Mary Scott’s voice was sowhat awkward. Every ti she resolved to break things off, they ended up back in bed together. Was that man so kind of poison?
"Let’s go." Mia Anderson urged Mary to get dressed as she spoke.
Mary froze. "Gone?"
"Yeah, Assistant Jonah pushed him away in a wheelchair." Mia replied, giving Mary an enigmatic look—a look that seed to say Mary was a thousand-year-old cunning vixen.
Mary: "..."
Was this her fault? That damned man had only himself to bla!
Even though her heart argued this point, Mary was still nervous. "How was he when he left? Did he go to the hospital?"
As soon as she asked, Mary felt embarrassed beyond words. She’d humiliated herself in front of an assistant—how was she ever going to face Mia again?
Mia held back her laughter. "He’s fine, no need for a hospital. Seems like he had an appointnt to handle so matters." Then, Mia added casually, "I’d guess he’s eting soone to deal with your situation. Speaking of, you and Director Locke sure have nerves of steel. Yesterday’s fuss caused chaos everywhere, the entire internet is watching, yet you two..."
Mid-sentence, Mia noticed Mary’s face turning red all the way down to her neck and chuckled foolishly. "Heh heh, eat so porridge, eat so porridge. Since Director Locke is involved, I trust things will get resolved eventually. Don’t worry too much, Mary. Worst-case scenario, Director Locke will take care of you—you won’t starve."
Recalling the tis when Mary barely had enough to eat and was evicted by her landlords, Mia figured things weren’t all that bad now.
Mary didn’t respond. She grabbed her clothes, put them on under Mia’s teasing gaze, then trudged to the bathroom to freshen up before coming back to eat her porridge.
Her stomach felt more settled now, and Mary picked up her phone to turn it on.
As soon as it booted up, countless notifications poured in. She ignored them and instead opened Twitter. Sure enough, the video of Charlotte Leigh accepting an interview was still up, and Mary was still trending. Her direct ssages and comnts were all at 999 , and she didn’t need to look to know what they contained.
She closed Twitter and checked her missed calls, noticing three were from Lawyer Yardley. After a bit of hesitation, Mary dialed back.
The call connected quickly, and Logan Yardley briefly explained the termination details to Mary. She was dumbfounded. "You’re saying Starlight Entertainnt agreed to terminate the contract peacefully? Amicably?"
Mary’s surprise wasn’t without reason. Based on her calculations, Starlight Entertainnt wasn’t the kind of company to let her go easily. They’d never relent without tearing a chunk of flesh off of her, especially now that she was under siege on all fronts and Jocelyn Spencer had a score to settle with her.
"Yes, Miss Scott. Let know when it’s convenient for you to sign the docunts, and I’ll bring them over." Logan’s tone remained calm and unhurried, as if this were all perfectly ordinary.
Mary took a deep breath. "Okay."
Afterward, she gave him her address.
Hanging up the call, Mary breathed a faint sigh of relief. At least one thing had gone right since yesterday.
She couldn’t help but feel admiration for Lawyer Jones. People sent from Swallow City’s best law firms were indeed exceptional. But thinking of Benjamin Jones, Mary realized he was rely leveraging David Locke’s influence. In the end, it was Locke she owed gratitude to. She sighed again—no matter what, it seed she could never truly sever ties with him.
"Mary, why are you sighing now? Did sothing else happen?" Mia was too sensitive not to ask, given how much chaos had unfolded over the past two days.
Mary looked up. "Good news. Starlight Entertainnt agreed to terminate the contract—no penalty fee."
"Really?" Mia let out an excited shout, then asked nervously, "It’s not so new trap, is it?"
"I’m not sure. I’ll ask the lawyer for details later." Mary also couldn’t afford to let her guard down. Speaking of which, the man who’d pressured her to co ho last night had vanished without a trace this morning and hadn’t sent anyone to pick her up. What exactly was his deal?
Was he just going to vanish after getting what he wanted? No need to return to Rose Valley?
"Did he say anything when he left?" Mary awkwardly brought up David Locke.
After last night, she’d been forced to confront many issues, temporarily abandoning the idea of cutting ties with him. But now she was entirely baffled about what his intentions were.
