Chapter 4

Two days later, Freya booked a private room and hosted a family get-together. She sent me a message.

"Clive's been under a lot of stress recently. Let's have dinner together tonight and clear up any misunderstandings so we can have a peaceful and harmonious life moving forward."

I didn't expect to see Tara there when I pushed the private room door open. Not only that, but she was sitting next to Clive, too.

Freya was all smiles as she held Tara's hand and pinned a beautiful emerald brooch to her shirt. "This belonged to Clive's grandmother, Tara. I've been keeping it safe for you. Don't forget to drop by the house often now that you're back."

I remembered praising the brooch, saying that it was beautiful when I laid eyes on it for the first time during the first year of my marriage to Clive. Freya had coldly told me that it was a family heirloom, warning me to refrain from touching it without permission.

And yet, now she was giving it to another woman right before my eyes.

After dinner was served, Clive, Kieran, and Tara were constantly discussing the details of their finances. No one paid any attention to me. I quietly drank my coffee, waiting for them to wrap up their discussion. When they were about done, I placed the cup down and looked at Kieran.

"Kieran, you mentioned that the company had a core data leak three days ago. Has the crisis been dealt with?"

The air around the table froze.

Kieran let out a dry laugh before saying, "Everything's been dealt with, Elise. It was just a false alarm."

I pulled out a printed record of a system's backend operations from my bag and placed it in front of him. "I looked through the backend records. Three days ago, there weren't any anomalies in the company's servers. Not even once. Your so-called core data leak never existed from the very beginning."

A deathly silence descended upon the private room.

Clive's expression darkened.

Meanwhile, Kieran wiped the sweat from his forehead before ultimately deciding to come clean. "It's true that I used an old photo, Elise, but Clive was just worried that you would overthink things!

"It was rare for Tara to be back in the country. On top of that, it was her birthday too. So what if Clive accompanied her for a night? Did you have to make a mountain out of a molehill and check the company's backend records?"

Freya also chimed in to support Kieran, "Would you have allowed Clive to celebrate Tara's birthday if you had known the truth? Since you refuse to tolerate others, what's wrong with Clive keeping the truth from you out of the goodness of his heart for the sake of the harmony of this family?"

"So, everyone knew that she was coming back," I said, turning to look at Clive. "Everyone knew that you were going to celebrate her birthday with her, but I was the only one who was kept in the dark."

There wasn't even a hint of remorse on Clive's face. On the contrary, there was an impatient look in his eyes when he snapped, "Do you have to cause such a fuss, Elise? I already told you that Tara's just an investor. She worked herself to the bone to secure funding for the company.

"The underwater hotel was just something that she didn't get to experience when she was in college. I accompanied her to pay her back for everything that she did for me. It doesn't mean that I'm going to abandon our family!"

"Stop it, Clive," Tara said, tugging on Clive's sleeve lightly and looking down. "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have come back."

Freya impatiently rapped her knuckles against the table, cutting her off before she could say more.

"That's enough. You don't have to transfer the 10,000 dollars that Clive gave you back to him. Just treat it as his compensation to you for not being able to go to Crystalin.

"Since everyone's here today, we can put all of this behind us once you sign this document," Freya said, shooting a look at Clive.

Clive remained silent for a few moments before he took out a document and pushed it toward me.

"What is this?" I asked.

"The company's going to go through an equity restructuring soon," Clive said a little stiffly, averting his gaze. "You need to sign this and waive your right as my spouse to co-ownership for a part of the shares."

I picked up the document and flipped to the last page. Tara's name was clearly printed in the section that named the new owner of the shares.