey, do you know who I am?"

"I'm not interested to know that." Joanne pointed at the girl's car. "I just want to know when you can move your car away so I can go home."

"I'm the president of Rosalyn's Global Fan Club Arlington division!" the girl said, punctuating each syllable with a slight pause as if she was trying to put fear into Joanne's beautiful eyes.

"Oh." Joanne gave a tiny smile. "When can you move your car?"

Two underage, juvenile girls were still not enough to rattle her.

The girl gritted her teeth. "Not until the axe falls! Look behind!"

Joanne turned around and looked behind her with interest. Four or five cars pulled up nearby. Around ten girls, each wearing different high school uniforms, got off the cars. The look on their faces showed nothing but arrogance and insolence.

"Brian belongs to Rosalyn. You've taken Brian away from her. We won't let you go." The leader of the girls tried to intimidate Joanne.

Finally, Joanne had gained a little bit of understanding. "So you're here to... teach me a lesson?"

"Oh, so you know. Good!"

Joanne shook her head, pointing at the surveillance camera on the side of the road. "This district has 24-hour surveillance. That means the security guards will be constantly monitoring everything that's happening on these roads. It won't be long until they get here. Also, if you know enough about me to track me down, then you must already know that I'm a medical examiner working for the police. Your actions will be considered an assault against a police officer."

"So what?" The girl crossed her arms and sneered. "Even if you book me and throw me into the station, it will only take my dad a little bit of money to get me out."

"What about you guys?" Joanne turned around and looked at the group of girls standing behind her. "Does everyone here have that kind of status and money? Do you have the ability to get in and out of the police station as you please?"

A few girls lifted their chins defiantly. "So what if we have?" However, most of the other girls had gone quiet and were looking at each other in doubt.

More than ten imposing girls whose fiery spirits were doused in an instant.

Joanne smiled. "You girls should go home. Following the steps of reckless and foolish people won't do you any good."

The leader's eyes went wide. She rushed towards Joanne. "Who are you calling reckless and foolish?!!"

"One line is all it takes to tick you off. Everyone here knows it's you I was referring to and yet you're asking me the same question as if you're clueless." Joanne shrugged. "Looks like my assessment fits you to a tee."

The girl was only a high-school student, so she was a lot shorter than Joanne. In a fit of rage, the girl raised her hand up high in preparation to strike Joanne.

Joanne caught the girl's striking hand with dead-on precision, her eyes imbued with a dangerous glint. "Take these girls with you and get lost! Or else not even your father can save you."

By the time she was done talking, Joanne had run out of patience. She flung the girl's hand away, causing the girl to stumble back a few steps.

The little lady was frightened. She had seen the danger and threat in Joanne's eyes. But she was used to being the 'big sister' at school. So seeing herself being intimidated by Joanne just like that made her very dissatisfied. She raised her hand once again-

Joanne frowned at the same time she heard a sound that went "shoot--". All of a sudden, the girl crouched down to the ground, holding her hand in agony. "My hand... why can't I feel anything..."

Shocked, Joanne glanced towards the source of the sound just in time to see Brian getting out of the Aston Martin ONE77. There was a dark and cold look on his face, as though it was him that the girl had offended.

"He's... here to save me? How did he even know?" Joanne thought.

Several military Humvees were parked behind Brian's ONE77. About six or seven men in army uniforms was smiling in Joanne's direction, as if they were enjoying a good show. Joanne had met those men the night she was kidnapped by Jordan. Brian had told her that they were bodyguards, and she had thought they looked impressive.

"But it's just a few high school girls, Brian... is it even necessary to bring them along?" Joanne thought.

"So handsome... it's no wonder that even Rosalyn likes him..."

The high school girls had long since forgotten their present situation and were now fangirling over Brian.

Brian walked towards Joanne with a darkened face. He pulled her to him and looked her over from head to toe.

Joanne's eyes grew wide. "Molesting me in front of so many people? That's not a good idea..." she thought.

"Are you hurt anywhere?" Brian asked, his tone harsh and stiff.

He was worried about her?

Sweetness bloomed in Joanne's heart. She smiled and shook her head. "I'll taint your reputation if I allow myself to be bullied by a few high school girls."

Joanne pointed at the girl who was crouching on the ground hugging her hand. "What's wrong with her hand?"

"Just anesthesia," Brian said, looking towards his 'bodyguards'.

The leader of the 'bodyguards' understood the gesture and immediately jogged over. "Ma'am, what do you plan to do with these little girls?"

"Let them go home." Joanne pointed at the girl on the floor. "Except her. Send her to the police station. I want to see if her dad could really bail her out."

"Yes, Ma'am!" The leader gestured for his team to start dispersing the other girls behind them. Then he went to the girl on the ground and pulled her to her feet. "Come. I'll take you to the police station."

Joanne was rendered speechless. Were bodyguards these days so... energetic?

"Where is your car key?" Brian asked.

"Here!"

Joanne took out her keys obediently. Brian snatched the keys and threw them at the 'bodyguard'. Then, he headed towards his car while tugging Joanne with him. "You're going home in my car."

"I..." Before Joanne could finish her protest, she was shoved into passenger seat of Brian's car.

It was the first time the fellow 'bodyguards' had seen Brian treat a woman this way. But since they had already witnessed Brian carrying Joanne last time, they were not that surprised by what they saw. The leader waved the rest of his team over. "Come on, let's make a bet. Let's bet on whether the boss would actually divorce his wife two years later. I'll wager a Ferarri!"

...

Their current location was not far from Brian's villa. After coursing along the road for a few minutes, they reached home.

Brian's face had once again reverted to that cold and distant look. Joanne ran up to him and blocked his path. "How'd you know I'd be in trouble?"

"Your details were exposed," Brian said. "Your friend saw a post online meant for organizing an attack against you."

At the moment, figuring out how her personal details had been leaked was the last thing on Joanne's mind. She stared at Brian with bright eyes. "And then... you came to save me?"

An unnatural light flashed in Brian's eyes, though it was gone without a trace in the next instant. "I was on the way home."

"Regardless, thank you." Joanne smiled, concealing the disappointment in her heart flawlessly. "You've saved me twice already. So I've decided to do something to please you tonight!"

Clearly, Joanne did not have the slightest clue just how suggestive her previous words had sounded. She ran back to the house after saying them.

Brian watched the Little Monster's departing figure and wondered just how she was planning to please him tonight.

Joanne was greeted by Simon the moment she entered the house. "Young Madam, you have a phone call from Mr. Scott. It sounds urgent."

"Chris, I'm fine now," Joanne said after taking the phone. "Brian was on the way home. We ran into each other when it happened. Besides, they're just a bunch of high school students. I would've taken care of it even if Brian hadn't shown up."

Chris laughed. "Joanne, Brian told you that he was on the way home from work?"

"Yeah," Joanne said. Her tone had grown suspicious. "Is something wrong with that?"

"Well, I just tell you this," Chris said slowly. "I found out that you were about to be attacked, so I called him. But his assistant was the one who picked up. According to his assistant, Brian was having a meeting. What's wrong with that, you asked? Well, figure it out yourself."

Joanne felt her mind becoming a little muddled.

Brian came to her deliberately? Why would he lie to her? Was he just embarrassed... or was it to prevent her from overthinking?