"I’m going to the restroom." Ethan Lancaster straightened his suit and stood up.
"Okay," the woman replied softly.
Annabelle Spencer turned her head again. Seeing Ethan Lancaster stand up and walk out, she grabbed the bag from her chair and said, "Raina, I’ll be right back."
"Where are you going?"
"Hey, nature calls."
Annabelle Spencer rushed out. Ethan Lancaster had a tall, slender build and walked as fast as the wind. She wanted to follow him discreetly so he wouldn’t notice, but she couldn’t keep up. She had no choice but to break into a jog.
Ethan Lancaster disappeared around a corner. Annabelle Spencer sprinted after him, but just as she reached the spot where he had vanished, soone seized her by the shoulder. A powerful force pressed against her neck, and her back slamd into a hard wall.
The man’s arm tightened, and Annabelle Spencer felt like she was suffocating. She forced her eyes open and finally saw the face in front of her.
A cold sneer touched Ethan Lancaster’s lips. "Why are you following ?"
"I... I’m not. I just ca to use the restroom."
"Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. You’ve been following for a while now, haven’t you? I’m warning you: if even the slightest bit of news about gets out, I’ll make you pay."
Annabelle couldn’t let him figure her out so easily. "I wasn’t following you. I’m having dinner with Raina, and we just happened to see you... with another woman. I just feel it’s unfair to her."
Ethan Lancaster’s lips twitched. He looked like he wanted to laugh, but his expression was undeniably sinister. "Unfair? So what?"
Annabelle had felt from the start that Raina was getting a raw deal. She had a great career, she was beautiful... even if it was a marriage of convenience, why did she have to be shackled for life to a philandering playboy like him?
"Don’t you think it would be best for her to stay far away from you right now?"
Ethan Lancaster let go and took a step back, a hint of ridicule in his eyes that Annabelle couldn’t see. "For instance?"
"Divorce."
Annabelle Spencer was arguably the closest person to Raina. If she was saying this, then Raina must have had the sa idea.
Ethan Lancaster laughed, his fury making the sound unsettling. "If she felt that way, she wouldn’t need you to tell . Who do you think you are? Or did you take my picture... for so other reason?"
He didn’t want to waste any more words on her; he couldn’t just leave his guest alone in the restaurant. "I’ll warn you one last ti: you’d better delete every photo you have. I used to turn a blind eye for Raina’s sake, but now..."
’Now... there’s no need. She ans nothing to anymore, so why should I bother with her friend?’
When Annabelle heard that, she felt like a string of firecrackers about to go off. This wasn’t just him not caring about Raina; he was acting as if she didn’t even exist. In Ethan Lancaster’s eyes, Raina had probably long since beco nothing more than a wisp of insignificant air.
The man had already started to walk away when Annabelle Spencer yelled at his back, "If you two really get divorced, you’d better not shortchange Raina! She gets everything she’s owed, not a penny less! Otherwise, I’ll release all the photos of you painting the town red! Your Lancaster Family is already in enough trouble. You don’t want to make things even worse, do you?"
Ethan Lancaster stopped abruptly. Had Annabelle been watching closely, she would have noticed his body go rigid.
He didn’t turn around, but the threat carved deep lines onto his handso face. "Are you threatening ?"
"It’s... not a threat. It’s what Raina deserves."
’Good. Just great.’
’So that was the other reason Annabelle had been hounding him. She wanted blackmail material so Raina would have leverage in the divorce!’
Ethan Lancaster strode away. When Annabelle returned to the restaurant, she saw that he and the other woman were still there.
Raina felt like she had a fishbone stuck in her throat. She couldn’t remain calm. Her eyes kept drifting over to their table against her will, so she knew she couldn’t stay here much longer.
After the al, Raina barely spoke to Annabelle. She just made an excuse about having an urgent matter to attend to and hurried ho.
She was only now beginning to understand the aning behind the na "The Verdant Garden."
’Cold and desolate. So this is "high society."’
She was lying in bed, just about to open a book, when she heard a noise outside. Raina closed the book and waited, but no one pushed the door open.
After a mont’s hesitation, Raina got up and opened her bedroom door. The hallway was empty, illuminated by a single lamp.
A wave of disappointnt washed over Raina. She was about to go back into her room when she turned and, out of the corner of her eye, caught sight of a figure coming up the stairs at the end of the hall.
She looked closer and saw that it was the woman from the restaurant.
Raina’s brow furrowed. She let go of the doorknob. The woman saw her but showed no particular expression, simply taking a few steps closer.
"This isn’t a place you should be."
The woman smiled coquettishly, her face a mask of nonchalance. "Is that so? But the Fourth Master brought ."
Raina’s face seed to pale under the light, as if coated in a thin layer of powder. "This is my ho. Even if he brought you here, he wouldn’t have let you co upstairs."
"Well, I was getting impatient, so I ca up to see what was taking so long."
The woman finished speaking and studied Raina’s face. "I think I saw you at the restaurant earlier. Our tables weren’t far apart, were they? Mrs. Lancaster, you saw the Fourth Master, so why didn’t you co and say hello?"
Raina felt as if soone had just jabbed a finger into a festering wound, the sudden pain catching her completely off guard.
’Ethan Lancaster is the center of attention wherever he goes. It would be too obvious a lie to say I didn’t see him.’
"I’m telling you to go downstairs. Now."
"Is this Mrs. Lancaster’s idea of hospitality?"
Raina moved toward her, clearly intending to force her downstairs, when the door to the adjacent study was pulled open. Ethan Lancaster stood there holding a file. He rely glanced at Raina. "What’s all this?"
"Fourth Master, I’m so sorry. I got bored waiting downstairs by myself, so I thought I’d co up and see..." The woman’s voice lacked conviction. This was, after all, Ethan Lancaster’s ho. He had only brought her over to grab a file; she had definitely co upstairs on her own.
"It’s fine." Ethan Lancaster’s expression was unruffled. When Raina heard those two words, she felt a sting not just in her heart, but across her very face. She couldn’t control what he did outside, but this was her ho—the one place she could retreat to. Now, even this small sanctuary was tainted by the presence of a strange woman.
"If you’re leaving, then leave," Raina said coldly.
Only then did Ethan Lancaster’s gaze finally settle on her face. "Don’t you forget who the master of The Verdant Garden is."
Raina turned to go back to her room, not wanting to humiliate herself any further. The other woman’s lips curled into a smirk, but she remained silent.
But then, Ethan Lancaster suddenly spoke. "How about a tour?"
The woman, of course, played along. "I’d love one."
Reviews
All reviews (0)