Chapter 4
Standing in the doorway was Alaric himself.
But Aurora was right behind him.[]
“Heard you guys were having a party next door, thought I’d stop by and say hi
“Have fun tonight, honey. I’m covering your whole tabl
I glanced at Viviana, who waved her phone a
phone at me–clearly she’d texted Alaric to come do damage control
Everyone got excited and started talking shit
y are together.”]
“So much for Isolde getting dumped! Look how happy they are
Camille was speechless,
sher jaw clenched tight]
But then Aurora gently rugged on Alaric’s sleeve
“Mr. Marchand, are these all your old high school friends? I’d love to meet them!”
And just like that, Alaric put his arm around the girl’s shoulders and started introducing everyone in the room by name.
The entire place went dead silent.
I felt like I’d been slapped across the face in front of everyone. Just standing there, completely humiliated[]
Camille, who’d been quiet a second ago, Jeaned over and whispered in my ear with this smug tone:]
“Tve never seen a boss take orders from his assistant like that.”
“Parading! his side piece around his high school friends–right in front of his wife.”
“Looks like someone’s about to steal your crown, Mrs. Marchand“]
I couldn’t take another second of this shit, so I turned to leave.
But Aurora’s eyes immediately filled with tears as she asked Alaric]
“Oh no, did I upset Mrs. Marchand? I just wanted to meet your old friends, I didn’t mean anything by i
Then Alaric called after me
“Isolde, cut the drama!”
ET
I walking but didn’t turn around
Aurora grabbed a bottle from the table, pours herself a shot, and walked right up to me
“Mrs. Marchand, please don’t be mad at me. If I did something wrong, let me make it right!”
She threw back the shot, then grabbed my hand]
“There, I drank it! Now can you please stay? Otherwise people will think I’m Mr. Marchand’s mistress. Even if you hate me, at least think about your husband’s reputation, right?”
I jerked my hand away, but Aurora suddenly stumbled backward and fell hard]
She crashed into the table behind her–plates and champagne flutes shattered everywhere, soup splattered up the walls.
She hit the floor with her palms landing right on the broken porcelain, cutting them open. Blood everywhere
“Oh my God!”
Alaric’s eyes flashed with panic. He didn’t even give a damn that all our old friends were watching–he pulled out his handkerchief and carefully bandaged her hands while losing it on me.
“Jesus Christ, Isolde! When did you become such a bitch? ||
“This is my fault for spoiling you. Time for some tough love!”
He whipped out his phone and called his assistam:[]
“Freeze all of my wife’s accounts right now. Yeah, everything. Don’t leave her a damn penny!”
His assistant’s voice came through crystal clear: “Understood, sir!”
Just then, the manager and a s
server walked in, saw the disaster, and handed over a
The room charges plus damages to furniture and fixtures comes to twenty–eight thousand. Who’s paying for this?”
Alaric smiled coldly and pointed at me:
“She caused the mess. She can damn well pay for it
Iveryone knew I’d left my career behind when I married Alaric
Now that he’d frozen all my cards, there was no way I could come up with twenty–eight grand
Viviana started to reach for her wallet, but Alaric stopped her immediately.
“Ms. Redwyne, jobs are hard to come by these days. You wouldn’t want to get fired, would you?
Viv froze, totally trapped
Alaric looked back at me with challenging smirk
“Hope you’ll take responsibility here. Don’t drag your friends into your mess.
Everyone got the message loud and clear–nobody dared to help me out.
Camille was practically clapping with glee]
“The genius girl from
from high school can’t even pay a simple bill without her husband? Damn!
“Guess you’re just like every other gold digger after all, huh? |
I looked up at Alaric, realizing he wanted me on my knees, begging for forgiveness.
Instead, I pulled out a black Amex and tossed it to the server]
