Standing Right Next To You - Chapter 413

Reuben continued to remain silent even after Talia had concluded her speech in an attempt to draw a divide between the happy couple.

‘Which man would like a woman who has so many nasty rumors attached to her?’ Talia sneered in confidence that her work here was most probably done.

According to her, Lina must have done something to her Brother Reuben that made him choose her.

‘She must have seduced him and hidden her bad deeds from him.’ She speculated even though she was aware of the fact that more than half of those rumors had been circulated in the social circles on her commands.

But she did not care as long as her plan of breaking the two up succeeded.

While Talia was waiting for him to speak, to hear his words of disgust towards Lina, Reuben decided that it was his turn now.

“You should know by now that such words can be considered as slander and there is nothing that you can do to stop Lina from suing you.” He spoke for the first time since she had begun her attempt to badmouth Lina.

Talia was surprised to see his serious retort to her instigations but he was not yet done.

“If you cannot prove your claims then I suggest that you don’t ever say such a thing against anyone else.” He enlightened her on the right path of life.

However, her darkening face indicated that she was not appreciating his kind words.

Instead, to her ears, it sounded as though he was accusing her of lying and that Lina was the one in the right here.

This thought irked her endlessly as she lowered her head and gripped the purse in her hands tighter.

She had come here to show him the truth about Lina but his response to everything she had said proved that he did not take her words seriously.

‘I had come here to enlighten you, Brother but it looks like you think that I need it more…’ She gritted her teeth in anger and even resentment at Lina who had enchanted him in such a way that he refused to believe her words.

It now became clear to her that in his eyes, Lina held more value than her words.

She hated the fact that he chose to blindly believe in the character of that woman who had just appeared in their lives instead of her, the woman who had been with him since their childhood.

“So you do not believe me?” She spoke up and raised her head.

“Even If I said that I have eyewitnesses who can attest that she had a man in her bedroom?” She tried her luck one last time.

The rims of her eyes were red due to her anger at her pitiful situation and for what she was enduring right now.

There was a glimmer of hope that flickered in her eyes when she saw him finally reacting after everything that she had said until now.

Reuben narrowed his eyes and a cold air circulated around him when she mentioned this incident with confidence.

‘What is she up to now?’ He fixed his dark eyes on her.

Talia regained her confidence as she had found something that had worked against Lina and had managed to grab his attention as well.

“Her cousin was the one who revealed to us that Lina brought home another man and they spent an hour in her bedroom before they came out.” She narrated what she had heard from Mandy Rong.

“She even deceived her family by saying that she is going abroad but I saw her in your office building the next day.” She continued spewing her conspiracy theories as Reuben’s face continued to darken.

This change was what she had desired and she was glad that she had attempted this last desperate try as it seemed to be working.

“Who was that man?” Reuben interrogated and his aura expressed that he needed an answer now.

He never knew that he was such a possessive man until he heard that his Kitten had some other man in her room.

Though he believed that she would never do anything to wrong him, nonetheless he did not like to hear that there was someone else in her room who was not him.

This was Talia’s one chance to get something to come between the couple so she made sure to exploit it.

“I… Do not know who he was, Brother Reuben…” She muttered, sad that she did not have information about this man since neither did Mandy, her informant in the Yang Manor.

Just as Reuben was about to roll his eyes at her, she completed her sentence.

“But I do know that she introduced him as her assistant but I wonder if that is true or a lie like everything else she says.” Talia scoffed while keeping an eye on his expressions.

These words were enough for Reuben to deduce who this man was.

‘So Benji has been in her room before I have?’ He gritted his teeth as he had never before set foot inside Yang Manor.

Though he had visited her bedroom in Luo Residence, he was jealous that he had not seen her bedroom in her childhood home.

However, Talia had misunderstood his jealousy for his anger at this betrayal.

“Such a woman is not fit to be with you, Brother!” She exclaimed, displaying her indignation on his behalf.

‘Things are finally going my way.’ She rejoiced and gripped her purse.

