Nicole's POVI was surprised by the water splashing on my face and the droplets hitting my clothes. At that moment, I saw the figure of the woman who was screaming earlier and was most likely the perpetrator of the watering that was directed at me. Adeline. The woman looked flushed with anger and was looking at me sharply."I already know that if you were a bitch once, you will be a bitch forever. How dare you meet my husband." She said with a shameless curse. "I should have known. You must have been planning to seduce Chris and get him since you reappeared, right? Just confess!"I didn't answer right away, preferring to calm myself down first from her wanton behavior, and grabbed a handkerchief, wiping my face until it was no longer wet. I felt much calmer as I realized that the woman was pouring from a water bottle that only contained mineral water, not the tea Chris had ordered at the table where I was sitting.It would be annoying if I came home with sticky and stained clothes rat
Nicole's POVIn the car, Richard was still holding my hand. His face looked worried. "Is Mom okay?" He asked.I couldn't answer right away. I was still trying to calm my anger that had almost returned after my encounter with the two people who had both mistreated me in the past, as well as their attitude towards Richard.I never wanted to show the violence that existed in domestic life to my young son. Even with his mature attitude that he would never do that someday, I didn't want to give him the idea that violence was one of the solutions to problems in any relationship.I want a happy life for my son, and I don't want to get involved in violence if it's not necessary, but that incident disturbed me.I finally exhaled after catching my breath, feeling much calmer than before and smiling as usual. "Mom is fine. Are you worried, Richard?""Yes, mom." He nodded, gazing at the top of my clothes, which still felt damp after being splashed by Adeline's water. "Mom's shirt is wet."I touch
Chris's POVI pulled Adeline from the car, forced her out of there, and quickly brought her into the house so she wouldn't try to run away and do something stupid like she had done at the playground.I had a hard time getting her out of there, especially when we were surrounded by so many people and without anyone to help me control her. She was still struggling in my grip, but I held her tightly when the door to the house finally opened."Let go! Let go of me, Chris! Why are you preventing me from going after that woman and teaching her a lesson? Aren't you willing to let me hurt that woman because she looks like Nicole?"She screamed and spoke in rapid succession, making my ears ache, but still let out her shrill voice when we finally entered the house, still struggling to break free. "You need to wake up, Chris! It's been more than eight years since Nicole was declared dead! You've been with me all this time, right!"I stopped my steps, turning around so that I could violently remo
Chris's POVI saw the video on the tab screen with trembling hands. What was written there was trivial, not something important that I would typically be interested in reading or just looking at for a long time like this, but it was different when both my name and my company were involved.I felt angry that this was happening again and finally looked at Adeline, who seemed to shudder when she saw my sharp gaze. "You-" I breathed, trying not to snap at her. "You've never once made me feel anything but ashamed. You are the worst woman."I found it strange that there didn't seem to be any news dropping Adeline's name anymore after her family's bankruptcy. That woman also didn't seem to be acting up except for a few times coming home at night after partying somewhere.I let it go as usual because that woman's safety and good image were not my priority as long as the company ran without interruptions, but this was different. She was getting into trouble again, embarrassing me and tarnishin
Chris's POVEvan came in to deliver his work as usual, but he seemed to be thinking about that woman, so he asked. "Did you not intend to cover up the news about your wife at all? There have been several other articles that have appeared, and it seems like the content is getting worse and widening everywhere."I had also looked at some of the articles Evan was talking about. The articles were all about Adeline, from her best days to her worst days, and were discussed after her name came to the top of internet searches.I made sure neither my name nor my company was there, so I didn't care much about it and focused more on my work, like now. Most of the articles aren't very important either, so in a while, I'm sure the discussion will pass even though all the traces of that woman's shameful photos will remain.I nodded, acting casually as if nothing important had happened. "The news about that has already spread. Let it go."I stared at the document in front of me, skimmed through a fe
Nicole's POVIn the past few days, I have been looking through the news about Adeline. The work of Key and his team was so good that even without searching for the news, Adeline's name was already at the beginning of the search engine, so it was not difficult to attract the attention of many people at once.The journalists had made the news very interesting. It wasn't just a recounting of events that anyone could tell, but also the addition of ridicule and demeaning Adeline that was so softened that no one who read it would notice, but it could cause a scene.For one of the articles that had a lot of comments that I was opening. There were thousands of comments under the article, but one comment caught my attention."Isn't she the one who snatched her sister's future husband? That woman is from the Martinez family, right?"Someone replied to her comment. "Oh, yes. I remember! It was one of the breaking news stories from a few years ago. How did it go?""If I'm not mistaken, not long a