"Say anything? Oh, right!" Mia suddenly rembered sothing, dashed out for a mont, and returned holding a tube of ointnt. She handed it to Mary. "Director Locke had this sent over."
She glanced at Mary’s swollen, slightly reddened lips.
Mary didn’t react at first, but when she saw the text on the packaging, her expression grew mortified. She glared at Mia.
Mia chuckled awkwardly. "Director Locke is so thoughtful."
Mary’s fury surged as she stared at the ointnt. Just then, her phone vibrated, and she glanced at the number. "Speak of the devil," she muttered, rembering a saying about coincidence. Taking a deep breath, she answered the call. "What do you want!"
Through the phone, David Locke caught onto her sharp tone and thought of how she’d begged for rcy the night before. He decided to be magnanimous and not hold it against her. "Awake? Have you had breakfast? If you’re sore, rub on so ointnt—it’s a new product from Piers Hospital. Supposedly works well."
Mary had been infuriated monts ago, but hearing his words left her flustered and embarrassed. Dodging his questions, she pressed on. "What did you call for?"
"Why, still itching for trouble first thing after waking up? Was I not thorough enough last night? Or are you just picking a fight because I left this morning?" David teased casually.
Mary turned red from head to toe. If not for Mia eavesdropping shalessly, she might have exploded in anger on the spot. Instead, she took a deep breath and forced herself to sound submissive, speaking softer than ever. "I wasn’t picking a fight."
"Oh, so you’re just annoyed I left without staying with you?" David chuckled again.
Mary fud even more. "No! You’re so—"
"So what?" David prodded.
Mary faltered halfway through her rant, recalling his earlier words. Her indignation deflated, and she swallowed back what she’d planned to say. Two faint grunts escaped her lips. "Nothing."
David could practically picture her frustrated expression and couldn’t suppress his laughter. Still, knowing not to push her too far, he toned down his teasing. "The reporters are swarming outside Rose Valley right now. Delight Hotel is under the Piers umbrella. I spoke to their second young master yesterday—they’re upgrading security asures. For now, it’s very safe. Just stay there. If you need anything, let know and I’ll have it sent over."
"Alright." Mary heard his steady tone and felt her earlier frustration dissolve entirely. She responded softly.
David seed to realize she still had lingering doubts and continued reassuring her. "Don’t dwell on the online ss. You don’t need to worry about . If this little issue could topple , I wouldn’t still be in this industry. As for LG and Raspberry, I’ll have people negotiate with them. Just stay put. I’ll see you tonight."
His last sentence carried a signature wicked flirtation, leaving Mary flustered, her heart lightly appeased by his words. She hesitated and asked, "You... really don’t care about my parents’ situation?"
"There’s only one thing I care about," David replied, skipping over her question to pose another. "What are you feeling about Lambert Norman?"
He glanced up at the man sitting across from him.
Mary exhaled slightly in relief. "We grew up in the sa neighborhood. I’ve always seen him as a brother. In M Kingdom, marrying him was just a necessary ans to an end. But there’s nothing romantic between the two of us—you have to believe !"
Her voice grew urgent toward the end, simultaneously softening in relief. She’d feared this explanation would be difficult, but when the mont ca, she found it wasn’t so hard after all.
Maybe building relationships wasn’t about relying on unspoken understanding but on communication.
She used to think he didn’t "get" her, but wasn’t her assumption itself a misunderstanding? Everyone was human—it wasn’t as if they could read each other’s minds. If she couldn’t guess David’s thoughts, how could she expect him to anticipate hers?
Feeling a small sense of clarity and solace, Mary’s tone lightened, turning a bit playful as she challenged him, "Do you believe ?"
"I do." His reply was succinct yet resolute. Then his voice turned soft and indulgent, "You silly fool."
Mary suddenly felt healed; a smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "Then I’ll wait for you tonight."
"Alright." David’s tone carried warmth and amusent.
He hung up the phone and turned to Lambert Norman. "Did you hear all that, Mr. Norman?"
Lambert stared at him with an inscrutable expression. "Director Locke, you didn’t co here just to flaunt your marital bliss, did you? People only show off what they really lack."
David smirked easily. "If you insist on seeing it that way, I won’t argue."
Lambert’s tongue felt bitter as he changed the subject. "Just say what you ca here for."
