It All Amounts to Nothing

I locked myself in the master bedroom and didn't come out for the whole afternoon. The sounds of laughter coming from the living room were too piercing for my ears.Later that afternoon, Fiona knocked on the door and let herself in. She told me that Debbie had insisted on taking over the master bedroom, but Sandra stopped her."She said that you came from the Sallow family, after all, and they still needed your help with other things around the house, so they couldn't afford to get on your bad side. She even said…"Fiona had been my nanny growing up in the Sallow household. She knew my temperament well, so she paused midway through and looked at me, trying to gauge my expression before she continued.Seeing that I didn't interrupt her, she said, "She even said that all of Debbie's postnatal expenses will be borne by you, since you can't give birth, so this was one of the ways that you could be part of the pregnancy too."When Fiona said this, my face darkened immediately. I adjust

This caused a huge stir at the company. I didn't bother explaining any further. After the meeting, I got Joanne to cascade down the news to everyone else in the company.If Harvey wanted his child to have a good life, then he was going to have to use his own money!However, I never thought that Harvey had planted a huge trap for me to walk into.As soon as I went back to my old office and sat down to go through the financial reports over the past few years Joanne prepared, I was shocked beyond belief.He had planned all this from the start. He had set up another different company under his name and moved the core of my business over there.The current Sallow Group was seemingly still doing well with business and orders as usual, but its only client was actually Harvey's shell of a company.Harvey would secure business deals with new clients and have them sign a contract with Sallow Group under the guise of a "partnership".Sallow Group might look like it was growing and prosperi

"Harvey Jepson, how dare you—"Half of my sentence rolled out just as I swung the door open, but when I caught sight of the man at the door, I stopped and swallowed my words back down.It wasn't Harvey at the door, but Adrian, whom I hadn't seen in a very, very long time."What? How dare I do what?"Adrian didn't seem angry at my mistaken outburst. Instead, he had a mischievous grin on his lips."Sorry, I thought you were…"Since I hadn't seen him in such a long time, I was at a loss for what to say to him. As the words rolled off my tongue, I suddenly thought that they weren't that appropriate after all and stopped talking again.Whatever happened between me and Harvey should just stay within my family, after all. I didn't want any outsiders to meddle in this."Who did you think I was? Prince Charming? Or the Frog Prince?" Adrian asked, cocking his head to the side and giving me another teasing grin."Oh, it's Adrian. You probably haven't eaten yet, right? Come in. We were ju

Adrian stayed for a long time after dinner that day, and we talked about a lot of things.I told him everything—from my marriage with Harvey to him bringing home his ex-girlfriend to live under my roof, and from when I withdrew from the company operations to now when Harvey had basically hollowed it out, leaving nothing but a shell behind.We talked for hours, catching up with each other ever since we lost touch years ago, making up for lost time. Meanwhile, Adrian listened attentively. He just smiled at me throughout and didn't mind that I kept going on and on about my life.Some time close to midnight, my phone, which had been silent all day, finally rang. It was Harvey. He'd finally caved and called me.I held the phone in my hands, looking at Adrian sitting opposite me.I suddenly realized that the gentle and understanding Adrian I'd just been talking to earlier had changed—his entire demeanor was icy. He just nodded at me briefly when I looked at him.At that very moment,

It was close to midday by the time I drove back to my villa. I sat in the car for a while, but I still never got any news from Adrian. I knew then that I couldn't rely on anyone else anymore. I had to face this on my own.Before getting out of the car, I called Joanne and gave her a few more instructions. Then, I finally opened the door to my own home.I caught sight of Harvey sitting on the couch in the living room with a face as black as thunder. He glared at me and said nothing as I entered the house.When Fiona saw that I had returned, she hurriedly pulled me into a room and said, "You're finally back, Belle. Did you know, that woman kept crying and throwing a huge fuss about her Manuka honey last night after knowing you weren't coming back? She never let up until long past midnight! None of us managed to get much sleep.""So, Harvey called me up in the dead of the night because of that woman's tantrum?" I asked, completely speechless as I looked at Harvey on the couch.I ha