Nicole's POV"What are you doing to me?" I asked angrily, having just realized from my shock that I had ended up in Chris' car.I tried to push him back out of the car, but he was much stronger than me and quickly made my efforts futile. No matter how determined I was, I would never reach half of his original strength and his size that surpassed mine.Chris was now holding my hand and indirectly forcing me to get into the car so he could sit next to me and close the door. He looked at me intently. "Please understand me, Miss Nicole. I won't take you anywhere. I just want to chat with you in this car."I looked around, trying to figure out if there was anything that could help me at this point, but now there was nothing visible in my eyes because I was too panicked.Everything was too fast for me to be as vigilant as usual. Chris can just show up out of nowhere, and he doesn't just let me go like he did a few days ago. It made me think that he might have discovered my identity and was
Chris's POVI saw that the car Nicole was driving was gone. I was in a strange mood, empty and sad because I no longer saw her. Even though she had rejected my presence several times, I couldn't help but feel happy every time I saw her.I looked down at my hands, looking at the few strands of Nicole's hair that I had managed to get by extreme means. As I pulled her into my car, I used my other hand to hold her head from hitting the corner of the vehicle and then simultaneously grabbed her hair without her noticing.I sighed, staring intently at the long strands of hair. "Now I am a villain," I muttered under my breath, not wanting to acknowledge Nicole's accusations that she had directed at me earlier.I was worried that she knew about my actions, but it turned out that she was referring more to my not giving up on finding her so that we could meet like this and apologize. What happened at the amusement park was a coincidence because I didn't even realize Adeline was following me.I r
Catherine's POVAfter receiving the gift from Edwin, I was now only with Benny and his personal driver driving. The man sat down with me and then noticed something was different about my attitude.He rested his chin on one of my hands, which was still clasped tightly. "What are you holding on to? You didn't let go at all....""This." I showed him the bracelet.His eyes look wide. "Isn't that the jewelry you saw earlier? I thought you didn't buy it.""I didn't buy it."Considering Benny was also aware of what I was doing while looking at the jewelry, perhaps my liking for this bracelet was too obvious.My gaze was fixed on the bracelet, and I thought about how the man who had left the festival first had unhesitatingly bought me this jewelry and given it to me without anyone knowing. I don't know what that man was thinking when he bought me this, but the pounding of my heart was starting to feel too clear in my chest.The car stopped. I blinked, realizing that I had arrived in front of
Catherine's POV"Thank you for buying me a drink, Duncan." I smiled, accepting the glass with a lid made of solid cardboard from his hand, and I immediately held the glass with both hands.He just nodded and passed the other glass to Benny.I took a sip of the relatively warm drink. It turned out to be a delicious chocolate drink. I felt relieved and happy. My legs even wiggled without me fully realizing it.Night had almost fallen, so it was starting to get cold. I remembered the embarrassing incident a few days ago when my skirt got caught, but in the end, the man came back to help me by giving me a warm drink after we had walked quite a distance.A loud snort was heard from Benny. "Why are you buying me a fruity and cold drink? I also want a warm chocolate drink like you guys." He protested.I looked at the two men who stood facing each other with glasses in their hands. Still, a noticeable smoke could be seen from Benny's slightly open mouth, probably the effect of the drink he ha
Catherine's POVI was mesmerized by the festival atmosphere surrounding me. I've always liked things like this: simple and fun stuff without having to always care about manners or conversations that are always serious and filled with business or politics.Many booths were arranged according to their types, ranging from games, shops selling various things, and other equally entertaining booths. My gaze stopped at one of the nearby stands for jewelry of sale.My steps halted when I arrived in front of it. I looked at the various kinds of jewelry displayed and touched a few that I wanted to take a closer look at. They all looked pretty, but I didn't really want to buy them either; I just wanted to look around.I didn't have much jewelry, but my mother added to it according to my needs, so I didn't feel the need to do the same.A person who seemed to be the salesgirl watched me without saying much but then said to me after a while."Don't you intend to buy the jewelry, Miss? I think the b
