THE FORGOTTEN HEIRESS-Chapter 367: Let The Culprit Be Apprehended

Lauren, who was done arguing with Peggy, ignored her and continued her explanation.

"If the organizers of the program wouldn’t mind, I’d love them to confirm to everyone that where an accident is not the fault of the team that submitted the beans, there is allowance for the beans to be changed. But that will be on the grounds that the team themselves will be the one to source for the new beans and not the organizers."

One of the organizers stepped forward and affirmed Lauren’s claims. "Indeed, there is such a clause. As long as the contestant could source for their own ingredients on time and meet up with the allocated time, the ingredients can be changed."

After clarifying, he stepped aside, then Lauren continued.

"Thank you sir, for that clarification. With the understanding that a team can actually use another ingredient if it is directly sourced by them, I can now state the reason we didn’t use the original beans."

"The original beans we had submitted was Yemeni beans, but when we started roasting our beans, we discovered that it had been tampered with and had to stop the process."

"That would have been the end of the competition for Empress Brew but, luckily, we had our plan B after what happened some days ago."

No doubt, everyone knew what Lauren was referring to and nodded in understanding.

"But I’d love to add that our team has worked incredibly hard, and we believe in the quality of our work. But we also know that not everyone has been happy with the way we were going in the competition."

She didn’t need to mention names as everyone knew Empress Brew’s major contender whom they had also had several clashes with was Peggy and her team from Café Solstice.

Lauren continued, "So we had earlier informed the organizers of our fears and with their permission submitted a backup ingredient in case something happened to the first one. However, we had promised to revert to the latter if and only if our fears come true and that was exactly what happened."

"The sample of our first brew is also here for everyone to see. Even the beans which we are sure had been tampered with is also at our stand for confirmations."

"If truly you noticed something was wrong with the beans, why didn’t you raise an alarm or draw the attention of the organizers to it immediately?" Dylan, Peggy’s assistant retorted.

"We barely had time for that as you also know that would have delayed our prep time. Not only ours but everyone, so we were conscious of that and solved our problems ourselves."

Meanwhile, thick beads of sweat had started rolling down Peggy’s back. So they found out about it but kept quiet. Such a cunning fox, no wonder she was so confident all along?

But what if there is an investigation this time around? The other time was swept under the carpet because it was seen as a mistake but this one once exposed, everyone will know that it was a deliberate act.

’But I was careful. I ensured the storekeeper diverted the surveillance camera from me when I entered the store, so even if they check, they won’t find anything.

With that she relaxed considerably and concentrated on listening to the rest of what Lauren was saying.

She needs to pay more attention inorder to weave a way out for herself if need be.

"With the permission of the judges we would present the beans we found in our station and the first brew we made from it and hope the judge will confirm if this is anything close to what our team would have used for such a competition."

The judges gave their approval and Horatio brought the beans that have been tampered with and also the first brew from the beans.

After taking a look at the beans, the judges could not bring themselves to taste the coffee that was brewed from it, after all the exotic taste of the brew from the Geisha beans was still in their mouth.

There was no way the seed they just saw was the same as the Yemeni beans Lauren was supposed to have submitted. It was the worst quality of beans they had ever seen and couldn’t even find a name for it.

So one of them spoke up. "Although it is written here on the label that this is Yemeni beans, it doesn’t look like the popular Yemeni bean seed we know. We believe the content must have been swapped with this inferior quality of beans."

"Boom!" Everywhere went agog with talks as soon as the judge finished speaking.

Even the online viewers’ comment’s started pouring in, mostly in support of Empress Brew.

"So Empress Brew’s ingredient was actually tampered with," someone said.

"Again," another added.

"If I remember correctly, the last time, it was the members of Café Solstice that mistakenly took their syrup which accidentally got destroyed before they could hand it over to them."

"It’s obvious someone has been deliberately targeting team Empress Brew."

"I wonder who it is."

"Do you still need to ask? Obviously it is one of those big teams that are threatened by Empress Brew’s endless wins since the competition?"

"Last time the organizers did nothing to give Empress Brew a fitting reply, will they also let this one go? Wouldn’t it be gross injustice to blatantly suppress such a promising team just because they are doing what they know to do best?"

"If they don’t give them a befitting reply this time around, then my faith in the organizers of this competition will be gone completely. It’s shows that there is no fairness in what is being done."

"Yes, let the culprit be fished out and apprehended."

"I’m a hundred percent in support of the speaker above."

"That person or team sabotaging Empress Brew must be apprehended and justice served."

Hearing and seeing the agitation from both the online and physical viewers, the organizers had no choice but to step forward.

"We sincerely regret any inconveniences this might have caused so far. But we promise to give you an explanation in the next twenty minutes.

But for now, while the investigation is going on, let’s continue with the voting as the results of the voting have started coming in.

After the host made the announcement, there was relative peace and the program continued.

Exactly twenty minutes after the Host left, he returned to the stage with a serious expression.

Everyone could tell that the investigation result was not going to be a palatable one. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Ladies and gentlemen," he began as his eyes swept over the auditorium filled with people with impatient expressions.

"We thank you for your patience. We now have an update on the investigation regarding the swapping of Empress Brew’s beans. Here is the footage retrieved from the store."

A hush fell over the room as the large screen behind the host changed from displaying the votes to showing a particular part of the building.

Grainy footage began to play, showing a hooded figure sneaking into the storage room. The figure moved stealthily, whispering to someone yet unseen who was probably following behind.