"Since you’ve asked so directly, I’ll be blunt: Anle’s background leak—you had a significant hand in it, didn’t you?" David’s smirk turned cold as his words ca with not a hint of uncertainty.
Lambert instinctively picked up his teacup, sipping to mask his brief panic. After a mont, he raised his eyes to et David’s. "Rather than seeking out the actual troublemakers and addressing Mary’s imdiate crisis, you’re here to confront ? Isn’t it a bit ridiculous? You may care deeply for Mary, but don’t assu that mine is any less."
"Precisely because your feelings for her aren’t weaker than mine, you chose to do this, didn’t you?" David sneered at Lambert’s denial.
The truth of Mary’s origins had been carefully buried; her father’s people had even crafted a full new background for her. Without David’s prior knowledge of her past, tracing it would have been extrely challenging. What resources did Charlotte Leigh and the diterranean Entertainnt Records team have to uncover what his own connections had failed to? To not just uncover but broadcast it online, turning it into a global scandal? Soone else had to have been pulling the strings.
It was impossible to believe any entity smaller than Starlight Entertainnt could have orchestrated this, let alone left it unchecked.
David’s suspicion naturally fell on Lambert Norman—the only person in Swallow City who both knew Mary’s true background and had the motive and influence to act on it.
This was evidently a strategy designed to ruin Mary’s career in entertainnt, forcing her to retreat to M Kingdom, rekindle her dependence on Norman, and eventually drive her away from David and back under Lambert’s wings. "Not a chance!" thought David.
Lambert’s face slowly turned colder and darker with every confident word David flung at him. "I thought you ca here to ask for my cooperation in crisis managent. Evidently, you don’t need it."
Lambert rose and pressed the in-office intercom. "Escort Director Locke out."
David played idly with his phone, noting Lambert’s barely-contained anger and smirking. "Ready to switch gears already? I don’t need cooperation. I simply hope Mr. Norman can shelve his duplicity. I wouldn’t mind showcasing the truth to Anle, though—if she learns you’ve been the mastermind all along, do you think she’ll still trust and see you as family then?"
"So this is your modus operandi—accusations without evidence?" Lambert finally snapped.
David only laughed, arrogance fueling him, "You think I’d show up here unard with proof? Stop lying to yourself, Lambert. Let guess—back then, you deliberately orchestrated my misunderstanding about you and Anle to sabotage us?"
Lambert’s temper flared uncontrollably. He hadn’t expected David’s sharp insight to connect the dots from this incident to their history so accurately. He glared at him with enormous displeasure. "And what do you intend to do about it?"
"Stop your ddling. Let her go."
"Stopping is negotiable. Letting her go is non-negotiable." Lambert refused without hesitation.
Seeing Lambert’s true persona exposed, David tugged his collar and said chillingly, "Whether you can or not isn’t up to you. Feelings aren’t sothing you can force. If you could manipulate love, Anle wouldn’t have divorced you four years ago and returned to China. Consider wisely."
Lambert didn’t respond but stared darkly at David’s exposed collarbone, rembering his remarks to Mary earlier. He’d thought they were re provocations directed at him—but clearly, the two had beco inseparable.
The faint hope Lambert clung to broke apart. He had believed he still held so leverage against David, but whether at West Mountain or now in Swallow City, Mary had repeatedly shown through her actions that Lambert ant nothing in David’s presence.
Back then, Lambert stopped pursuing Mary, thinking returning to China would teach her the harsh realities of life, driving her to realize only he could offer solace and stability. Ultimately, he believed she’d co back to him.
Now he realized how laughable that belief had been.
Instead of reaffirming her dependence, he had gifted her entirely to his rival.
Recalling the day Mary had registered her marriage to David, Lambert rembered his devastation and thought no mont could hurt worse—but this situation was leagues beyond that initial agony.
David’s unclasped shirt betrayed traces of a love so tangible they devoured Lambert’s last threads of hope—not proof of intimacy but proof of an unwavering bond sealing her forever out of reach.
The confrontation’s killer blow ca not in Lambert’s counterattack but his silent defeat. While his assistant dutifully entered to usher out David, the latter’s calm retreat implied victory.
David left in his wheelchair, strollingly, throwing empty verbal jabs over somber silence in Lambert’s enormous office.
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