Catherine's POVI was always with Benny and Edwin. I felt happy because I was finally able to make a new friend again, and it was a guy I initially thought was quiet and cold.At first, Benny and Edwin always argued for whatever reason, but in the end, they always accompanied me wherever I went. We were like a unique combination, from three different majors and different personalities.I heard rumors about us hanging out, going to our respective classes or the cafeteria."Look, she can get two handsome guys simultaneously," whispered one of the students.His friend replied. "She's so lucky. I never even managed to get close to Edwin Duncan....""She's luckier because she's close to Benny Thompson. That guy is really nice and friendly."They said that and then talked about one of the guys I was with, who was probably my boyfriend.One of them spoke up again. "Isn't that obvious? His girlfriend must be Benny. They've been in a relationship for a long time.""Hm, I agree."There were som
Catherine's POVI still felt uncomfortable walking on campus. Aside from my aching feet, my father's words before I was allowed to leave for the campus with our family's private driver also bothered me.I was happy with my friendship with Edwin and my friendship with Benny, which lasted longer than that. Both of them were friends to me, but my father always made our relationship seem like a transaction, trying to talk to them for the benefit of our family.He said that each of them would greatly help me prove myself in the Varma Family. Our relationship would make me valuable and not the only useless woman in our family, while all the things I had done before were meaningless in my father's eyes.I felt annoyed that my father shouldn't be behaving like that towards me, but also unable to do anything to stop it. As Edwin said, I was still not strong and had to extricate myself with the help of the allies that had just started from the man himself.My sigh escaped on its own, but after
Catherine's POVI had come out of the toilet and looked around the party room for Edwin and Benny, but they were nowhere to be seen.I could find my father easily, still chatting with some important people intimately, but the two men were nowhere to be seen. It was as if they had disappeared or were hiding very well so as not to be found by me.I recalled Benny's face, which didn't look too good before they left together, curling my lip and mumbling, "What is that guy going to do? That's not what I'm thinking about, is it?"Before going to the restroom, I heard the man wanted to talk to Edwin, but I wasn't sure. I'm currently feeling uncomfortable as I'm still searching for them among the crowd. That man might have misunderstood my relationship with Edwin.He was a very close friend, a really good friend who had been with me for so long that we were like brothers, but he didn't feel that way. He liked me, and I always pushed him away so our friendship wouldn't end.He always helped an
Benny's POVI faced Edwin. We were now on the veranda where I had previously seen him and Catherine take turns appearing.I don't know when they got this close. Still, I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw them enter the party room from the same veranda and then talk to the woman's father as usual.The man spoke to me first, bringing me back to reality. "What's wrong? Is there a business matter you want to talk about?"I looked at the man, knowing that he was asking me about our conversation when we first met. I also remembered that my father knew about it first, about Edwin attending the same university I was going to with Catherine.My father and that man's family had an inter-company partnership. I don't know when exactly such a thing happened, but it seemed quite a while ago from what my father said about the man I knew even by name."You must respect Edwin Duncan, Benny, " my father said. You're the same age, but his achievements are countless over the past few years, not to
Catherine's POVEdwin was still next to me. He exhaled while his face looked unfriendly and cold as usual. Still, even with all that, the man did not immediately deny my words aloud or dismiss them with ridicule.He didn't look at me but clearly spoke to me when he finally opened his mouth and spoke with his friend. "So you consider me an ally."I nodded.All this time, I had only thought of him as an annoying guy. He knows his position well and sometimes puts obvious boundaries on others. I didn't think he could make himself any friendlier than the people at the party or the students on campus, but he wasn't as cold as I thought.He had done me a favour, and I also felt quite comfortable when talking to the man who was always straightforward. Nothing felt fake in our friendship, which he had yet to fully acknowledge, so I felt he could be my ally."I feel that we are getting closer. So, Duncan, if there's anything I need, you should do me a favour." I smiled. "Whatever it is."The ma
Catherine's POVI was at the party. This party was tedious, like the official high society events I'd been attending. I felt uncomfortable among many people I didn't know well. Still, everyone who greeted me acted as if we had known each other for a long time.I knew they were just acting politely, following every action everyone in high society should follow. Still, I also felt that their actions were fake. I never knew what they talked about other than greeting me because I belonged to something other than the inner circle of the supposed upper class.My father might know, but I also had no interest and chose to remain in the outer circle that could only see whatever could be seen.I held my wrist as I exhaled. No one else had any intention of greeting me again, and neither did I. I already felt bloated from drinking wine in between events, so I didn't know what else to do while waiting for the event to end.My gaze shifted, spotting one of the empty verandas and finally heading the