Her final touch to discard Lina from his life was the USB drive in her purse which held all the proof to her earlier claims.

She had thought that he was taking her side and was angry at him but that anger faded when she saw his face change after her last few words.

Therefore, all she needed to do now was to show him this proof she had acquired and she would have accomplished the purpose of this visit.

However, before she could bring out the flash drive, she heard him utter a word.

“So?” Reuben questioned while tilting his head.

‘I confess that I was jealous for not being the first man to enter her room but I am sure that nothing happened between them as she is claiming.’ He declared as he had seen how Benji treated Lina as his sister.

This single word surprised Talia and she was left speechless for a few seconds.

“I am telling you that there was another man coming out of her bedroom and all you say is ‘so’?” She raised her voice, annoyed by his lack of reaction.

Just earlier he seemed mad but now he had regained his composure.

This infuriated Talia, causing her to raise her voice, almost making it sound screechy which Reuben did not appreciate.

His narrowed eyes succeeded in shutting her up as she gulped in fear for she had forgotten how scary Reuben could be when he was mad.

‘But I want that anger to be directed at Lina and not me!’ She bit her lip at this injustice being done to her.

She was here to show him Lina’s true colors but no matter what she said, he did not react how she had expected him to.

Reuben had no intentions of consoling her when he saw that her eyes were red once again.

“No, I do not believe you.” He revealed the answer to the question that she had asked earlier.

It took Talia a moment to realize why he had said so and her eyes widened at his response.

“But why?” She muttered, bewildered by his strange yet absolute confidence in Lina.

If this was any other man, he would have doubted his girlfriend at least once, but Reuben did not do any such thing.

He would rather choose to believe in Lina, whom he had known only for a few months in contrast to Talia, who had always used schemes to get closer to him.

In his sight, Lina was a more trustworthy person as she did not look at his status and his position in society when she chose to be friends with him.

Talia on the other hand was close to his family from a young age and had the absurd idea of marrying him someday which he had refused on multiple occasions.

Yet she persisted which only gained her a bad image in his eyes.

Therefore, for him, it wasn’t a tough decision to choose who he would trust and stand by in this situation.

“If that is all then I think you should leave.” He added, declaring that this meeting had come to an end.

‘I thought she had some valuable information but I guess not.’ He shrugged as he had already heard everything she had said from Wayne before.

Even the most compelling case she had, the Benji case, was also false in his eyes.

Talia’s hand which was about to bring out the proof she had against Lina halted after hearing his words.

“If that is what you want…” She muttered as she rose from the seat.

Both Trigger and Reuben frowned when they saw her giving up so easily and watched as she left the room with her head lowered.

Trigger happened to make eye contact with her when she reached the door and found that she had tears in her eyes as she left the room.

‘She’s crying because it did not work in her favor.’ He surmised and shook his head.

Once she had exited the room, Reuben glanced at his assistant and raised his brow in question.

“Everything has been recorded right here, Master.” Trigger revealed as he tapped the Tab in his hand.

This pleased Reuben as he nodded and pulled his phone to make the call that had been delayed due to this useless meeting.

The recording that Trigger pointed at was recorded after his Master’s subtle signal as he wanted to have proof of the contents of this conversation if it ever were needed.

The men then went back to work, forgetting all about that defeated woman who had escaped after her plans did not work here.

Unfortunately, what they had considered as a defeated woman’s tears as she left was something else entirely.

__

Inside the elevator on her way downstairs, Talia wiped the tears of frustration that had pooled in her eyes.

Pulling her phone out, she also made a phone call.

“Start our plan right away. By the weekend, I want the entire city to know that Lina Yang is nothing but a wretched seductress who can’t keep her legs closed.” Her vicious voice echoed in the elevator.

Hanging up, she walked out when the doors opened and strode away without glancing back at the building where her beloved worked.

‘Since you asked for proof… I will give you proof!’ She gritted her teeth as she sat in her car and drove away.