Chapter 3

"Just my luck," I thought with a frown as I looked at Celia and Shannon.

They had been clinging to Chase on either side. But the moment they saw me, they let go of his arms. They suddenly looked guilty and unsure of what to do with their hands.

Shannon broke the silence first.

“Jeremy, what are you doing here?”

“What else would I be doing here?”

My impatient tone seemed to get under Celia’s skin.

“Jeremy, haven’t we made ourselves clear? All you have to do is apologize to Chase, and we can put all of this behind us. Did you bring this mute here just to provoke us?”

I turned to her and enunciated every word.

“I did nothing wrong. Why should I apologize to him? What do you mean by ‘provoke you’? Do you really think I would stoop that low for you?”

Celia fired off a string of accusations.

“Jeremy, what’s that supposed to mean? You’ve gotten pretty bold. You think you can give us attitude now? Did this mute get into your head? She can’t even speak, yet you still want her?”

Both Celia and Shannon came from wealthy families. They had been spoiled and willful since childhood. Over the years, countless people had distanced themselves from them because of their tempers.

I was the only exception.

I had always been grateful for their help back then. So, even when they acted spoiled and overbearing, I gave in to them at every turn.

However, I would not anymore.

“I warned you both last time. She’s my fiancée, and you should show her some respect. If you can’t learn to respect people, I don’t mind teaching you properly.”

“Jeremy, is this really necessary? I told you we can just draw again. This time, I’ll definitely get the losing slip,” Shannon protested.

“Enough. I have no interest in playing this childish game with you anymore. If you want to indulge Chase, find someone else to do it. Just leave me out of it!”

Celia stared at me in shock.

“You… You already knew?”

After Grandpa’s birthday celebration that day, I had wondered where Shannon and Celia had heard about this game. It was the kind of game favored by spoiled rich kids. So, I asked our family butler, Edgar Boyle, to look into it.

I never expected to learn that the idea had come from Chase himself.

That made it even crueler; Celia and Shannon agreed to it with the knowledge that Chase had come up with it.

It also made me finally give up on them for good.

My wedding to Kiara was only a few days away, and I had no time to waste arguing with them. So, I took Kiara straight to the employee handling our order.

The employee led us into the Black Diamond VIP Room before leaving to retrieve our custom-made jewelry.

We had barely sat down when a commotion broke out outside.

“Ladies, we’ve already explained this clearly. Mr. Cottrell had this necklace custom-made. If you want one, you can place your own order. It’ll only take a few days.

“As for this necklace set and the wedding rings, I’m sorry, but we can’t sell them to you.”

A moment later, Celia and Shannon burst into the room.

They both asked me at the same time, “Why are you buying wedding rings?”

‘Why else would I be buying wedding rings? Do they really not know?’ I thought.

I had just made myself perfectly clear. Even if they refused to believe me, all they had to do was ask around. They would have learned that the Cottrell family was already working around the clock to prepare for my wedding.

Ultimately, they simply did not care enough about me.

I sneered. “I already spelled it out.”